A Trip to Batam, Indonesia.

Since annual leave is as precious as 2 million ringgit right now and I really needed a getaway, I decided to go to Batam. Never really heard of it until one of my colleague went. I knew it's lousy and beach is dirty and all but beggars can't be choosers!

I booked through Planet Travel agency and took the 2 Days 1 Night Harris Resort Spa Sensation package for S$155 because it's a weekend. Weekday is just S$133. There's a much cheaper no frills Harris Resort package at S$75 per person. There're also a couple of other resorts to choose from like Batam View, Holiday Inn, Turi Beach etc etc. I've read the Trip Advisor reviews for all of them and most of the complaints and stuff are quite similar and my colleague has been praising Harris non stop so I guess I'll just go with Harris. But if she hadn't told me that, I would have picked Turi Beach because it looked so much nicer!

Package includes:
1. Ferry ticket to and fro
2. Ferry terminal to resort shuttle
3. Shuttle from resort to Nagoya town.
4. 1 night room stay.
5. Free bowling game.
6. 3 hours SPA (1 hour body scrub, 1.5 hours indonesian aromatheraphy massage or stone massage of your choice)
7. Free access to sauna and steam 24/7 during the stay
8. Free drinks at the lounge 24/7
9. Free wooden pizza of your choice

Ferry was at 9.20am at Harbourfront Terminal. WHICH MEANSSSS I have to wake up at 7.30am, take the bus to the MRT station, take the purple line MRT to Harbourfront and by the time I reach there it's almost 9am. We had to get our ferry boarding pass at Batam Fast agent which is on the 3rd floor or something. The lady at the counter changed our ferry from 9.20am to 10am because according to her, the 9.20am stops at Sekupang ferry terminal then only to Waterfront ferry terminal (where our resort is) while the 10am is a direct ferry. Not an issue with us. I rather take a direct ferry.

Had breakfast at the ferry terminal which serves HORRIBLE FOOD like ten kinds of shit. Never ever eat there pls. Go somewhere else! Take McD at the ground floor. Really. Shoo!



#1 Ferry boarding pass.


#2 Sentosa right ahead. One fine day I'll buy the Universal Studio ticket and go look see look see. It's like if you've been to the one in the US then this one should be no biggie so I'm not putting much expectation. Not sombong lah wtf just being very honest.


#3 Look at the queueeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. I'm the last one =( I was thinking I probably need to sit outside which is not air-conditioned for 1 hour FML.


#4 Batam Fast ferry which is the one we're taking. I don't know if there's other ferry companies around? This one came with the package so we don't have to buy the ferry tickets ourselves. Oh we need to pay an additional fee of S$20 per person at the Batam fast ferry counter as a departure tax or something.


#5 When it's my turn to board they opened up the top lounge and I'm the first to get in woooohooooo what a lucky day eh? I get to pick my seat and the normal ferry seats at the other floors are like 8 seats in a row without sofa and tables muaahahaha this one VIP lounge.

Ferry took approximately 1 hour. Queue at custom was LONG though. Visa not needed and again, I'm the last at the custom queue. When I got out of the custom, a woman is holding "HARRIS BATAM" sign at the exit and wearing a bright orange harris t-shirt which is hard to miss. Harris van reached in less than 5 minutes and drove us back to the resort which is less than 5 mins away wtf. Walk also can actually.



#6 Harris people holding cookies and drinks and hot towel while thinking "water fish come liao" wtf. But surprisingly the cookies are quite nice and they also sell it in tins in their cafe too!


#7 H Grill. It's supposed to serve dinner but I heard many online reviews that the food is overpriced and food quality is below average too. Not worth trying because it seems like it might cost each of us S$30 per meal.


#8 Our very friendly receptionist at the check in counter. All of them can speak English very fluently so communication is not a problem. During the check in, one of the Harris guy announced (very loudly so don't worry about missing that) that we can also pre-book our ferry ticket back to Singapore. They set up another counter opposite the check in counter and all they need is the ferry timing that I want and any white cards if you're holding one. Fret not because they'll give you the white cards back the next day before you leave. After I'm done with check in, we also booked the shuttle to Nagoya town which is free. Shuttle is available 10:30am, 11:30am and 2:30pm so we took the 11:30am and planning to hop on the 2pm shuttle back to hotel to get some rest before SPA which I booked through the agency at 5pm.


#9 The other Harris team dancing to YMCA to welcome the guests and the whole lobby is like RIUH RENDAH.


#10 We got ourselves a room in the Trendy wing, which is the new resort wing maybe only built a year ago or something. Room is pretty spacious and neat and clean. No complaints there.


#11 The view from the room. Those green huts in front are the Harris Cabanas. You get to stay there if you take the Harris Honeymoon package which is around S$258 per couple. The honeymoon package includes everything that the Spa sensation package has with the exception of spa hours. For honeymoon it's only 1.5hrs spa or something like that but they had an extra candlelight dinner by the pool and wine and free chocolates in the room. The cabanas will be quieter because it's more isolated but I'm scared of insects and mosquitoes and crap like that so I opt for the higher level Trendy wing instead.


#12 Harris cafe on the top. There's also a bar and food is all charged in Sing dollar. Singaporeans' territory wtf.

We rushed down to the lobby and wait for our free shuttle but the shuttle was FULL. We were quite disappointed because then we would have to wait for 2:30pm shuttle which does not work as well because the return time would be 5:30pm but my spa is 5pm. But Harris is quick to fix it by arranging a 2nd shuttle and I'm the first to board..again! lol must be one hell of a lucky day.

Nagoya town is quite far away. Harris resort is near the ferry terminal and it takes almost 45 mins to 1 hour to reach the town. They dropped us at the Nagoya mall and we walked around looking for FOOD FOOD FOOD.


#13 Pirated Old Town. Many recommended to eat A & W in Nagoya Mall which I later found out is because SG has NO A& W ! What a sad life they have! nolah just joking not like A& W very nice also.


#14 After walking around for a while we finally decided on this place because WE KNOW THIS PLACE IT'S CALLED 'AYAM PENYET RIA' and it's the exact same shop in Lucky Plaza Orchard Road and we loveeeeeeeee the ayam penyet! Ayam penyet is a type of Indonesian food and it's a type of smashed fried chicken. Sad to say, that's the ONLY food that I think is edible in SG. Sorry not trying to say SG sucks *cough but just that I'm used to Malaysian food that's all. It's so cheap in Batam! We ordered 2 but I wish I can eat another 2 seriously. I love it THAT much okay! I was also thinking the whole time when I was walking around in Nagoya after lunch whether I should ta pao another 2 ayam penyet back to hotel for dinner and all the time I am whining on gaining weight sigh what a miserable life.


#15 There's NOTHING in Nagoya mall to buy and there's nothing interesting about the mall at all. Makes me wonder why they brought us to Nagoya mall only. Was contemplating whether I should walk out of the mall and check out the streets but scared kena rob haha paranoid betul. We ended up just wandering around at the grocery store and the boy bought this disgustingly dyed and sweetened Guava. Supposed to be healthy fruit but end up like this *shrugs. The photo is not edited the guava is really THAT bright greenish.


#16 I waited at the lobby half an hour earlier than the schedule shuttle time because I didn't want to miss it. Trying to be a true blue kiasu Singaporean (fake Singaporean). Ya the mall is greatly uninteresting thats why. So while I sat there for half an hour, besides checking whether any bright orange van is turning in the mall, I was also thinking THE WHOLE TIME whether I should run back and ta pao ayam penyet. Nolah end up I didn't lah not because I didn't want to eat but scared I miss the shuttle.

I managed to get on the 2:30pm shuttle (1st seat summore) kiasu max. Got back to the hotel room and slept the whole afternoon away. It was quite noisy though because there's a lot of activities around, something like concert at the beach and games at the pool area and people are shouting kids are running around so I didn't actually get a proper nap.


#17 See the huts at the far end at the top of the 3 floor building? Yah that's where the H Spa is. The much needed 3 hours pampering! I wished I brought the camera along to the spa though because the place is really nice. Everyone get an individual hut to yourselves and it's outdoor. Luckily I booked it in the evening else it could be quite warm in the hut I think. In each hut, is a massage bed in the middle, a jacuzzi pool at the side where you can look down to the pool while taking your bubble bath, and a shower area. The hut is only covered by a thin layer of wood curtain. In the afternoon it's quite impossible to look in and see anything. But at night, when the area is dark and there's orange lights in the room, people outside the hut should be able to see you, albeit not very clearly. Well I don't really bother because it's a massage hut what. Never mind lah nobody is going to take a photo of you. Don't sked!


YouTube found online.

Experience was great. Scrub is a bit painful. A BIT ONLY. I think is because they just scrub on a dry skin and it kinda hurts A BIT. Shower has hot water installed. And massage was great. I fell asleep half way even though I already slept for 3 hours in the room before that. It's the quiet outdoor environment + the cooling fan + the orangy lights. It's just that sort of combination that can put to sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. They then brought you your choice of ginger tea or green tea while you soak in the bubble bath. Nothing fancy about the bubble bath so I got out 15 mins earlier.


#18 After massage, we dropped by to order our Hawaiian pizza at the Harris cafe around 8.30pm then headed to the bowling alley for our free game of bowling.


#19 The cafe offered to send the pizza to our room but we picked it up on the way back to the room instead. The wooden pan pizza was surprisingly good. I didn't finish it though because we also have 4 different types of the jumbo cup noodle bought from Nagoya mall huhuhuhu.

Fell sleep after pizza at only 11pm. Initially planned to walk around the resort but ended up sleep sleep and sleep. Why am I like that! When I was in Krabi last year, I went to bed at 9pm. Worse. Is that what happen to old people wtf!


#20 Forced myself awake at 9pm for breakfast. There's quite a variety prepared for breakfast. You can find almost everything that you can find in a normal hotel buffet breakfast here. You can order your choice of egg at this counter. I wanted to get sunny side up but because the guy in front of me ordered omelet so I TER-say omelet and when I get it I am so upset it's not sunny side up wtf. There's also pancake and french toast at the side.


#21 My first round! Cereal with milk, omelet =( why is not sunny side up why is it not sunny side up, fried noodle, fried rice and sausage, fruits and orange juice. There's also porridge, different types of bread, croissant, all types of jam and butter, fried mihun, beef, chicken, ham, blah blah blah. So no complaints. I wonder why so many people bitched about the variety of food for breakfast online? Isn't this sufficient? Isn't these what you get in other hotels too? You think you pay S$150 then should get sharks fin and bird's nest for breakfast?


#22 Almost finished croissant and curry puff coz we're so late =(


#23 After breakfast, I took a stroll around the resort otherwise if I go back to the room, confirm sleep again. Harris takes pride in its free form pool. Tents like this are setup around the pool and also a lot of tanning beds around it. Pretty nice place to just swim and lie there and chill. Too bad I forgot to bring my swimsuit..ahh...


#24 The old wing - Funky wing.


#25 New wing - trendy. Just next to each other.


#26 H Spa price list. Quite pricey so I suggest either you take the all inclusive spa package with rooms or you can do your massage at Isabella or Eska spa in town. Both spa parlors are just opposite Nagoya mall. Reviews online are that Isabella's massage is a bit too soft so it really depends which type of massage you like to choose which spa parlor to go to. They offer free shuttle back to your hotel after spa too provided your hotel's not too far away. Negotiable!

On a side note, seems like Holiday Inn Batam's Tea Tree Spa is one of the award winning spa. The holiday inn package is quite affordable too which includes the Spa. I have the price list for Tea Tree Spa so if you want it, feel free to email me for it. Spa package is around S$200-350 per couple that includes scrub, massage, facial or hair spa or body masque.


#27 Wanted to try Ratus V Spa but didn't have enough time!!! =(


#28 Our ferry back is at 2.30pm I think. We grabbed the white cards and ferry tickets and board the hotel shuttle to ferry terminal. I realized that I only had less than 5 photos out of 100 I took that has HUMAN in it. I should really start taking photos of people instead of just the places the next time hmph. I only have like less than 5 photos with myself in it! What is this nonsense!


#29 It was raininggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg. What a nice morning to sleep in. At the ferry terminal, we had to pay another S$7 (yes, everything in Sing dollar) as departure tax again. Ferry stopped at Sekupang to pick up more passengers so it took more than 1 hour to reach back Harbourfront terminal.

Everyone say Batam is famous for its Kueh Lapis. You can either get it at Nagoya Mall, or Harris cafe also takes order. You can place your Kueh Lapis order at the cafe and pick it up fresh the next day before you leave. I regret not buying anything because dammit the 1 hour ferry back is such a torture! I was starvingggggggggggggggggg! So please! Please buy something to eat in the ferry if you happen to go Batam!


#30 For me, I didn't buy Kueh Lapis or any local Indonesia snack but I BOUGHT 20 PACKETS OF INDOMIE. INDOMIE BBQ INDOMIE NORMAL INDOMIE JUMBO. But fuck lah there's this "do not eat indomie! it has xxxxx inside which is harmful!" video all over FB. I don't care! Indomie I would not give up on you!


#31 Needless to say, my first meal back from Indonesia that day is......Indomie + Fried Egg.

Yummylicious!