¨°o.O (Post) O.o° 2301 hours
I know I owe you readers my long overdue pictures of my family & the paternal side going to Batam. Hehe! So here it is! I finally got the time to update. A round of applause to the Princess! Ehhh, give me credit for that hokays! Lol!
On all days that I wanted to sleep in after a tiring week of work, I couldn’t. Mom woke us all up early and then Dad drove all of us all the way to Harbourfront, where our Batam trip began! Jeng jeng jeng.. Oh not forgetting we fetch Ressal too along the way. Hehe! And brother didn’t tag along because he went to Malacca instead with his friends.
We were given a sticker tag for identification purposes so that it’ll be easier for the tour guide to see from which group we belong to. And as the name, I supposed, I was place under the VIP (Very Important People). HEHE!
Had breakfast at a nearby Banquet and it already dampens my mood because there wasn’t anything at all for us to eat. No bread, no sandwiches, no my usual Chee Cheong Fun breakfast or whatever you name it. All they had was like Fried Kway Teow noodles, Fried Bee Hoon which is definitely quite heavy for me to take in early in the morning. So, Aunty Leha handed me her Tuna egg sandwiches that she had from home. Thank you so much Aunty Leha!
While having breakfast, our names were called in to check-in, quickly we rushed to the ferry terminal check-in with our boarding card. And so here we are all in the ferry called ‘Penguin’ as you all know.
Batam,
If only I could just take any of the bike and ride it! Hehe!
Alhamdulilah! After like 30 minutes, we reached our destination safely. And I slept throughout my whole journey in the ferry. Thank God it wasn’t much of a bumpy shaky ride because I get sea sick pretty easily. So, the first person that we actually met was my Aunty-in-law (is that even such a word?) who stays in Batam.
“Meet up with my auntie-in-law at Batam. And she commented that I don’t look Malay but look more like Anak Jepang, which means Japanese daughter –0945 hours”
Look at my cousin! He would be the youngest cousin in my maternal side but sadly, we are not really that close to each other due to the distant. =)
After that, our names were called and we were assigned to our coaching bus. We bid goodbye to Aunty Milah and headed off to our coaching bus.
All of us settle in the bus making ourselves as comfortable as possible. Hehe! And as the journey goes, I bring you to my very first stop.
And so our two Tour Guide, the one in Orange and the aunty in Green. HEHE!
1) Gudang Keropok
They have like super loadssss of crackers available. And each time when this lady let me try one of the crackers, I end up putting them into my basket which I wanted to buy. After trying so many I realized I almost wanted to buy them all. So, I took the best two crackers that taste nice to me and put the others back to its shelf. Even so, I end up buying like 7 of the crackers. Zzz! And I only had like 350,000 rupiah ($S50) with me because I didn’t want to spend so much.
2) Starmoon Cakes & Cookies
They are quite popular for their Kek Lapis (layered cake), it taste seriously nice but I find it was a bit too expensive for me to buy. Furthermore, they were selling it in Singapore dollars (so clever of them) and I didn’t have any Sing dollars with me at that point of time. But yes, I would recommend the Kek Lapis, it’s tasty!
Dad took a picture hugging with Sissy & I and the tour guide aunty thought that Sissy & I were foreigners and said “Wahhh! Mana perempuan pula ni dia ambil gambar dengan. Boleh tahan lawa eh Minah ni. Pandai pula si photographer ni pilih.” When she realized we’re both Dad’s daughters, she was like in half-shock state. HAHA!
Make your own tea and tea time session,
Sissy & I
3) Rumah Makan & Restoran Pak Datuk
I couldn’t help but to laugh at the name when I saw it. Pak Datuk, sounds like Mak Nenek for woman’s version right? HAHAHA! Our lunch was inclusive together with the $65 package that we paid for the trip. So, everyone was trying to finish their food since it was inclusive in their package. Haha!
The food was okay-okay lah. I don’t really quite fancy it maybe because my taste bud is so used to Singapore food. Hehe! And don’t get confused because they don’t call Soursop drink as Soursop as what we do here in Singapore. It’s called Sirsak and your Avocado is called Avocat. And there are just many more things that you’ve just got to learn if you’re going there. Even though we speak Malay along the line, but still sometimes there’s communication barrier. And some of them don’t even understand English at all and your normal ‘Bahasa Melayu’ won’t work on them.
We celebrated Pak Ngah's Birthday tooo!
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While waiting for the others to finish the food, Dad, Ressal, Sissy & I head down and we check-out this “push-cart” that sells crackers. Can you believe that he kind of cheated us? Initially he followed us to the Gudang Keropok and he said his cracker cost 25,000 rupiah, we tried to bargain for a lesser price but couldn’t get it, so some of my aunties just bought his crackers. And happened he followed us to our lunch place and guess how much he sell it this time?! 20,000 rupiah! Keterlaluan kamu loh! Ya bisa-bisa tipu sama aku!
HAHA! I could just imagine, smoke gushing out from aunties’ ear, they felt like asking back their 5 rupiah back but decided not to. HAHA! 5 rupiah won’t do us much too. And while the seller wasn’t there, we borrowed his push-cart for some good poses. HEHE!
Dad got jealous he wanted to post one too, this time with the seller around. HAHAHA!
“I wanted to buy the Banana Crackers but the seller didn’t want to give me any further discount. So, I ate up his entire sample cracker while purposely trying to bargain through my way. I was satisfied because I feel full after that. HEHE! Rasain loh! –1135 hours”
4) Pasar
Which means the market place. We were given quite a short time to shop here, so Dad rushed to his favourite Bird’s store place and get some vitamins for his pet Birds. Imagine Singapore is selling it at $2 for 1 packet but they sold it like $2 for 12 packets. Cheap much!
The difference between Batam’s Paragon & Singapore’s Paragon. Hehe!
“The Batam people mentelnya. They went ‘Waduhhhh! Manis-manisnya sekali! Dari mana ya semua ni? Waduh waduhh! Cerah-cerah banget” Hahahaha! –1308 hours”
5) DC Mall
We were given 1 hour and a half to shop in here. I love all the Batik’s dresses they have there but like I said, I changed only a few rupiahs, so I couldn’t afford to get myself any dress. And this is when I realized I got cheated! Apparently at the Gudang keropok it was said that the crackers I bought cannot be found anywhere but apparently, it’s like sold everywhere in the DC mall and what’s worst, I bought it for 20,000 rupiah for the crackers but the mall only sold it for like 7,000 rupiah can?! And Mom got cheated for her Coffee Tanker too! Gudang Keropok sold 400g for 35,000 rupiah but DC Mall sold 400g for 17,000 rupiah and 900g for 31,000 rupiah. Zzz!
Anyhoo, I bought my Bubble Gum perfume here.
6) Batam City Square
Again 1 hour and a half to shop but this time our legs were like almost killing us from going up and down from the coaching bus as well as the non-stop walking around the big malls. After walking around for at least an hour, we decided to settle down for an early dinner at Ayam Penyet Ria.
Guess how much it cost?! $1 for just the whole Ayam Penyet set! While in Singapore it cost like 6 bucks! How freaking cheap is that?! And not to worry, low price doesn’t mean low quality because it tastes exactly the same like the one in Singapore!
After our early dinner, we wanted to head back to our coaching bus when we realized, Pak Ngah, Mak Ngah, Aunty Leha & her friend were missing. So, they called them through the information counter speaker system and got their name announced at the shopping Mall. Lol!
And we finally found them!
And they have Texas chicken too! Hehe!
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Souvenirs were given to the makchics only. Not fair! And last but not least,
7) Megamall
This was our last tour destination. By the time, we had extras rupiah in our hands, we splurge them to finish it off. Hehe! I bought something from Bread talk since it’s Halal there and then Sissy & Ressal bought 2 dozens of J.Co donuts and the whole family just chilled together at Starbucks.
My Hot chocolate caramel!
Topics such as engagement, marriage, working, studying were covered but I shouldn’t elaborate more.
Lalalala, we're heading back to Singapore!
In the ferry looking tired,
It was definitely an enjoyable yet tiring trip. What more, I had to wake up the next day for work and worst, I was too tired that I woke up late. HEHE!
Okay till here. Goodnight!
Princessazie Bella<3
Elena Gilbert(:
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