Excuse the corny header, my friend Fad is to blame for it. What was supposed to be a day trip with the girlfriends evolved into a much needed getaway! It was Ming’s first time to Batam and because she needed to pay for visa, we decided to extend our day trip to a one night stay. Leaving the boys at home crying out ‘Bo jio!’ (that’s Singlish for why u no invite us), we hopped on a 45-minute ferry ride to Batam, Indonesia.
Our ferry brought us to Batam Centre ferry terminal where the queue was long, and the immigration officers darn rude. I’ve been into Batam countless of times through different terminals and I’ve never encountered such rudeness. Did you know that you aren’t allowed to talk at all while waiting to get your passport stamped? No usage of phones and cameras were understandable, but talking… even whispering was prohibited? It’s not like people were talking or laughing loudly.
We had those officers yelling at people to keep quiet, yelling at people to go to the next available booth, and sad to say that the immigration officers stamping our passports didn’t exhibit any kind of professional courtesy at all. Some unfortunate people who were caught talking were denied entry into the island because they ‘didn’t respect rules’. I had a nasty encounter with an immigration officer myself because I whispered a few short sentences to Nurul, where he threatened that he could send us back if he wanted to. Not wanting to cause any trouble, I muttered my utmost insincere sorries to him and got it over and done with. I had no respect to give because he didn’t extend any. Just because they had the power to do whatever they wanted, does not mean he could make the lives of the people who were coming into the country to spend miserable.
Was that how Indonesia welcomed visitors into their country?
Anyway, lucky for the three of us, we managed to pass through customs without much drama. I was still pissed but didn’t let such an unsavoury welcome ruin my day. We checked into Novotel Batam and was pleased to note that of all the Novotels I’ve stayed at around the globe, this one was best looking. Because Sunday was the first day of fasting, they provide an early morning breakfast that starts at 3 am to cater to guests who’d be fasting in addition to the normal breakfast buffet that began from 6-10 am.
We did what everyone does in Batam. We booked a two-hour full body massage at Everyday Massage and had our aching muscles pounded at and backs cracked. My masseuse was pretty amazing, massaging all the sore points and paying special attention to my lower back when I told her that it ached.
And then we ate. Bakso (beef ball noodles), Nasi ayam penyet (smashed chicken rice), es monster (equivalent to Singapore’s ice kacang)… we ate them all! The es monster was a little strange though, in addition to the jelly, kidney beans, corn and other usual stuff at the bottom of the ice, there was bread.. and fermented tapioca. Erm, no. Luckily, we each had a bottle of Teh Sosro to wash them all down or out.
It was a simple and fun getaway, managing to strike off some things in my list of to-do stuff. Despite the hiccup at the beginning, everything else went perfectly. One of the souvenirs you should get while in Batam are their layer cakes. Our really nice driver who was supposed to take us to the ferry terminal made a pit stop at his sister’s bakery where Ming got a box of prune layer cake for less than SGD 30. The smell of cake fresh out of the oven is just heavenly. 
Still bummed that I didn’t manage to do the Chocolate Spa though. Oh well, there’s always next time. Maybe we’ll invite the boys along too.
