Things did not went well at the very start of the day. The bloody taxi uncle took forever to find Alicia's house. I believe I am good enough with the direction to my BEST FRIEND's place since I have been there a few thousand times! (Wasting our precious time)
Next, Nic was super late as usual because he needs to style his hair. So irritating! The group of us were so late that they have to announce our names over the speakers. Lol! =.= The only other time this happened to me was when I shopped too long with my Mum at the airport's DFS.
Finally, with sleepy eyes and unclear minds, we are on our way.
Twenty meters off Singapore's south coast is Batam with land area of 715 sq km and a population of more than 949 thousand people. 58% of foreign tourists came from Singapore, followed by Malaysia at 13%. No wonder why Singapore dollars is accepted and WELL-LIKED. God bless their currency rate and frequent change of notes. I hate all the ZEROS that follows and the mental calculation I always have to put myself through so that I won't freak out at the price tag of few thousand dollars.
Ally's friend, Lina (an Indonesian) is of good use to our trip. We called up the boys aka our tools/toy for this trip to assist us with carrying our stuff. (Important role, you'll know why later) Also, we had a really good tour guide (who speaks inaccurate English) that is worth many times more than the SGD$1 tip. The huge Thoa Pek Kong Temple isn't worth mentioning, so here's just a picture for illustration purpose and for completeness of the entry.
Batam is blessed with Minute maid's mango flavor. I wonder why they didn't bring this variety to Singapore when we have more money for it! Glass drinks were slightly cheaper. One of us did not returned the glass.
1. Lousy Seafood Lunch
Girls apparently try to eat as little as possible. The ideal portion of food is to eat half the amount of the girl that you dislike.
The description of the deal promised that we will literally taste the sea even without touching seawater. That didn't happen. We were served with the prawns smaller than the size of my thumb (and my hand is already small), overly fried fish and sea snails that not many of us dared to touch (I had one with Meredith), but we had fun making jokes about the pathetic lunch anyway.
Most of the coconuts are bigger than our heads. But size does not determine its quality. HAHA. I found the sweet coconut and we put our straws together to drink from that one!
2. Life risking performance and forced donation
Here we have: Ugly lion dance, a man jumping over a fire hoop, a man who refused to use a proper chopper to open up the coconut, and a man who chews on GLASS! (I took a sample of the broken glass and tried, it's real..) I find the coconut one most retarded. That's why I'm going to feature it here.
3. Go-Kart in the rain
It was drizzling, but we didn't let that stop us from having fun! It slowly escalate to a light rain while we are racing on the track but seriously, it could be worse. A lot worse. Think positively: The slight drizzle actually make the game more thrilling. The go-karts were definitely faster than the ones in Genting, but I wish the tracks are more challenging!
4. Very cheap Magnums
One of these heaven's goodness is just RP11,700 (about SGD$1.70). Go everyone! Pity I couldn't find the Spongebob one!!
5. Best Part: Massage + Ginger tea
No adjective in my range of vocabularies can describe how good the massage is. The tour guide highlighted that there are NO EXTRA SERVICE / HAPPY ENDING. (I was representing Joney and Nic when I raised the question)
6. $7 Indomiie
We were already running very late and somehow we attracted quite a lot of attention in the mall. (Probably can't suppress our excitement when we saw how cheap some things are in the supermart) A couple from the same tour group helped us to cut the queue. The boxes - this is where the boys come into good practical use!
We had dinner at the mall - last stop at Batam and before we were carrying those boxes of instant noodles. Joney and I ordered Steak. We concluded that the one operated by the gangsters at Hougange still taste better! Towards the end of the meal, we entrusted Lili for to split the bill for everyone. Wrong person for the job. Not everyone can handle the complexity of the many zeros. Lol!
Way back home to the modern city....
I don't have any special liking or attraction for BATAM, but I might just pop by for a cheap and good massage in the future. That's really the only thing I feel that its worth appearing there for.
Nonetheless, the trip was fun and enjoyable, largely because of the company I'm with. I find it interesting that they actually have legal and illegal taxis. Anyway that's all for this blog entry. I rarely write at this length anymore, doesn't it?
Happy Birthday Bestie.
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