This is definitely not my first time at Batam, during my first trip, I was more apprehensive when I reached there. Partly due to the language barrier , as I was not able to communicate in melayu. Secondly, I am going there without a guide, it was purely Free & Easy. Although the Hotel and ferry tickets were booked from a tour agency... That experience was kind of horrifying during the first day, as my Hotel was not informed of our arrival and no one came to pick us. Thank goodness there was this lovely tour guide lady which helped us to call the Hotel to send someone over to pick us! I am always thankful for her kind gesture!
This time around, we booked our own ferry tickets from Sindoferry, hotel rooms from Harris Resort Waterfront, and planned our own itinerary once again. Free & easy was the way to go, as I felt more comfortable travelling in Batam already ^^
Ferry
Sindoferry's website was very easy to navigate around, and booking of the tickets was very fuss-free. Simply provide your passport details as well as your date of travelling and return and you will be fine. All transport charges are to be made directly at the Sindoferry when you collect your ticket. I paid around $47 for the 2-way ferry ticket =)
As my hotel was located at the Waterfront, we took the ferry to the Waterfront terminal, which was about a 45 minutes ferry ride. Also, make sure you do not alight at the first stop (batam center), and alight at the second stop =)
Hotel
Bookings of the hotel was made online as well. And here's where there was a small confusion, we initially thought that the credit card details furnished would have meant that a transaction has already occurred. An email was also received to confirm the booking..
For a 2-person room, each of us forked out about SGD100+. And that included free shuttle bus service to Nagoya Hill, as well as the buffet breakfast.
When we arrived at the Waterfront Ferry Terminal, we took a free shuttle bus to Harris Resort which was a 5 minute distant away. Don't worry if you missed the bus, all you need to wait is for about 5-10 minutes for the next bus to arrive. Along with many others, we queued to check in.
At the counter, we were then told to make a deposit of SGD50 as well as SGD650 which is the costs of the rooms for (2 person room, and 3 person room including one extra bed). We were appalled as we thought we have already made payment, and then we made quite a fuss (because we were noob =X).
The service crew there were very slow in processing and responding to our questions. There were a lot of moments where I have to rush and ask them "what are we waiting for". Even after we have clarified about the credit card details (it was actually furnished to prevent cancellation), and wanted to make payment.. We were still made to wait for really long! That was really a spoiler, I waited for about an hour for a check in. How efficient.
Overheard another customer which mentioned that "the room that they were given, had other hotel occupants inside when they went in!". That was very shocking to me, I didn't expect that with Harris because they have been around for really long, and I read many positive reviews before I decided to go there...
Anyhow, I checked in and the rooms were pretty OK. So here's the view from my hotel room, as well as a glimpse of the hotel room.
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| Sofa, which can be "transformed" into a bed with extra mattress upon request (chargeable) |
One thing I did not like about the hotel was definitely the hygiene. There was used tissue left on the dressing table, and ants all over the table top (especially at the kettle). Furthermore, there were also ants on the bed.. which made us feel itchy..
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| Sitting area at the lift lobby |
I honestly am quite disappointed with the hotel's service crew as well as the room service. Never to return there again. (Please read on if you want to read about the watersports alright).
Free Shuttle Bus to Nagoya Hill
You must have heard about Nagoya Hill having A&W, J.Co Donuts, GODIVA Coffee, as well as their hypermart for you to stock up on some delicious yums.
I mentioned earlier about having free shuttle service included in my hotel package right, but I did not receive any "card" from the counter to indicate so. Another dissatisfaction, the Harris staff did not check my email and ensure that all the items I have paid for is given - 1. The free shuttle service voucher 2. My extra bed for the other room which we have already paid for.
Quite upsetting seriously. Do remember to print a copy of the email, for the hotel as well as yourself. Just incase you need to verify ANYTHING. It was so troublesome to ask them to retrieve back that email copy.
Okay, back to the topic, so after we went to clarify it, the staff was apologetic and gave us the free shuttle bus voucher. If there's no voucher, you will need to pay SGD10 for every trip. So if you needed a 2-way trip, it would be SGD20 per pax. So this was the shuttle bus time which will be available at the receptionist counter, as well as the service counter next to the swimming pool area.
At the same time, remember to book your ferry return trip time from the same counter. Provide them with your departure card, ferry ticket as well as the timing that you want to take the ferry. All other details such as the arrival and free shuttle bus service provided will be shared with you from the lady at the counter.
Watersports at Harris
Arrived at Harris thinking that there is still the watersports which I went to last year - the parasailing, banana boat, kayaking, ATV etc.
But to our disappointment, the entire place was empty. No signs of any ATV, no view of any banana boats. I hope you will not be fooled like us. The Harris Hotel staff did not even tell us that there is no more watersports when we asked them about it, seriously. So, there's NO MORE WATERSPORTS AT HARRIS RESORT WATERFRONT.
The only watersports I know are at Golden Prawn, near Golden View Hotel. There is also a watersports which I do not have the name or am unable to search it online - you may check it out at the ferry terminal.
Some other activities you can do within Harris Resort...
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| Individual and Twin Floats Available for Rental |
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| Table Tennis |
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| Trishaw, beautifully decorated ones |
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| The pool that has no chlorine smell.... odd... |
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| Flying fox from the top of the hotel |
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| Yup, from up there, just beneath the logo =X |
During the first night, we hired a cab to bring us out for dinner at Wey Wey Life Seafood. To take taxis in Batam, please make sure you set the price with the private taxi drivers before you board. We had 5 people, and so they charged us a little more for that one person, as it was illegal to travel with 5 passengers.
We paid 144,000 Rupiah for 1 way to Wey Wey, and 150,000 for the return trip from Wey Wey with another taxi driver. You can request for them to wait for you. For the return trip, we simply asked the Wey Wey staff to help us get a taxi.
The food there were not too bad! However they do not have chilli crab, their crabs are prepared with black pepper or tomato sauce. We ordered the black pepper crab and it was decent, it was really fresh and good!
Ordered omelette, garlic fried kang kong, and some other stuff, I can't really recall haha. It was delicious! Rice was about SGD0.60 per bowl haha, but the overall dinner costs us around SGD40 for a meal for 5. That was a steal~ Nowhere in Singapore could you pay this amount for eating crab.
Hotel Breakfast
An additional amount of money was required for breakfast for both mornings, it costed around SGD180 for the 5 of us.
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| Harris Cafe |
Foods available: Rice, Nasi Lemak Rice, Croissants, Cereal, Milk, Juices, Teas, Coffees, Milo, Omelette, Sunny Side Up, Pancakes with Toppings, Porridge and the toppings, Vegetarian food is also available. Look out for hash brown, it's delicious!
Karaokeeeee
Booked the bus to Nagoya at 10am for our 2nd day, so we went to the Family Karaoke~ It was a weekend, however there wasn't a lot of people there.
The ambience was quite decent, however the sound system was a little cranky. Sometimes we can't even hear the background music, and at times it blasted at our ears. The echo from the microphone was irritatingly too much, and we weren't able to control it... Well, nonetheless we had a great time.
And it only costed us 92,000 Rupiah, which is around SGD11-12. Awesome price, had so much fun singing for that 2 hours.
Eska Soothing Spa
We expected a crazy amount of people going to Batam because it was a long weekend break! So we placed an early booking with them by emailing them. They have a lot of different packages, and all of us did the soothing spa. Click here to see the other packages.
The soothing spa includes a stressless body massage, seaweed body scrub, seaweed body masque, an exclusive milk bath spa and v spa ratus. This is a 2 hrs and 30 mins session, costing Rupiah 400,000 or SGD53. You can choose to pay in SGD or Rupiah.
The spa was definitely very relaxing and comfortable, there were times which I fell asleep haha. The only thing to complain about is the waterflow of the tap! It was waaaay too slow, after the milk bath, I simply ensure I washed off all the salt scrub on my body and towel dried myself.
Here's the interior of an individual eska spa room, lit with a beautiful warm lamp. The aircon was blowing directly at the bed, however the attentive spa staff asked if I was cold, and offered to switch off the aircon. She is awesome, she's called Rika, and I really enjoyed the whole session.
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| v spa ratus |
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| this is what you sit on |
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| burning below is burning charcoal which is good.. |
Maybelline and Revlon is expensive there, and they have a counter on their own, somewhat like the expensive makeup we have here in Singapore. So simply do not buy them haha, they are really expensive!
OK Seafood @ A1 Food Court (Dinner 2)
According to sources online, haha, A1 Food Court has delicious seafood, which locals also go there for dinner. So we decided to go there, it was a stone throw away from Nagoya Hill. But being unfamiliar, we took a taxi which costed us around 50,000 Rupiah (I honestly am not sure if I remembered correctly). The taxi refused to wait for us, so we had no choice but to let him go...
The last time I went to Golden Prawn, and found that their food standard has dropped (I actually went to Batam a few times with my family and a tour, so that's how I compared..). So we decided to give this a go!
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| Fried Calamari |
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| Omelette |
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| Sweet Potato Leaf Fried with Garlic |
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| Sambal Mussels |
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| Chilli Crab |
The whole night costed us around 394,000 Rupiah or so, which is around SGD50+. Once again affordable and pretty delicious.
There were many many other seafood stalls there at A1 Food Court, which you can choose to try out. The one opposite OK Seafood had a few tables as well, so you can consider that ^^
After dinner, we took a walk back to Nagoya Hill as it was in walking distance. The aunty at the OK Seafood told us to walk over instead, and as we walk, to keep our bags in front of us to ensure that our bags are always in our vision. As there tend to be some snatch and go thieves.
Fireworks
Went back to Nagoya Hill and asked the Eska Spa to send us back to our hotel (as they would usually provide some transport service). Along the way, the friendly and helpful driver brought us to get some fireworks.
Seems like one "BOOM" or rather, one shot, costs around SGD1. So we bought the 2 fireworks which have 5 shots each. And they look somewhat like this. It was quite an experience I must say, but I did not dare to be the one firing the shots haha.. There was one box with 110 shots which costs around 1,800,000 Rupiah, SGD100+, which we thought was not worth it. Hahaha.
If you are looking for fireworks, you can walk out of Nagoya Hill, nearer to the shop houses across the main road. And there you can find many fireworks stall along the way. Or simply ask the taxi driver to help you along the way.
Oh, Fireworks are not allowed to be fired after 9pm near the hotel. You will need to walk out of the hotel premises to fire them. If you are afraid, there are some friendly locals which can help you do so.
Checking Out
Longgg queue to check out. MAKE SURE you retain the receipt for your deposit, otherwise you will get your refund. They do not have a good system, so please do not depend on that. Receipts are your best bet.
And you will receive your SGD50 deposit. Hop on the free shuttle bus to the ferry terminal, and that was the end of my trip.
Just some other nonsense, I had novomin (motion sickness pills) when I travelled to Batam, and I was so drowsy after. So when I returned back to SG, I decided to brave the ferry without any pills. Halfway I felt very uncomfortable, because the ferry was bopping up and down. But eating seemed to help me calm my nerves haha.
The trip was made fun with the company, and I can't wait to check into Batam next year for my 3rd round of spa. I am sooo addicted to spas right now. I feel they scrub the dirt out of my body haha, although I do that regularly, they do a much better job!
Share with me your favourite short getaway, I would love to hear and probably start planning for a new destination~
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