Thursday, July 14, 2011

The Batam Post

And.. I'm back!

Yesterday me, Szehong, Shimin and Stanford went to Batam for a 2D1N holiday! It was a deal from some groupon type of offer, $69 for 2D1N. Link here
Basically includes buffet breakfast, 1h spa, 1 game of bowling, etc. Got some hidden costs! Like $20 ferry tax, $7 for the return bribe tax from Indo (At the customs you have to pay $7... it's called 'departure fee')

 It's my first ever holiday on my own (not with family.. with which I've only been on holiday ONCE and that was ages ago like primary school or younger) thus must take alot of photos!

I'll leave some pictures out of this post, this will be a more recap based post. If you just want to see pictures and are too lazy to read my words, just go check out my Facebook album.
On the ferry... kena photobomb! lol

With everyone inside.. and shimin's face looks retarded rofl
SH playing handphone games on the 1hr ferry ride... giving me the evil look when I snap a pic haha

The ferry took so long! Zzz. They should give the ferry some speedboat engine or something to let it SPEED across the sea. Anyway after clearing immigrations and all a bus took us to Harris Resort which would be our accommodation!


Upon arrival at the resort, as we queued to checkin, one of the Harris staff came out with a plate of cold towels! For you to cool yourself down and wipe your sweat I guess.
Well, it'd have been useful it you walked the 5-10 minute bus ride from the ferry terminal, but because we were ferried in the aircon vehicle.. not very useful? Haha. I didn't want to use it either because it just seems gross (even though it's probably washed and clean)


While we were still in the queue, Harris staff came out again with another plate of goodies- this time it's our 'welcome drink'! Haha. It was mentioned in the package (the link at the start of this post)
It's some kind of cranberry juice I think. Nice and cold :)

Very pleasant start to the trip. Kudos to Harris Resort!

OMG YUMMY BUTTER COOKIES
These were sitting on the counter when we were checking in! Looked damn yummy but I didn't dare to take lol.

So after checking in and settling all the admin stuff, we went to check out (haha) our rooms!

Harris Resort has an orange theme - e.g. their staff uniform is all orange, rooms also have this orangey theme, and you'll see from subsequent photos that they really stick to it!




View from my room! Quite nice! Can see everything!
Lovely looking resort
Some toilet shots:





The shower head is quite cool! It's like a big flat square/rectangular thing instead of the usual shower head. This allows water to cover a bigger surface area so.. it's cool! hah
So after the oohs and aahs at our rooms, the 4 of us proceeded downstairs to grab lunch at the Harris Cafe! No other choice, that's the only place to eat nearby lol.




Ok so basically there's this 'Lunch Buffet' that was going on, for SGD15$. So we were asked whether we wanted to take this offer, but of course we asked to see the menu first if there's anything else to eat.
However, MOST items on the menu were ABOVE $15.. just for one dish!!! It didn't make any sense at all.
Obviously we will take the buffet!

Artistic shot! With the food in view deliberately! hehe.

We said this was the perfect shot!

Shimin's favourite food was keropok! She kept taking can! She wanted to bring home the whole jar somemore hahaha.
SO this artistic shot (again) captures the keropok and her. 
FOOD!
Ok la the food wasn't very nice at all haha. But it's buffet! so. Haha. whack.


101 dalmations!
Haha ok actually at first only one cat appeared, then we were all like making noises at it and getting it to come.
Then out popped another one from nowhere.. so we lured it over also.
THEN ANOTHER one came out!

So cute la these cats they're like dalmatian colored! We were saying there are 98 other cats we just have to find them haha.

After lunch and some nuaing around, we went for our spa appointment!



Included in our package was a 1 hour Indonesian massage!
which... wasn't that fantastic! Haha. I had this idea that professional masseuses would be super zhai and know how to press all the right spots to make you damn shiok. But mine just felt ok only.
Wa but she cracked every finger and every toe!! Scary haha like yank yank yank yank.

AND. She cracked my neck!! Omg that was the scariest part! Haha. I didn't know it was coming, she was like 'Relax ah.. relax..' then turned my head once to the right gently, then turned it again a second time gently, ... then....
 JERK POP CRACK!

OMG!

Haha ok but I have to admit it was damn skilfully executed like she perfectly cracked it haha. But still, the thought of it was scary! And ofc after doing the left side she proceeded with the right side and naturally I was worried haha. But once again she did it quite perfectly so it was shiok haha.

Yup so it was a full body massage with the massage oil.. but it didn't feel like SUPER shiok or anything leh. Just like ok lor normal massage.
And damn gross cos your whole body has oil afterward and cos the masseuse does a head massage too so she rubs the oil through your hair... damn gross!

Oh and don't go with an opposite gender friend if not it'll be quite awkward! I think. Because you have to strip down to your underwear. And while you're wrapped in the towel thing most of the time, when they massage you at the underwear parts they will pull down one! Like wth mine just lowered my briefs abit to expose my butt when she was massaging my lower back. damn weird.
And apparently for girls they massage your boobs very briefly too LOL. Was told that by the girls.

Showing off our oily hair. Szehong is very angry with her oily hair so she flares her nose
Read 'Ratus V Spa'. rofl gross


After our spa, we went to the jacuzzi.. which was damn gross?
And because it was my first time in a jacuzzi I didn't know the 'procedure'. Apparently there are 2 tubs, one hot one cold and you're supposed to sit in the hot one then go sit in the cold one.
So me and Stanford (it's guys one side girls one side) went into the cold one wrongly at first. Then we thought it's weird so we went to sit in the warm one. But the water really looked damn gross like vomit diarrhea water or something.

ANYWAY. After washing up, we went bowling! Free game included in the package! (we ended up playing one extra game for SGD $3.50)

My gf the bowler (not really)

Me the pro bowler in my pro stance (not really)
Omg this photo took like 5 tries or something to take because SH keep on taking bad pics!! She cannot be a sports photographer all the photos will be fail kind HA. Like just blurs.

My disappointing score!
I started out quite promisingly, you see, 9 on first, next 2 frames got spares. Then after that.. slowly collapse, then last 2 frames only 1 point wth. All gutter balls zzz. Next game was worse so not posting the screenshot of the score.

After bowling was dinner! We took a cab out to a nearby seafood place.


Quite expensive! Who said indo seafood was cheap! Each dish about SGD $10

Next few pictures are all food:





prawns



Sweet/sour fish!

After that we went back and just nua and htht. Didn't plan well ! Next time must have timetable planned out nicenice haha.

Anyway, breakfast was buffet breakfast! Shiok! Western somemore! My favourite haha.
Not intended to be obscene I swear. Took abit only at first cos must test whether nice

Delicious looking things which SH took for me but I didn't really eat haha cos I wanted to eat  my:

omelettes!! yum!
They actually make the omelette for you on the spot! Damn shiok.


And what holiday is complete without... SHOPPING!


We went to NAGOYA Mall to shop! It's the nearest one apparently.. about 30 minutes ride away  :S

I bought a few T shirts because I don't have enough nice ones.

Our lunch was at A&W!! (which btw stands for Allen & Wright, the founders of the franchise) Why did they move out of Singapore!

Their root bear float is damn big!! like the mug is hugeee
Which I suggested to SH that it's actually a business ploy! They give you a super big drink so you get full from that, and they can skimp on the portions! Which is true! Their fries and all damn little lor!

Yup, so after the meal we continued to shop for a bit, and we headed back to our hotel en route home!
Oops no stanford cos he's in the front seat
There he is. Haha this was at A&W

Yup that's all the photos we took! It was an enjoyable trip in general, the service at Harris Resort was REALLY good! I really like it man. Haha. All the staff very polite and courteous and all. I just didn't like the prices of everything! :( Expected the meals to be damn cheap which turned out the opposite.

Anyway, it was a fun time with the girlfriend having our first holiday tog :) and with shimin and stanford. Stanford is the best man! He's damn nice keep on pretending to forget to collect money from us when we owe him because he pays first. We had to push money on him via shimin. And he can speak bahasa Indo so he made our trip alot easier because he can bargain/negotiate/talk with the locals! I think without him we die already lor haha.

ok time to plan next holiday. HAHA. next year ba. School is reopening nooooo. ;(

Anyway, for more pictures, go here.

Bye!