batam - fun-filled activities

the best thing abt this trip is that i get to try stuff that i nv get to try before in singapore.

1) ATV (All Terrain Vehicle)

it is so damn shiok riding on that vehicle and going at a fast speed across the plains. but i dare not go too fast, reason being that there are many rocks on the ground, scared i suddenly fly off the vehicle and then hurt myself badly.

having say that, i have to salute mak hong sen for his garang-ness. he really go full speed all the way. the dust behind his vehicle can choke a person to death.

2) Go-kart

another exciting activity. make me feel like i am a tortoise on a F1 racing track compared to racing greats like schumacher and hamilton. mak hong sen is at his usual garangness again, being the first to complete to the whole circuit. i came in second.

3) Banana Boat Ride

this is damn scary. the 3 of us are sitting on a banana boat. the banana boat has a rope attached to the motor boat in front, so the motor boat pull us across the sea. suddenly the motor boat increase speed, and the next second, our banana boat capsized! and we flew into the water! swallowed alot of seawater. and mak hong sen hurt his neck. oops.

4) Massage

we had our massage session at night. it is a one hour package. i can only say the massage is damn shiok. so shiok until i fell asleep for a few minutes.

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we also did other stuff that can be done in singapore. and they are:

1) Swimming at the pool

2) Singing ktv

at first i thought that the ktv will only have very old chinese songs. but i am wrong.

chen weilian and hong junyang songs can be found! how amazing is that.

3) Playing tennis

4) Working out at the gym

batam rocks~

batam - food

upon reaching the hotel on the first day, it is already lunchtime. we din want to have our lunch at the hotel. so we asked one of the friendly hotel staff to give us recommendations. he suggested a seafood restaurant. all 3 of us agreed on that, because we want to have a good lunch to erase off the trauma we had at the ferry terminal in the morning.

our wonderful lunch:

clockwise from top left hand corner: fried calamari, fu rong omelette, garlic fried chicken, belachan kang kong and kai lan


black pepper crab!

and the end product?

look out for the bulging tummy.

for dinner, we had ala carte buffet at the chinese restaurant in the hotel. the food is good. eat until super full. at a price of S$21 per person.

breakfast was wonderful too.

pancakes with fruits


yogurt with fruits and raisins and nuts

goreng pisang with honey and chocolate sauce [sinful]

for our lunch on the second day, we went to the hotel's chinese restaurant again. this time we are eating dim sum buffet. ordered a bit too much food, thanks to leow chee leong. had a hard time finishing all of them.

we realised we were eating too much good food already. so for dinner on the second day, we just ate A&W. is like dunno how many years since the last time i ate A&W. i always love the curly fries, root beer float and waffle ice cream.

feeling hungry? =p

mak hong sen said this on the last day of the trip: no need to worry about getting hungry in batam. always have alot of food to eat.

how true is that.

batam - holiday inn resort

that's the hotel that we stayed for the 3D2N in batam.

in terms of service, i must say it is excellent. the staff there really make us feel at home, with their pleasant smiles and enthusiastic greeting. they answer our questions readily, and even gave us suggestions on what activities we can do. they are so helpful to the extent that they help us think of ways to save money on transport.

as for the hotel room, i have no complaints at all.

it is not even a hotel room. it is big! very big! i think it can be called a suite.

first, it has a living room.

second, it has a balcony.

the view from the balcony:

third, it has two bedrooms. the master bedroom got a queen-size bed. the other room has two normal beds. my god.

4th, it has two toilets. the toilet inside the master bedroom got a bathtub.

fifth, it has two television. one tv in the living room. another tv in the master bedroom. both tv have cable tv. which means both tv can watch channel newsasia, channel five, channel 8, channel u, espn, star sports, star movies, 凤凰卫视台. oh my god my god.

if one is still not satisfied, i really dunno wat to say. haha.

the 3 of us making ourselves cosy on the queen-size bed. leow chee leong ask the 3 of us to sleep together on the queen-size bed for both nights. i think that it is a bit gay, and it is a bit too close together for comfort. so i went to the other bedroom to sleep alone on a smaller bed.

holiday inn rocks! if i got the chance to go batam again, i will definitely put it as the first choice on my hotel list.

the starting journey of batam

was sleeping soundly on the bed, and then, five plus in the morning, i was woken up by my hp.

and it happened to be leow chee leong, who sms-ed us, asking us to meet 74five at harbour front station control instead of the ferry terminal.

-_-''' ...................................

ruin my precious sleep.

ok fast forward all the way to harbour front ferry terminal.

upon reaching there, we were shocked. there's tonnes of pple. machiam like going for countdown party at orchard road. we quickly squeezed our way to our ferry counter to collect the ferry tickets. and the queue is damn bloody long. we immediately queued up.

the crowd control is damn bad. freaking bad. because of the super long queue, some of the pple buay tahan, and they simply cut queue or just walk straight to the counter to demand for their tickets. and why these uncivilised pple can just do all these stunts? because there is only one pathetic person in front of the counter doing the crowd control. and this pathetic person is very nua, and he is not firm enough to shoo these uncivilised idiots away. nx time should get a more guai lan person to do that job. and i believe some of my kids can perform that job to perfection, cos they are super guai lan. haha.

we are queuing up at the advanced booking queue, because at natas, our ferry tickets were already being booked. at 840, there is like 60 pple in front of me, and much more pple behind me. i can hear many pple complaining like mad, and i overheard that some pple queuing behind me are catching the 830 ferry, and now they are still queuing up to collect the tickets!!!

gosh this is so jia lat man. haiz. lesson learnt: dun go to batam during a long weekend. go on weekdays.

after much hassle, we finally collected our tickets and arrival cards.

i was looking at my arrival card, and i saw something:

-_-''' ....................................

sian leh................................

the first time pple see my name, they will have two impressions:

1) this name belongs to a girl

2) this name belongs to a P-R-C

haha.

nvm lah. i am used to it already.

old airport road hawker centre

because of the batam trip, darling and i cannot see each other for the whole weekend. so we decided to meet up before i went for my trip to batam.

and off we go to old airport road hawker centre for a food session.

old airport road hawker centre is actually super near to my secondary sch. in fact it just takes five min of walking. but in my 4 years of secondary sch life, the number of times that i went there to eat can actually be counted using the fingers in one hand.

before we went to eat, we actually did a bit of research.

all the pics below is taken from a wonderful informative food blog. this blog showcases all the yummy food in singapore, and where can they be found. do check it out.

so, we decided, just the two of us, to eat all these food for our food session:

1) Prawn noodle

2) Satay

3) Chee Cheong Fun

4) Tang Yuan

Five) Char Kway Teow [p.s there is something wrong with the number five on my keyboard. once i press it, the laptop will hang on me]

6) Hokkien Mee

a bit ambitious i noe, for just the two of us to eat so much food.

well, in the end, we only get to eat the chee cheong fun. and the satay, but is from a different stall. we ordered bbq stingray. and i must say the stingray is damn shiok! is the best i have tried so far in my entire life.

for the tang yuan and hokkien mee, the stalls were closed.

the queue at char kway teow stall is very long.

as for the prawn noodles, we were simply too full after eating the chee cheong fun, bbq stingray and satay.

feeling extremely full and satisfied, we decided to walk around aimlessly at the streets of katong, to digest all the food in our stomachs. :)