The boat ride to Batam Island was horrible. It was stuffy and warm inside. Instead of turning ourselves into dried shrimps, Jason and I decided to take a breather outside.
According to Visit Batam 2010, if you have not been to Barelang Bridge that means you have not been to Batam. So for the very first time, we went on to the bridge and took pictures like what tourists should do.
On the bridge, there were street hawkers selling some local street fare, like deep fried crab and shrimp-flour fritters. After the Indian Rojak saga, you definitely need an adventurous heart to try those street delights.
We had seafood lunch beside a Kelong (a Malay word to describe a form of offshore platform built predominantly with wood). It may look all scenic, tranquil and peaceful from our pictures.
But in reality, we were all battling against the army of flies. YIKES. The food was average and I can’t help thinking of the black pepper crab we ate the last time round!
For massage, the mini bus driver (The twelve of us paid $8 each to rent a full day mini bus) brought us to a dubious massage parlor called Universal Massage instead of The Sports Massage that Cat recommended. The reason given? He said someone died there before. -_- A more likely reason? He probably earns commission from Universal Massage. With our almighty woman’s instinct, the girls went around inspecting the environment and concluded that Universal Massage is not where we belong. Why? First, there were scantily dressed people walking around. Second, a place with many old men only means something. Third, the decorative lights were red! Fourth, the staffs were not in uniform. Fifth, an old Caucasian man held my friend’s waist on his way out. Hello. This is not a club! With these obvious signs of a sleazy massage parlor, we told the guide we refused to have our massage there. By the time we got the guide to call Sports Massage they were all fully booked. SIGH. He even took my Sports Massage name card! But if you are interested, just look out for a blue signboard across the street of Harmoni Hotel. Fortunately, we found a place (cannot remember the name) with scrub and massage services similar to Sports Massage at a comparable rate.
Shopping in Batam basically means grocery shopping. For women, you can get cheap monthly essentials, full and travel size toiletries. For men, I remember from my last trip, the guys bought a lot of toothbrushes. -_- For young and old, you can buy cheap snacks like Keropok (fish shrimps crackers), Cereals (my friend bought 3 boxes of cereals, Honey Stars, Coco Crunch, Milo, one of each) and Tim Tam (Indonesia made Tim Tam cost half the price of Australia made Tim Tam but taste just as good. Ok, maybe just 80% of the goodness derived from the Aussie ones.)
I’ve been to Batam thrice in my life and each time I experienced something different.
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