A weekend in Batam: Day 1

The idea of going to Batam started when we saw various travel packages being sold on the deal websites. Most of the offers were for hotels in the city area whereas we were looking for a beach resort. In the end we made the booking on Agoda for a mid-range hotel called Batam Beach View Resort, located in the north-eastern part of the island called Nongsa. A 3-bed room cost us SG$183.

Ferries leave for Nongsapura Ferry Terminal from Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal in Singapore almost hourly and return tickets can be booked ahead for SG$42. We arrived at the terminal an hour ahead for the 11am ferry for immigration clearance. There was no indication of the destinations from the different boarding gates so we had to asked the people who were already lining up. Our ferry had a slight delay of 10 minutes and had limited seating on the upper deck. We had to sit on the lower deck with no view from the windows. Luckily the journey was only 40 min and we slept through most of it.

Batam's weather was glorious and the sky was stunningly blue. Once we were at the terminal we were greeted by staff from Batam View Beach Resort, who collected our passports for safekeeping and showed us the way to the shuttle bus. We passed by a golf courses and a few houses on the hills before reaching the hotel in about 10 min. We were given our room right away even though check-in was supposingly at 2pm. The room was spacious enough for 3 people and included a balcony facing the swimming pool and the beach.

View from our balcony

Each guest was offered a glass of fruit punch at the bar next to the lobby upon check-in. After our drinks near the pool, we decided to explore the hotel before lunch. We walked down to the private beach of the hotel and along the seaside where where the villas were located. They were either 1-bedroom or 2-bedroom chalets built right by the beach and all faced the open sea.

From the hotel to the private beach

Meal options at the hotel were quite limited so we took the hotel shuttle bus to a shopping mall in town for lunch. For the first 30 minutes there was not a single traffic light on the road and we passed through scattered wooden houses on the hillside, small local shops and some really nice housing estates.

40 minutes later we were finally at the MegaMall. We decided to try an Indonesia restaurant called Cobain, which seemed to be popular among both local families and tourists. The menu was in Indonesian but we managed to order with the help of an English-speaker waiter. We shared a few appetisers, fried rice and some noodles, which we all enjoyed. We then walked around the mall and did a bit of shopping at the Hypermart. Paying with Indonesian currency was initially confusing because everything cost thousands of Rupiah. I soon realised that HK$1 = ~1000 Rupiah and learnt to ignore all the zeros at the end.

After a few hours in the mall we were picked up by the shuttle bus. Back at the hotel, the sun was starting to set so we immediately changed into our swimmers. I headed down to the beach while the girls enjoyed a swim in the pool. The sand was a bit scratchy and uncomfortable to walk on but the water was very clean. The beach was rather small but there were hardly anyone else in the water so I was able to have a good swim.

For dinner we went down to the hotel seafood restaurant, Kelong, by the seaside. We were given a table by the window and we could hear the soothing sound of the waves through the night. There were only 3 of us so we only ordered a steamed sea bass, some prawns and a vegetable dish. Being the only restaurant open for dinner in the hotel, it was surprisingly inexpensive. We ended up paying SGD$25 per person for a satisfying meal. We had a walk along the pier, where we could see the lights coming from Singapore and Malaysia and planes flying frequently into Changi Airport, before heading to bed.