Laughing Buddha Temple -> Nagoya Hill Shopping Mall -> Harmoni One Hotel -> Sekupang Ferry Teriminal -> Singapore Harbourfront Terminal
Our last day in batam is free and easy till 1.30 pm where we have to gather back at the lobby for the ferry transfer bus to the terminal. Breakfast is served from 7am.
We have our breakfast at Bamboe Cafe & Restaurant.
It is international buffet style and since its weekends, the whole restaurant is typically flooded with Singaporeans who came over Batam for a short getaway like my family.
The food variety is repeated. They serve the basic porridge, bee hoon and vege/meat. There's a bread, cereal corner and pastries too. They have an egg counter for french toast and sunny side up. There's queue at any time.
Don't expect too much of the buffet, it serves mostly ordinary fare. This buffet breakfast is included in our tour package bought from deal.com.sg
After the buffet breakfast we headed to the swimming pool and sky garden on top, since we still have some time to spare before we head off for our own day itinerary.
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| View from Sky garden |
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| Swimming pool |
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| Another hotel that is just beside Harmoni One. Viewed from the Sky garden |
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| View from Sky Garden |
We left and went to the hotel lobby ( carpark area ) to ask for cab. There's 2 hotel attendants there. We Since we only have the morning and early afternoon to wander around Batam, we decided to visit this temple (Maha vihara duta maitreya buddhist temple) which was ordinarily in our day 1 city tour itinerary but was taken out due to insufficient time. We decided to visit Nagoya Hill Shopping centre too, the largest shopping centre in Batam which opens at 10am.
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| Taxi voucher to temple |
A taxi trip from Harmoni One to the hotel which is only a 5-10 minutes ride away cost RP50000 ( ard SGD 6 ). Oil fuel charge has been rising and their taxi fares have been rising too. The cab which we took was at the hotel carpark when we were there. The taxi (black in colour) belongs to Harmoni One Hotel. The taxi voucher was given to us before we board and we paid at the counter.
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| So here we are at the main entrance of the temple! |
Maha vihara duta maitreya buddhist temple one of the biggest Buddhist temples in South East Asia!
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| Some Buddha statues |
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| Vegetarian Restaurant for devotees |
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| old fashioned calendar |
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| Landed property around the temple |
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| Great recycling efforts! |
They have a pre school / nursery in the temple too! According to a notice board in the temple, they are building another school in the temple vicinity for older children - primary school.
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| Lesson in progress in the morning! |
There are many parents that gather outside the classroom overlooking their children having lessons. We wanted to find out more about their school and went to talk with a few parents ( Chinese ), however surprisingly few know how to speak chinese. Most of them communicate in Bahasa Indonesia!
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| Lessons are in air-conditioned rooms! |
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| Playground facilities |
Before we leave the temple for our next destination - Nagoya Hill Shopping Centre, we met a chinese speaking buddhist devotee in the temple who guided us on how to get a cab. She is a local there and she told us local pricing from the temple to Nagoya hill shopping centre is only approximately RP30000-35000. Whereas tourists rate is approx 40000-50000. She advised us to take official taxi instead of those private car. Private cars are those that park alongside of the road without any sign that its a taxi however they can drive you to the destination you want. Taking the official taxi will be safer since they are registered.
However as it was sunday, a non-working day for Batam people and its ramadan period, there's not a lot of taxi. Or rather we didnt see any empty taxis on the road outside the temple. We decided to try for the private car parked outside the temple. He offered RP50000, while we bargained. He refused initially but gave in to us ultimately, and offered to drive us to Nagoya hill Shopping mall at RP 40000 ( approx SGD $ 5 ). It is a 5 mins ride there.
He muttered malay to us throughout but we dont understand what he is saying.
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| Inside of Nagoya Hill Shopping Mall |
Once again the food prices is cheap. Cheap seems to be an understatement. Because it is really cheap!
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| Coffee Town Restaurant |
There are plenty of extremely affordable food outlet there! Do try if you have the time!
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| Nagoya Hill Shopping mall food street - level 1 |
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| Plenty of Vendors selling Layer cake at a lower price than the one we got from our tour guide |
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| Everywhere is sale! |
There's one thing I love about shopping in Batam - the way they list the discount price board. See the "30,50%" price board. All prices are really slashed 30%/50%. In contrast to Singapore, stores tend to have small wordings saying " up to ". However do note that, departmental stores in Batam display original price, and you will have to deduct the discount yourself. Yup, shoppers will need to do their own maths. Don't bother asking the sales persons there though theres plenty, unless you know Bahasa Indonesia. We asked a few for other sizes for shoes and wanted to clarify with them some discounts going on, and apparently none understand us :(
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| Beli 2 Gratis 1 : Buy 2 get 1 free! |
Cashier was quite efficient, we cleared our goods fast. We then rushed off for the supermart.
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| Supermarket @ Nagoya Hill |
The supermarket there is the typical Giant hypermart which you can find in Singapore just that everything is in Melayu.
We bought a bottle of 1.5L water for our remaining day at RP4150 ( SGD 50c ).
Since we bought quite a few stuff yesterday at the supermart in BCM, we brisk through this hypermart and left for our final stop.
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| 2 storeys A&W |
How can we miss A&W! A must stop for Singaporeans. Even the cashier knows how to speak English.
It's at the same level as the hypermart, which is also the same level as the electronics section. They have one big corner dedicated to electronics.
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| A&W servers in action! |
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| Fries! |
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| A&W! |
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| A&W Receipt |
We spent a total of RP161000 for our lunch at A&W. Which is approx SGD 20. Didnt get to try the waffles ice cream, shall try it another time, provided A&W survives in Batam!
Surprinsingly A&W was quite empty when we went there during lunch time.
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| Another side of Nagoya Hill Shopping mall that we didn't get to shop |
We got a cab at the entrance of Nagoya Hill Shopping Mall where they have a counter controlling the taxis. We told them that we want to get back to Harmoni One Hotel, they told us that it will cost RP60000 ( approx sgd $7.50 ). I believe that's tourists price though. They repeatedly explained to us that it is because oil prices have been rising. Considering the living standard of citizens in Batam and this taxi price, its considered pricey.
We reached our hotel in less than 15 minutes. We did last minute checking around and checked out with our bags.
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| Hotel level 2 corridor |
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| Harmoni One Hotel Interior Level 2 |
A personnel from 'Best Batam' came and he will be at the lobby calling out your ferry timing and ferry operator name. So you will have to listen carefully for yours!
This time round we went in a van and not those coach. This van is pretty small and stuffy. The ride took about 50mins to the ferry terminal.
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| Pacific Ferry counter |
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| Boarding time |
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| Ferry ticket |
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| Ferry Departure counter. |
They are quite strict with the boarding times. Like for us boarding gate opens at 3pm, even going in at 2.45pm is not allowed. While in Singapore its more lax. However there's seats outside the ferry departure counter for guests to wait for their ferry!
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| Sekupang Ferry terminal when its sunny! |
It looks so pretty when its not rainy weather! The ferry departed from the harbour at 4pm ( Batam time ).
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The return ferry is a little less new. A look at the board in the ferry shows that it wa built in 2008 as compared to the pacific ferry which we took when we come Batam, was bulilt in 2012.
It's a 45 minutes ride. Around 30 minutes into the ride, we enter Singapore waters.
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| Spot the Singapore flyer! |
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| Sentosa! |
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| Sentosa |
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| Harbourfront |
Side-note:
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They don't frozen items like nuggets, fries in packets but by Kg. you get the quantity you want and weight it then pay the price according to the price stated per kg. In Nagoya Hill Supermart, Nugget price is RP36630/kg (SGD 4.50/kg) while fries going at RP32500/kg ( SGD 4/kg)
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