Short summary

Hi everyone. Vesak day is over. Truly, I had a wonderful time at Batam. It's not about the interesting places, massage or the food. It's just about the company (companion) you have got. But seriously, the place seems sucky to us. You can't expect ultra great shopping malls like ION or Vivo. Nevertheless, you can pin your hope on malls similar to Far East Plaza or Bugis Street. The price and quality should be around the same as SG.

I'm be blogging long on Batam. Stay tune.

Cheerios,
Jeanne

Batam Trip Ultimate

It's been quite sometime since the Mars and Jupiter's combustion. Now it's erupting unbearably. I voiced out about Batam trip randomly, and the amazing Mars(Yann) did all researches on agency. Oh dear, it's really Bao-Ka-Liao. Her dragon must've been pressured for quite sometime. It's flying straight out of the shell of Mars. Tsk tsk.

It's been a very ultra long period since I woke up at 4 plus. Mmm, the only time we woke up at this sort of timing was during FYP1 presentation. We reached school as early as before 7 (I doubt the birds are awake too), and finalised out ppt (although it's fruitless).

Poor me, tramatic towards the Mars's phone bombings. It's like alien show. Never ending bombing. She called around 4am, while me trying to a smart alec went returned to my Lalaland. Having phobia towards my phone and here came the Mars. Apparently, I pondered for secs before answering her call.

Right in my head, I thought to myself

"Die sia, should ans or not?"
"She gonna kill me if she caught me sleeping again"

Fortunately, she expected that. Therefore she bomb my phone 30 mins before. Poor me, unable to escape from alien's clutches. Alright, we'll skip these.

We met at Harbourfront (And she's later than me $%^&, fancy bombing my call the earliest and being the latest to reach. Aha!). We bought a cup of warm soya bean milk to warm our early stomach. Yah, warm milk turned out to be damn hot. Yann burnt her tongue, followed by me.

You must be wondering where our jinxes have gone to?

No worries!
Typically, they are all around us most of the time.

Read on, you will know how much they enjoyed following us.

Here we are at the BatamFast counter. There aren't any long queues (Which I don't understand why the agent told us to be early. Shit) In fact, the queues are so short that we can't seems to figure out where to queue instead.

Anyway the booth seems a little budget with budget staff. I mean no discrimination by saying budget. In fact, they are budget. The signage looks just like a stuck on, the staffs have poor services. Poor isn't the main factor, but being slow is as good as doom. Just look at the pathetic number of the so-called "crowd" (mentioned by the agent), we still got to wait and wait. LOL. Sorry, we're just a little fussy and picky. Attitude problem came about easily due to insufficient sleep and fiery temper. Haha.

Before entering the checkpoint, we were still holding on to the warm soya bean milk. Unfortunately, there isn't any dustbin in sight. Guess what? Yann just tied the bag and placed it in her big bag. We got to slide our bag into the scanner. I can vividly imagine the situation of having a cup of soya bean milk tumbling in her bag. I'm glad it did not leak out of the plastic bag. But it's still kind of yucky and sticky.

Haha, I'm so proud of her doings.

Hey yeah, we finally got our tickets. Here we are the poorest millionaire. Basically, I only change about 60 bucks worth of Rupiah. Look at the way we dress, I doubt anyone would rob us. It's their misfortune if they had such initial idea as well.

This is the crowd. The crowd at the BatamFast's booth means nothing. Oooh the smell of all people drifted to my sensitive nose. Oh no, it's heavenly. I suspect most of them had not shower in such an early morning. I'm a hygiene freak, no matter how late I am for work or school, I MUST BATH! I just can't stand the kind of morning smell. You know...

Alright, I shall skipped those disgusting topics on smell. Haha.

Look at my beloved Mars, so sweet of her to prepare puffs. It's yummilicious especially when you are hungry. It's so hard not to eat. It kills for goodness sake.

Finally, it's time for boarding. I seriously had difficulty understanding their system. Yann and I made an error scanning before realising it was not our turn previously. Anyway, we still got in. Oh man, I can feel the heat seriously. The sun is shining so brightly as though it's worried that we couldn't feel it's heat.

Hey hey, we can feel it. So stop burning for secs please.

Haha, don't expect the ferry to be awesome. It's expected like totally for the price we are paying. Well, the outer of the ferry seems alright, well for the inner, it's up to you to judge on it. We feel as if we were on a "sort of" bangaladesh boat. Haha, from the first impression, plus the stench and the quality. Anyway, I still wanna emphasize on something. The weather is seriously too hot.

A short camwhoring session must not be missed. I've opted out some to prevent you from fainting. Haha.

That is exactly the same ferry that we had board. Ok la, still can make it. Don't expect cruise. LOL.

We are reached finally. Oh dear, the queue was ultra super long pls. I'm glad we are rather petite. Sqqqqquuueeee-ze all the way to the front. Along the way, we kept seeing tours from other agencies claining their people except us. Lucky them get to go through express route while we had to "enjoy" the squeezing sensation. Cool isn't it?

We got to go through all the checkpoints and look for our tour guide who's right outside waiting for us at the terminal. The checkpoint officer seems fierce though. They are stamping the passports with loud thud. Oh nono, please don't detain us though we look irritatin at times.

Along our way to the bus, a scary looking man called out "Nice gal" to us. My mind was filled with WTF. The next thing he did was to sent us flying kisses. Oh no, the thought of it was scary. Yann walked as quickly as she could and failed to "recieve" his kisses. Poor me. watched his unsightly kisses through his mouth. He should be glad that he's a local, or Imma shuff my right foot down his throat.

Off I ran as well, scurried around like a mouse, worrying that Yann would run off without me. Haha.

Poor us waited on the bus for 2 hours. It's fucking damn long ok. The bus driver aren't at his position at all. Filled with anger. I'm glad we have each other, chatting as if we were having some high tea session (when there's none). I guess we are chirping like a bird in the bus whereas the rest were resting and being unhappy for the wait.

The tour guide came back when 2 guys went over to find out what happened from him. It's all damn screwed. He told us that there was long queues due to Vesak day. Oh ya, like I believe the shit out of him. Upon boarding the bus, Yan and I witness about 20 tour buses. Within an hour, all the buses CLEARED except us. We waited an extra hour.

The tour guide told us that he experienced long queues and blabla. You think we care about his blabla. He's obviously blabla-ing the wrong thing to people whom he thought to be dumb. Pui. He's lying through he teeth. He came back with a couple instead. Isn't it obvious that he's waiting for the LATE couple.

Wanna cover for them?

Since they chose to be late, it means they had no interest in this tour. Why made everyone on the bus wait for them stupidly for an hour? The couple damn disgust me. They show no respect for the other travellers. Wasting time and all sort of resources. Thanks to them, the itinenary got messed up. We missed the magic show in the end. Yea yea, all the lies.

Yann and I turned touchy and whiny. Seriously, we even swear to write-in. It's all the nonsense that makes our day perfect. LOL.

Next, they brought us to the Kueh-Lapis making factory. Not really showing us on the making process. It's more towards making us buy from them. Haha, we aren't huge fan of kueh, we just tried the very tiny samples and ended with a cup of ultra sweet cup of milk tea.

Hey hey, it ain't my fault. I usually add 2 spoonful of milk. The milk provided seems more yellowish. I did not pondere too much, it turn out to be really sweet. Anyway, it's too hot. I prefered my Evian spring water. Heez.

By the way, the living condition of the majorities aren't as good as we thought of. The people are still living on days with rainwaters. I seriously can't think of how bad it's going to be. Somehow, my heart sanks when I see small houses with metal roofs that can't withstand strong winds.

Next, they brought us to the "Golden Prawns" for lunch. It's a really late lunch indeed. Yann and I begin wor worried about where to sit. Haha, we sat with a groupies of Malaysian and Phillipinos. How democratic and racial harmony we are.

It's a little awkward to be seated with so many strangers. But it's definitely better than sitting together with a ground of ah -neh that Yann detest the most. Ysnn's detest towards ah-neh seriously makes my day. All the while she had been whining about chopping seat without ah neh. Hahaha, she just had some sensitivity to smell I guess.

This is the most pathetic piece of crab (piece of crap) I ever had. I guess the usual ones i had at Kim San Leng aren't as pathetic as these. Oh no, it's not "these" but "this" instead. You called this a crab, I seriously suspect the term of it. It's just a crab with 2 skinny spincers and 8 skinny legs. This was shared by a table of....

Mmmm, let me count. Wah 9 people! What a great deal to the agency.

Yann failed to take a shot of the fried sotong. It's was taken up before she could do it.

Somehow I thought to myself about the picture of the fish above. It looks like a completely dead fish ( in fact, it was). The angle of the dying fish seems a little unappetizing isn't it? I've tried searching for a better photo. Unfortunately, it was the only one. Make do pls.

We had one coconut each. Yann was suggesting on sharing after we had ordered one each as she thought that we might not be able to finish it. Haha, a stingy mindset filled with revenge came to my mind.

Why order one and share? Look at the pathetic piece of skiny crab's leg you had been fight with on your plate! Ordering 2 coconut is the best released even if I'm unable to finish.

Hey, it's the fact alright. How much can coconut cost up to? LOL.

It's snackers time. No-no, I mean the time for us to comb snacks.

The next stop shall be gold kart. I'm not very interested in it. Look at the number of punctured tyres. Say I'm picky or what ever, I'm fine with it. Haha, we stay in bus to enjoy the breezy air coming out from the air-con. It's pretty cool, when no one else was in the bus to fight oxygen with us.

Flying Fox is our very next stop. It's not that scary since I've tried it numerous times in school or camp. Furthermore, this is so might lower, not of really great height. The bunch of cheaterbugs attempt to clean the shit out of the travellers. It's written clearly on the itinenary that it cost only 3 bucks, yet they collected 6 bucks instead. Kua-kua-kua.

Anyway, I'm glad I did not try it. The rope was really thin and the safety precautions might not be good enough. Upon leaving the place, one of the rope from the signage even fall and landed on the bus.

You see! You see! How dangerous it was.

Next, we went to the Polo shop. Amazingly, we got our cheapest buys. It's dirt cheap here. We usually pay about hundred over bucks for a Polo shirt in SG. It's only about 30 to 60 bucks at Batam. Furthermore, it's authentic. The only thing that differs was the place of manufacturing. The polos at Batam were made by locals.

Next, they brought us to visit temples. We did not laze in the bus anymore. We went out to have a walk. Nothing interest us except camwhoring. I shall leave the rest to photo(s) then. Pictures speak a thousand words.

That's all for the temple. There's nothing special except seeing the most number of chinese there. If I'm not wrong, there's only an indigenous number of chinese in Batam.

Batam City Mall is our very next stop. It's the only time for us to shop and take short break.

Apparently, we can predict and foresee how jinx we can be. We searched for A&W up and downs. We checked every single level at least twice. We chose not to give up, but we had to. Because there's no A&W in Batam City square in the first place. Aww so sad.

Yann was asking me why I'm so emo.

I answered her in a very steady manner. Saying...

Look at how jinx we are, there's no A&W here. After our dinner, A&W will definitely appear at Mega Mall. Yann agreed to my saying silently. She quietly agreed and approve with how unfortunate we can be. Seriously, WE ARE!!!

The clothes here aren't close my likings. The best buy over here shall be Polos. The rest of the shops were similar to Far East and Bugis Street. They sell shoes and boots too.

I hate their toilets. They provide no toilet roll in each cubicle. I'm not a very tissue person when ah tard is around. She would spnsor me most of the time. I was in the cubicle when I realise that there wasn't any toilet papers. Fortunately, I did prepared some small packets tissue before hand. I guess majority of my tissues aren't spend on hands and mouth but toilet. Haiz.

We settled our dinner at Godiva Coffee. Thanks to our jinxes, we shuffed so much food into our stomach that you wouldn't be able to imagine it. Read on and you will find out why.

We ordered drinks, mee goreng and curly fries. Yann felt cheated when they served no waffles at the restaurant. Definitely disappointing, because they put up pictures of waffles and they served no waffles. Yann turned moody.

We decided to tried the crepe since everyone was queueing for it. I was trying to take shot of the stall when the little boy posed for me. I'm glad that he volunteered be be my free model. But don't you think that his posed was a little unsightly? I mean unglam actually. Stretching out his legs like a tree trunk. Spoil pictures. Tsk.

Our mood was totally dampened by the lost of A&W. Thanks to the crepe, we became more cheerful after that. We ordered a strawberry cheese and an ice-creap crepe. I seriously had no idea what the people there are trying to say. I understand neither their chinese nor english.

The staff was trying to ask if we want a plate. Gosh, eating crepe with a plate was absurd to us. It was then we realised that ice crepe has to be served on plate. Worst scenario was that, he can't even explained that to us clearly. We just went on and on with OK-OK with him.

It was then we realised there isn't any table around the stall. Poor us doing foolish stuffs again. We tried to cut the ultra rubbery waffle roll table free. It's mission impossible for damn sure. We scurried to a nearby chicken rice restaurant and sneak on our food. Haha, eating, chewing while plucking. We were damn worried of being caught bringing in outside food.

Anyway, I don't think they care in the first place.

Honestly, I did some reflections about overeating. We had no control of what we are eating. Right after the crepe, we had fruits. We are just being gluttons. You know pigs under rabbit skin. That's us. We happily make a big route from escalator up and downs just to get our fruits. Initially, we only wanted some guavas. I suggested mangoes and Yann agreed without thinking.

Happily, we scurried to our waiting point.

That's a fluffly cloud.

The itinenary simply sucks to the max. The rest ot the passengers followed the tour and returned to Singapore. Yann and I bu si xin de jing shen came back to life. We went to exchange our ferry tickets to a later time. The rest of the passengers we rather amazed that we dare to stay on batam without any guide alone. They watched us quietly as we went off.

Hey, it's stupid to return to SG at such early timing. Not worth it afterall with the lousy plannings and un-interesting event. I rather roam around on my own. At least, I'm happy with what I'm doomed with. Nothing can be worst than being jinx. We had nothing to be afraid of since the worst had come.

We walked around before setting of for A&W again.

Our 2nd phototaking session with the bear. The 1st one was taken at Bangkok. It's a pity of what it has become of now. Sad to mention.

Pathetic amount of money we had left.

Things started to become happening once we stepped foot into A&W. The main reasons we stayed here was for A&W. We had cravings for its curly fries, waffles and jumbo dog bread. Unfortunately we can only have 2.

Yann and I ordered a root beer. Guess what?

No gas!!! ( the staff said)

The little fucker was totally racist. He told Yann and I the Root Beer has no gas and refused to sell us.

What the fuck? That's the most ridiculous fucking excuses I had ever heard. I'm seriously fuming mad deep in my heart, so do yann.

No gas? Fucking go pump some air then, you crap.

Assuming that there isn't any more root beer float, Yann and I settled with orange juice. Upon walking back from the basin (wash hand area), we both spotted and indo-lady with a cup of root beer. My heart started to get suspicious. Yann then tried to mentally console ourselves that it was the last cup.

Unfortunately, NO-NO. It wasn't the last cup. The other indo-chi got their root beer. Fuming mad, taboleh tahan any further. Without giving Yann any prior notice, I walked straight to the counter pointing at the root beer float that the indo-chi had ordered on the table.

Me: "Can you tell me what is this?"

The guy look at his manager and chose to keep quiet.

Me: "What is this? Don't tell me it's lemon tea ok"

Now Yann was starting to get angry.

Yann: "I thought you say sold out?"
Manager: " Root beer got no gas"

WTF WTF! He still tell us not gas sia. Boiling!!!

Yann look at the cup of root beer with doubt.

Yann: "I don't think so lo"

I walked back to my table and took the pathetic cup of orange juice. We demanded for a change. They change quietly with angry stares from us. I wasn't appeased yet. I wanted root beer float. We forced them to top up ice-cream.

My mood became better and better. Haha, it's our victory. They must have thought we some tourist to be push around easily. Hey hey you are wrong man. You got yourself the wrong target. We are not easy prey for you to prey on. Trying to bully us just because we are some tourist. Dream on.

Wow, the above scenarios seems to be a good commercial for Root Beer Float isn't it? 2 AP girls not giving up on their root beer float. This show the significance of Root Beer float on our heart. Hahaha. Just kidding.

My free Root Beer Float.

It's time to return. We did some last shoppings before setting off to the terminal. It's not a really happy day, but definitely a real happening day. Haha.

We were queueing up peacefully when one action pac monster stood behind us with his monstrous friend. Oh man, he's been talking so loudly that Yann and my ear drums could simply feel the pressure. Out of no choice, we resorted to the very last means.

Me: "Yann, can you be quiet or not?"
Yann: "What? Not me lah!"

Me: "Ma de, not you then who?"

Yann: "What? The one behind me la!"

The monsters knew that we were talking about them. They became quiet immediately except the buai zi dong one. Haiz, heck care him. I doubt he realised his voice can be deafening.

We board the ferry safely even though there were bunch of indo whistling and waving to us. We were immune to it. Poor us taking the lok-kok ever ferry back to harbourfront. With such situation, Yann told me that she suspect the ferry can move fast. Haiz, same thoughts.

The locals on the ferry kept peeping at us. Heck care, as long as they don't penny the thought of robbing us. LOL. We chat and enjoyed our fruits on the ship. For some reason, it's damn hot on the ferry lo. We nearly fainted. I'm damn glad when we reached the pier.

Yay, we were finally back in SG.

It's a tiring day, but we still enjoyed oursleves to the max.

Good night everyone.

Cheerios,

Jeanne