Dear Beloved readers

I've just had a different experience of Chinese New Year, spent in the territory of Indonesia, Batam. The trip was planned by my family and we invited along relative's family, my cousin. Or rather my mother older brother's family. More about my cousin family: a family of 3 mouths (Father, Mother and Cousin lol), cousin younger than me by 3mths 27days, he's a guy now half studying and working half taking care of his parents, Y? Cause his dad is recovering (well) from a stroke cause by smoking , his mother has some sort of stomach cancer that really need some facilitating when going to the loo's (you wouldn't want to know the details). Yeah that's about it, a strong-willed young boy that's serving the society.



Back to my blog... So I'll be posting pictures solely taken by me at Batam only. Hehe enjoy...


Day1. .. ... .... ..... ....... ....... ........ ......... ..........

Location: Indonesia immigrasi (immigration)
Efficiency: ~1% (that's like the minimum, we're still moving somehow)
The lady in red hair would be my aunt (cousin's mother). Can see the super crowded place yeah.

When we finally manage to get out of that crowd the tour guide pointed us the way to the bus. No. 58 if i didn't remember wrongly. On the bus, we took the last row. From the left: Johan (my bro), Kelvin (my cousin), and me =) Oh yeah, my maid is also behind at the last seat. Haha, and she's indonesian fyi. So it's like returning back to her country.

Oh this is the design on the paper bag my cousin brought over to Batam to wish my/their relative there (yeah i have 1 there, it's also my mother another older brother). Cute Mickey, yay for year of the Mickey Mouse!

Oops, zilian senser detected. Yeah, it's me alright. I'm standing on the Rainbow Bridge of Batam. Been here once anyways, nice background yeah. This bridge connects the 7 "islands" of Batam to the heart of Batam, where citizens here depend on fishing for their livehood. Ooo, do you know that only the best seafood are sent to Singapore? The not-so-good seafood are then eaten by the locals. Lol, go Singapore!

Yeah, that's like bridge. But more importantly, i'm inside it! Makes the picture complete =D

Okay, after standing and vieing the scenary like some kiasu tourist for like 15 long minutes, we rushed back up to the air-conditioned seats on the bus. That guy in green is our tour guide. His name is OKI (stands for something but i forgot, means fully indonesian anyways). Then he was asking around to purchase home-made kueh lapis and Batam traditional full-body (legal)massage.

We were hungry so went to this famous restaurant called Golden Prawn Restaurant 933. Yar, so that's my cousin there, and the signboard saying "Selamat Datang" which means welcome in a formal manner. Hehe i so smart. Hmmm, history about this restaurant: the owner is a chinese, started off as a fishing area of his own, developed a eating place, became crowded with Indonesians increasing business, then expanded to a restaurant and another chain just beside it. So that explained some of the chinese infrastructure and decorations.

My bro. I took the signboard but he got to extra and butt in. Haha.

Inside the restaurant. The long haired girl on the bottom left is my younger sister, Grace. In front is my mother. On the centre is my cousin with my bro on his right.

Sorry for the blurry images, my camera can't really function well in a bright background. Haha. Anyways, everyone was famished and can't wait to taste the authentic delicacies.

Oh yeah, this is taken over the tables. The seafood are super fresh, any fresher you have to fo catch it yourself. Can you spot the fish(es)? They're rather big.

Yay, on the table. Okay. From the left: my aunt, my mother, my sister, my maid, my dad (unseen), and my cousin (his hp camera seen).

This was our spread. Seafood crab, seafood prawn, seafood fish, seafood soup, kang kung with seafood sauce, and tofu with seafood. Haha, unfortunately my aunt has high cholesterol and was really sea-ing the food. Wahaha, what a lame pun.

Kelapa, alamak. That's my coconut there. Er, i took the biggest and the oldest. So the meat was sticking to the husk like glue. At least i manage to scrap out a little bit, to make me satisfied.

o.0 That's my Batam cousin, he's the second oldest among his siblings. 4 years of age, his older bro is 15 while his younger is only 2. Oh yeah, names... He is Ah Kie, older is Ah Wee, and younger is Ah Zai. One more thing, Ah Zai birthday is on 7th of Feb. Lol. But all were cute i guess, only very mischevious and playful. Was playing with them catching most of the time.

Eating finish our lunch, we took a 5mins walk to a nearby performing group. They were eating burning coals, chewing glass and jumping through torched hoops. Not a bad performace other than it was short.

Beside the performace my bro got to relax in a "house" of his own. Sure is 1 smart brother to have shielded from the scorching sun. Phew.

Next destination was a small 2 storey shopping mall. Inside it were original brands of goods. Sold at like 200,000 rupiah. [ S$1.00 = 6400 rupiah] Haha, do the calculations.

We got thirsty and bought water. Fortunately, each can cost only 5,000 rupiah. Drinking finish our cheap water, we went up the bus.

Ah, our 1st official shopping mall. Finally something cheap to buy. Lol. However we were all like blur blur. T minus 60 minutes till bus leaves.

Level B1, shopping... I bought 2 sets of clothes, one of which is a matching basket ball attire. Don't ask me why i got that, i just did. Here my mother, aunt and sis all being typical Singaporean.

Four half hearts pasted on the wall of a Manga shop nearby.

Er, bro and cousin doing a leg to leg bonding ah? Haha, chey kicking a "football". T minus 40 minutes.

Okay, so i skipped a few photos, ended up in this. Basically we went to the timezone on the fourth level and played DDR (dance dance revolution) and sweated like a pig. Hey it was fun yeah. Rushing back. T minus 5 minutes.

Up the bus we go. So next stop is the massage parlor, located at this hotel89. Haha, don't know what they do inside though, i didn't went in.

Our hotel, Goldview hotel. Haha, yeah, it's beside the Golden Prawn Restaurant. The weird CNY tree... no leaves only ang baos.

At the lobby. Yeah, errrr haha the lady in the middle is my mum ah. I don't know what she's doing though. Lol. But we're all waiting for dad to finish with the registration so we can check in.

Ole, that's my dad! Like the only customer there huh. Haha, dangerous.

To the 9th floor... walk walk walk...

My room no. 912. Hehe me posing there. Nice picture again.

Dinner at the chain restaurant. Called 555... haha.

Whoosh, super images. Haha. They moving in and moving out too fast! Ahhh. People nowadays like to eat fast sia.

See the fishes under the pond... under the pond, under the pond. lalala

Oh craps i mean crabs now. They have a werid shell though.

Yeah zoom in... weird shell.

Oh my, i saw Patrick.

That's my cousin outside our dinner dinning area. Looking out and taking a pose for the camera. Cool man!

Hmmm, everyone looks so red on camera. I wonder why. Waiting for food again. Haha.

Haha, all eyeing on the yu sheng already. But my dad kinda sian 1/2 le, i think cause of headache. Too bad no panadol.

Maid serving the rice. A good leader is also a good servant. Haha. But the rice wasnt really very nice cause have many contaminants.

Day2. .. ... .... ..... ...... ....... ........ ......... ..........

Breakfast at the hotel. We have nasi, mee, cury, hot dog, eggs, ikan bilis and bubur.

Er, oh yeah. They also had breakfast cereals. But i still find it werid to have either rice or noodles for breakfast. And worse of all, the milk was in shortage. I have to stringe on my cereal milk.

Sunshine flower! You are my sunshine. Haha, too bad the sunshine is fake. Hands belong to cousin (left) and his mother (right).

Waiting to depart from the hotel at around 12pm. Haha carrying all our shopped items and luggage is really something heavy dude.

Up another bus we go. Aunt helping my mother out, my sis doing some artistic look.

On the bus. Oh oh oh oh! I see blues, no i'm not sad, just that it's an eye sore. The guy standing is my cousin. Haha.

We've reached Batam centre, is a small 3 storey building. Haha, confirming our return trip tickets. Also crowded there, i guess most of the people plan to return today.

But the centre was boring, nothing much there. So we shifted our attention to the building beside, MegaMall. Yeah, there's this bridge that links from Batam centre to MegaMall. And there's my brother again doing a weird pose.

So at MegaMall. We celebrated my youngest cousin's birthday. Happy 2nd birthday Ah Zai!!! Haha, the cake was tiramisu. Delicious!

Hehe, only A&W i saw so far since 2 years ago. I love the float man! It's like only S$2.00. Wahaha. And the rest of the stuffs werent expensive either as u can see the potato cheese ball, fries and curly fries. Awesome!

Last stop was at J. Co Donuts & Coffee. Some sort similar to Starbucks i guess. My mother bought a dozen of donuts costing 50,000+ rupiah, equalling to around less than S$10. Haha, you can see by the long long queue how popular this outlet is.

This is my parents squeezing out of the long long queue, like some ah sohs. Haha. Dad counting money still.

That's Ah Zai, so cute right??? Haha, and carrying him is my Batam uncle. We're walking back to Batam centre for our departure.

Da bridge of life. Lol. Not up to expectation right. Should be named the bridge away from death.

Last picture. This is taken at the transportation vessicle. All also squeeze like tuna in a can. Haha.

Haha, well. I got to say i had funs at Batam with my family and my cousin's. I think i forgot to mentioned that we played fireworks (which are banned in Singapore) there. Cool, and the security guard lended us lighter some more. Lol. Too bad it was dark, i couldn't take pictures. Haha take care ye'all. Till next time...

Signing out.