I'm no food connoisseur but my philosophy is to try the good foods in Bali - while they aren't considered cheap by Bali's standard, it's at least a good half of the price for the same quality found back home. Here are some of our recommended eats, tried and tested.
Close to 6 years apart, we decided it's time to take a retreat in Bali once more.
Duration: 20/3 - 23/3
The trip came timely, as was much needed after a long week's meeting at work. This time we hopped on the villa wagon and put up at Seminyak, just further north of Kuta... which means a large part was chilling out and relaxing - we have covered most of the sights the last visit (long ago) anyway. Aside/ Prior to the trip, we almost went nuts villa hunting online. The multitude of options were just overwhelming with villas sprouting out every now and then and dotted across the island.
We decided to break away from routine and made a trip south to Batam last weekend.
Having stayed at Harris Bali before, we thought Harris Batam was a safe bet. Indeed it is in terms of service standards, except for the little glitch at check in. The same can't be said for the rooms which had the typical dated look rather than the modern minimalist ones we had in Bali. Alright, I didn't really fancy that fact. See how enthused I was:
"VERY (indeed)!!"
It wasn't long before we figured out that there was nothing much happening on our side of the Island. What beach? There's just a pool, shaped after a computer mouse.
The cab ride to town costed a freaking fixed rate of S$15! We dropped off at Nagoya Hill, Batam's biggest mall. There was a huge food court, Matahari departmental store, a cineplex and smaller individual shops. It's nothing you can't find back home, only that the goods come cheaper. Barely an hour spent and we're quite done...
We adjourned for our massage at the SPORT Massage Centre & Spa, a place by web's recommendation. Cheap and good at S$21 for 2 hours. This was followed by dinner at Golden Prawn 933, a seafood restaurant by the sea which I felt was overly commercialised. We had to go and check it out anyway, since it's the default choice by anyone who's been to Batam. Here's presenting you the prawns and crabs!
This pretty much sums up the day.
*****
The next day went past pretty quick too. Bowling (No, I can't bowl but I can wash the gutters well!), A&W, foot-reflex, then home. There was nothing at the cinemas that we wanted to watch, despite the dirt cheap tickets at S$3 each. Thanks to cable TV at Harris though, we managed to catch the Bee Movie and TNMT while we were there.
Bye, Batam! Don't think I'll be going back anytime soon.
Flights o' Fancy (11)
