2D1N - Batam, Indonesia

Another short escape from the city life, this time I went for a package deal offered at Deal.com. 

For SGD39.90 per head (excluding additional SGD29 for fuel surchage, terminal fees & tipping), we got ourselves a 2D1N stay at Pacific Palace Hotel and a full day shopping tour. Do note that they required min. 2 pax to travel together, i.e. 2 paid vouchers. Plus, the rate is only valid for weekdays (travel between Sun to Fri). Extra $$ will be require for weekend stays.

Get the location here

Getting there:

All I needed to do was to secure the travel dates I wanted and collect the ferry tickets in advance from the ferry operator, Wavemaster. You can collect it on the day itself as well, but since my ride is early in the morning, I'd rather sleep in a little more.

Our ride to Batam Island

Their office is located at Harbour Front which is just right beside Vivocity. Once this is done, we'll just need to be at the Harbour Front Ferry Terminal about 30-40 min before departure time for immigration/ baggage clearance. More on ferry advisories & guidelines here.

Leaving SG for the day...

Accommodation (comes with the package):
The package includes a night's stay at Pacific Palace Hotel, a "casino" turned hotel which was built like a cruise ship. Even the interior was designed like one.

The room was ok, not much lighting and the tv reception was quite bad. But location wise, it was pretty strategic for seafood lovers since a quick walk behind the hotel will bring us to an open air food court with various seafood stalls.

Meals:
7 course seafood lunch was included with the package. Food was not bad and it came with coconut drinks as well, which was just perfect for the hot day!

Lunch at Golden Prawn 555

Dinner was on our own and what better food to have other than seafood again! Seafood is pretty cheap in Batam, a good meal for 2 person is less than RM50 and it's fresh!!

The other meal included in the package was breakfast. It's a buffet spread in the hotel's restaurant. Nothing much to shout about, basic cereals, eggs & noodles.

Activities:
Well, it's a packaged shopping deal. Upon arrival at Batam's Ferry Terminal, our tour guide greeted us and brought us to shops after shops of not so exciting shopping places:

• Kueh Lapis (a well known Indonesian cake) factory - is actually a visit to a small shop/ house where they let you taste their Kueh Lapis and get you to order. Can't remember the price exactly but one thing for sure, it's not very cheap.
• Chocolate House - is just a shop which sells, well, chocolates. Not much choices if I recall correctly and I can easily get better varieties/ prices during sales in SG.
• Kuda Lumping/ Cultural Show - this is nearby the Golden Prawn 555 restaurant where we had our lunch. Although short, the show is quite interesting with cultural dance and performance (jumping over fire, swallowing of burning charcoal, etc). Tipping is required after the show.
• Polo Ralph Lauren outlet - this is everywhere in Batam! Bought a Polo T-shirt and the color faded after the first wash! Totally not buying again!!
• Tao Pek Kong temple - went for prayer
• Go Kart, Flying Fox, Paintball - just a small area where you can opt to go for it or not. Prices ranges and are excluded from the package.
• 1 hour massage - I'd have to say, this is pretty good. Tipping is required after the massage as well.

Cultural Show and some of the random stuff we had in Batam

Judgments (solely my personal one):

All in all, the package is cheap but with it comes the many unnecessary shopping stops. Other than the seafood and massage, there's really nothing much interesting to do.