Batam

Hi everyone! I finally got round to doing a blog post on my trip to Batam in February! There were a massive 98 photos :S and my photo sizes are pretty big so uploading them to Photobucket would have killed me.

So I decided to try doing collages like how some girls do! I always though it must be pretty troublesome but I guess it's alright.. and still better than the alternative of uploading close to a 100 photos.

Anyway my friends and I went to Batam for a day trip as part of our Geography project on tourism. It's not compulsory to visit whichever location you choose to do your project on of course (imagine if you wanna choose like Paris or something) but we thought it'd be fun to visit!

Also, my group has one exchange student (she's Jamaican-American) so obviously she's totally up for visiting the region.

By the way I was at Zouk the night before for Chloe's farewell, then waking up early in the morning for the ferry; drinks + choppy waters= thumbs up to me!

Melissa (the Jamaican exchange student) and her friend Michael, also an exchange student. Michael is a Canadian citizen but of Indonesian origin and proved to be a huge blessing in Batam!

Like we spent 10minutes trying to ask the bookstore girl for a map of Batam and it was total ugh! language barrier, till Michael suddenly started speaking to her in Indonesian and we were like ??? Omg why didn't you say so earlier than you were Indonesian??! Hahahaha.

Hahahaha fake Nike and Chanel jewelry. This is like supposedly at a real jewelry store? Not even like some pasar malam cart.

Nick, me, Melissa and Rebecca.

OMG SO YUMMY I WANT CRAB NOWWWW. The whole meal was so cheap, like S$7 a person?

Convenience store haha.

From the ferry terminal we took a cab to a village which was still pretty rural, although most locals could speak English in case tourists from the nearby resorts venture out (very little tourist-local interaction in Batam).

At the village we paid to be ferried to this little out at sea just to look around. On the island this woman actually said we had to pay "rent"? Like pay money to come unto the island, which was kind of ridiculous but the boys paid anyway.

Basically the locals charge money here and there to make an income, even going into the village we had to pay entry. But it's so little anyway you know? Like maybe a $1 each max, which is really nothing to us in Singapore but in Batam it's like livelihood.

I brought back the first seashell!

The beach there is so pretty!

Took the same cab (it waited for us) back into town to see the shopping centre.

Hello Kitty stuff store:

Omg I want the mahjong set!!!

Visited the Maha Vihara Duta Maitreya temple, which is one of the largest Buddhist temples in Southeast Asia. Massive! But it had a lift in it hahahaha.

I bought one! Some pancake kinda thingy.

Hahahaha look at where the sign is pointing to! Like EXIT, by jumping into the water???

Anyway we saw the Coast Guard! Don't know what they boarded for, but everyone tried taking photos with their camera phones (but I cool I got camera).

(Notice the old men on the ferry. Ahem as to what they go to Batam for.)

I bought a Hello Kitty ring from the store! Happy!!

Anyway a couple of days later I was reading the newspaper about Indonesian street beggar kids, and one woman was saying how it's pretty good if her nephew can earn 700 rupiah a day from begging.

And it's just so sad cause 700 rupiah is so little. 6000+ rupiah is equals to S$1. I mean in Singapore if you lost a dollar you wouldn't really care you know? But like over there it's actually so much money... the disparity's kind of sad ):

Ugh I still have some leftover rupiah I haven't changed (yeah a month plus later). We had our presentation on Batam already, we got a shock when some groups (actually only one) turned up in full presentation regalia like shirt, blazer, dress shoes etc.

Like I know in faculties like NUS Business you need to dress up for presentations, but for FASS no one cares lah hahaha.