Jakartasta tulimme Batamin saarelle 5 tuntia myöhässä olleella AirAsia-lennolla. Matkatavarat olivat kyllä ehtineet perille ennen meitä! Kun tavarat olivat löytyneet lentoyhtiön toimiston takahuoneesta, 12 hengen retkueemme hyppäsi Amazing Race -tyyliin kolmeen taksiin, joilla huristeltiin Nongsapuran satamaan. Sieltä pääsimmekin sitten viimetingassa illan viimeiseen eli klo 18.30 lähteneeseen pikalaivaan kohti Singaporea. Onneksi Singaporen ystävämme Rahman ja Nadia olivat valistaneet meitä näistä aikatauluista... Ikakin poistui näin kotimaastaan. (Eikä hänen tarvinnut edes maksaa ns. fiskaal [View Full Entry]

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Great time too with Paula and Arthur such a lovely size, views and lots going on, its the start of the festival there soon & look to be some good stuff on, including Black Watch which we saw in Sydney and was fabulous]. 18th Feb Just another day left then we will be flying home but what a finale, I am sat in our 'colonnial' villa in the Banjon Tree in Binton absolutely beautiful, wonderful attention to detail and service. Great beaches, pools and food overlooking the South China Sea and it is very hot but the breeze off the sea [View Full Entry]

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"Batam, is a very holey city", we were told on arrival into Indonesia with our good friend Tony. "Every road is covered in holes! hahaha" Tony exclaimed right afterwards. We took the ferry from Singapore straight to Batam spur of the moment for a weekend getaway. We wanted a taste of third world country before Thailand, and before we knew it, we were right in the middle of it. Once we exited the Batam Harbourfront, culture shock hit us with a strong force. We drove through the streets towards Batam Centre with Tony to translate for our taxi driver. As we [View Full Entry]

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Batam is one of the 3,000 islands which make up the Riau Archipelago and is closest to Singapore which is only 5o minutes away by ferry (Batam Fast). the island is developing into a major tourist destination because of its proximity to Singapore. Many tourists come from nearby Singapore for a short holiday, duty free shopping and great seafood. For instance, in our tour group, me and my friend were the only Filipinos out of 12 people. the rest were singaporeans who were having holiday at the Holiday Inn and other hotels. Despite the budding economy, Batam retains the ru [View Full Entry]

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Not many people have. None that we know anyway. It's an Indonesian island about an hour's ferry from Singapore, known for....well, not much, hence its anonymity. But it's going to get a lot bigger if the Indonesians have their way. What with people's general reluctance to go places that have seen trouble in recent years, such as Bali, the Indonesians are building up Bintan as a new 'resort destination'. It's an island about the same size as Singapore but with a fraction of the wealth. But a slew of hotels have been built in the last few years, along with golf [View Full Entry]

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We left for Singapore on Friday night with a little sadness. We loved Bali so much we could have stayed there. But Alas, the travel itinerary said we had to go. Our flight was pretty uneventful except for the fact that we were booked on a discount airline which doesn't allow more than one suitcase each and they shouldn't weigh more than 20 kilos each. Well good thing we had one of Darrell's connections with us, cause they wanted to charge us US$4 per extra kilo we had - and that just happened to be 78 kilos! Ha! We were so [View Full Entry]

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. I would call it “passion” for one’s work and yes, I found it in every single staff member who seemed to enjoy their work to the fullest. We decided to give ourself a break this Deepavali & Hari Raya holidays to escape from the stresses of work and Singapore. Even though it was only a miserable 2D1N getaway, it was better than nothing. While 2 days did not do much magic to really de-stress me, I was contented to simply catch my sleep at night in the comfortable and spacious bedrooms. We nearly missed our 8.55am ferry to Batam due [View Full Entry]

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Semester Break! Finally a long chance to travel. This is a log of 3 of us getting to, around and from Northern Sumatra. It will most probably be a log of actual prices we paid, times trips took and where we went more than what we did...because I think we may have spent more time on busses than off of them. It will be, as you probably have noticed, in several parts. [View Full Entry]

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Palau Batam, Indonesia: Sept 30 – Oct 7 We took a fast ferry 45 min. from Singapore to a little island resort where we are spending the week. We were upgraded to a one bedroom suite which gives us a lot more room and our own kitchen… even his and hers bathrooms. The resort is quite nice with a huge pool and a lot of amenities though it is a bit run down. Indonesia’s tourism industry has taken a blow over the years with the Asian economic crisis, terrorist bombings, and environmental disasters like the recent tsunami. Indonesians are very [View Full Entry]

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