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February 9th 2009

Published: February 9th 2009

You've got mail...

Hmmm an invitation on Facebook to the event "Wicked Wakeboarding in Batam." I gave it some thought and by Monday I decided that I wanted to go. An NUS graduate exchange student, Maarten, was putting the trip together so I found him to pay my deposit of S$40. There were 30 students going on the trip so we had a fun amount of people.

Saturday at 8:00 AM

All aboard! We hopped on the ferry to Batam, Indonesia. It was an early start to an inevitably long and tiring day but it was going to be worth it. We arrived at 10:00 AM Indonesian time (1 hour later). We had the whole day to wakeboard (or die trying) and get sunburnt! It wasn't pretty, but most of us eventually got the hang of it. We were at a "cable-ski" park so it was much different than any water skiing I'd done before. The line was suddenly snapped taut when the cable caught and you were going whether you liked it or not! The quick start gave a lot of us trouble but it was fun to watch. You couldn't stand by for more than 3 minutes without

At the start

Can't tell if i made it on this try

laughing hysterically. It was also fun to watch the motorcycles zoom off to pick up fallen boarders. I didn't expect my first motorcycle ride to come from an Indonesian man at a waterpark, but oh well!

Saturday Evening 18:00

We left the cable-ski park for our Hotel. We stayed at a beautiful Holiday Inn resort for just S$15 each. This was a great resort at a hostel price. We headed into the small town, Waterfront City, for some local cuisine. For about S$16 we ate and drank like royalty. We had countless "prawns" (big shrimp), Chili/Black Pepper Crabs, Mee Goreng noodles, Chicken Fried Rice, some mysterious veges, some decent Indonesian beer. Everything you could want, except a napkin haha.

On the way home we picked up a case of Bintang Indonesian beer and headed back to the hotel to unwind after a tiring day. I caught a ride back from a local security guard who we met in "Las Vegas" (see pictures).

Sunday Painday

"Hey wake up! We're going to check out then relax by the nice pool until our ferry is ready to leave...." I got up to move, then it hit me. I was BBBBBBBBBBBURNT!

Drink Break

Duty Free Wakeboarding Fuel

I knew my sunburn would be pretty bad, but I didn't realize that I had been partically cooked the day before. I wasn't the only one either. Check out Chris's foot burn - Ouch! The sunburn wasn't the only pain. Attempt after attempt of trying to hang on to the cable-ski rope left my arms torn and tattered. Watching the group of us try to put on backpacks was hilarious. No one wanted anything on to touch their shoulders and reaching your arm behind your back was almost impossible with all the soreness.

Pain and all, it was still a great trip. The laid back Indonesian lifestlye was a great break from the strict rules and hustle of Singapore.

Pictures: I didn't use my camera much because I didn't want to get it wet but I know some friends got some pictures of the cable-skiing and I will upload them as soon as I can get a copy!

Additional photos below

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