no joke！
it was a Friday. But it was not a working day. Nonetheless, I found myself on my bed with my eyes wide open at 530am in the morning. Nope, it’s not because im still having troubles sleeping (now that I think of it, it might have ensured that I could wake on time. hmm.. ). Hardly for any reason will I allow myself to be subjected to the will of the world at such an unearthly hour, except, batam. batam.. hmm.. BATAM？！*惊醒*omg, why did I wake so early for that？
Well, I would have to blame it on…. *ahem* Group-On. ;p for the uninitiated, you can think of Group-on as a … it offers all the best deals, “Fly to Tokyo for $400 3D2N”, “Swensens half price main course”, “1-for-1 Buffet at Shangri-La” offers are just the tip of the ice-berg. And so, naturally, 彼女took the bait, chewed it and swallowed it down without spitting the bones out. That’s the way she is, smelling a gd deal even if it was half the world round. haha.. ;p
壮观~
The trip started better than expected. We were still worrying how to make our way around the island but turns out it was a guided tour for the day. our first stop was at a small 妈祖temple facing the sea, though I have to say the statue was pretty magnificent. After that, we were brought to an Polo outlet store which sold significantly cheaper clothes but also because it hasn’t been rubber stamped by the Company as yet. We stopped over at a snacks store next and this time we finally bought some stuff – food is more our thing. LoL~
mini-me！
Godzilla terrorising the village~
Lunch was at a seafood restaurant at the hotel so we headed there but we took a small tour of the hotel facilities first. There is this miniature world where there are 33 houses, each representing a district in Batam island and I thought it was really well done up. We passed by the shooting range and I couldn’t resist the urge to.. shoot a paintball or two. haha.. in the end only got 5/20. Most of it was missed by 彼女anyway. ;p
Seafood lunch was quite disappointing though. The crab was quite puny, the shellfishes were a tad too tasteless. I can forget all that but when even my coconut drink isn’t cold, I condemned the place. ;p
After lunch was a trip to 大伯公庙, apparently one of the more famous ones in Batam. It is located in Nagoya city, which really puzzled me because Nagoya is supposed to be the name of a district in Japan, so what the hell it was doing in Batam I have no idea. I didn’t get to find out but what I found out was the place was quite an interesting one. There are many statues and sculptures of legends and myths which I have learnt and read about so I felt a rush of affection.
大伯公庙
武松是也！
More shopping saw me finally buying 2 shirts (1 polo 1 norm T-shirt)！this was like the longest shopping drought I ever went through. From what I remember, I hadn’t bought any clothes for close to 6mths！and I thought I was getting old and designs for youth no longer appeals to me. *phew*
But the best part of the trip has to be the massage. I mean, that’s essentially what 彼女and I came for. she really wanted to go to one in Nagoya Shopping mall, which she checked up on the day before. But since we were with the tour, we cldnt really deviate from the plan so we had it at a 89 Hotel in the city centre. It wasn’t like any which we have done before – it was like 8 pple in the room instead of just us 2. In anycase, I thought it was quite gd but 彼女didn’t really enjoy it. maybe Nagoya was still on her mind. haha.. or maybe the ordeal I had in JB was still on my mind. lol~ I almost died getting massage there and I will NEVER go back to the one in JB. Not that it wasn’t gd.. they were just.. super violent. Anyway, 彼女insisted it was cuz her masseur keep excusing her from the room as she wasn’t feeling well.
The worst part of the trip was much easier to decide upon - definitely the incessant mosquitoes flying about the coach. Not that many, but enough to give me bites to keep my hands busy throughout.
pretty lights..
simple dinner~
Dinner was a simple affair at the hotel’s café, serving up an ample portion of chicken chop. It looked delicious enough and it tasted much better than I expected it to be. Hotel room was pretty spacious but I was totally turned off when I saw 2 ticks and a baby cockroach crawling about. For the rest of the night I was super paranoid.
The next day, I was still itching but it was periodic. Sometimes it was super unbearable, sometimes it’s as if it wasn’t there at all. After we checked out, they sent us to the pier to await the ferry back to Singapore. But the bus ride was abnormally quiet because our chattery tour guide from yesterday was not with us today. She was chatty in a gd way - interesting, knowledgeable (she reportedly learnt English and Chinese off the television) with a gd sense of humour. One of the best I’ve ever come across！
Anyway, we shopped abit at the shopping mall by the pier but it pales in comparison to the Batam City Mall we went to yesterday. But at least it had this (see below！)
好怀念！
A few days back in Singapore and I was still itching. My first impression was that it was down to the mosquito bites or bed bugs because of the fact that I saw them. And thinking about it, if it was really the bugs, the only way the itch could have lasted so long was if their venom was that strong. So, I got pretty scared and panicky since I might have gotten some weird disease or something. Who knows how these bugs breed over there. It was a full 5 days before it kinda subsided so I am more inclined to think it was heat rash.
Anyway, to her credit, apart from the itchiness, I thought the trip was pretty enjoyable. Couple that with the fact that it is my aim to travel to places which I havent been to before, no matter big or small, city or rural, I would say this trip is actually quite worth it. hope there’s many more to come for both of us. =)
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