Bliss-enchanted♥

hi guys. im back from our 2d1n trip over to batam~

before that, i've made some chocolate cookies on sun but due to lack of time (had to prepare to go ah ma house), quickly used all the batter and made two batches. the second one had so much batter that my cookies are so fucking fat now. added some nutella in it but no time to tweak the timing to find the appropriate time such that the nutella would flow out in the center. shall try again next time when i have a full free day. probably dont have such a day until the end of io. :(

bought a 2d1n batam deal with the boy to satisfy my short getaway desire. i've no idea how did genting became yc house and ended up into a batam trip. it's pretty much a typical one-day tour package with batamfast and one night stay at Novotel Hotel.

thought i wouldn't be back anytime soon. but went to check on my previous posts, the last time i've went was actually 3 years ago. omg doesn't even feel like three years have passed since then.

met the boy at 6 and train down to catch out 0820 ferry. met with guide over at sekupang and several other travel mates. and just so coincidentally, ziling was on the same bus as us with her bf and friends. lol the world cannot be any smaller.

brought us over to a still-building-in-process temple dedicated to Zheng He and he was actually a muslim. didn't know that lol. anyway, if you wanna know how bright and sunny it was in batam, just check out how white my face is in that photo. nope, no foundation or any cc cream on my face.

brought us over to a batik shop selling local products and Golden Factory Outlet. nothing much to get there. there was a go-kart area but it was so hot everyone just wanted to hide in the shades and eat some ice cream. at least we were really lucky that it didn't rain that day even though the weather forecast said so. the boy's overwhelming presence as usual. #bhb

bought some snacks and this orangey prawn cracker is actually quite nice!

lunch over at Golden Prawn 933 restaurant included in the package. like what all reviewers said, the food was really bad. no lies. hard rice and tasteless dishes. the best would probably be the kang kong and fried sotong.

anyway, even the drinks were a lie. lol what's with fake coke and sprite?

it's okay, i was well prepared for this after reading all the reviews before the trip.

went to another factory outlet store, a tua pek kong temple, chocolate factory and Diane's kueh lapis. all these are places that we've went before during our previous trip to batam so nothing much for us to see either.

so the main purpose of the package was the massage at Sawadika. had the traditional massage without the additional aromatherapy + 30min upgrade. we tried that last time round and ended up all gooey and oily. yuck. so now we are smart enough to just stick to the original 1hour massage included in the package.

dropped us off at Batam City Square (BCS) mall for an hour shopping trip while some of the guest who stayed nearer to bcs went for their check-in.

we've been here previously so there really wasn't much to see either. i was more interested in Nagoya Hill and Megamall. bought some snacks from the supermart. the only thing that's cheap in Batam is the food. it's ridiculously cheap. that a meal can cost around 1 to 2 sgd. the arcade is 10cent sgd per token and every attraction is like 2tokens lol. cheap thrills. bought a denim outerwear at a not really cheap price but too lazy to bargain since we only left less than 5min to gather. we really had too much rupiah to spare.

the guide then send us off one by one to our specific hotels to check-in. he personally helped with every single check-in process and ensured that we are safe and sound. the guide was really so friendly we don't mind tipping him and the driver 10bucks. a really friendly guide and funny too with alot of general knowledge to share about batam. his name is Fendi - totally recommended. he even offered to get a chinese speaking cab for us to go Nagoya Hills but we couldn't contact him later on cause his battery was flat LOL.

so we checked in at Novotel. spacious room. really love the bed cause it's at the right hardness for me. the boy finds it too hard though haha. so comfy.

couldn't contact Fendi so we ended up getting the direct cab from the Novotel taxi counter at a fix rate of 5bucks for one direction. pretty ex but we are really too lazy to find alternatives. initially wanted to walk over for 20min. what a stupid idea. the path weren't even well-lit and it's not even walkable. lol. thank goodness we decided to get a cab instead.

went over to Nagoya Hill, the largest shopping mall in Batam. about the size of jurongpoint.

had our appetizer for dinner at A&W. haha possibly my first time trying it out. not bad but the root beer float is really gigantic we couldn't even finish half of it.

had our main dinner at Gadeno New York pizza and steak. it really taste like the food i've had in JB. i think local food would taste better in batam than such western food. too full to try out bak kut teh which our tour guide suggested though.

so we just spend the night exploring Nagoya Hill before cabbing back to hotel.

breakfast included in hotel. the pancakes and eggs were probably the best. the soy milk taste really "fresh" not like artificially sweet.

how can someone's nostrils be so big?

another guide came over to send us to Batam Center ferry terminal which is located beside Megamall. just nice a new mall to explore before heading home. but all three shopping malls actually have similar stuff so nothing special. the boy decided to get a nike pants at a slight discount since we were still left with too much rupiah.

ferry back to sg and had our late lunch cum dinner over at vivocity.

tried the ramen at Menya Musashi. opted for the white broth (normal) with cha shu. not bad but definitely not as good as ippudo nor the legendary ichiran. we still miss that so much~

got myself a 5dollar top from cotton on and decided that we are too poor to shop in vivo haha. all we have left are many many rupiahs and no more sgd.

back home to catch up with family, daily life and some games and shows.

time to head over to school tomorrow to settle fyp. reality is back again

Labels: COOK, FOODIES, TRAVEL