Chinese new year @ Batam, Indonesia

The idea of a perfect weekend... Relaxing environment, friendly people, awesome food, beach view, soothing massages, entertaining crowd, colorful drinks...

A short vacation with no emails, meetings, phone calls, alarms etc.

Batam is small island city in Riau islands in the province of Indonesia. Not too far away from Singapore, this can be a relaxing spot for couples who undergo immense pressure at work :)
I wont say that the beaches are alluring and beautiful but it gives the "get-away from home" feeling which many of us want every now and then. We made a last-minute-perfect decision on this place even though we got negative feedback from many saying it was a small city with no fun. The Malaysian road trip cancellation was too disappointing and we badly needed a break out of monotonous life. We were lucky enough to find a room in this beautiful resort called "Batam View Beach resort".

4th of Febraury 2011 - The bright sunny day as it looked was indeed a fast one till afternoon. We were running late and hence we caught a quick bite for lunch and rushed to the ferry terminal. The ferry ride was very normal, not too posh though. It was very crowded and in an hour or so we reached Batam immigration. We got the visa-on arrival form and entered the city/island of Batam. Our travel agent was waiting for our arrival and once he found us we were off to the resort which was around half an hour from the immigration checkpoint. Batam was a normal city which reminded more of the outskirts of Chennai.

We reached the resort around 3pm and checked in. The resort was totally decorated in red as it was Chinese new year. :)


We had a quick lunch as we wanted to try the local food in the resort. The resort was very lively with friendly people. The next surprise that was waiting for us was the beach view suite. We were lucky enough to get this view on a peak day. The room was cozy and nice with beach view from the balcony. We took a quick walk around the resort and went to the beach later. I wont call it a beautiful beach but it was a different one. It was a silent wave-less beach as it was a low tide day. There were groups of people sitting and playing cards and mahjong. It was not a very touristy place nor a commercial one. It was relaxing and entertaining. And what more does anyone want other than this on a holiday. We thoroughly enjoyed the feeling.


There was a compulsory Chinese new year dinner arranged for everyone in the resort. We were really looking forward to this. At around six 'o clock, the resort was even more lively with Chinese music and people in red. We both were given a table with steamboat. Steamboat dinner is a very famous tradition in Chinese culture where the whole family sits around in a table and cook steamed vegetables and meat. There was a hot-pot in our table as well but with vegetable stock water. We were taught how to cook by the resort staff. While the hot-pot was simmering, we added in the ingredients such as vegetables (carrot, sprouts, lettuce, spinach) and noodles. The hot-pot was closed and after a few minutes we could eat the noodles with the vegetables and steamed rice.





Aerobics, Indonesian stilts, Chinese dancing etc. were all part of this dinner.




We enjoyed the food as well as the entertainment. Then came the dragon with the "Yu Sheng". Yu Sheng is one of the many traditional Chinese New Year foods that can be enjoyed throughout the celebrations. Yu Sheng is a salad of thin slices of raw fish, combined with sauces, spices, cracklings and vegetables. The ingredients are mixed together, and the guests combine the ingredients, then toss them in the air with expressions of good luck, such as "Lo Hei" (tossing luck - in Cantonese).

After this everyone was asked to eat the fish dish but we could'nt. :( The Lion dance came in and there was lots of fun around after this. Followed by fireworks, which was excellent with the beach background. The place was very happening even after the party with Chinese music, family gatherings, clubs, bars. Not to mention the awesome game of pool that we played where I kept loosing. But it happens as a part of the game as I am not a good pool player.

The next day dawned and the spread of breakfast in the resort was simply breathtaking. For the first time in life, I had kiwi juice. I love the kiwi fruit but I haven't seen a place that sells kiwi juice in Singapore. After this we went for some relaxing spa. With the beach view, the resort spa place was awesome. Felt very refreshed.

Though it was short, we learnt a lot about Chinese culture, met different people from different nations, had good Chinese food, played pool at midnight...

We checked out and hit back to the immigration checkpoint later that afternoon. Since we had a few hours before taking the ferry, we decided to explore the city. We took a local taxi and went to see the Maha Vihara Buddist Temple which was also called as Pura Agung Amertha Buana. It was a mixture of Hinduism and Buddhism.

We were the only people there as it was closed during afternoons. But luckily we found a person to allow us to go inside to view the place. The temple was old and was ruined but it gave a very pure feeling. We took some pictures and hit back to the city centre. We reached the MegaMall of Batam where everything was supposed to be very cleap. Batam is a place for cheap shopping, though I dint find any girl stuff attractive. We had lunch at Pizza Hut which had a totally different menu and we loved the Indonesian touch on the pizza. We did some shopping before we went to the ferry terminal.

The ferry terminal was very crowded as everyone was going back after their Chinese new year holiday. We managed to cross immigration in two hours (thats a lot of time wasted ;) and took off on the ferry. We reached Singapore in an hours time.

I would call this a perfect short vacation :) Thinking twice, I am actually thanking the floods that dint allow us to go on our planned Malaysian holiday :)