A Little Batam, A Lot Singapore (part 1)

Before I start to tell you about my short escape I want to give you a little information about my condition right now.

First of all, Alhamdulillah for all of these blessings that I got til this very day. I am currently working in Direktorat Consumer PT. Telkom Indonesia in Consumer Fulfillment division. My division is responsible for all Indihome sales across Indonesia and educate the regional offices about the regulations, the policies, new product, and we also give reward to the one who got the most sales.

Due to that duty, my division often hold an event in foreign city. Its some kind of forum, to give information about the products that we're going to sell, internal regulation, and the target that we want to achieve.


One night, I was ready to go to sleep when my phone vibrating many times.
"whoa, many chats are coming in.." I thought.
At first I wanted to ignore it and went to sleep, but my phone keeps ringing so I got myself curious til I read the chats...

I was asked to go to Batam, and I was asked to bring my passport too!

I couldn't be more happier.

It's going to be my first trip to Sumatra. It's always my dream to go out and see another islands.

But after so many thoughts, I knew that my purpose was not traveling. I went as a committee of an event, I came to work, not for a trip.
So I decided to threw away my thoughts and focused on my jobdesk.

But I promised to myself that I would enjoy every second of my time in Batam.

What made me happier is the chance to cross the island to go to Singapore by ferry.

I've never been to Singapore before, and this is it!

I got a very early flight on a Wednesday morning (boarded on 05.40). I went to the airport at 3 am with my dad but I decided to drive, so my dad could sleep. But what happened was my dad talked many things with me til I got to the airport.

I touched down Batam on 9 am, and went to the hotel by a rented car.

I listened to some songs while observing the streets.

Batam is such a quiet town (compared to Jakarta and Bogor). It looks like an area that I often went through while mudik: Rancaekek on West Java. So many hills, with houses and buildings look stacked from a far. Not much activity seen on such a weekday. Or maybe because the weather was a little gloomy, it was so cloudy that day.

I'm not going to tell about my event because it's just a formal meeting. But surprise! I found out that the guest star of the Gala Dinner is Rossa, one of Indonesian Diva.
Here is my selfie with her :)

Finally the day was come: Batam City Tour. I really curious about this quiet town.

The first place that I went to is Barelang Bridge. I found out that Barelang stands for Batam-Rempang-Galang which are the islands that the bridge is connecting. This is a picture of me taken by Mba Aya.

I didnt stay long (just 5 minutes if I'm not mistaken), mostly because it was drizzling.

And then I went to another landmark in Batam Center (its literally called "Batam Center" by the civilians). Its some kind of "Hollywood sign" which said "Welcome to Batam". Here is the pic.

I also didnt stay long here. Still drizzling btw.

And finally it came to everybody's favourite activity: shopping.

We went to Nagoya to buy souvenirs. There are many shops and generally they sell branded bags (I dont know if its really original but I bought one for my mom, screw brands.), watches, accessories, and various kinds of chocolate. Everybody was visiting shops which close to where the bus parked, but I didnt. I went a little bit far to find a kind of chocolate called Rocklate. Rocklate is a combination of chocolate, marshmallow, chocochips, and peanut. I tell you: THIS TASTES REALLY GOOD. I found it at a shop named Chocolate World, then I bought Milo Energy Cube and Hersheys Mixed Chocolate.

I know I know.... I could find Hersheys at many supermarkets near my house, but I havent found this variant of Hersheys anywhere in Bogor.

Btw I met Persib FC's coach at the same shop with me. It seemed that he bought some alcohol while teasing the shopkeeper. Here he is. I heard that Persib FC had a match in Batam around that time (cmiiw).

And then I moved to a bag shop to bought one for my mom. After that we had our dinner in a seafood restaurant and then went back to the hotel.

That night before I went to bed, I realized that tomorrow I'd be in a foreign country.