To be frank, I never thought that a short trip to Batam, Indonesia, would be a enjoyable one. Batam, only a 45 minute boat ride away from Singapore, has always been etched in my mind as a place for dirty old men to find ..erm. entertainment. Suffice to say it was not a place I thought of visiting. Ever.
But one long weekend, my friends and I took a rather impromptu trip to Batam. One of them had been there before and said it was not too bad a travel destination. And I have to admit, though I splurged a little on this trip (by my standards that is. To me: the cheaper the better. I even stayed in a HOTEL here for a first time in years), I had great fun while at it.
Here’s what we did:
Go-karting:
Water sports such as banana boating and parasailing:
Beering:
Doing nothing by the pool:
And massage.
If you’re looking for a place in Indonesia that is culturally Indonesian and at Indonesian prices, then Batam is definitely not the place to visit – honestly, given the number of Singaporeans on the island, it is a mini Singapore with cheaper than Singaporean prices. Dammit, everything is even calculated in Singapore dollars. But if you live in Singapore and do want to escape the hustle and bustle of the city for a weekend, then Batam really is not too bad a place to visit.
Ahh. And a simple weekend escape is what I call a good life.
(Pardon the poor quality of the photos as they are taken from a phone camera)
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In Waterfront City, Batam:
To do watersports (Parasailing, Banana Boat, Jetski, Wakeboarding, Kayaking), you may visit the watersports centre at Harris Resort Marina.
Price: about SGD55 for a package deal of Parasailing, Banana Boat and Jetskiing
To Go-Kart, you may visit the Go-Karting track next to Harris Resort.
Price: SGD15 (for Harris Resort guests), SGD18 (for everyone else)
4 comments
Flora says:
Sep 6, 2011
I LOVE beering! What a great word.
deafknee says:
Sep 6, 2011
haha indeed! 😉
Dessy says:
Oct 31, 2011
Hi, thank you so much for writing your blog post. I’ve been researching on things to do in Batam (im planning a trip there in two months). I want to ask though, to go bananaboating & jetskiing do u need to be able to swim? Or did they give you a protection vest? Is there a time limit for the banana boating & jet skiing?
Are there many things to do at Waterfront City apart from the water sports? Like, can you actually spend a whole day at Waterfront City from morning til evening?
Are there any nice beaches within walking distance in Waterfront City as well?
I would really appreciate it if you could reply. Thank you so much 🙂
deafknee says:
Nov 27, 2011
Hi Dessy, sorry I missed your comment earlier! Hope I’m not too late in replying.
No, you don’t need to be able to swim to do banana-boating and jet-skiing. They will provide a life vest. If I recall correct, the time limit for both the banana-boating as well as jet-skiing is 30 minutes each.
There isn’t much to do at waterfront city to be honest – pretty much only go-karting and sea sports, though I would say that these two activities will definitely already take a day. You can take a cab to either batam center or Nagoya where you can go for a massage, do some shopping, have your meals.
Lastly, unfortunately there aren’t any nice beaches there either – I was looking for them as well.
Hope this helps!