I decided to do this #throwback series to record the journeys I had a few years ago. I realized how crappy did the photos look like: low-quality Nokia camera, unskilled photography technique, weird angle and abuse use of photo effects.
Travel from Singapore to Indonesia by ferry
There are a few choices if you travel from Singapore to Islands of Indonesia, including Batam, Butam and Bali. Both Batam and Butam took around 1.5 hrs from Singapore by ferry. There are not much tourist attractions so a day trip can do so. These two islands are quite similar and touristic. Unless you like doing spa or massage, otherwise visiting one of them would be fine. I do thinking of visiting Bali at the time. I was staying in Singapore during summer for my internship. My host institution was strict, like we have to arrive our accommodation before 10pm and not allowed to visit other countries (but I did solo trip to Malaysia and Indonesia LOL hahah)
Bali is famous of its nature view but taking flight would be better. It is not possible to do a day trip there so I gave up.
No matter you are visiting Batam or Butam from Singapore, I can't think of any better alternative than joining a tour. I'm a backpacker and would like to explore the local area and culture, but it's difficult to travel there without tour.
Taking Batam as example, its size is similar to Singapore. However, they don't have much tourist attractions and public transport is not developed as well. I would say traveling to Batam is an experience of using Indonesian Rupiah and trying some local food. But I won't say traveling to Batam = traveling to Indonesia. Batam is not super attractive but it is fun to visit another country within 1 hour travel LOL
Maha Vihara Duta Maitreya Temple
Many attractions in Batam are built for tourists, like this temple. The temple is peaceful and big in size, they got some Buddhas who smiling all the time.
Shops
Batam is famous of having counterfeit products. I remembered it was funny to hear from the tourist guide that they even have outlet of certain brands, which that brand didn't sell any products in Batam. Even though we were tourist area, they were selling counterfeit products hahah.
I bought Monster earphone at 5€
Foodie
Tour guide brought us to Batam Layer Cake and claimed to say it is the most famous shop in Batam. You can order here and they will make delivery at the ferry terminal. They made the cakes only after someone put the order.
When most of them did massage and spa, I chose to stay in a big shopping mall and visited the supermarket there. I realized the price of the goods from those "tourist place" are double when compared to chain supermarkets. I bought quite a lot like Durian chocolate and some instant noodles like seadaap. Seadaap is very famous among Asia and I felt surprised with other flavors they sold here.
d All in all, it is fun to experience using Indonesian Rupiah there, like paying a few thousands for a pack of instant noodles. But another than that, it's nothing much special in Batam.
