How to go Batam

There are many providers to bring you to Batam from Singapore. Some of them are located in Harbourfront center. They are the Penguin, Wave master and BatamFast. They operate ferry serice to and from Batam Center and Singapore at regular intervals.

Things to note when going to Batam

1. Batam is 1 hour behind SG time.

2. Beside the ferry ticket, there is a fuel surcharge of S$6 (both ways) and port fee of S$7 on return.

Batam, here we go

We met at 830 at Habourfront mrt in the morning and booked the tickets for the 0930 ferry with BatamFast. Their price was cheaper.

Our ferry to Batam

Inside the ferry to Batam

The ferry was pretty crowded today. The journey took us around an hour to reach the Batam Center.

Welcome to Batam center

While walking over to the Hyper Mart/Mega Mall, we saw a nostalgia bear, the A&W Bear we used to see in many locations in Singapore. They can be found in many places in Batam.

A&W Bear at Batam

The main travel medium in Batam is by taxi and they are not running on meters. There are licensed taxis as well as unlicensed ones (or private cars). I recommend you to take those licensed taxis if your safety is more important. The licensed taxis charge a higher price. If you are on budget, then you may want to consider those private cars, the locals are friendly people. Our first stop is to Nagoya Hill Shopping Mall. It is one of the latest shopping mall and offers many food and clothing shops.

Nagoya Hill Shopping Center, Batam

It has a huge floor area devoted to Food Street.

Food street in Nagoya Hill Batam

Here is the other side of the food street.

Another side of the food street

After shopping for a while, we went to the top floor’s Bistro Godiva for lunch.

Nagoya Hill Bistro Godiva

I ordered the steak.

Steak at Batam

and the Avocado milkshake. This is a very popular drink in Batam.

Batam Avocado milkshake

Another interesting observation is many restaurants are offering free wifi service. You can bring your netbook along too.

After more shopping,we had some A&W root beer floats.

A&W root beer floats

Here is a closer view of the root beer.

My A&W root beer

We continue to the next stop, Lucky Plaza, and then move on quickly to DC Mall. It has changed a lot since our last visit. Next we returned to the Hyper Mart/ Mega Mall for light meal at their KFC. We tried one of their local drinks, the fruit tea.

Fruit tea at KFC Batam

After a short rest, we returned to the Port and board our ferry to return to Singapore.

Ferry back to Singapore

Related posts:

1. Batam 2D1N – 01/02 Jan 2009
2. Japan trip 3 weeks (Free and easy)
3. How to go to tanah merah ferry terminal?

Day 2: Breakfast -> Combination Therapy (Feet therapy, head and shoulder massage) -> Mega Mall (Lunch) ->Batam Center Ferry Terminal -> Singapore.

Related posts:

1. One day Batam trip
2. Kuala Lumpur 3D2N
3. Cameron Highlands, Malaysia 3D2N