Decided to visit Batam, Indonesia since it’s just 20km from Singapore and I thought I can get a cheaper flight to Jakarta from Batam. Went to Harbour front and took the 2.50pm ferry, Penguin Express to Batam Island (SD$23, an hour ride).

Indonesia time is an hour slower so arrived at the same time as I left.

Singapore has one of the most active ports in the world and there are quite a number of ships around Singapore coast.

I am pretty excited to visit Indonesia because it’s so close to Malaysia yet I have never been there. Indonesia is the 4th most populous country in the world with 250 million people. It has 17,000 Island which 6000 is unhabited, with 300 ethnic groups. From the Northern tip of Sumatera, Acheh to Papua, it’s around 4000km long, roughly the same horizontal distance between LA and NYC..

The largest ethnic groups are the Javanese (45%) of central and eastern Java, the Sundanese (14%) from western Java, the Madurese (7.5%) from the island of Madura, and Coastal Malays (7.5%), mostly from Sumatra. The rest are Acehnese and Minangkabau of Sumatra, the Balinese, the Iban and Dayaks of Kalimantan and many more.

Wasn’t able to find a public bus from Batam center to the city center so had to take a cab (45,000 Ruppiah~USD$45, USD$1~10,000 Ruppiah).

There isn’t any hostel in the city so I asked the cab driver to drop me off at a cheap hotel, Hotel Bahari (16,000 Ruppiah)

and booked a flight to Jakarta for tomorrow (303,000 Ruppiah )

Batam is similar size to Singapore and is considered like the special economic zone of Indonesia with factories, shopping malls and is also considered as the sin city for Singaporeans. Even the taxi driver was asking if I wanted to rent a girl for the day. There isn’t much to see at Batam, it’s just like another typical small city. There aren’t public buses around so it’s hard to move around city since I usually avoid taking cabs.

Nagoya Hill which is the biggest mall here.

Lunch Mie Soto and GadoGado Siomay(14,000 Ruppiah~USD$1.40)

Nasi Padang for dinner (24,000 Ruppiah)

Took a ride with an Ojek (Motorcycle taxi) and the rider drove me around and went to the beach front.
With the Indonesia motorbike rider

I just bought him a drink and paid for his gas.