Indonesia

• • Batam
  • Tanjung Pinang

Singapore

INDONESIA

Batam  (Jan 2012)

This seafood restaurant named “Amazon Seafood Restaurant” conveniently located right beside the Nongsapura Ferry Terminal in Batam was highly recommended. The food was so delicious that I went to the same restaurant for lunch 2 times without the desire to explore food elsewhere because it was the best food with the lowest cost and our one and only choice.

When we came back to take the ferry back to Singapore, it was intentional to have it there again as the food was simply sumptuous to give it a miss. Plus you can expect to eat lots of seafood like a king in Batam as it was simply dirt cheap. The ambience was very peaceful facing the sea. The motto of eating in such a cheap priced and divine food is “To eat till your stomach explode!”

It was a one-hour ferry ride from Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal to Nongsapura Ferry Terminal. Turi Beach Resort was really modern and beautiful. The rooms had their own private balcony that was windy, facing the lovely beach and the swimming pool, what’s more one can ask for? We even spotted a rainbow on the first day after a rain.

The weather and environment were simply perfect. A pool bar is located beside one swimming pool where you can lunch and drink while you stayed inside the swimming pool. Nongsa Resort is 5 minutes walk where you can also see yachts being berthed there. Turi beach resort is a perfect getaway for a short trip away from Singapore.

Tanjung Pinang  (Jan 2012)

Rediscovering Tanjung Pinang one week later after Turi Beach. The liveliness and friendliness of the small town reminded me of the olden days in Singapore during the 80s. The livelihood was backward but it was bustling with people and activities in every street.

Hotels were only 2 to 3 stars standard and most looked spooky. Even a local man there was telling us to avoid certain motels because of many eerie incidents that took place in that motel.

The hygiene did not look too pleasing to the eyes. The door lock didn’t feel too secure with a single lock that looked breakable. I was always paranoid at night whether someone would break-in. The best way to choose a motel in Tanjung Pinang was to walk around the town and ask the room to be shown before booking.

I had forgotten to take photos of their Pasar Malam (literal translation from Malay night market) at night for their Chinese New Year flea markets which I have enjoyed thoroughly strolling on the street.

There were not many tourists there in a rundown town and the crowd size was very right to feel like a local there. I stay for a night in this small town and One could only appreciate the present comfort when doing a comparison with other less developed countries.

Bah Kut Teh is a soup that has many different ways of cooking because they all taste different from stall to stall, dialect to dialect, country to country. I always have a huge interest to try them because the taste will always come as a curiosity for me.

Unfortunately, I have not been eating a good Bah Kut Teh since many years ago. They were mostly too diluted for my liking like the stalls were trying to save money by cutting down on ingredients and adding more water to increase the volume.

This stall in Tanjong Pinang did not have a fantastic taste of Bah Kut Teh to my slight disappointment. They had a very traditional coffee shop set up and the Bah Kut Teh was served in a Claypot so my expectation was high.

I am still in search of the best Bah Kut Teh around as it seems so hard to find in Singapore. Even the Bah Kut Teh in Malaysia was only so-so for me.

Perhaps the high cost of living today deters stall owners to cook the traditional way because the long time taken to brew a good soup is simply not worth the effort and time. Any recommendations of a good Bah Kut Teh in Singapore will be highly appreciated.

I have posted the same picture on my personal Facebook and the response below came from one Dutch friend on his perception of “Bah Kut Teh”.

SINGAPORE

Singapore (Dec 2012)

On Christmas eve in 2012, my previous company brought us to Serenity Spanish Bar and Restaurant in Vivo City. The ambience was great and the tapas served were succulent. This was the second time I have been to this restaurant. The restaurant probably hired a remarkable Spanish chef.

That Christmas  Eve, my bosses ordered the whole suckling pig that cost S$ 288.00. The pig looked too cute to be eaten. Looking at the pig’s head, I was reluctant to eat it initially compared to just eating chunks of pork without seeing the whole body. I would imagine the pig talking to me “Dun eat me!”… Ouch…

I had to banish that thought. I was too curious how it tasted like. I tried a very small piece and no thanks, the meat was very smelly for me. The kind of pork taste which I hated. YUCKS! So I left the pig alone for my colleagues to savour.

In the evening, there was a tradition to take some plates and threw them onto the floor. I came 2 times and they broke the plates 2 times. Overall, I have positive reviews of Serenity Spanish Bar and Restaurant and evidently, the restaurant was always full.

Next Page

• Food and Travel Overseas [9] 2012 ⇒

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Indonesia

• Batam Island – First Neptune Regatta Race

INDONESIA

Batam Island – Neptune Regatta (Feb 2011)

a) Neptune Regatta is the only international sailing competition crossing the Equator around the Indonesian water. No, I was neither a sailor nor a competitor.

I merely helped out in that few days events as an administrator for its very first race in history – recording, keying in the race timing and others. The organisers and the participants are mostly Caucasians.

b) Watching the Equator cross over at position 0 00 000 on GPS Navigator was indeed something thrilling yet mysterious for me at that time. It was like “Hey, I’m in the centre of the Earth right now!”

c) Brimming with happiness for some photo-taking when the boat stopped at the equator for a few minutes.

d) This boat was said to be the Porsche in the sea. I was lucky enough to cross the equator in it. Heard that this boat cost the Indian owner a whopping 6 million Euro. Wow, premium hot stuff!! This luxury high-speed motorboat which I took was taken afar by a friend. Can you spot me?

e) An example of the unspoilt beauty of nature because this island was deserted. A beautiful deserted island in Riau Archipelago also called Pulau Sikling was chosen and named as Neptune Island unofficially by the Regatta team.

This island took about 3 to 4 hours on the boat from the departure Point – Nongsa Point Marina in Batam where we stayed for a night to do some administration and preparation for the sailing competition.

A few organizing members together with the villagers from neighbouring islands were sought for help to build jetty, tables and chairs, traditional oil lamps so that everyone can stay on the island for a few days because there was absolutely nothing on the island.

You can even see that the photos that the jetty was newly built. Huge camping tents were set up and could place up to 4 beds comfortably.

f) In the last 2 photos, people were waiting at the jetty to take the taxi boat which would ferry them to their sailing boats berthed somewhere.

g) I was extremely impressed by the work of the villagers and how creative they can be. The villagers were compensated for their time and work spent making this remote island a very lively and convenient place to stay.

They were skilful and brilliant in using the traditional method of livelihood where modern folks like us depending on the ease of modern technology could never do what they can do.

They even came over by boats in one of the evenings to give us a few traditional dance performances for entertainment! Everybody was dressed so beautifully and ornamented for just that night. Really made me very heart-warming and touching to see all of them coming over.

This feeling further impacted me when I saw all the elegantly dressed ladies take off their shoes and pull up their skirts to walk into the cold sea to take a boat back in the evening. Everyone had to walk in the water to take the boat.

h) Upon arrival at this island, the first thing that I checked for was the toilet. As you know, women are much more particular about toilet hygiene than men. Hence, the toilet for the women was built much deeper and secluded from the rest of the world.

i) Toilet unavailable: Unique gateway for a toilet entrance. When you saw a string attached to the other end of a stick, it signified that someone was using the toilet. No entry.

j) Toilet available: When the string was detached, someone was in the toilet.

k) This was how the toilet looked like. Very simple to do it surrounded by Mother Nature. I was constantly looking around to see whether anyone was peeping at me.

To me, it will always be uncomfortable to do it in the open when it came to privacy issues for women as we are always wary about the surrounding.

l) A cover was provided to cover the toilet hole each time.

m) This was how the toilet hole looked like but rest assured that it was new and no one had used it before because all the racing team participants had not arrived yet.

I was in the organising committee team and so I should arrive before they did. Otherwise, I would not have shown the disgusting thing for fear of making you puke.

n) A bucket of ash was provided at the side after each toilet was used for hygiene purposes. That is to say… To bury your own shit…

o) It was a rather long walking distance from the gathering point to the toilet and to the camping site. The toilet was an in-between point of the two.

The grass patch around the toilet area grew to about half a metre in length.  It was very uncomfortable walking among the grasses because I could feel them grazing on my sensitive leg.

p) A very special way to use beer cans and glasses to set up oil lamps along the path to light up the island at night. I have not seen oil lamps being used this way in modern urbanisation. Feeling nostalgic…

q) I was amazed that there was even a mobile jetty bar set up on the island by a pub owner in Boat Quay but consisting mainly of beers and no other types of non-alcoholic drinks. I am not an alcoholic drinker by nature so I had a problem.

r) Pretty hand-made chairs and tables from the villagers. A naughty boy (or maybe a naughty girl) left a coconut named  “Wilson” on the table throughout the week. This was also the one and only rest point where we have our food, drinks and meeting.

s) Bravo to these “Construction Engineers” who made the effort to set up some facilities such as a toilet, huge tents, barbecue pit etc for the camping in the midst of heavy rain.

t) BBQ consisted of only limited hotdogs and patties (I think is 2 pcs for 1 person). To be honest, I didn’t feel full at all during all the meals because I had formed an impression thereafter after a few days with them, that eating was mainly to drink alcohol; food was just an appetizer and beer was the main dish.

These people basically did not eat much at all after a tiring and energy-consuming competition. They only need to drink and drink. Amazing folks…!!!

u) Before the racing competition started, my friends has the horn and the flags on standby to start the race.

v) That is how a sailboat works. Sitting on the edge of one side of the boat to balance it. When the waves got very rough and the sailboats were 50% tilted, I felt very frenetic for them.

w) The First day of arrival in Nongsa Point Marina in Batam for our administration work and 2 nights of stay for me in the resort. Feeling fresh, happy and excited about what’s in store for the next forthcoming days.

x) Arranging boat decal numbers for all participating boats.

y) Briefing conducted to the skippers by the Race Principal. I was tasked to be his assistant during the 3 days competition and to help him record down all race timing on my laptop. I had to make sure that the results would be out for all participants to see every evening.

z) We commemorated the success of our inaugural regatta venturing across the Equator line in the Nongsa Point Resort on the last day of the race.

You didn’t see wrongly. It was a toilet seat around my friend’s neck. I was very curious as to why he did that and moved around with it on the neck which was very hilarious for me.

He explained that the toilet seat represented Shellback which was meant to say that we have crossed the Equator.

It was really fun because there wasn’t much opportunity in life to get involved in such an expensive hobby and also a cultural exposure for me as to how other people organise their event… Thank you Ferret…!

Coincidentally, the last comment ended exactly on a ‘z’ which was unplanned for

(*Photo Credit: Some photos were taken by one of the participants, Christine Tanod)