Hello Kitty 3d Jigsaw

something which i have always wanted and finally i went down to the shop and bought it! you can say that it was an impulsed buy but i really wanted this little fella for the longest time! And i have a penchant for jigsaws...i can finish a 1000 piece in a night. serious! i love puzzles actually....

anyway...

isn't she cute!!!!!

Just so adorable!

Looking for a Good Spot

here's Frosty, always looking for a good and comfy spot. Did i ever mention that my dogs need pillows to sleep? Very pampered right nowadays these dogs.

See! That's Frosty looking all sleepy

1 Day Batam Discovery cum Shopping Tour Itinerary

Here's our 1 Day Batam DO-IT-ALL Fare: $65/pax

0800: Assemble at Harbourfront Ground Level. Get boarding pass and immigration card.
0810: Breakfast at Mcdonalds. Or you can have it at Wang Cafe OR pack from home.
0845: Proceed to immigration check. Last timing to check in 0845.
0900: Ferry departs for Sekupang
1005: Arrive at Sekupang Ferry Terminal
1100: Stopover at Barelang Fisabililah Bridge. Followed by 1.5h drive to Vietnamese Village
1230: Vietnamese Village (Catholic Church and a Buddhist temple)

1300: Visit Guan Yin Temple.
1400: Visit a house that makes Indonesian famous “kek lapis”.

Comes in 3 flavours: Original, Spices and Prune. Approx S$24, S$26, S$27 repectively.
1430: Stopover at local product shop (we had 20% discount here). We went crazy over shrimp keropok, fish keropok, emping (spicy and sweet) and of cos their local favourite ....Jackfruit!
1445: Lunch at seafood restaurant Golden Prawn 933. Take Group Photo!

We had clear soup, butter prawns, chilli crabs, sambal kangkong, steamed gongongs, chilli sotong, sweet sourt fried fish and lastly fruits. And free drinks, choose one of the following: canned drinks, coconut or Chinese tea.

1530: Kuda Lumping Dance (Traditional Cultural Dance)
1600: Polo Ralph Lauren Boutique (20% discount here).

Our Indonesian Tour Guide told us that in Batam that there are 3 kinds of Polo.

1. Imitation Polo from China
2. "POLO" brand in Indonesia (which looks very very similar to Polo Ralph Lauren)
3. Genuine Polo Ralph Lauren made in Indonesia (but restricted sales in Indonesia only)

So i was so happy to get my "golden horse" POLO!!! and i bought another classic black slim fit one!

1630: Aromatherapy Massage at Sawadee or shopping at Batam City Square for those who are not doing massage

1900: Dinner at Mega Mall
(JCo doughnuts, Breadtalk 1st storey, Solaris, KFC, A&W 2nd storey) i think those of you who misses A&W's root beer float might want to go there!

2000: Check in at Batam Ferry Terminal.

2100: Ferry departs Batam

2200: Ferry reaches Singapore.

Fare includes:
2 way return ferry ticket with seaport tax (SGP-/Batam/SGP)
Travel on air condition coach (Batam)
1 seafood lunch
Sightseeing Tour cum shopping as per itinerary
Service of 1 Indonesian local Guide
Passenger Departure and Security Fee ($21)
Batam Terminal Fee ($7)
Group Travel Insurance S$10 and Medical $500

Groupie Photo@Batam

yup it's us again!!!

Back from our 1Day super-packed, super-rushed, super-do-it-everything trip.

Sit on coach, Spa, Seafood, Sightsee, Shopping,

All in a day!
Can you find us?

Parents are bringing me out!

Here is the Yeo's family all set for a fun-filled trip at Batam!!!

We got ready at 730am, pretty late considering that we were suppose to gather at Harbourfront Centre at 8am. But i was so READY and all set to go at 7am!!!! But Daddy had to cook the beef and feed the dogs first, showered, changed and then he was ready. haha, and he was quite embarassed that for the first time the whole family was waiting for him.

And we had breakfast at Mcdonalds, coffee from Wang Cafe, skipped Delifrance totally, got our boarding passes, immigration cards too and daddy's one had his name totally screwed up. The tour guide promised him that it will be ok, but he was "beep" at the customs, Q-ed pretty long to get thru the customs and woohoo! finally made our way to our Ferry!

here's mum and dad behind, all smiley for a photograph and we are so ready to go!

wj, mum and dad just outside the Sekupang Ferry Terminal. OKay people, after the half hour ferry ride, our tour guide advised us to take our peepee here cos it will be an hour and a half ride on the coach without stopover at any rest-rooms. And the toilets here are generally quite clean and new! Cos the rest of batam has no flushing system, and you have to use water to flush your pee manually!

"hee hee" smiles

tonguewaggingsmiles

the big crack at my window seat on the coach.

First stop that day was the Barelang Fisabililah Bridge. It's quite a huge structure and seems to be the first bridge that was built on Batam during the reign of President Habibi. Consequent bridges were not so impressive or cost that much. This one took 4 years to finish! So much so that this "magnificent" bridge has become a tourist stopover in Batam.

According to the guide, the bridges were to link nearby islands to Batam, allowing room for future development and linkage. It was also a main connector to Batam as before, people who wanted to come to Batam had to travel via ferry. With the bridge, it has made transport much easier.

Besides this, our tour guide also made us guess...

if you took one day to visit an indonesian island. Guess how many years u need to take to finish all island in indonesia???

my guess was 10years. But i was wrong.

his answer was....47-48 years approximately.

Indonesia has that many islands.

ritey will post more photos on Batam soon!

Batam - ON the Coach

groupie photo! And we are on our way to the Vietnamese Village.

And Batam continues!

we are still at the bridge and the snack vendors are swarming to us! selling fried crabs and prawns! they smell really fragrant but it's sinful! High cholesterol and super duper oily!

chips and drinks on a bike! how come singapore doesnt have these sort of things...although i know we have ice-cream bike uncles at orchard road.

here's Daddy and look out at the window!

these are dragonfruit plantations! interesting right! i've never seen them before!!!! Actually we were suppose to go picking but it was being harvested just last week! so there's none for us anymore....sobsob...therefore we only viewed it from our coach ride.

ah ren peeking out from my bag.

stopover at the Vietnamese village.

that's our trusty coach for the day! very colourful hor. Good lah, at least this way we won't miss it.

these are the boats which the vietnamese escaped in from the Vietnam Civil war. Apparently each boat carried 100 over people and many didnt make it across the South China Seas.

mummy looking all "smiley"

mum, wj and dad.

walking towards the Catholic Church.

us, poking our heads out from the windows of the church!

we saw puppies roaming this area.

the lying Buddha. Thanks to MaxPac Travels for helping us take this photo!

More Photos on Batam

here's a collection of photos on the Guan Yin Temple, Local Product store and of cos our seafood lunch. i personally think it wasn't terrific. the Gong-gong not nice, the chilli crab too small, the soup not much taste and just tomatoes and tofu (yucks) and hmm guess i cant rem the rest cos they are not good as well!



mummy trying their local coffee mix. eh-hem, infront of the camera, of cos she is all smiley....

yup that's us! especially me! checking out whether i have enough rupiahs for all my keropoks! Need them to watch telly at night! cos i have mouth-itchy syndrome!

hahaha...that's our seafood dinner and heads!

And after our lunch was a local cultural show which shocked the hell outta me! one was a guy eating burning charcoal LIVE infront of us audience!!! and the other one was even worse! he ate glass!!! Omigaud...that was what was running thru my head. I was so "sympathetic" that they had to do this to survive that i gave them 20,000 rupiahs (not alot but i didn't change alot of rupiahs to begin with)...my parents ah...so terrible just gave them 2,000 rupiahs ...until today i still find the whole show abit traumatising.