Batam Info / Interest / Help Thread

[nono1973]

Originally Posted by Leoric

If u are coming back on New Year Day, don't forget to book yr return ferry earlier or risk not able to come back to Sg at yr desire timing.

.....

If haven't already done so, can ask hotel receptionist to help call horizon ferry btm to get a reservation booking no. for a seat.

Yes, major holiday season or peak period like weekends or long weekends, please be reminded to collect your return-boarding pass upon arriving to Batam on day 1 of trip. So as to secure your ferry timing/date to go back to Singapore.

In any event if anyone has totally forgotten about it, you can always ask hotel receptionist to help you dial Horizon ferry counter in Batam upon check-in time to get a reservation "booking number". And be sure to arrive at least 60 mins in advance to collect your boarding pass (as there might be very long queue).

Just another reminder.

Note : And by the way, Feb 29th 2020 coupon version of Horizon ticket is out now.

Guess common sense did reminds me Horizon ferry isnt printing much of the January 2020 coupon version of tickets,hehehe...and as well as the February ones.

Originally Posted by HarryPopGer

This year cny, i'll be going batam but from the third day onward.

CNY eves and 1st 2 days, is considered as Red Dates. Whereby many shops will hike their pricing and it will be crowded. This year 2020, the 3rd day of CNY is also a public holiday. But my guess would be the price hike would have come downward a little.

Not going to rewrite everything on CNY in batam all over again. I already had one of the link on my signature which i wrote last year 2019,hehehe...

Click on the link and read ONLY if you wish to know about my 5 years accumulated experience on CNY in Batam.

https://sammyboyforum.info/showpost.php?p=18...ostcount=12693

This is the time of the year where i can also build some good foundation and some good Karma too. 11 more days to CNY 2020,hehehe...

Enjoy reading, enjoy Batam!

Originally Posted by Black Page

To be frank, the only problem I see in Formosa is the stingy manager. If you can push him to Utama, it's bingo!

Not likely to happen since he has that ability to bring more guest to the hotel, resulting in full booking in almost every Friday, Saturday and Sundays in 2019.

Which is one reason why during 2019, i have been looking for alternatives instead.

The "pay lesser, get more" principle never change on my part, this year 2020 Formosa Residence may likely be open for public booking. Its almost done up,hehehe...

Who knows, the pricing might just come down or it may just go further up?

New room versus old room, most Singaporean and perhaps other tourist would prefer to stay in newer rooms. Then again, note that MOST of Formosa hotel guest/s i observed arent even Singaporean (ratio 3.5 to 10) during a normal day. (mainly Malaysians/Indonesians/southeast asians etc)

In other word, Formosa Residence might free up space for Formosa Hotel. Batam if often like that, good business price up (and service level drops), bad business price down (and service level goes up).

If my memory didnt fail me, i have only stayed in Formosa Hotel no more than twice in 2019,hehehe...but every stay last almost a week each time tho.

2020, i shall continue to look for Formosa quality of hotels to stay in for my Batam trips.

* by the way, Marriot hotel hearsay opening around April 2020. Heard the building got quite a handful of issue occurred which is the reason/s for the delay.

[hawkeye007]

Funny enough that I just finished reading about Farmosa over here, I spotted this in my Facebook feed:



https://give.asia/campaign/give-baby...hting-chance#/

For those of you who are Farmosa regulars, this is an opportunity for you to do a good deal and help someone..

[nono1973]

Originally Posted by hawkeye007

For those of you who are Farmosa regulars, this is an opportunity for you to do a good deal and help someone..

Thank you for sharing this.

That guy on the Give.asia website's video was indeed a Formosa Hotel staff. He's actually the hotel's bellboy but occasionally double as a hotel driver to pick up guest from ferry terminal and airport.

There are only 2 bellboys in the hotel, one of them, a fatter guy is wearing spectacle, the other that is the one shown on the video above which i extracted from the bro Hawkeye's posted link.

What i am saying here is, the person aka the "formosa driver" on that site do exist in person at Formosa Hotel.

To help (the baby), or not to. There is no obligation.

[SmoK9]

Hi all the senior bros,

I am gg to batam this weekend. Just to check with u guys. Iszit better for me to change my SG dollar here or at batam for higher rate?

Thanks in advance 😊

[Black Page]

I went to Pacific with some friends yesterday night. Too bad to see the infamous Pacific disco hall changed into a jackpot and bar.
Yesterday it was Monday and at midnight there was nobody. Only me and my two local friends.

What really amazed me were the PR girls! Sexy and dressed with the highest possible heels. Maybe the lack of light, but trust me I have never seen so beautiful girls at FourPlay or Square, which are higher-tier places and much more expensive.

I have seen this group of 20 girls swarming around with their short dresses and high heels, playing pool and waiting for some people to come later.
The negative news is that when I asked if they were available for booking or only sitting the GRO told me only sitting. However, I am not sure she understood what I meant, because she spoke no English and there was noise. She said that if I want action I can go to the spa, but me I was mouthwatering for these 20 girls in the bar and I was not not interested to the spa.
I do not know the cost for sitting with girls and for the lady drinks, but overall the place is cheap. 3 beers costed me less than 150k.

At 1am, 5 girls go on stage to dance with some sexy costumes (hey, this is Indonesia, not Latin America, so sexy clothes means no topless or pussy, just the long legs on display). AMAZING GIRLS. I have never seen so beautiful girls dancing at FourPlay, Square, even if these places cost 3 times more. Dolls!

I guess that one could invest some money in having those girls sitting and drinking, take the phone number, and invite them for another night somewhere else. I am not sure how much they could charge for going to hotel after the club closes, but if there is a logic it could be at least 2M or 3M (I am comparing the look of girls who charge 1M at Square with these girls).
If anyone knows the system at Pacific, I will be happy to read and learn.
Again: I was really surprise how well they looked: sexy, young, pretty.

[Black Page]

I thought that currently in Batam there are only 2 disco (Newton and HH Planet 3), but yesterday I was told that there is also Sphynx and Planet 1, reopened recently.
I thought Sphynx was closed many years ago. What did I miss? And P1? when did they open?

EDITED FEW HOURS AFTER FIRST POSTING:
Ojek drivers of Formosa confirmed that Sphynx is closed, and it has been closed since years ago. An ojek driver of Pacific told me yesterday night it is open. I wonder how expert he is about night life here. If anyone has a story to share about Sphynx here, he is welcome.
P1 really re-opened instead. One more place to check.

[darts69]

Originally Posted by SmoK9

Hi all the senior bros,

I am gg to batam this weekend. Just to check with u guys. Iszit better for me to change my SG dollar here or at batam for higher rate?

Thanks in advance 😊

Change there for better rate

[HarryPopGer]

Originally Posted by nono1973

What i am saying here is, the person aka the "formosa driver" on that site do exist in person at Formosa Hotel.

To help (the baby), or not to. There is no obligation.

I tink better when we reach there that time then directly pass him the money better.

Since many of us meeting up few days after cny.

[SmoK9]

Originally Posted by darts69

Change there for better rate

Okay noted. Thanks bro 😁

[PowerBenz]

Xchange rate starting to get lower near cny...today to change money but wwas offer the exchnage rate at $100sgd is to 1juta...In the end manage to get at the other shop at $100sgd to 107000rp..Maybe i was changing at bcs area the rate is lower...

[Black Page]

Originally Posted by PowerBenz

Xchange rate starting to get lower near cny...today to change money but wwas offer the exchnage rate at $100sgd is to 1juta...In the end manage to get at the other shop at $100sgd to 107000rp..Maybe i was changing at bcs area the rate is lower...

Looking at XE.COM I note that now the official rate is around 10.100, in the last 3 months always below 10.350, and to find a peak above 10.700 I have to look back to 2018.
How can they buy SGD paying 6% more than the official rate?

PS: I changed 600 USD few days ago on my arrival at 13.730, when XE.COM was giving 13.800, and now the XE rate is at 13.640 ;-)

[PowerBenz]

Originally Posted by Black Page

Looking at XE.COM I note that now the official rate is around 10.100, in the last 3 months always below 10.350, and to find a peak above 10.700 I have to look back to 2018.
How can they buy SGD paying 6% more than the official rate?

PS: I changed 600 USD few days ago on my arrival at 13.730, when XE.COM was giving 13.800, and now the XE rate is at 13.640 ;-)

Sorry bro i typo should be 10070...

[Leoric]

Originally Posted by nono1973

So much for hotel talk. I have given Newton hotel and Biz Hotel, and any other nearby hotels a miss as they were further away from where i stayed in.

I will be looking deeper into :

1. Pagoda Hotel

2. S Hotel

3. Namii Hotel

4. Romance Hotel

5. Maybe Hotel 18 too, which i am keeping in view.

Namii hotel quite good, other than the part it has no elevator & that their better were all at the higher floor.

Pls take note this is a really small size 2 star hotel with no breakfast. It has a cafe at the ground floor but need to pay for the food. I got myself a smoking rm. I think u are going to like it.

I stayed in their biggest rm.

Apparently more expensive compare to walk in & dial in reservation.

If u haven't already notice, the biggest rm cost is quite low. I think the reason for the low price is bcs of its high floor without lift. Ground floor is the reception & first floor is the rm & this hotel is 4 storey high in Sg term & my rm is on the 3rd floor in Indo term.

So i climb 3 floor (4 floor in Sg term) of stairs to get to my rm.

The reception & front door is very clamp with less than normal walking space.

Room's good but the toilet is 30% smaller than Zest toilet, so u can imagine how small it is & yet they have the rain fall shower head in it. No toiler paper roller inside toilet & i believe the reason would be u'll probably wet everything due to its space limitation.

No toilet roller inside toilet nvm, what could be worse is they don't provide toilet paper at all. I call the recept to ask for one, the housekeeping guy brings me a pack of tissue.

Overall quite good as rm got hot shower water is working, provide, electric kettle, coffee etc, wifi strong and has a rather unique window curtain. Room size is abt the same as the family rm in lumba lumba inn. Just that toilet is way smaller.

Enough for me & the new girl from HY2.

It's a King size bed.

[Leoric]

Originally Posted by nono1973

Have you tried the Carrot cake at the coffee shop behind Gideon Hotel?

They have carrot fried in duck egg,hehehe...interesting huh? Gonna try ordering from Grab food one of these mornings as they opens 630am and closes at 1pm (batam time). Duck egg version not available online tho.

Behind this coffee shop that sells fried carrot is another Mickey Mouse Bat Kut Teh.

Ok, i just tried.

White one i rate 1/10, totally inedible. The worst cha kue aka carrot cake i've tried in my life. Completely tasteless.

Black one i rate 5/10, still edible but nothing worth shouting abt. Any cha kue stalls in Sg that sells cha kue beats this one hand down, left right. Having said that & to be fair, this stall's black cha kue is a little better than the one at Mitra Plaza. Have not try the duck egg version. But i'm giving it a miss.

Bro maddog_mlvn is sure right abt it.

[nono1973]

Originally Posted by Leoric

White one i rate 1/10, totally inedible. The worst cha kue aka carrot cake i've tried in my life. Completely tasteless.

Black one i rate 5/10, still edible but nothing worth shouting abt. Any cha kue stalls in Sg that sells cha kue beats this one hand down, left right. Having said that & to be fair, this stall's black cha kue is a little better than the one at Mitra Plaza. Have not try the duck egg version. But i'm giving it a miss.

You shld have try the cha kue/carrot cake stall beside Bai Long noodle stall. That is the the better cha kue stall. I think the best one around in Batam. Still, i feel that Singapore fried carrot cake better than Batam.

Then again, everyone's taste bud is different. So what suit me might not suit u. At least it should be edible,hehehe...

I will be compiling up all my favourite Grab-food in Batam soon,hehehe...

I will touch on Namii Hotel (and the other Utama area of hotels) at a later time.