Weekend Getaway - Batam

We had a short weekend getaway a couple of weekends ago.  It was a holiday for the entire family... and I mean entire.  My parents, sister, my in-laws & our own family too.  All 11 of us.  As the ferry departed at 9am, we had to wake up around 530am and reach there by 730am.  Baby G had no problems waking up at 530am, after all, he's going on a holiday.  We took NEL towards Harbourfront.

After collecting our tickets, we waited for our ferry. 

Upon reaching the Batam Ferry Terminal, our guide picked us up and took us to our coach.  Our first visit, as part of the city tour, was to Maha Vihara Duta Maitreya temple.  Very peaceful place.

It was a short visit and soon, we went back onto the bus.

The next quick stop was a cultural show before our lunch.  Baby G was pretty fascinated, especially with the stunts that the performers did.  Jumping through hoops of fire, tearing coconut husks with their bare teeth and even eating glass.

After the very short show, we had our lunch.  The write up on the itinerary promised a sumptuous seafood lunch.  Well, all I can say, it was definitely a seafood lunch.  They had crabs, fish, 'gong gong', clams in soup, sotong (or squid).  However, the taste left much to be desired.

I also made a discovery today.  And that was Baby G actually liked to eat the 'gong gong' (Sea Conch).  I half expected him to squirm at the sight of the meat as we pulled it out from its shell but he was game enough to give it a try and actually liked it.  He wolfed down 3 of them.

 

After lunch, we went up the bus again for another visit to Batam's recreational facilities.  Again, rather small and run-down.  Looks like there isn't much maintenance happening around the area.  We went down and looked around but didn't try any of the activities.

A few more places we visited but by then, quite tired and the weather was super hot.  Took a short nap on the bus and missed a few other sights.  Finally, arrived at some shopping area and bought some Hard Rock T-shirts.  And finally, another stop for a longer break at the shopping centre.  We had some afternoon snacks of KFC.  Interestingly, they served the usual buckets and actually gave us ceramic plates to eat on.  Much more friendler to the environment as opposed to using disposables.

Finally, after a super long wait for the rest to finish their full body massages, we arrived at Harris Hotel Batam Center.  This is a relatively new hotel and so everything else looked new too.  However, too bad they did not have the Dino Kids Club that they promoted on their website.  Very disappointed.  We had a very late dinner and by then, Baby G was super tired and didn't eat much.  He was also not feeling well by then.  We quickly went back to our rooms to rest.

 

 

 

 

The following morning, a really nice view greeted us.  We could see the Mega Mall just on our left and a park right in front of us.  There were lots of people taking their walks and jogging around the park.  First thing that Baby G saw was his JCo. Donuts logo.  See if you can spot it in the picture.

Lucky, Baby G was feeling much better in the morning.  Although he didn't really get much rest the night before, with a few nightmares that woke him up, he seemed rather chirpy.

After a drink of warm milo and a morning bath, he seemed much better and started to fool around in the room.

After our breakfast & relaxation time, we walked over to the Mega Mall to check it out.  Well, it is large, but somehow, it didn't have that kind of drawing power.  After a few rounds of walking, we only bought 1 Transformer toy for Baby G and then off for lunch.

After our lunch, I opted to go for my A&W root beer float and in an authentic mug too.  Yummy.  Baby G started to feel lousy again and he took a nap at the A&W restaurant as I sipped my drink.  Lucky there was free Wifi from the next store and I managed to occupy my time while the rest did more shopping & walking.

Soon, it was time to go home.  Overall, it was meant to be a relaxing trip but because Baby G wasn't feeling well, we didn't really managed to truly enjoy the weekend getaway.

Looking forward to the next time that we can really 'get away' and Baby G is well enough to enjoy himself too.

Adios from Batam.

Dinosaurs Live!

A couple of weekends back, we visited the Singapore Science Centre to catch the "Dinosaurs Live!" show.  It's been a really long time since I last visited the Science Centre.  I believe I was still in my secondary school days, or maybe even as far back as my primary school days.  The Science Centre now is so much different from what I remember.

Baby G was really excited when he saw the dinosaur at the main entrance.  He excitedly told me, "Mummy, look.... there is a long-neck dinosaur & flying dinosaur."  But before we could get to the show, we decided to visit the various exhibits of the Science Centre.

As most of the exhibits require some reading and understanding the science behind them, Baby G started to get a little impatient and kept bugging us to bring to see the dinosaurs.  So we decided to go straight to our objective.

As we stepped into the darkened area, Baby G got a little apprehensive and held on to our hands quite tightly.  We could hear the sounds all around us, simulating the era when dinosaurs ruled the Earth.  There were some minimal robotics involved to make the movement of the dinosaurs more life-like.  After walking past a few dinosaurs, we realised that there were little stations where you could make a 'stamp' of the dinosaur on show, but you had to purchase the little passport booklet.  So we went out again to make that purchase.

After Baby G got his little dinosaur passport, he forgot about his earlier anxiety and became more excited to look for the stations to do his own 'stomping'... oops... I mean 'stamping'.  Heh heh.

Here are some of the highlights of the dinosaurs in pictures.....

His 2 most favourite dinosaurs were, naturally, the T-Rex and 'long neck dinosaur' (actual name, Diplodocus).

After the walk through the dinosaur show, there was a little dinosaur ride that they had going & Baby G requested for a ride.  So we obliged.  Although, I personally felt the ride was too short and too slow.  I think Baby G was expecting a slightly faster moving dinosaur.  You could sense his boredom from the pictures.  Hahaha.

After being satisfied with the dinosaurs, we managed to continue on with our visit to the rest of the Science Centre.  Luckily, this time, the rest of the exhibits were more hands-on and this made Baby G enjoy it even more.

I think the best part of the Science Centre is the place called 'Water Works'.  As the name suggests, it is all about water, water and more water.  It is really a very large place but so ironic that Baby G only wanted to play in one area, which is the swirling vortex of water and the coloured balls.

Finally, it was time to go back.... but before we leave... here is one last picture from Science Centre....

San