After yesterday’s horrible breakfast experience, we decided to skip it and sleep in today. We headed to Chemistree for brunch. It was a nice place to chill and they offer lots of board games! We played a round of Exploding Kittens while waiting for our food to arrive. The food here was okay only, but I do recommend this place for a nice game session or a catch-up session over drinks!
Chemistree
0800-2200hrs (Mon-Thu), 0800-2300hrs (Fri-Sun)
#1: Chemistree. Seafood Aglio Olio, Carbonara, Iced Latte, Avocado Shake.
#2: Chemistree.
#3: Chemistree.
#4: Chemistree.
#5: Chemistree.
#6: Chemistree.
#7: So many games to choose from! Next, we headed to Grand Batam Mall which my friend recommended. This was a modern and pretty mall! You can find lots of international brands here like KOI, Pizza Hut, Miniso, UNIQLO, and so on. We walked around and found this cute Japanese-style cheese toast place called Ohayou. It’s similar to Say Chiizu that came to S’pore from Bangkok. Their packaging was a pretty and cute orange fox, and we got the charcoal toast for a nice black and white contrast. Later, we found out there was another cheese toast stall at the basement offering rainbow cheese toast! But Ohayou was prettier.
Grand Batam Mall
1000-2200hrs (daily)
#8: Grand Batam Mall.
#9: Ohayou Cheese Toast.
#10: Charcoal Cheese Toast.
Following after, we went to Lee’s Cafe and Bar, a teddy bear and LINE Brown concept cafe. Little did we know, it was actually just a short walk from the mall, hah we became too reliant on Grab! Came here to try their souffle pancake, and got some wings and potato wedges too. It took awhile for the pancakes to be served as they make the batter from scratch upon order. Good thing we ordered some sides as well. We got the one served with brown sugar bobas and the pancake was pretty good! Just that the height of the pancake was a lot shorter than the usual souffle pancake you see.
Lee’s Cafe and Bar
1100-2200hrs (daily)
#11: Lee's Cafe and Bar.
#12: Lee's Cafe and Bar.
#13: Lee's Cafe and Bar.
#14: Lee's Cafe and Bar.
#15: Brown Sugar Boba Souffle Pancake. Following after, we headed to Turi Beach Resort, about a 40mins drive from the city / central area. Both my friend and I had been to Nongsa Beach (Montigo Resort), so we decided to pop by Turi Beach, both located quite near to each other. Turi Beach was a lot prettier than Nongsa Beach, but comparing the rooms, I would say Montigo is much prettier. Took some photos and chilled by the pool, before we move on to the next location, My Garden Restaurant. One thing that was not so friendly at this region was transport. Not quite sure if it was due to high security, or this place is just so out of the way, it was impossible to get any Grab or taxi! The only way out from the resort, which I experienced the same the other time at Montigo, was by their private hire and it was so freaking expensive! I checked on my Grab app, it costs about IDR 60k to get to My Garden, but this driver from the resort charged us IDR 150k!
Turi Beach Resort
#16: Turi Beach Resort.
#17: Turi Beach Resort.
#18: Turi Beach Resort.
#19: Turi Beach Resort.
#20: Turi Beach Resort.
#21: Turi Beach Resort.
#22: Turi Beach Resort.
#23: Turi Beach Resort.
#24: Turi Beach Resort.
My Garden Restaurant
#25: My Garden Restaurant.
#26: My Garden Restaurant.
#27: My Garden Restaurant.
#28: My Garden Restaurant.
#29: Blue Ocean and Strawberry Bubble mocktails.
#30: My Garden Restaurant. Next was seafood dinner! Looking really forward to it as seafood in Batam is really affordable as compared to S’pore, and we initially planned to dine at Harbour Bay Seafood, but it was closed! So we went to Wey Wey Palace instead, which was the next nearest besides Jumbo Seafood. We definitely had to get crabs (in butter cream sauce) because they are so freaking expensive in S’pore, like $90/kg for seafood restaurant; as well as crayfish in salted egg sauce (this sauce was sooooo good!), calamari, gong gong (a kind of shellfish?), and belacan kang kong. The total bill came up to be.... We got a shock at first as we had been dining on really affordable Indonesian food and cafe food, it was a huge price difference as compared, but we realised later that it is actually still considered much cheaper than S’pore for the amount of food we ordered. It was about IDR 730k in total, with the crabs (800g) being the most expensive at IDR 310k and next the crayfish (500g) at IDR 180k.
Wey Wey Palace
#31: Wey Wey Palace.
#32: Crabs in Butter Cream Sauce, Calamari, Crayfish in Salted Egg Sauce, Belacan Kangkong, Gong Gong.
#33: Gong Gong and Calamari.
Lastly, we went back to Inul Vizta Family KTV for karaoke round 2 as they gave us a 1hr free voucher, and the rates are a lot cheaper on a weekday! For a small room, weekend was at a flat rate of IDR 80k/hr. Weekday is at IDR 70k/hr, and IDR 35k/hr after 11pm! After the previous experience with our drinks, we remembered to hide them in our bags this time round. Just like the previous time, we sang for 4hrs again but we only paid IDR 189k this time - 9pm: 1st hr IDR 70k (free) + IDR 70k + after 11pm: IDR 35k x2hrs + tax. The previous time (Saturday) cost IDR 496k - IDR 80k x4hrs + 2 drinks (as all our drinks including bottled water got confiscated) + tax. Last night for the trip! ☹️ Started feeling so sleepy halfway through the session, I literally gave up singing 😆
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Exchange Rate: IDR 10k = SG$1
Expenses for Day 3
Grab to Chemistree: IDR 14k / 2 = IDR 7k
Chemistree: IDR 186k / 2 = IDR 93k
- 2 Pasta, 2 Drinks
Grab to Inul Vizta KTV: IDR 24k / 2 = IDR 12k
Grab to Grand Batam Mall: IDR 14k / 2 = IDR 7k
Ohayou Cheese Toast: IDR 28k / 2 = IDR 14k
BT21 Phone Grip: IDR 10k
Grab to Lee's Cafe and Bar: IDR 14k / 2 = IDR 7k
Lee's Cafe and Bar: IDR 150.65k / 2 = IDR 75.325k
- Potato Wedges, Korean Coated Wings, Brown Sugar Boba Souffle Pancake
Grab to Turi Beach: IDR 107k / 2 = IDR 53.5k
Transport from Turi Beach to My Garden Restaurant: IDR 150k / 2 = IDR 75k
My Garden Restaurant: IDR 80.85k / 2 = IDR 40.425k
- 2 Mocktails
Grab to Harbour Bay Seafood: IDR 60k / 2 = IDR 30k
Wey Wey Palace: IDR 727.1 / 2 = IDR 363.55k
- 800g Crabs in Butter Cream Sauce, 500g Crayfish in Salted Egg Sauce, Gong Gong, Belacan Kangkong, Calamari, Pot of Chinese Tea
Grab to Inul Vizta KTV: IDR 20k / 2 = IDR 10k
Karaoke: IDR 189k / 2 = IDR 94.5k
- 1st hr free, Weekend Rates: IDR 70k x1hr, after 11pm: IDR 35k x2hrs
Grab to Harmoni One Hotel: IDR 34k / 2 = IDR 17k
Sub-total: IDR 909.30 = SG$90.93
Previous Expenses: SG$299.67
TOTAL: SG$390.60