girl cousins in batam

Went to Batam with my girl cousins for a short weekend getaway last month 😀

Kak Siti was the one who tiba tiba proposed the idea on our Whatsapp groupchat & since all of us happened to be available on 21 April 2018, we decided to go je jangan scared! Within a day, Jiji helped to book ferry tickets via Batam Fast and a 2-bedroom apartment at Swiss Belinn Batam & we just needed to wait 2 weeks to go on the trip. It was nice to have someone else handle all of the bookings for a change, ngl 😛

It was just the 4 of us and honestly, I’m happy we went on this trip because I’ve really missed us spending time together. Before we had our own friends to hang out with (haha), and before we grew up into our own adult lives (husbands, kids, jobs), we used to hang out at neighbourhood malls & sleep over at each other homes all the time when we were younger. We have so many memorable times together obviously, but a lot of them are too indecent / risque for a public blog entry 😆

All in all, it was a great trip, with us catching up & laughing at anything & everything.

From left: Kak Ijah (32 years old), Jiji (30 years old), Kak Siti (34 years old) & I (31 years old). Added our ages to illustrate we’re only 1 to 2 years apart from each other hehe. Imagine our mothers, semua beranak pinak one after another! Although that’s not as kecoh as my sister’s batch, she is the same age as 3 of our cousins, which means 4 of our mom/aunts were all pregnant in the same year! Semua berjangkit hahahaha

I don’t have many pictures to share since most of them were on Instastories & whatever I saved on my phone are videos (which I can’t upload here). But the memories are etched forever in my mind! Or at least until I lose my mind to old age, if I even get there haha.

Since we didn’t want to keep flagging down taxis throughout our trip, we decided to arrange for a personal driver for the whole trip. Kak Siti had a really good contact & his name is Momon! S$60 for the whole day, with pick-up from ferry terminal, and you can direct the driver to go anywhere you want or ask him for recommendations. Momon already had prior engagement with another 20-pax tour group on that day so we got his brother as our driver instead. Kak Siti asked whether his name was “Maman” or “Mimin” when we got into the car hahahaha it’s Azril la pls!

First order of business was to check in to our 2 bedroom apartment! We checked in, asked for our room to be changed from 4th floor to ground floor, dumped our bags, dapat rasa aircon for 10 minutes then we met Azril again at our hotel lobby to head out for lunch at Nasi Padang Arai Pinang. I like the place! Sebab ada air-conditioned section so you can makan in comfort hahahaha #citygirlforlife

I always menggila with their version of dendeng whenever I makan nasi padang in Indonesia! I mean, I love our local version la but I’m such a dendeng fan, I love it in the crunchy form (in Indonesia) as well. We asked for 3 rounds of dendeng then at the 4th round, the staff told us dah habis. We suspect dorang sengaja tak nak kasi kita melantak 😆

Happy faces & happy bellies dapat makan nasi pandang Indonesia! Yummy!

After lunch, we headed to Pasar Puja Bahari to borong keropok & jeruk at Wulan Snack stall. Kak Siti knew the staff from a previous visit & they were very friendly and kecoh! Busy la kan ambik gambar dengan timbang??? Hahahahaha

We headed to Nagoya Hills Shopping Mall after that to jalan jalan while waiting for our massage appointments at ESKA Wellness Spa (which is right opposite the mall). The good thing about having a personal driver is we got to letak all our barang borong in the car while we jalan jalan somemore. Tak berat & tak menyebok.

We bought kek lapis from the La Moist (Layers Batam) booth in Nagoya Hills Shopping Mall, sat down for A&W (where the staff was horrible & we got into an argument with them) and then we just jalan jalan around the mall. Nothing super exciting la, it’s just a regular shopping mall after all, although it was quite fun to check out their supermarket.

Then we went for our massages at ESKA & had ahhhhhh such good massages! The last time I was there, I got a lousy massage from an obviously unexperienced masseuse (I had sore shoulders for days after that what the hell kan) but I’ve been to ESKA a few times before that & I know it’s really dependent on the masseuse you get.

Nasib baik I got a very nice & skilled masseuse this time round! She was accommodating, and even though I told her she didn’t have to give me a head massage because of my scalp psoriasis (I personally don’t care but I didn’t want her to be grossed out or put in an uncomfortable position) but she insisted on giving me one & said she didn’t mind the psoriasis flakes. God bless her heart! It was such a glorious & satisfying scalp massage too.

The plan after massage was to go for seafood dinner at Harbour Bay Seafood but we didn’t feel like rushing out there for dinner so we asked our driver Azril for recommendations, preferably street food yang senang tapao back to our apartment. Turns out there is a stretch of food stalls behind Nagoya Hills Shopping Mall so we went to check that out.

We bought mee bakso, sate madura, sate padang, nasi goreng, dendeng & martabak manis! Brought them back to our apartment & sat down for dinner, and everything was so sedap! I kind of regret not buying 2 portions of the mee bakso hahahaha. Oh and I’ve always liked the martabak manis that I order from Terang Bulan in Singapore but turns out it’s got nothing on the actual martabak manis in Indonesia. It was my first time having the legit martabak manis in Indonesia & it was so good. I’d return to Batam just for it!

We then spent the night chatting & gossiping (haha) & eating somemore (we ordered room service when our food ran out LOL) & we put on face masks just for fun too! Niat hati nak gi swimming in the morning but we were tired & wanted an hour extra of sleep haha! Dulu darah muda boleh la geng, now everyone is a granny pls 😆

Woke up in time for a good long breakfast at the hotel restaurant & we ended up ordering so much beef bacon, we swore we could see the staff shift uneasily every time one of us approached the beef bacon station 😆 9 freaking rounds of beef bacon siak! We are all clearly beef lovers & also fatties for life hahahahaha

Saying goodbye to our ‘home’ for the past 1 night! Feels like tak cukup!

Oh, and we teased Kak Ijah for bringing a whole damn luggage for a 2D1N Batam trip but she ended up laughing at us in the end because we had so much stuff & takde space nak angkut! Tak boleh masuk backpack! Kalau masuk luggage, it would’ve been easier!

Well, it was still ok for me la because Saliheen’s disapproving “Ada space ke tak, nak letak dalam luggage” whenever we travel is freaking drilled into my head already (ugh) so I controlled my purchases & managed to pack most of them into my backpack + had to carry two paperbags. But Jiji punya barang was tahap merepek meraban ok!!! She ended up buying a humongous bag Batam & stuffing everything inside. Punya la berat!!! She ended up dragging & shoving the damn thing everywhere time kita balek hahahaha.

We checked out of the hotel & met Azril at our hotel lobby. I think we paid an extra S$15 for his driver services on this 2nd day? It was for him to pick us up from the hotel then send us to Mega Mall Batam Centre for some last minute shopping and A&W (masih). Lepas tu, to send us to Batam Centre Ferry Terminal for our ferry back home. It’s just opposite each other & actually boleh jalan through the linkway but with Jiji’s bag beban and Kak Ijah’s luggage and everyone’s paper bags & backpacks, we NEEDED that car to do a successful cross over hahahaha

It was an uneventful ferry ride back home (everyone but me slept) but it became kecoh when we had to disembark the ferry. Busy ah siak, nak hustle against other kiasu Singaporeans yang tolak tolak & in the midst of it all, Kak Siti had to help Jiji with her bag beban hahahaha!!! They struggled so hard to angkut & drag the damn thing through the crowd at customs clearance, I really don’t know how they did it in the end. Aku apa tau… cuma tau ketawakan dorang je hahahaha. That bag beban is one of the highlights of the trip, I will never let Jiji hear the end of it! 😆

We had so much fun, we’re thinking of making this girl-cousins-only weekend trip an annual thing! I know life gets in the way sometimes & it might end up not happening but I’m quite content with the memories of this weekend trip & of us now bonding as adults.