Category: Family
Protected: till we see you again
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.
Protected: hope & trepidation
hokkaido, dec 2017
Quick post about our super last minute trip to Sapporo, Hokkaido with Saliheen’s family i.e. my in-laws! We’ve travelled together before to London and I’m happy to report that it is just as fun this time round. If only Apik could join us for this trip, though!
25 December 2017, Monday
We flew via SQ & arrived at New Chitose Airport in Sapporo very early in the morning. Hopped onto an express train to Sapporo Station to get to our hotel, which was only 1 to 2 minutes walk from Sapporo Station. I was tasked with the booking of hotel rooms & I chose Hotel Sunroute Sapporo because my in-laws wanted a hotel which is near Sapporo Station. Jadi senang bila turun naik trains to & fro airport, tak nak terlari lari, y’know.
I would have preferred to stay in Susukino which is Sapporo’s entertainment district because it’s very vibrant & near lots of makan places but I wasn’t sure how his parents would feel about staying close to the red light district (alongside all the food & entertainment outlets). Turns out his parents liked the area & would’ve been perfectly fine to stay near such an area so I know better now & will just ask next time.
Konnichiwa again, yummy Japanese supermarket treats!!!!! My favourites are the tuna onigiri & mixed rice with seaweed rice ball. I really like the salted rice ball too – just plain and simple – I think the salted rice ball from Family Mart is the one I like.
We didn’t really have an itinerary for this trip so I didn’t do any research on tempat makan near our hotel beforehand (except for halal ones, which were at specific spots we had to travel to & not necessarily within walking distance to our hotel). My in-laws didn’t want to venture out too far on our first day so we just walked around the 2 malls which were attached to Sapporo Station to hunt for lunch (Paseo Mall & Stellar Place).
We finally settled on a sashimi restaurant in Stellar Place – they didn’t have an English menu but one of the staff could speak a little broken English accompanied with exaggerated hand gestures which we mostly understood (haha) so that was where we had our first lunch in Sapporo. Went back to the hotel to rest for awhile after that.
We went to Susukino entertainment district later that night and it started snowing heavily just as we were coming out of the train station!!!!!!!!!! It was perfect. As you can see on the picture on the right, I was very, very, VERY thrilled to experience falling snow for the very first time!!!!! I even jio my mum and sisters to “experience” the snow with me on Facetime while walking to a halal ramen place for dinner hehe.
Oh, I forgot to take pictures of the food we had at Ramen Horyu (it’s a small & cosy halal ramen place in Susukino that we walked past & missed twice haha) because we were sooooo hungry & just wanted to makan. It was very comforting to eat piping hot ramen after braving the heavy snow in the streets!!! Taste-wise the food was ok ok, tbh nothing else can compare to the amazing chicken ramen from Ayam-ya in Kyoto.
26 December 2017, Tuesday
One of the things that we wanted to do in Hokkaido was try out skiing so we chose a ski resort not far from central Sapporo – Sapporo Bankei Ski, which was about 25 minutes drive from our hotel area (the rest would have taken an hour minimum).
Turns out Saliheen & I suck balls at skiing HAHAHAHA TENKZ. I mean, it’s not that far of a stretch to think someone who is unhealthy & hates exercise & outdoor activities like me would suck at skiing but I thought I’d give it a shot, just in case. You know how when you watch people professionals ski on TV & it looks so graceful and effortless and easy?
TIPAH TERTIPU.
Or more like Tipah terkial kial & almost tertombang just to even put on her goddamn skis hahahahaha. Actually ok la fine la, it’s not all tipu belaka because we did see a lot of people glide down the ski slopes & make it look like it’s the easiest thing to do. And there were these teeny 5 & 6 year old kids skiing like it’s *shrugs* no big deal.
It’s like watching Masterchef Junior, you’re going wtf at little kids expertly cooking some fancy ass dish on international TV while you’re snacking on your too soggy instant noodles. Except instead of cooking, it’s with skiing. And you rasa macam nak campak your remote control at them.
You can’t really tell but in the picture of the two of us in the ski gear (above), we were actually screaming in agony in our sore little hearts HAHAHAHA. Actually if you saw us before we took the picture, you’d see us squirm in pain while trying to stand up (from the steps where we rested) HAHAHAHA. And if you’re observant, you’d realize Saliheen unclipped the top half of his kasut sebab sakit HAHAHA WHY ARE WE LIKE THIS
Kiwak sakit gila pe siak pakai tu kasut!!!!!!!!! They were so tight & ate into our feet! We could barely even stand, how do people glide around with them macam it’s their second skin????? I swore that was going to be the first & last time I’ll ever put myself in such excruciating pain attempt to ski. But then again idk, maybe I’ll forget the pain someday & stupidly get myself into those ski shoes again. In other words, cari nahas hahaha 😆
After a few hours at the ski resort, we went back to our hotel room to rest & wash up before going out for dinner at the Susukino district again. We had dinner at Fukunoki Ramen this time round but it was eh, mediocre. Maybe because it’s tomato based? We don’t mind vegetables but since we’re meat lovers at heart, the depth and taste of a soup base using tomatoes can never compare to the ones using chicken meat/bones. But it’s ok la, we walked all the way to the shop already (it was a little off from the main area) and we were hungry so it was good enough for the night… or was it? HEH HEH.
My FIL was not feeling well after that so we bundled him and my MIL in a taxi back to the hotel whereas Saliheen, my BIL and I went gallivanting through Susukino that night. It turned out to be really fun & memorable!!!
Somehow we didn’t feel satisfied with the meal earlier so we went hunting for a nice restaurant to have a second dinner. We popped into 2 restaurants but we were politely turned away because they were fully booked for the night.
We walked into a third restaurant & it looked even more exclusive than the first two so I expected to be turned away again. But the server just looked quizzically at us for a few seconds & composed himself enough to greet us and lead us into a very nice & classy room with menus. We thought oh ok, guess this is where we’ll end up eating tonight so we flipped through the menus to choose our second dinner for the night.
We figured from prices on the menu & the classy interior & servers in tuxedos with napkins on their wrists that it was a high end restaurant & we were prepared to spend more than usual (We’re always willing to splurge on top quality meals in Japan!)
But even then we didn’t expect what happened next – our server ushered us out 1 minute later because as it turns out that room was only the waiting area wtf. He brought us to this very grand but intimate private room with a personal chef standing behind a very stylish bar counter, waiting for us to take our seats & let him know our orders!!!!!
Nasib baik it was so fucking worth it!!!!! Because it was most definitely an excellent Japanese dinner!!! With a personal chef preparing & cooking our food in front of our eyes like it was an art performance piece!!! Amazing, efficient service where the servers were polite to a fault & very deftly served us drinks or cleared stuff off our counter at all the right moments!!! The ambience & pace was super on point, too. I’m seriously obsessed with Japanese hospitality & their immaculate presentation & preparation of food.
Unsurprisingly, we ooh-ed and aah-ed at every bite during every course & enjoyed ourselves tremendously!!!!! At the end of the whole meal service, we agreed that the night took a very wide turn tiba tiba HAHAHAHA and all of us would never forget that night, ever!!!!! It was a very tiba tiba night of fantastic food, brilliant service, amazing company, how can we ever forget such a thing?????
Can you guys imagine, it was so freakin’ fancy, the chefs and servers even gathered in one straight row in front of the lift when we were leaving & all of them did a synchronized deep bow as the lift door was closing in front of us abeh kita tiga awkwardly bowed back in sync from inside the lift HAHAHAHA BODOH LA WHAT DID WE GET OURSELVES INTO LA
Like my BIL said “This was NOT how I expected to end my night” hahahahaha TU AH! Unfortunately, kita tak sabar nak makan & we agreed we’d just enjoy the night to ourselves so there was very little documentation. I only took 2 quick pictures of the appetiser & dessert, which don’t look like much but were so freaking delish!
Grilled abalone on a bed of wakame (Japanese seaweed) for appetiser & milk ice cream drenched in raspberry sauce with a half-slice of melon for dessert.
27 December 2017, Wednesday
Luckily, my FIL was feeling better the next morning so the whole family walked over to Nijo Market where – you guessed it – we binged on oysters and otoro!!!!! It was my BIL’s virgin experience with fresh otoro in Japan & I swear I saw tears forming at the corners of his eyes as the otoro melted in his mouth & down his throat. Hehe! I feel you, brother.
We accidentally stumbled across a Muslim-friendly restaurant in the heart of the market while looking for a place to sit down for lunch! It’s called Donburi Chaya & it serves stuff like donburi (rice bowl dish) and grilled mackerel. Even has halal lamb meat but we were there for seafood – I had the Tokusen Donburi, which has king crab meat, snow crab, hair crab, shrimp, tuna, yellowtail, scallop, white fish, sea urchin (uni) and tamago.
Can’t fight dengan the donburi that you can get in Tsujiki Market in Tokyo but it was still pretty sedap & satisfying.
After lunch, we walked over to the Sapporo TV Tower, which is a popular landmark in Sapporo. It only costs about S$8.00 per pax to go up the tower so that’s what we did. Got a bird eye’s view of Sapporo covered in snow & then we bought some Hokkaido milk ice cream which turned out to BE SO FREAKING DELICIOUS PLS.
Walked back to our hotel after that, where we made snow angels on the ground (hehe) and built a tiny snowman at a quiet corner near our hotel. I think the grass strips were meant to be a necklace but I don’t know man, they look like they could be nipple covers hahahaha
My parents-in-law wanted to jalan jalan sendiri after that so we parted ways & the three of us decided to check out another attraction of Sapporo – Tokeidai, also known as the Sapporo Clock Tower. A very quaint little place.
Then we walked to Stellar Place to jalan jalan & look see before we ~naturally~ ended up at the basement food hall, where kita melantak sooooo many Japanese snacks like taiyaki and matcha ice cream and sashimi and fishcakes and I even tried these darling little white bread sandwiches filled with cream and strawberries. All sedap!
AND OMG TALKING ABOUT SEDAP, DID I TELL YOU GUYS ABOUT MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH MR DONUT????? Omg aku obsessed gila OK. I ate sooooooo many of their donuts yang shaped bola bola & covered with fine brown sugar every freakin’ night. Saliheen sampai gave up expressing his incredulity every time I sheepishly asked to singgah a Mr Donut outlet before balek hotel hehehehe
28 December 2017, Thursday
It’s our last full day in Sapporo! Again, his parents wanted to keluar at their own time so kita the three stooges keluar jalan jalan on our own again.
We had breakfast at a cafe nearby & lunch at another restaurant in Stellar Place but we really wanted to return to Nijo Market so that’s what we did later on in the afternoon! Really nak puaskan hati makan all of the yummy Japanese seafood!!! We went to a super tiny sushi bar in Nijo Market this time round (only seats 3), where we ate otoro sushi and uni sushi & nothing else. They were excellent.
Then we ended the day by eating grilled scallops (in garlic & butter mmm…) and grilled crab at another store right opposite Nijo Market. Yummy yummy in my tummy.
29 December 2017, Friday
We had a morning flight back to Singapore so we had to check out of the hotel super early & get ourselves to the airport in time for our 9.00am flight.
The view that greeted us at Changi Airport when we landed back in Singapore.
Oh, and before I end this blog post, I did say I will give a ranking of my Japan favourites after I blog pasal Hokkaido kan so here it is, in all of its glory:
Tokyo > Kyoto > Osaka > Hokkaido
Haha! I know this goes completely at odds with me saying we had a wonderful time in Hokkaido, which we really did, but since I have to choose a favourite (among all of our great trips to Japan), I have to be honest & say that so far nothing else can compare to my love & obsession for Tokyo!
Could be because we had duds when it came to food in Hokkaido, which didn’t happened in Tokyo – I think we loved pretty much everything we ate in Tokyo seh. Mungkin sebab Tokyo was our first eh & our giddiness for it hasn’t worn off at all. The first to pop our Japan virginity, so as to speak. Hehe.
I also feel like there aren’t many impressive tourist attractions in Sapporo as compared to the rest, we could cover the TV tower and clock tower somewhat quickly, and that’s pretty much it. Plus the seafood market was small & tak banyak benda sangat compared to the other Japanese markets we’ve been to. Cuma its main saving grace was the lovely snowfall which we had the pleasure of experiencing the whole week we were there.
That said, I am still really, really grateful my in-laws tak serik ajak kita pergi holiday, even though it was super last minute for us heh. Worth it because Saliheen & I had hoped to catch falling snow for the first times in our lives & our wish was granted whilst we were there, Alhamdullilah! It really is a magical experience & we will treasure that memory forever and ever and ever. I also thought this could be the beginning of my fondness for falling snow but after our brush with it in NYC three months later, I think it might be more of a love-hate thing…………
Cik Som Ketom 