Photo Blog: I Want To Come Back Here

At the Maha Vihara Duta Maitreya Buddhist Temple,
Batam, Indonesia

Batam, Indonesia Side Trip

Taken from my May 14, 2012 entry about our April 4, 2012 trip to Batam. I think I'm in the mood to sing Ingatlah Hari Ini by Indonesian pop group, Project Pop. :)

My sister and I were supposed to go to Bintan, Indonesia but we chose to go to Batam because it is not that expensive. As mentioned previously, we had to maximize our money so we can visit Indonesia and watch Wicked. :) 

Since we do not know anyone who can take us around, Charmaine and I signed up for a tour for only S$69. Not bad actually, you'd be getting a basic tour of the town, you'd get to have free lunch and transportation costs are already shouldered. And really, you couldn't go to another country for only Php 2,336 so I'd consider it as a steal.

Most people wouldn't be interested in this tour because it's more of a cultural thing. Like I said before, you'd only get to truly appreciate a country if you experience it's culture and tradition, so off we went. Lena, our tour guide is a very informative person because she fills us in with all the details about the places we're going. We didn't take too much pictures because we wanted to enjoy the place.

Small details first:

• Batam is an hour behind Singapore. Indonesia rests on 3 different time zones, according to Lena.
• It belongs to a group of islands calles Kepulauan Riau.
• Majority of the population here do not speak English. Bonus points for you if you know Bahasa Melayu, since they have the same words.