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One of the popular attraction in Batam is a Chinese teample, known to the local as the Tua Pek Kong Bio (no idea what they called it in Indonesian). Its location in Batam town, quite a big temple and you will be surprise there are so many buddhist in Batam.

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This is one of the oldest and historical temple in Batam, I think there are other temples too but this is the only we had a chance to visit during our last trip.

The parking is huge and there are lots of sculpture for those photo moments. There are also some stalls selling local “kueh”, praying stuff and drinks here. I saw quite a bit of tour bus here, so figure this must be a popular tourist attraction too.

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In the main temple building, you can pray and there are lots of coiled shaped incenses having around with latterns making the temple look really good. When I was there on Sunday morning, there’s actually a buddhism class going on at the back with a lot of young students attending and its all done in Bahasa Indonesia.

So if you are in Batam, no harm checking this place out, plus can “bai bai” for health and happiness .

GPS: N1 08.367 E104 00.645

Me & the makan gang went to Nagoya Hill in Nagoya, Batam for dinner… at the top floor of Nagoya Hill there’s a food street with all sort of local as well as fast food outlets. We decided to try traditional Indonesia food, known as Sundanese (don’t get confuse with Sudan) at Rumah Makan Pak Chomot.

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Bahasa Indonesia is a bit different from Malay, so here are some of the stuff we ordered, Cumi Pete (sotong with petai), Garume Goreng (type of fish fried), Kepiting Lada Hitam (crabs, cooked with black pepper sauce), Sate Kombinasi (mix satay), Gado-gado (Indonesian rojak), Baby Kailan, Ayam Chomot (funny fried chicken), Kerang Bakar, etc.

I also ordered my favourite drink, Es Jeruk Kelapa. Es is ice, Jeruk is a citrus juice, Kelapa well coconut. So it is coconut in a citrus juice, very nice .

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The whole meal is ok and quite interesting, the crabs portions are small, people here don’t eat crabs like how we do in KL, here its a bit of crabs and lots of rice, where else in KL, all crabs no rice, we all really spoilt.

It was an interesting experience for most of us, trying something Indonesian and traditional, overall food is good here and all the above cost us about Rp. 377,000.00 for 8 persons. Not bad la… worth trying if you are ever in Batam, plus the place have aircond and good friendly service .

During my last trip to Batam, I traveled to Singapore before heading to Batam on ferry from there since AirAsia had stopped flights from KL to Batam (pity). This trip however, we are going from Johor. There are ferry services from Zon in Stulang Laut, Johor Bahru directly to Batam Center in Batam. The ferry schedule are available here.

We parked at the indoor multi-level carpark in Zon, it cost about RM45 for 3 days 2 nights of parking which is not bad and quite safe we got our car back in 1 piece . From the carpark, we need to cut across level 2 of the shopping complex to the ferry terminal, signboards in the complex are helpful, its about 5-10 minutes walk (with all the stuff we had to carry).

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At the ferry terminal, we went to the counter for tickets. You are required to hand in your passport for them to manually key in your details to get a printed ticket out and this process really takes time! We were quite worry we gonna miss the 2.30pm ferry, after 20-30 mins waiting, we got our passport back with the ticket. The return ticket cost RM120.00 inclusive of seaport tax.

The immigration and custom is quite fast and the ferry usually departs late as we made in no sweat after 2.30pm to get on board the ferry. Depending on the different timing will be different ferry as its operated by 3 different companies.

The ferry ride was a choppy as it was raining and it took 1 1/2 hours. Ferry is aircond with blurry TV as the only source of entertainment.

When returning from Batam, you are required to pay Rp.110,000.00 tax again… so make sure you keep so rupiah for the return trip. You have to go to level 1 of batam center to your return ticket confirm as its an open ticket.