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Saturday, 10 August 2024

Asialink Hotel & Grand Batam Mall Over National Day

DAY 1

We've previously travelled to Batam during the SG50 National Day long weekend and decided to visit Batam over National Day again this year! 😆

We disliked our last experience with Batam Fast so we booked Majestic Fast Ferry this time at $76 per person (nowadays ferry tickets are so expensive! 😮‍💨). It was the right decision because our ferry was new, clean and very comfortable! 👍🏻

Comfortable ferry interior
Excited for our journey!
Littlest Girl enjoyed looking out of the window and getting wind in her hair on the deck

The journey was very smooth and comfortable! We arrived very promptly at Batam Centre Ferry Terminal.

Disembarking our ferry

We joined the super long queue and waited for almost an hour before we finally cleared customs! 😮‍💨🥴 We then boarded a taxi at the taxi stand to our accommodation and paid Rp.100k. On hindsight, we should have walked to Batam Megamall and hailed 2 cars via Grab at the same price... 😒😴

By the time we arrived at Asialink Hotel by Prasanthi, it was 5.30pm (Batam is 1 hour behind Singapore)!

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Hotel entrance
Front desk and self-service welcome drinks

After checking in, we had to wait for another 15 minutes in the lobby for our rooms to be ready! We'd booked 2 Deluxe King Rooms at $79 per room per night (inclusive of breakfast).

Kitchenette, TV and desk area
View from our room and king bed
Shower and toilet
Usual toiletries and wardrobe area

The room was value-for-money and had all the amenities you need in a small room, though nothing fantastic (you get what you pay for). 

We wanted to visit the newly-opened Grand Batam Mall so I hailed a Grab XL (for 6 people) via my Grab app. We got a car very quickly and the journey only cost us about Rp. 20k to 45k! When we realised how cheap and convenient Grab was in Batam, we commuted by Grab everywhere from then on! 😀

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Shopping!

We were hungry and had an early dinner at Sany Noodle Bar on level 3.

Sany Noodle Bar
The menu
I ordered the Mie Kari Ayam, which was good!

After dinner, we shopped around and discovered many shops that offered cute stuff to buy for the kids! The kids had a blast choosing what they wanted at cheaper prices!

This store Famous had a lot of cute character stuff that enticed me and the kids!
My Eldest was in her Cinnamoroll era while her younger siblings were into Kirby! 
Clockwise from left: Saw my favourite Jay Chou and had to have a picture!;
Had to buy groceries from the supermarket, Top 100;
We love KKV for its variety of goods that appealed to people of all ages.

With many bags of shopping in our hands, we headed back to our hotel and had a good night's rest 💤


DAY 2

The next morning, we had breakfast at the hotel's restaurant.  

Simple variety of food
What I had for breakfast 

As the food was not impressive, we made a mental note not to include breakfast in our hotel bookings in future so that we can explore other breakfast options in Batam.

The kids wanted to go swimming in the indoor pool next to the restaurant. We didn't stay too long as the water was freezing cold! 

Trying to get used to the freezing water!
Good size pool
Decent view of the surrounding area from the pool

After our swim, we headed to Nagoya Hill Mall in search of good massages.

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After inquiring with one shop which had a long waiting time, we decided on Aloka Spa & Massage on the ground floor. The Eldest and I had the Balinese Oil Massage (60 minutes) at Rp.320k while the Hubby and Littlest had the Foot Massage (60 minutes) at Rp.220k. My Littlest had bugged me every night to massage her before bed and I'd promised her the professionals can do it way better. I wanted her to experience what her Eldest sister had experienced when she was the Littlest's age (lucky kids I know! 😅). 

Aloka Spa and Massage
Washing our feet before the massage
Littlest and Daddy enjoying their farher-daughter time

After our massages, we headed to Jia Xiang Wei Restaurant for lunch.

Yummy lunch!
Fo Tiao Qiang (Buddha Jumps Over Wall) with Hor Fun and vegetables (I'm currently on a high veg diet! 😀)
Mayonnaise prawn was super tasty!
Grilled squid was yummy.
Fish was fresh, cheap and good!

After a satisfying lunch, we headed to Grand Batam Mall for more shopping. Bubble tea is so cheap here that we had to get more!

Bubble tea from Xing Fu Tang

The younger kids were feeling angsty so I brought them to Kidzlandia. It cost Rp. 90k per kid for 1 hour.

Kidzlandia indoor playground
Sand play
Sand pit and ball pit
Foam pit ninja climb
Many exciting and fun slides
Swinging balls merry-go-round
Happily exploring the climbing structure
Relatively large play structure
Kids love the playground, especially the fun tube slide! 
More slides and merry-go-rounds
Wheee!

Kids had so much fun! I'll definitely bring the Littlest back (my boy is getting too old for indoor playgrounds 😅).


DAY 3

We had a simple breakfast at the restaurant since it's part of our package. Before checking out, we waited for our delivery of kueh lapis that I had ordered from Sun Li Batam Layer Cakes the day before. I collected our order from the delivery person at the hotel's lobby.  It remains my favourite kueh lapis! 😋🩷

Sun Li Batam Layer Cakes

After checking out, we left our luggage at the concierge and headed to Grand Batam Mall (our favourite mall of this trip!). We had lunch at Pan & Co, which was famous for Japanese fluffy pancakes.

Pan & Co.
Beef omelette and matcha fluffy pancakes 🥞 
The restaurant also serves bubble tea!
Original fluffy pancakes 🥞 

The pancakes were soooo good and soooo much cheaper than Singapore! Love it! Definitely will go back next time! 😋

After lunch, the Mum-in-law and Hubby brought the younger kids to the arcade while the Eldest and I went shopping. 

Playing at the arcade

At 2.30pm, the Hubby, Eldest and I went for our pre-booked massage at Reborn. We chose the traditional Balinese massage at Rp.230k, which was cheaper than Aloka but more painful because of the reflexology style.

Reborn Reflexology & Massage
Price list and individual rooms

The massage was painful but I felt revitalised after the massage! I suppose it's not for everyone 😅

We went back to our hotel to retrieve our luggage before heading to Mega Mall Batam for some final shopping and dinner.

Average dinner at Megamall;
The standard of food here has declined A LOT after COVID! 😕

We boarded the last ferry of the day and headed home! It was a great weekend trip! 😄 

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P.S: Here're our experiences with other Batam accommodations:


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Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on Batam, Indonesia 
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