Frannywanny

Planning to visit Batam, Indonesia for a quick weekend getaway? Well, here's an easy guide to help you plan your itinerary: 1) Know how to get there. Visitors from Singapore will find it a breeze as all you have to do is to hop onto one of the many fastcraft boats that will take you straight to Batam Centre for just an hour-long ride. Visitors from other countries may opt to fly in and land in Batam International Airport or to fly to Singapore and have a side trip to Batam. 2) Choose a hotel. We enjoyed our stay at Novotel Batam Hote l and do highly recommend this to you as well. There are also a number of resorts present in the island. 3) Where to eat?!  The most important question, if you ask me. Well, I do agree that a visit to Batam won't be complete without having the following: - SEAFOOD! Try Harbour Bay Seafood Restauran t or Wey Wey which was also recommended to us by the hotel's front desk officer. - Authentic Indonesian dishes: There are plenty...

Kids nowadays sure have no idea how much fun and simple life back then was. Yes, we may not have iPads or the latest gadgets and toys for us meant... TOYS . Barbie dolls, plastic houses, a full doctor/teacher/fireman/police set, jackstones, boxes of jigsaw puzzles, board games and battery-operated cars/helicopter/trucks/pet and more! It may not make a sound or give you magical points, nor could a robotic voice tell you a story or sing you a lullaby but toys back then allowed us to hone our imaginations. I remember spending our summer break playing house, teacher-teacher or fulfilling my childhood dream as a supermarket cashier with my plastic cash register that goes "ting!" every time I open the cash drawer. In contrast to today's age of gourmet eating, the 90s was the fast food era. Oh how we spent those years munching on fries, chomping down burgers, slurping cones of ice cream and cups of milkshake. I tell you, it was bliss and while most of us have to pay for it tod...

For our last night in Batam, Paul and I wanted to try the local fare. There were a lot of choices so after walking around Nagoya Hill Mall, we decided to dine at Warung Cobain . There was some bit of a discussion how to pronounce the second word. Paul said it should be ko-ba-in  while I read it as co-bayne  similar to Nirvana's singer Kurt Cobain. Anyway, the restaurant was packed so we had to make do with the tiny table for two by the kitchen. Where was a slightly foul smell coming from I-don't-know-where but we just ignored it and ordered away. First on our list was the ever famous Ayam Goreng (Rp. 11,818) or more popularly known as the Ayam Penyet. This is Indonesia's signature dish which is basically a smashed fried chicken. This is also widely available in all Indonesian hawker stalls, food courts and restaurants here in Singapore. How this dish is prepared is still a mystery to us but we love the juicy chicken meat and Paul enjoyed munching on the crunchy ski...

What to do in Batam? --  This is what I've been typing in Google two days prior to our trip to Batam. I used to be so ready -- preparing itineraries months before a trip. However, I wasn't able to do so for our weekend getaway for two reasons: a) work was t-o-x-i-c b) the trip was basically a spur of the moment, "let's get out of Singapore" kind of thing. I was telling my sister Pan about it and she just told me to be a bit more spontaneous for once in my life. Well, I tried...I really did till 2 days before the trip I woke up panicking that we might be wasting time with no idea where to go and what to do. Then finally, I caved and starting researching like mad. Of course, I had to create a list of restaurants to try bearing in mind that we only have 2 full days in Batam = 4 full meals (not counting breakfast as we planned to sleep longer everyday). After researching through countless of blogs and even TripAdvisor, I happily went to Batam with a short list...