Riau Islands (Culinary) Trip in March 2013: Harbour Bay Seafood Restaurant, Batam

This is our last night staying in Batam. Tomorrow, we are returning to Bandung. After a tiring but happy days, a spectacular end is a must, and this place provides it.

Located conveniently in the Batam harbor, we can see Singapore lights from the place. The trip itself would take only around 30 minutes. So near, and it kept us wondering, is there any similar restaurant facing us also in Singapore?

Their dishes mostly are seafood. Their main diva menu is their signature Black Pepper Grilled Crab. The Crab is so big and have a lot of meat inside. Really spiking up your cholesterol level, but really worth it (We can burn the carbo later when we are returned to Bandung).

Overall dining experience was delighful. Cannot wait for us to return here again soon.

Enjoy! 

Harbour Bay Seafood Restaurant
Komplek Harbour Bay No.R 08
Jln. Duyung Sei Jodoh
Batu Ampar - Batam
29461 Batam – Indonesia
Phone: +62 778 – 741 5188
Fax: +62 778 - 741 5199
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/harbourbaysearesto
Email: info@harbourbaysearesto.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/hbseafoodresto
Website: http://www.harbourbayseafoodresto.com/

The Signage

Crab Soup

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Deep Fried Shrimp with Oatmeal

Grilled Crab with Black Pepper Sauce

Stir Fry Veggies with Seafood (Cap Cay)

A View to Singapore

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Happy Hungry Face

The Fresh Fish Aquarium

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Riau Islands (Culinary) Trip in March 2013: Kopi Selamat Pagi

Selamat Pagi!

Good Morning!

This is what we have tasted when we tried this coffee from Batam during our last trip there. The vendor stall was accidentally located during our search for cool beverages when we are "lost" in Nagoya Shopping District, Batam.

The taste of the coffee is quite strong! Inline with their name "Selamat Pagi". Really can kick start your morning in a positive way ^_^.

Enjoy!

Good Morning Coffee

Website: http://kopiselamatpagi.com/

Phone: +62778454563 or +62778456674

Twitter: http://twitter.com/KopiSelamatPagi

Kopi Selamat Pagi

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Riau Islands (Culinary) Trip in March 2013: Bintan Lagoon Resort

As mentioned earlier, we're staying in one of the resort in Lagoi that was Bintan Lagoon Resort. The resort is well known for its golf course. Well, that was the reason of our visit to this island, I mean, some from our group, while some of us want to see the beauty of the island itself. Since the area is managed by Singaporean and seems like a colony, we were kind of curious what would it be like.

So, from the gate which is separated the resort with its surrounding area, we could see from the infrastructure that it was very different. It had better quality, the road, the lighting, rainwater drainage system, and so on. The area is well designed. Although, once we arrived at the hotel, the building itself is little bit old and outdated. Well, the view from the lobby to the swimming pool is somehow great.

Since Aswin had left to play golf in the morning, then I had to have breakfast without him. The buffet had many varieties of food, but mostly Western food. I like the selection of salad and bread which they had. I choose the American style of breakfast such as toast, sausage, baked beans, potato wedges, and salad on the side. After that I could resist to taste their pancake because it seem good, well yeah...it was GREAT. It always best to have fruits in the morning, so I closed the breakfast with watermelon, melon, and the fruit compote. Last but least I have to start my morning with black coffee.

I love their beach, I could never be bored swim there since the water is so clear.

Enjoy!


Bintan Lagoon Resort‎
Bintan Island, Jalan Indera Segara Site A12
29155, Indonesia
Phone: +62 770 691388
Website: mozaichotels.com‎
             http://www.bintanlagoonresort.net/

The View From the Restaurant

The Restaurant Interior

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The Breakfast Menu

Pancakes with Eggs

A Balance Meal Should Include Fruits, Right?

Fruit Compote

A Cuppa Coffee to Kickstart Your Day!

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Riau Islands (Culinary) Trip in March 2013: Balerang Seafood, Batam

Balerang Seafood

The entrance

Look how vast the room is

View from the restaurant

Our table

VIP room with Air Conditioner

Waiting...

Hungry faces

Kangkung ca

Crab soup

Shrimp with butter sauce

Batam fish soup

Crab with chili sauce

Smile...

Boiled Gong gong

The crab soup

Preservation #1 No wonder they're so fresh

Preservation #2

Preservation #3

In front of Balerang bridge

We went to Batam and Bintan Island!

We're extremely excited since it was our first time to go the area.

Batam is one of islands near Singapore, and Bintan also their neighboring island. Batam and Bintan Island are included in Kepulauan Riau or Kepri with Tanjung Pinang, which is located on Bintan Island as the capital city. And shame on me that are the facts I knew when I went here. Geography and I are never meant to be. What excite us more is their culture and of course their culinary. Since there always some connections between two of them.

After we had arrived in Batam, we took lunch at Balerang Seafood near one of the Balerang Bridge which is called Tengku Fisabilillah bridge. Based on Wikipedia, it is the biggest bridge comparing with the other one that connects Batam and Tonton island. It stretches for 642 meters and is the most popular bridge of all, being a cable-stayed bridge with two 118 m high pylons and main span 350 m. The Barelang Bridge is a chain of 6 bridges of various types that connect the islands of Batam, Rempang, and Galang. “Barelang”also refers to the islands themselves. The smaller islands of Tonton, Nipah, and Setotok (considered parts of the Batam island group) connect Batam and Rempang. The entire Barelang region covers 715 Sqm. This bridge was also known as Jembatan Habibie, after Jusuf Habibie, who oversaw the project in construction, aiming to transform the Rempang and Galang islands into industrial sites (resembling present-day Batam). It is looked like Golden Gate bridge in San Fransisco, and it is one of the landmarks in Batam area.

The building of the seafood restaurant was quite strange because it was like building for futsal (indoor soccer). It was vast, it had wide span and high ceiling. So, we assumed that the place was exceptionally famous. Maybe in the weekend, the restaurant was crowded with visitors. Basically, they served all kinds of seafood, but for this lunch there were crab with chili sauce, Batam fish soup (fish with tomato soup), boiled Gong gong, shrimp with butter sauce, and Kangkung ca (vegetable). It was good, I like their Batam fish soup, it was like the combination of tom yam soup and bolognaise sauce. And Aswin like their crab, he was eating it with frenzy. And our Zimmerman moment was when we tried the Gong gong. They looked like clam, but also like a snail, and we could see their leg that  reminded us of cockroach's foot. Well, finally we tried the Gong gong and hmm...their tasted just ordinary. I guess it wasn't worth considering their look.

Well, we're a tourist, so it was obligated to take photos in front of the landmark.

Enjoy!

Balerang Seafood
Jln.Trans Barelang
Before Jembatan 1 Barelang
Batam - Indonesia
Ph. +6281277559191
E. barelangseafood@yahoo.com

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Travel Reminder: Some Useful Travel Tips Based on Our Experience

During our travel couple of weeks ago to Bintan, Batam and Malaysia, we are learning (via hard experience) that when traveling there are several important things that we should remember. This blog post will serve as a reminder for us on what is important when traveling for our future itinerary. Hopefully this can also be useful for you guys who are also planning a trip.

We will try to make it in bullet points for easier reading.

1. Always check the baggage requirements from the Airlines that you have booked. We learned this lesson the hard way during our trip to Langkawi and Kuala Lumpur. As we are used to travel using one cabin bag, we never check the weight of the baggage that we are carrying. We never thought to check it as in Indonesia, the airline staff never check the weight. It turned out during our trip back to Indonesia from Malaysia, in the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT), the airline staff check and weigh our baggage (which exceed around 5 kg from the permitted 7 kg baggage). At the end, we must pay additional Rp 300.000,- for the extra baggage. Imagine how many chocolate that you can bought using that money? ^_^.
2. You should always bring extra padlock which are easier to reach in your backpack. Continuing our story in point #1, since we thought we can bring the baggage into the cabin, we put the padlock somewhere that are difficult to reach. Thankfully our baggage have their built-in padlock, so we can lock them. But for next time, we will try to put our padlock somewhere that reachable.
3. You can purchase your local train/ bus/ transport tickets in advance. What we mean by local train/ bus/ transport tickets are tickets of Monorail, Subway, MRT, BTS, etc. During our trip to Malaysia, when we reached Central Station, we quickly purchase a return ticket to LCCT terminal via the counter that expires in 3 (three) weeks. It is provide useful for us, as when we return, the ticket counter was queuing quite far. If we purchase the ticket on-the-counter, we might be late to arrive at the airport.
4. When traveling in group and you are collecting your baggage in a hotel/ meeting point/ deposit counter, always mentioned clearly to the baggage clerk on what group you are coming from. We also learn this lesson the hard way. Our baggage was not tagged in group, and two of our baggage are left behind in a hotel in Batam when we are returning to Bandung. Thankfully, one of the group member are returning to Bandung on the next day, so we can have him bring the lost baggage to Bandung.
5. Bring just enough clothes for your trip, especially when you only booked for cabin baggage. For example: we are huge fans of UNIQLO, and until their new flagship shop opened in Indonesia, we are often purchase them during our trip abroad. For example, Aswin when going to Langkawi and Kuala Lumpur for 6 (six) days, brings 1 (one) jacket, 8 (eight) T-Shirts, 2 (two) Batik shirt, 2 (two) long pants, consisted of one Jeans and one formal pants for the conference, and 1 (one) short pants. In Kuala Lumpur, cannot resisting to shop in UNIQLO Fahrenheit Bukit Bintang, Aswin purchased additional 3 (three) T-Shirts and 1 (one) jacket. After we went home (with additional Rp 300.000,- baggage charge), we found out that for that trip, if we are intended to purchase clothes in our travel destination, we should just bring 3 (three) T-Shirts, 2 (two) Shirts - one for conference, the other one for informal occasion/ traveling, 2 (two) long pants, consisted of cargo and formal pants for conference, and 1 (one) short pants. It will save a lot of room and weight. For learning better methods of packing, you should check @DuaRansel guide for packing here and here. 
6. Most of the hotels local/ abroad, even the cheap ones are already preparing basic toiletries. So don't bring them, unless you have allergies or very selective to toiletries you used. Even if so, you should just bring a small portion of them using small vials that most supermarket will sells (we prefer the one from MUJI. A little bit expensive at first, but quite long lasting). 
7. Always brings small change during your trip abroad, especially the first time you reached the airport. Sometimes we exchange currency in big number (50, 100, 1000, etc), and when we reached to the airport we realized we need to use small change to use the public transport and for tipping. Sometimes we forgot about that, and so we used to exchange them by purchasing snacks/ drinks in the airport, which is obviously more expensive than purchasing them in convenience store. 
8. Inline with point #7, when traveling abroad, we should save the country's currency in large bills when we are returning to our country. The large bills will be used as a safety net in case we need to purchase/ pay something at the airport, such as our additional Rp 300.000,- baggage charge. The large bills if not used, can be exchanged with higher value back home, compared with the small bills. If not, at least bring extra American Dollar or Euro. We don't recommend exchanging IDR abroad, as mostly the value dropped significantly.
9. If possible, bring extra bag that can be folded. The bag must be light and takes up small space. It would be useful for you when you goes shopping for daily meals in the country, and if needed can be used to put those gifts that your friends/ family are asking (sometimes very late) to bring home from your travel.
10. NEVER-EVER-EVER-EVER-EVER bring any foods from your hometown, unless it is for gifts/ souvenirs for your friend in the visited destination. Some Indonesian (older generations) tends to bring items such as Sambal (traditional chili sauce), Instant Noodle, Soy Ketchup, even Rice Cooker! From our experience, those foods tends to return to our hometown, as we prefer to eat out when traveling. We are traveling, why not as well enjoy their culinary culture, instead of eating what we can have in our hometown? ^_^
11. Be extra careful when eating raw foods/ exotic foods when traveling. Yes, salads, seafood, foreign fruit juice, and sashimi sounds wonderful and healthy, but too often we are blinded with the exotic experience and forget about our own body condition. For regular Joe like us, who are lacking good exercise, when traveling, especially on a tight schedule, our body sometimes don't act normally. They are often fatigued and tired due to constant travel, new weather condition, and foreign air condition. These conditions makes us more vulnerable. Fresh salads and spicy chili that we can easily chowed down in our hometown might trigger diarrhea. Grilled seafood that are not fresh sometimes can be gulped down easily in our hometown, but when traveling can cause food poisoning (like what happen to Alia during our last trip to Langkawi). If you will expose yourself to most of these kind of foods, it is better for you to have enough rest, acclimate yourself, and for emergency, bring medicine on your trip. You don't want to spend all your money for vacation resting in bed due to sickness, right?

We think for now, this list will provide as reminder for our future travel. Please feel free to add more points, so we can learn and become a better and cultured traveler in the future. :)

Enjoy!

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