What seems to be 3 weekends away, I went on a little getaway to Turi Beach! We got one of those cheap deals from Groupon which I was initially wary about because I was scammed of around $300 the last time I bought a cheap deal from Streetdeals.
(DON'T BUY TRAVEL STUFF FROM STREETDEALS! But Groupon and Bigdeal.sg are fine. Bigdeal has pretty good customer service too.)
We contemplated Krabi or Boracay, but since John has been to this Turi Beach Resort during his company retreat and it's pretty good, we snagged the deal and headed off to Batam!
On Saturday, we met at 6.45 am at Tanah Merah for the earliest ferry to Batam. As we were boarding the ferry, the sky was so overcast and the waves choppy. It was raining the first day and we couldn't check in until 1 pm and so we were there at 9 am, not knowing where to go. We were a little bit bummed about that cos we wanted to do lotsa sea sports or hit the pool on the first day... So we headed out to the city center for A&W, Massage and Seafood! We literally took maybe 3 photos that day cos so much of it was spent indoors or stuffing ourselves with food.
(DON'T BUY TRAVEL STUFF FROM STREETDEALS! But Groupon and Bigdeal.sg are fine. Bigdeal has pretty good customer service too.)
We contemplated Krabi or Boracay, but since John has been to this Turi Beach Resort during his company retreat and it's pretty good, we snagged the deal and headed off to Batam!
On Saturday, we met at 6.45 am at Tanah Merah for the earliest ferry to Batam. As we were boarding the ferry, the sky was so overcast and the waves choppy. It was raining the first day and we couldn't check in until 1 pm and so we were there at 9 am, not knowing where to go. We were a little bit bummed about that cos we wanted to do lotsa sea sports or hit the pool on the first day... So we headed out to the city center for A&W, Massage and Seafood! We literally took maybe 3 photos that day cos so much of it was spent indoors or stuffing ourselves with food.
The corridor towards the villas.
We booked a whole-day taxi driver, who fetched us around the city center in Batam at a fixed price. Probably because there are places who pay him commission to recommend them, he kept pushing us to go for certain places... But we were firm with where we wanted to go. I think being in Indonesia somehow made us a little more wary of them, but actually they had so much trust in us. The driver just let us go off at Nagoya hills, for example, and we fixed a time to be back. We didn't even pay anything. For all he knew we could have just taken another taxi back and not paid.
But then again, he has close relations with Turi Beach and the resort has all our details.. So I guess he knew he didn't have anything to fear.
John trying Indon bubble tea. Instead of the yummy silky pudding that is the usual in Singapore, they use the firm agar agar jelly. ><
Then we went for a 2-hour massage at ESKA near Nagoya Hills. No photos obviously.. It was really good.. Some parts it really hurt though but after a while I fell into a deep sleep. The rest of them said they heard someone snoring and it could very well be me. Haha!
Then, an early dinner at Golden Prawn Seafood! We ordered a variety of dishes including coconut. The menu has no prices, and we just ordered without knowing the prices... Hahaha where did we get so much faith?
We ordered squid, gong gong, fish, tofu, etc... And when we wanted to order prawns, they ran out. At GOLDEN PRAWN. @_@
Bill came up to be around SGD$14 for all the food we ate which is a typical zichar cost in Singapore?
The ride from Turi to the city center is around 45 minutes so most of us fell asleep on the way back.
At night we went for a dip illegally(?) in the pool and took a walk around the trails in the resort which looked very Survivor-inspired. Then we headed back to our rooms for some drinks and games hahaha.
NEXT MORNING! All fresh from a good night's sleep. Hahahaha the buffet breakfast was so-so only. I remember having a dream that night that John was late to wake up and he made me miss the whole of the buffet breakfast, which I looked forward to. So I became so angry with him in the dream I pounded him on the head with my fist LOL... After trying it in reality the buffet was pretty much not worth all that.
Loved waking up to the sound of sea waves.
Always thought places like Batam, Bintan are the no-kick vacay places where only schools and companies use for big events. But actually Batam can be beautiful too...
One of the two pools at Turi. This is called Emerald I believe.
And here we're at Aqua Pool!
Aqua Pool has a little bar area and we ordered our lunch on the second day there. Ohhh I still remember their avocada juice. SO YUMMY!!! I gulped down everything cos it was so hot! And John enjoys a beer. After a very intoxicated night... haha I guess beer cures hangovers.
LOL John and I were just chilling in this little hut and Alex and Yuxuan looked from the pool and said that we look like we live there hahha. Not a bad place if you ask me! Turi beach has all these little spots with hammocks, villas, and huts like this one. Super chill if you get one! Can just sleep there all day.
John's previous attempt at Jetskiing was spent being unbalanced and thrown into the water again and again. He says it was because the waves were super choppy then... Hahaha but when we tried it that day at Turi it was sooo smooth and amazing. We just went high-speed all the way and even went out far to say hi to the fishermen on sampan boats. After a while we just got a little bored cos it was so easy!
Try taking a little getaway to Batam or Bintan! I think it is worth it. Until now, I still reminisce about the skies of Bintan when we had our level camp there almost 7 years (*gasp ) ago.. I remember seeing 10 shooting stars and others who were more patient and still even more. The stars easily numbered in millions and made me a little giddy. I certainly don't mind another do-nothing chillax holiday there!
Fun times :)