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Singapore -> Indonesia - Bintan / Batam

post #1 of 21
12/1/09 at 7:27pm
Thread Starter 
Long shot, but has anyone ever taken a ferry from Singapore to one of the Indonesian or Malaysian islands like Bintan or Batam?

The girlfriend and I have a few extra days in Singapore and were thinking about hopping out somewhere for a bit of sun and sand. Figuring out the ferry is easy enough, but I have no idea where to go or stay (area / hotel / etc).

K
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post #2 of 21
12/1/09 at 8:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by VKK3450 View Post
Long shot, but has anyone ever taken a ferry from Singapore to one of the Indonesian or Malaysian islands like Bintan or Batam?

The girlfriend and I have a few extra days in Singapore and were thinking about hopping out somewhere for a bit of sun and sand. Figuring out the ferry is easy enough, but I have no idea where to go or stay (area / hotel / etc).

K

I went to Batam just for the passport stamp... went to Pizza Hut and left- my most shameful excursion into any country. It actually looked really hard to find a decent beach on those islands, I couldn't find any; so I just went for the stamp. If you have a lot of money, I'm sure there's some 5 star resort around there that has some nice cove or something. The city the ferry stopped at on Batam was fairly intimidating- I've been to every country in SE Asia but the the long stares and echoing muslim prayers seemed hostile. Very, very cute girls though... a sort of half-Indian/half-Chinese appearance I'd never seen before.
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post #3 of 21
12/1/09 at 8:56pm
Get a cheap flight to Bali.

lefty
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post #4 of 21
12/1/09 at 10:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by VKK3450 View Post
Long shot, but has anyone ever taken a ferry from Singapore to one of the Indonesian or Malaysian islands like Bintan or Batam?

The girlfriend and I have a few extra days in Singapore and were thinking about hopping out somewhere for a bit of sun and sand. Figuring out the ferry is easy enough, but I have no idea where to go or stay (area / hotel / etc).

K

Do you want to die? Do you like being hijacked by pirates? Yes? Take the ferry.
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post #5 of 21
12/2/09 at 2:11am
+1 on Bali, or Southern Thailand... its not that too far off.
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post #6 of 21
12/2/09 at 9:00am
I would say Batam. Harris Resort. I'm not sure bout the beaches there but there's a swimming pool. Prices for food and entertainment are cheap. There are buses from the hotels to the malls at various timings. Do get massages (highly recommended even if you never had massages before) either from the resort's spa itself or the malls, preferably the resort's spa though..way more relaxing and intimate. Hope this helps.
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post #7 of 21
12/2/09 at 10:03am
Thread Starter 
I knew I could count on SF to have some members who have been!

Thanks for the Harris Resort recco, will check it out. Cant be fucked to fly to Thailand, we only have a couple of days and we've both already been.

I was considering going up to Malaysia but seems like we would spend too much time travelling.

K
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post #8 of 21
12/3/09 at 10:57pm
Batam is a shithole. Head there only if you want the Indo hookers. Since you are taking the gf, you probably don't. But if you can talk her into it....... Otherwise, Bintan is a better bet. It's OK. Just OK. Personally, I wouldn't go to either. Book a package tour to Rawa instead. That place is paradise. It's a three hour van to Mersing (port town in Malaysia) then a 30 minute speedboat ride out to the island.
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post #9 of 21
12/3/09 at 11:59pm
southeast asian dude here. dont bother batam. try bali/phuket/redang island(malaysia). cheap flights aplenty. last resort is bintan which is m@t has said is just OK. moral of the story: spend less time on singapore, more time on bali/redang/phuket.
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post #10 of 21
12/4/09 at 12:16am
ya, Redang is nice, but it's a pain in the ass to get up there. Perhentian is great too, especially if you're divers. I dunno, I think Phuket and Bali (both circa 2 hour flights from Singapore, plus arriving 2 hrs before departure time each way, plus all the immigration/customs rigmarole etc etc) kinda ends up a lot of extra dicking around if they only have 2-3 days to spare. I'm sticking with Rawa. Tiny, deserted, and the nicest beach Ive seen just about anywhere. Plus both Phuket and Bali are god awful if you do the obvious thing and stay in Patong/Kuta when youre there...getting further afield = more time wasted from a tight trip.
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post #11 of 21
12/4/09 at 12:39am
^ true. another day or two would've brought OP out to the better places (in my area that would be Bohol or Palawan..) or Langkawi in Malaysia.
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post #12 of 21
12/4/09 at 2:52am
since we have shifted to suggesting other islands, I am partial to the eastern islands in thailand - close ot vietnam. very low traffic.

enjoy.
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post #13 of 21
12/4/09 at 3:38am
Quote:
Originally Posted by GanglandDandy View Post
I would say Batam. Harris Resort. I'm not sure bout the beaches there but there's a swimming pool. Prices for food and entertainment are cheap. There are buses from the hotels to the malls at various timings. Do get massages (highly recommended even if you never had massages before) either from the resort's spa itself or the malls, preferably the resort's spa though..way more relaxing and intimate. Hope this helps.

wtf? i'm indonesian. stay the **** away from batam unless you're there for hookers. that said, i wouldn't expect much even then.
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post #14 of 21
12/4/09 at 9:42am
Thread Starter 
Yea, we've skipped Batam and are doing 2 nights in a quite nice resort in Bintan.

I'm not expecting the greatest most isolated pristine beaches or a ton of nightlife or whatever. This is a surplus part of the trip, we're already doing 2 days in Istanbul, a little over a week in hong kong, a stop in Macau, and about 4 days in Singapore. We basically had a couple of free days and figured a short ferry ride to an island where there is nothing to do / see / shop / etc would be a bit of welcome downtime in the middle of a bunch of hectic cities.

We considered running up to Malaysia and going somewhere like Tiomen, but I dont really feel like a bus ride then a ferry when I can ust hop a ferry from Singapore...

Also thought about dropping over to Vietnam to check out m@t's rolling stories, but that would hardly be relaxing would it?

K
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post #15 of 21
12/4/09 at 3:49pm
Youre always welcome man...open invite to all forumites... As for the travels. Tioman you can ferry straight from Singapore. Rawa is better though. Less Singaporean families there...anyhow, enjoy Bintan (and the rest of the trip too). Sounds great....
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