Batam 2016 : 1 Day Retreat

If you just need a short getaway, Malaysia or Batam will be the best place to go. So this time we decided to go to Batam to have some cheap massage to reward our hard work for the pass month! Bought the return ferry ticket from Groupon for $37 ( price depend on current promotion ) which includes all the taxes in both country. Alternative, ticket can be purchase from Majestic Fast Ferry counter or website.

Website : https://dcs.majesticfastferry.com.sg/

Got our tickets and waiting for the time to board the ferry.

Finally board the ferry and off we go!

Nice weather! Hope it will not be too warm in Batam today.

After an hour of ferry ride, finally we are here at Batam! But first thing to do is straight to the ticketing counter to redeem our return ticket so that we will not be too rush later ( more time for shopping later... haha ).

Booked a one day driver to drive us around Batam from Groupon at $40.

 To our huge disappointment, only when we reach there, than we get to know that this Pt. Best Batam Tour & Travel company DO NOT drive people to Golden Prawn area, so which means we are not able to go over to Golden Prawn 933 for our seafood feast and to purchase the layered cake from there! Having seafood by right is one of our main itinerary!

But lucky enough that our driver is very friendly, if not this company will be a total disappointment! Anyway, we would not choose this company anymore for sure.

Disappointment aside and here is the excitement! It's massage time!

We booked a 2 hr spa massage at Win's Spa! They provide very good service and massage. If you do not have any driver to drive you there, you can arrange free pick up from them when you call up for booking.

We are all ready for our massage!

Hair spa salon at the ground floor.

My spa room all by myself! Steam bath right at the corner!

2hr of spa massage includes full body massage, full body scrub, steam bath and soaking with herb in this big bathtub!

I requested the Lavender Scrub which is Rp 377.200 ( SD$40.70 ) 

After a awesome Massage, time for some lunch! Since we couldn't go to the golden prawn, we decided to settle our lunch at Nygoya Hill shopping mall.

Quite a lot of restaurants in this mall.

Ok, we have decided to settle at Godiva.

Wait! Godiva chocolate for lunch only?! 

Haha! Nope, this Godiva is a Bistro Godiva that sells local and western food. 

Lets go in and have a look what they have,

Soto Ayam for Rp10.000 ( SG$1.10 )only?!

Ok! I shall have this!

 

My very blend apple juice.

Fried prawn tempura. Taste ok for the price we are paying. 

My Soto Ayam. Not bad.

 

They sell chicken chops too. 

Taste was normal as well, I guess their local food is slightly better although it is not fantastic too.

After lunch, time for some exercise! It's shopping time! We are always excited to shop in the local supermarket. Haha!

The supermarket is located at the basement of the shopping mall by the way.

We controlled ourselves very well this time round! We shared one shopping trolley among two of us which normally happens to be one trolley per person! Haha! ( *give myself a pat at the shoulder* )

After shopping at the supermarket, time to head back to the ferry terminal. We asked the driver to drop us at Mega Mall, which is just opposite the ferry terminal, so that we can have a least a cup of coffee before we head back to Singapore.

This Batam Layer Cake is actually from the Golden Prawn area but since we can't go there to buy, our driver uncle is very kind enough to ask his friend to help us buy and he went somewhere to pick up from his friend for us.

By the way, we only like this layer cake among the many brands in Batam! Even my mum says this is the best one. 

Crossing the bridge over to the ferry terminal but wait! Let's welfie first!

Our loot for this day trip!

Time to board our ferry and head back to Singapore!

Such a nice view that doesn't look like Batam at all right?

Watching sun set while on our way back to Singapore!

Here ends our relax trip! 

Look forward for my next trip!

Bye!

Japan 2016, Day 7 & 8 : Odaiba -> Venus Fort -> Diver City -> Liberty of Statue @ Odaiba -> Rainbow Bridge -> Back Home

Day 7 :

Actually we wanted to go to the Zao fox Village today, but realise that the train tickets there is already beyond our budget cause we do not have much cash left for our last day in Tokyo. Haha! So we decided to go Odaiba and also to do some last minute shopping.

Today we decided to try their 'fast food' bento from this Matsuya, which can be seen almost everywhere and which we pass by everyday while on our way to the train station. 

Address : Japan, 〒160-0022 Tōkyō-to, Shinjuku-ku, Shinjuku, 3 Chome−11−11-11, ダイアン新宿ビル1F

Operating Hours : 24Hrs

Almost full house when we go in.

And again, bought our food ticket through the machine.

Pearlie's Japanese curry bento.

And my chicken bento.

Took train to Shinjuku station and transfer to the JR Yamanote Line to Osaki station and from there transfer to Rinkai line and alight at the Tokyo teleport station. 

Exit A from Toyko teleport station.

Here we are at the Venus Fort and this is where their Farris wheel located at.

My first time seeing pink leaves!

The Venus fort mall is actually a outlet mall and the interior of the mall is really like Venus ( although I never been to Venus but I saw pictures of the place before ).

Address :  Japan, 〒135-0064 Tōkyō-to, Kōtō-ku, 江東区青海1−3−15

Operating Hours : 11am - 9pm

 There is a fountain in the mall and this really make you feel like you are in one of the European country.

After walking in the Venus fort, we walk over to the Diver City Tokyo plaza, which is another mall near to the Venus font. Exit B from the Tokyo teleport station.

Here we are at the Diver City Tokyo Plaza. 

Address : Japan, 〒135-0064 Tōkyō-to, Kōtō-ku, 江東区Aomi, 1 Chome−1−1−10

Operating Hours : 10am - 9pm

Walk in and the first shop that attract our attention is the kitty land! Hello kitty lover please be aware as you might go crazy inside!

 And look at those cute ice cream!

 Of course we have to have some of those cute ice cream!

Need more cosmetic? Don't worry there is Matsumoto Kiyoshi here too.

 This mall is actually famous for the giant gundam which is outside the festival plaza at level 2.

The Gundam is really huge! There is certain timing where you can get to see the head of the Gundam moving but we just missed the timing and the next timing is a bit too late for us. Anyway picture for us will do since we know nothing about this robot. Haha!

Selfie with the big robot! 

Went to the ABC mart at level 5 and this outlet is so far the biggest I saw! Wanted to get a pair of shoe for my mum and myself. Already know what I want so it's a grab and go shopping. No tax free for all ABC mart by the way.

Next will be the snacks time! Big outlet for all the famous snacks like the Tokyo banana, the white chocolate and many more.

 After all the shopping, we walk over to the liberty of statue. Yes, I'm in Tokyo not New York and yes there is a Liberty of statue there too!

And beside the statue will be the rainbow bridge. I guess the bridge will be nicer when it's at night.

Anyway sun is setting, time to head back to town to continue our last minute shopping.

We are already at the Daiba station, so we took the yarikamone line from Daiba station to shimbashi stayion, transfer to the ginza line and alight at Shibuya.

Was here for the Onitsuka Tiger flagship store cause the another smaller outlet in Kitte mall had lesser design and Miyuki told me to come to this outlet to have a look. Indeed much bigger with more design here But it was super crowed! And the staff here can speak better English then the other outlet! *phew* 

Address :  Japan, 〒150-0041 東京都渋谷区Jinnan, 1 Chome−21, 神南1−21−3 渋谷神南共同ビル 1･2F

 Operating Hours : 11am - 9pm ( Monday - Friday )

11am - 8.30pm ( Saturday and Sunday )

No tax refund for Onitsuka Tiger store but there is 5% off if you are a tourist. I guess it works the same as tax refund.

Disney castle opposite the Onitsuka Tiger store! But not a Disney fan!

No more value in our pasmo card and since it's our last night here, we shall not top up the card and instead we buy the single trip ticket.

 Back to our home area to have our dinner. Wanted to have udon as our last dinner and just nice that there is a small udon restaurant, Udon Omoya  which is just below our apartment. Went in there, only locals inside. Some time place that has only locals are the place that sell better food.

Address : 〒160-0022 Tōkyō-to, Shinjuku-ku, Shinjuku, 5 Chome−8−14

Operating Hours : 11am - 2pm,

6pm - 10pm

 The staff in the shop actually do live performance on certain days, and can see their performance through YouTube.

 Haha look their English menu! Their face on the cover page.

 Back home quite early to pack our luggage and rest early as we need to wake up early to head off to the airport.

Oh ya not forgetting the last dessert in Japan from the convenience store! This peach ice cream ball is so nice that I wish I could bring back to Singapore!

Time to pack all my loot into the luggage! 

Good night Toyko!

Day 8 : 

Woke up really early and head off to Shinjuku station and to see if we could get the airport limousine bus ticket. One of my friend told me that we need to buy the bus tickets in advance but luckily when we reach the ticket counter, there is still tickets for the next coming bus to the airport ! *phew* 

Address :  Japan, 〒160-0023 Tōkyō-to, Shinjuku-ku, Nishishinjuku, 1 Chome−10, 西新宿1丁目19-11 パシフィカ西新宿ビル1

The bus stop which is bus stop 23 is just right in front of the ticket counter.

 

There is still time so finally I can have my breakfast. Bought the food yesterday night and reheat in the apartment before leaving the house in order to save time.

You will not expect convenience store sell this type of soft boil egg! People who love Japanese style of soft boil egg will go crazy if they sees this!

 Journey takes about 1.5 hrs so we reached quite early to the airport.

 After check in, went to do some shopping again!

 After 1 week of tax free shopping, my passport looks like this. Haha! Anyway, I thought that the custom will check our items to make sure we didn't open up those sealed up bags of products but they actually didn't check at all. After passing through the security check, and before the immigration check, there is a staff holding to a basket and asking us to remove the receipts that was pasted or stapled on our passport and that's it! Fast and easy! If I know they don't even check, I should have remove all the sealed plastic because of the way they put the things in the bag wasted a lot of space in my luggage.

 Ok! 1 last shop for the really really really last minute shopping! Haha! Saw the Sakura matcha Kitkat which we didn't see it else other where so we decided to grab it.

 No more shopping so time to sit back and relax while waiting for our boarding time!

 Good bye Tokyo! You have been quite good to us except for the only raining ( yet very heavy rain ) day, communication breakdown (80%), and a few rude Japanese we met in the week (surprisingly!), otherwise everything is good! Food is good and happy to see the beautiful Sakura too! Hope to go Japan again but maybe other part of Japan!

 In flight Lunch! Had teriyaki chicken wrap this time round.

Hello Mount Fuji!

 Hello Taiwan! I'm back! It's raining in Taiwan I guess the sky can feel how sad I'm to end my holiday. The flight got delay so our transit waiting time become shorter.

 And here's the dinner time. Had nasi lemak and finally a better food from the flight.

Anyway see ya guys! Gonna plan for my next trip soon!