Batam IV Day 2-3: Gokart, Water Sports & Kelong Seafood

We were excited to set off for a day of adventure this morning! We had hired a private 14-seater van for 8 hours (cost us S$100) to bring us to explore Batam.

Group photo in front of Harris Hotel taken by our kind driver

Inside the van with more than enough seats for 8 adults, 3 kids, 2 babies and 2 strollers!

Our first stop was breakfast at Black Canyon Coffee in Mega Mall Batam Centre. We had breakfast here previously and rather liked the food and drinks.

Black Canyon Coffee

Clockwise from left: Avacado drink; Cheese and ham sandwich;
Fried noodles from the kids menu (which has chili in it and tastes surprisingly better than the adult version)

After breakfast, we all piled into the van and headed to our first activity of the day: gokarting!

They can feel an adventure coming up..

We arrived at Golden Gokart after travelling for about 20 minutes. I was very excited to drive a gokart, especially since they allowed a child to travel with an adult.

Golden Gokart

Girlee and me getting ready with our helmets

Excited to get started!

I love that they provided disposable shower caps for us to wear under the helmet for hygiene! At least you know that you won't have to wear a dirty, smelly helmet! =)

With my girl in the double seater gokart

Buckling up into our gokart

Vroom and we're off!

Yay!! =)

To be honest, I was very nervous to drive a gokart with my girl in it. I was afraid that if I made a mistake, it could end up getting my girl hurt. But my fears were unfounded as the gokart wasn't very fast. Both me and my girl ended up having an awesome time! =)

The gokart-driving folks!

After gokarting, we proceeded for water sports located just 10 minutes away. The weather looked great so we purchased a "jetski-banana boat-parasailing" package for 5 people.

Water sports

The guys and the hubby's cousin went to ride the jetski first while the rest of us stayed behind to take care of the kids.

The boys were grouchy because it was time for their nap/food;
the girls on the other hand were looking forward to banana-boating

Building a structure of sand, sticks and rocks with Big Sister C and Little Brother C while waiting

Looks like a masterpiece don't you think?

We told the girls that they could ride the banana boat because previously the then 3-year-old Big Sister C was allowed to ride it with no problems. However, the lady running the water sports company was concerned that the boat may tip over if the kids rode with the bigger sized guys. Nevertheless, I managed to convince her that only the women will ride with the kids plus we were absolutely fine with the banana boat going really slowly; we already promised the girls and really did not want to disappoint them. Finally she agreed and off we went once the guys returned.

The banana-boating folks!

Getting on the banana boat

And we're off!

Fortunately or unfortunately, it started to rain when we're on the banana boat! Although we couldn't really see because the rain was on our faces, we still had a lot of fun (lucky we were still able to do this activity otherwise the kids would have been so disappointed!). My girl really enjoyed it and said she would definitely do it again if she had the chance to =)

Sadly, it rained very heavily soon after we got back from riding the banana boat so we couldn't do parasailing like we planned to. We were really disappointed as some of us were really looking forward to it! =(

After the company kindly refunded us the money for parasailing, we made our way to nearby Golden Prawn (just 10 minutes drive away) for our late lunch.

After lunch, we went to Batam Layer Cakes next to Golden Prawn to buy their famous kuei lapis (layer cakes) back home for our families. It was great that they were able to send fresh kuei lapis directly to our hotel so that we don't have to lug it back! =)

Our next destination is the famous Tengku Fisabilillah Bridge, one of 6 bridges that form The Barelang Bridge. Unfortunately it was raining so we couldn't get any pictures of us on the bridge. The driver was kind enough to drive really slowly so that we could still snap some pictures.

Tengku Fisabilillah Bridge is the only cable bridge of the 6 Barelang Bridges and is also the most beautiful

Managed to take a nice photo of the whole bridge despite the rain

We then proceeded to Citra Utama Seafood, a kelong restaurant that served very fresh and cheap seafood.

Kelongs are offshore structures that are built mainly with wood

Walking into the restaurant
(The platform was quite sturdy despite being made of wood)

Our family

Our friends

With the Tengku Fisabilillah Bridge in the background

This is really a great seaside experience! Dining above the sea! =)

Nice shot of the kelong taken by our friend K

The kelong restaurant was practically deserted probably because of the rain

There are no fans though so it can get warm if there isn't any sea breeze. Luckily for us, it was raining so overall the air was pretty cooling.

Despite having just had lunch not too long ago, we were still hungry! As it was our last dinner of our trip, we went all out and ordered everything that swims in the sea that we could think of! As usual, the hubby was in heaven =P

Fried noodles for the kids, shellfish for the seafood fanatics, hotplate tofu egg, drunken prawns and vegetables

Fresh fish on a steaming plate!
(Baby Boy love it so much that he would scream if I didn't feed him fast enough!)

Other than the crayfish, we loved every single dish especially the fish, scallop and vegetables! And even though we ordered at least 10 dishes (2 plates of fish, scallop and vegetables; 1 plate of fried noodles, fried chicken, fried egg, tofu egg and shellfish and 1 bowl of drunken prawn soup) and a lot of drinks, we ended up paying only Rp 1.2 million (approximately S$128) for live seafood! Definitely well worth our time to travel to this kelong for dinner =)

I bought the boys the same t-shirts from Malacca

Super duper cute right? Love it =)

Nice group photo taken by one of the staff

I have to say that we were very impressed by the service of our driver. Knowing that we had children with us, he always tried to think ahead and ensured that we were always sheltered to and from the van. I thought his service was very thoughtful and he tried to give good suggestions on where to go (do send me an email if you want the contact).

We were exhausted after a long day of adventure so everyone (well almost) went to bed by 12 midnight.

The next day we had breakfast at Harris Hotel (cost Rp 110000), which wasn't fantastic but value for money. After breakfast, our family went to play at Timezone while the rest went swimming.

Baby Boy was surprisingly unfazed by the carousel until he realised it was going round and round for really long

He really loves riding the cars
(Girl woke up with a swollen left eye lid from an insect bite in the morning so she wasn't in a good mood)

He still liked riding cars more than animals

The rest joined us soon after and soon it was time to board our ferry back to Singapore. How fast time flies!

I don't know if it's because of my boy's birthday luck or what but for the first time since I have travelled with babies by ferry, we were asked to sit in the VIP cabin by the staff because we were carrying babies on the upper deck! Wow! We had never travelled in the VIP cabin before.

I truly believe my birthday boy was the lucky charm! Haha

Folks seated on the left

Folks seated on the right

More than enough space to fit all of us! Thanks to the VIP cabin, we were nicely sheltered from the rain (which made a few other passengers really jealous of us haha). To say it was a good end to a really great trip is an understatement. Except for the 2 single and childless folks, the rest of us are already thinking about our next trip together!

Looking forward to more trips with friends =)


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