Celebrating SG60 in Batam: Oakwood Hotel & Grand Batam Mall

DAY 1

We decided to spend SG60 in Batam over the National Day weekend, just as we had done during SG50 and the year before! *laughs*

We booked our ferry via Majestic Fast Ferry at S$76 per person.

With the super excited Littlest!

For some reason, the journey felt very short and we arrived at Batam Centre in less than 1 hour! Although it was so crowded at immigration, we managed to cut the time in half by completing the Indonesia Arrival Card online and going through the automatic gates.

Once we had cleared customs, we walked to Megamall via the overhead bridge and hailed a Grab to our hotel. We had loved Grand Batam Mall so much during our last trip that we decided to stay at Oakwood Hotel & Apartments Grand Batam because it was located next to the mall!

My outfit for the trip (left) and Oakwood Hotel (right)

Oakwood Hotel swimming pool

We were super kiasu and booked the 2-Bedroom Premier Suite in August last year (since there was free cancellation) 🤭 The suite cost only $282 per night, which was a super good deal! 😆 We were also incredibly lucky to be allocated the room on the highest floor (22nd) in the building! The view was super amazing! 😍

The living room was super spacious and perfect for my daily morning exercise

Master bedroom

View from the window of the master bedroom

Wardrobe and door to the master bathroom

Large master bathroom with a huge bathtub

Toiletries and toilet

Second bedroom with twin beds (for the kids)

Common bathroom

Full size kitchen with oven, microwave, water dispenser, fridge and most importantly, a washing machine!

Full size dining table

Super spacious balcony

Love the view of the sea and surrounding areas from the balcony!

We were just steps to the Grand Batam Mall, located just next to our hotel! We had a great time shopping at our favourite stores and the supermarket!

Buying bubble tea of course!

Oh!Some aka KKV aka the "yellow shop"

I had discovered this shop on our previous Batam trip and since then have shopped in a similar store in Malacca. Singapore also has one in JEM! I love the "yellow shop" for its value-for-money products, which are different in each country I had visited. It reminded me of the joy I had when I first discovered Mr DIY, which sadly no longer holds the same appeal.

The family decided to have dinner at Daun Pisang Resto.

An Indonesian restaurant

Satay was delicious

Food was decent but not good enough to satisfy the Foodie family. Feeling dissatified, the kids asked for dessert!

Eldest had matcha ice-cream (left) while the Boy had some cheese pancake thingy (right)

We returned to the hotel for a night swim!

Oakwood hotel swimming pool

Family photo at the pool

It was a great end to the first day of our trip!

DAY 2

I woke up really early even though I didn't set an alarm so I exercised in the comfort of the living room for an hour before I woke the kids.

Enjoying the view from the balcony

The kids and I were looking forward to the fluffy pancakes at Pan & Co but they only opened at 10am so we were starving by the time we headed over! 😵 It was so worth the wait though!

Fluffy pancakes at Pan & Co

Drinks were not so good (left) but the Boy loved his pasta (right)

The Eldest's favourite was the matcha fluffy pancakes! 🥞

After breakfast, we headed to Siam Odyssey, located right beside our hotel entrance. Although there were many massage places near our hotel, we thought this one was the most convenient and value-for-money. We had booked the 11am slot the day before for 90-minute Balinese oil massages (Rp380k per person) for 3 persons (Hubby, Eldest and I).

Siam Odyssey

Feet washing before our massages

The massage was cheap and good! We loved it so much that we booked another session for the next day! 😄

We had lunch at Toby's Estate.

Everything looked so good! I wanted to try everything! 😜

Yummy!

Drinks, salad and pasta were so good!

Love my egg croissant! So yummy! 😋

We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping at the mall.

Kids playing a life-size game (left);
One of my favourite stores, which I first discovered on my first London trip in 2014 (right)

We took a Grab to Harbour Bay Seafood for dinner.

Entrance to the restaurant

The seating area of the restaurant faces the sea and they served live seafood

The food was fresh and tasty!

We enjoyed our food with a beautiful view of sea and the setting sun!

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After dinner, we walked for 5 minutes to Marriott Hotel Harbour Bay as the adults wanted to enjoy their alcoholic drinks at the Marriott Sky Bar.

The kids were only posing for this picture; they didn't stay there for long!

You can see the Pacific Palace Hotel, which looks exactly like a cruise ship!

The Mum-in-law and I don't drink alcohol so we brought the kids back to our hotel for a night swim. Both kids and adults had the best time that night! 😆

DAY 3

The next morning, the Hubby, 2 girls and I had breakfast at Toby's Estate (we love the food there!) while the rest of the family had buffet breakfast at the hotel's restaurant.

Strong coffee in the morning!

Yummy breakfast!

The kids had a final swim before we checked out from our hotel.

Having fun in the pool

While the kids swam, I awaited the delivery of our Sun Li Batam Layer Cakes that I had ordered via Whatsapp. I love their kueh lapis and have been buying from them ever since our first trip with the Eldest in 2011.

Sun Li Batam Layer Cakes

After packing the boxes into our luggage (they're not light so do remember to bring a luggage!) and checking out of our hotel, the Hubby, Eldest and I had our final 60-minute massages at Siam Odyssey.

Final massage of the trip!

We had lunch at Toby's Estate again, the final time for this trip because the rest of the family didn't get to eat it for breakfast! 😅

Mac and cheese (my Boy's favourite!), fried calamari and black rice that looked really strange but tasted so good!

Bolognese pasta, salad and rice with oxtail

We were so full from lunch that we skipped dinner! 😀

After our meal, we returned to our hotel to retrieve our luggage and called for 2 Grab cars to Batam Center Ferry Terminal. We had to wait a long time for our car because of the rain and peak hour!

By the time we had arrived at the terminal, there was a large crowd gathered at the base of the escalator leading up to the immigration. Due to the large crowd of people returning to Singapore, the staff had to do crowd control by allowing only those whose ferry was due to leave in an hour or less to enter first. As we still had time, we were held at the holding area until it was our turn. Honestly, it would have been better had there been a proper system and waiting areas. Without it, some people were in standing around in states of panic and wondering what was happening.

Despite the crowd, we managed to clear immigration without any issues. The queue was longer than usual (it was a super peak period) but with a bit of patience, it was still manageable in my opinion (if you hate crowds then travel off-peak).