[nehcaw]

I came back from Batam yesterday, my first trip. Thanks to all the contributors here, as all the info were invaluable in getting myself prepared to what I should expect.

DAY 1
This was a 2D1N trip, I left Friday around noon and came back on Saturday late afternoon/early evening. I landed in Batam around 12:45pm. As suggested, I immediately went to the check-in counter and got my boarding pass for the return ferry. As I was walking out, a scooter guy asked where I was going, I told him where and ask how much, he said Rp20k. It seem reasonable, not knowing anything else, off we went to Formosa. I checked in at the hotel, filled out the membership form, left my backpack at the room and went directly to check out the surroundings. I changed S$ at one of the money changers across from Formosa at a rate of 10400 (third shop from the left, viewed from Formosa).

I went to check out the Paragon@Nagoya hotel. As the photo of the rooms looked pretty good on Agoda.com, I almost booked this hotel. But decided not to as I was not able to find any reviews of this hotel on SBF. So, I wanted to check it out myself. I am glad I didn’t book a room there. The staff were nice enough to show me some rooms. The rooms they showed me were small, some had no windows, and the rooms all had an odd smell. The lobby was tiny as well. The only redeeming value of this hotel is that it is right across from Sekar (New Berry), and cheap (I believe on Agoda it was around S$28 per night for a room with queen size bed).

After checking out Paragon, I started my tour of booking joints. This was about 1:45PM on Friday. While I had marked about 6 booking joints on my Google Map, I decided to just visit 3 of them. This was the advice I got from someone, which I think made a lot of sense for a noob.

Since I was already across the street from Sekar, that’s where I started. There were 6 girls only. Okt said many got booked already because it was Friday. 2 out of 6 looked decent, a lighter complexion Chinese speaking girl and a darker syt who looked really young and a tad too skinny. I was quoted prices of 1.1juta and 1.3 juta. I said that I would look around some more. He followed me out, seemed eager to make a deal and asked how much would I pay. I never gave him a figure, as I was determined to check out other joints. But knowing that most likely I would have less bargaining power if I were to return. Well, so be it.

Next was Happy 8, just 2 minutes walk away. This place had about 15 to 20 girls, the quoted prices ranged from 800k to 1.6juta. None of the girls looked appetizing to me. The 2 mamas gave me their biz cards as I Ieft.

I walked to MM next. This is a bit further out. On my map, I had marked Bali Hotel as the landmark for MM, as it was said that MM is across from the hotel. Very true, right across from the hotel. There was MM Massage and right next to it, MM Salon. I walked into the massage, okt greeted me. He pressed the ringer to get the girls to come out and sit on the benches, 8 girls in total. Two looked very attractive, both were trying to get my attention, both syt type, one looked a tad heavier than the other one, but had bigger boobs. Ultimately I picked the skinnier one as she had that look that i really liked. I was quoted 1.3juta, but was able to get her for 1 juta. I asked her to go to my room at 5pm. Okt asked for Rp50k taxi fare to send the girl there, I rejected, as I don’t remember reading anything about this on SBF. I finally gave in and we agreed on Rp30k.

Along the way, constantly there were people asking if I wanted taxi or a ride. Good thing no one followed me and pestering me as I read from some postings here.


....Continue on next post for Part 2