On the scale of 1 to 10, our ratings for the whole Batam experience are:
Wei Siang: 8.0
[Sightings of prostitutes would be 2 points better. He felt pleased with majority of the planning. Love the visits to Chocolate factory, temples, full-body massage, ear-waxing and shopping malls etc. The sole regret of the whole trip was that he didn't bring sufficient rupiahs for shopping. ]
Kenneth: 6.5
[Pretty crummy place. Unfortunately, he felt a great deal of failed planning because it wasn't up to his personal expectation. There was an inevitable disappointment and self-repoach. Definitely a less fabulous getaway than in Genting. The only consolation from the itinerary for him was only the full-body massage.]
Ryan: 4.0
[Come on, I felt a morsel of disappointment that it was a guided trip instead of free-and-easy. Detest the occasional trips down from the coach for sightseeings and shopping. Well, my conception of Batam was a beautiful island with magnificent sceneries but it turned out to be something unexpected. Fortunately, the hotel was pretty much spacious and comfortable.]
The whole Batam experience was overall okay; but I will never ever ever ever return back there!
On a more positive light, the meals provided in this small indo-island was pretty favorable, albeit the lunch at the Seafood Centre was pretty substandard. The stay in Golden View Hotel was a bliss because I love how they provided facility like BATHTUB!! The triple room was spacious, lovely and comfortable at such a low price. Unbelievable.
Ah well, on a less optimistic point of view, I detest the fact that we had to alight our coach almost every 5 minutes just to visit places like small shopping arcades and random street stalls. Crummy. To make matter worst, I had very meagre amount of sleep the night before which made me felt cranky and emotional.
At some point of the journey, I had actually putted my discontentment on display which raised their attention. 'I'm okay' and 'I'm fine' were the most frequently used catchphrases that betrayed my guts when being asked for the reason. Of course, Kenneth sensed the boredom and discontentment in me and attempted to 'placate' me.
I felt like a fuck-up friend and a travel companion. I should have been happy and joyous to have friends that put their effort to make this trip happened. If weren't for both of them, I would have do all these trips alone.
Well, it was more like the disappointment and fatigue that pissed me off most of the time. Especially during the last part of the journey I had obviously displayed during the course of the whole trip was that, I actually regretted the choice of putting a truckload of obscenity on Kenneth for the photo shoots. I shouldn't have led him to a whole new level of stupidity and shame in the name of fun. I sometimes wonder am I really a friend or foe.
Of course, such an act had raised disparagement, disappointment and unhappiness in Wei Siang when he browsed through the what he deemed as the worse obscenity, repulse and embarrassment. Kenneth sensed the seriousness of Wei Siang and promised that he would never commit the same blunder again.