Batam (Indonesia)

Saving money in Batam [u]

Because Singapore is so expensive we thought about how to save money. The easiest way was to go to Indonesia. Batam is only 1 hour away from Singapore. So we checked out of our hostel in Singapore and travelled with the ferry to Batam.

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When we arrived there, we started to look for a hostel. There is no tourist information. We think here are no tourists ether. We drove with a taxi into the city, but the funny thing was the driver had to use a screwdriver to start the car and the suspension was totally worn out. It cost us 4 Euro (40 000 Rp) to drive with the taxi 15 min into the city. We asked the nonenglish speaking locals for a cheap place to sleep. One of them guided us for a little bit ( 4 Euro after huggeling before 10 Euro) money to a hotel. On the way we could see the big difference between Singapore and Batam. Bad roads, everything looks poor, dumped waste everywere, begging childs, stinky rivers and more. We didn't fell well here.

We booked into a hotel (hotel Ozon) for 175 000 Rp (17,50 EUro) and we got our own room, tv, roomservice and bathroom.

We even had our own toilet with a buttshower. But we still prefer the toiletpaper. We are not ready yet...

Everything was really cheap here. But that is the only good thing here. We think it's not the most beautyful and safest place here.

We found a paradise for real gamers. You pay 0.15 Euro for a game. Even we played a lot here :-)

The shopping for a day including food, beer and chips cost us 212 000 Rp (18 Euro)

The one and only interesting place is a big market where you can buy everything. But the smell was disgusting.

We think the Batams believed that we are ALIENS. We think we were the only western people there. Everybody looked at us, some with a open mouth. A few were brave enough to yell us "I love you"

All in all we paid 1 037 700 Rp ( 80 Euro) for the hotel, food, mini bar, telephone and service. Moritz paid 250 000 Rp (20 Euro) for his international phonecall.