On the Island of Batam in Indonesia

I've just been on a trip to Indonesia. To the island of Batam to be exact. Its a small Island 45 minutes south of Singapore by boat.

My partner has family living out there so we decided to pay them a visit and take the opportunity to experience that side of the world. Its been over 25 years since I was last in Singapore or Indonesia so I was looking forward to the familiar sights and sounds of my teenage years. Very Nostalgic.

The trips starts here in Scotland. The day before we are due to leave the weather turns and it starts to snow. Heavily.

This was going to be a very stark contrast to our destination. By sunrise the city was covered in snow and my partner's family that was joining us on the trip were driving up from the countryside that was encased in snow. We worried they wouldn't make it into the city on time due to overnight traffic chaos.

Luckily they made it in good time and we all took off together. We were treated to some nice snowy scenes as we took off. I was happy to be leaving the wintery cold behind.

It was a 12 hour flight to Singapore and most of it was overnight. Sleeping is always a nightmare on planes but our arrival was in the late morning so we at least had a nice view coming in to land.

It was a 45 minute ferry ride from Singapore to get to Batam. We went form Tanah Merah ferry terminal just south of the airport to Nongsa Point on Batam. It was dark by the time we got to the island so we went straight to the village where we were staying. We'd see more of it in the morning, but just now all you could see was dark.

However the following morning you could see where we ended up. We were staying in a village built in the middle of the jungle.

I love the houses, they are a very typical Indonesian design I thought.

The place is called Nongsa Village and is one of those communities where a few people live year round and the rest are owned by wealthy people who use them as holiday homes.

There's even a lovely swimming pool but I am guessing we were there during the off season as no one except us used it. Of course there is a sensible reason no one used the pool, January is the monsoon season so for a large portion of the time we were there the weather was a bit like this:

I loved it though, it was very nostalgic for me and I loved listening to the lightning and thunder.. something you don't get much of in Scotland despite the vast amount of rain we get here.

Aside from the pool and the houses the village was built along the coast so some of the houses are also beachfront properties.

There's also a jetty that you can walk out to to enjoy some fishing or whatever else you might do on a jetty.

..and then there's the local wildlife which we didn't spot any of until the second week, but they like to sneak into your house if you have the doors open and food out.

Monkeys! A lot of Monkeys. They're harmless, just a bit cheeky, unless you approach their young.. then they get fierce.

This was the view form our balcony:

The village is part of a complex which encompasses two other resorts. The first is Nongsa Point Marina which has a series of chalets as well as hotel rooms. Its generally a place that Singaporeans go to for weekends away and to moor their yachts - lots of rich folk!

We went there a few times to sample the delights of the bar and pool. Although we had our own pool we decided we'd try out the other pools while we were at it and explore the grounds a little.

The third resort/place in the area is called Turi Beach. Its similar in the idea of the marina but this one is more focused on an actual beach for jetskiing, snorkling etc and generally chillig out at the pool. This one is mainly just hotel rooms, no self catered chalets.

The place had an infinity pool as well as a normal pool and a deeper pool on the other side (not pictured) for people to choose from.

This place was more heavily focused on relaxation and vacation where the marina was more for boating and getting drunk.

There was even a Spa where me and my lady tried out a couples massage. It was an hour long and somehow that time passed in what felt like 15 minutes. It was glorious and if I was irresponsible with my spending we would have been there every day!

There wasn't much to do or see here other than hang by the pool or the bar, but then this wasn't exactly a tourism holiday.. we came to see my partner's grandmother for her 90th birthday so it was more of a family reunion and we had other obligations than to explore. We did go to an old vietnamese refugee camp one day, which I will talk about in the next post. Later we went to Singapore for a few days as well which was much more eventful and will be covered in detail as well :)

For now, its good to be home and back online. Its funny how easily you begin to miss the steemit community when you cannot access it every day like I normally do!

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!steemitworldmap 1.192108 lat 104.104818 long On the Island of Batam in Indonesia D3SCR

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