maruko's travels: 3D2N Montigo, let's go!

Batam 31/5/13

It's the roomies' grad trip! Strictly speaking it's grad trip for Lw, Jem and Jas. it was initially planned for Hong Kong, but I couldn't make it :(

So next we wanted to settle for Nirwana Resorts in Bintan.. Until I chanced upon pictures of Montigo Resorts Nongsa, Batam.. And I'm glad we chose the latter because it was so awesome !!

We took the ferry from Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal to Nongsapura Ferry Terminal at about 12pm? The ride was just about 35 mins, and the resort had someone to pick us up so the travelling was quite seamless.

When we reached we were greeted with lemongrass-scented ice cold towels and delicious lemongrass ice lemon tea (which we requested for 2 more times during our visit there :P )

The staff was very friendly and hospitable. We were too early for check-in so we had to do impromptu planning. We had sea sports and a ride to the city in mind. However the shuttle bus to Nagoya Hill only runs once a day, it departs at 10am to the city and departs Nagoya Hill for the resort at 4pm. It was already about 1pm? So we decided to just grab lunch at the restaurant there and hope the check-in will be earlier.

Lunch was at TADD'S. We had pizza, spicy calamari rings, salmon and fruit salad... Bread was included. The weather was really hot in Batam!!

After lunch we decided to try our luck to ask the reception if our villa is ready. And thank god! 5 mins more :D meanwhile we inquired about sea sports and decided that snorkelling was the most economical one given the price and the duration. As snorkelling can only be done low tide (again, it was the problem of timing), we could only do it tomorrow at 12pm. Luckily our villa was ready so the plan for the day was just to CHILL in our pool.

Having a private pool is really quite cool!

We ordered in-villa dinner as we didn't want to travel out. The food was not too bad! I had grilled white snapper while the rest had ayam penyet and ayam campur.

The rest of the night was spent playing Bang! hehe

1/6/13

our morning

Breakfast was sumptuous :)

So many colours! And of course, it was time to spot pretty girls and cool guys as this is the only place to have breakfast. There is a bar (I think) beside the restaurant that is not opened yet :(

After breakfast we went into the pool just beside the restaurant before heading for snorkelling at Batam View. The weather was, very hot as usual.. We were just swimming around.. But it was very entertaining because we were watching the Genie. And also! A Caucasian boy swam between us and said "Hey Girls" to us! I think we are like 10 years older than him?? Hahaha but it was funny and... he has a cute brother :p

It's my first time snorkelling! I was really scared, like how do I breathe in the water etc?? But thanks to roomie I managed to get a grip of it.. It's really easy!!

The water wasn't that clear but we managed to see fishes and coral reefs.. And we found nemo:D so cute!! However the current was quite strong and it made me and jem sea sick :( we went back to the shore earlier than the rest.. Saw some shells the crew picked from the sea.. Still alive!!

When we reached we were still feeling unwell ('mabok' as said by the crew).. And they gave us a place under the trees to sleep !! That must be the best nap I have taken in my whole life. You wake up to the sea... Most importantly I was feeling much, much better.

We went back to shower and change to travel to the city. Plan was to eat A&W, shop at supermarket and tabao dinner. Didn't want to eat in-villa dinner again..

The hotel arranged a 7-seater for us as we had 5 people (200,000 IDR one-way). The service was really good cos the car will pick us up again later so we dont have to flag 2 cabs back to the resort (who knows how much it will cost??)

We were there about 3.30pm as there was a traffic jam (at a weird hour huh?). We told the driver to pick us up at 6pm, then we left to complete our tasks! Before we left we also booked slots for massage tomorrow..

By the time we finished our A&W we were feeling the fatigue from the snorkelling. We decided to go back to sleep, then wake up to have dinner.

After dinner was drinks! I fell asleep while the rest drank hahaha. And woke up to join them in the pool. We drank and talked about random stuff. It was really relaxing.. Life should be like this:)

Since its the last night, i wanted to do my foam party. but it didn't succeed...

2/6/13

We decided to end our night at about 5am, of course without checking out if there was a sunrise, but it was too cloudy :(

Woke up at "8:30am" forgetting the time difference.. It was only 7:30am! went to wake jem up only to be reminded by jas when I returned back to the room. LOL

It was delicious breakfast followed by Monkey game in the pool. We don't wanna leave this place..

Packed up and said bye to our wonderful resort, we proceeded to the city for our massage at Eska. Isabella is priced too high! The hotel was late in picking us up so we went late for our massage too..

Massage was good! I fell asleep hahaha. It was about 2:50pm when it ended. When we went down to ask about our free bus ride to the ferry terminal, the receptionist looked at the clock and was surprised.. Because we were about to be dangerously late for our ferry. We were supposed to end our massage at 2:30pm.. And she started to frantically call her friend to ask, and also to get the driver. We might missed the ferry she said.. Which was a bit Sian cos that means we have to take the 6:10pm (which sometimes doesn't operate???). She explained the other ferry terminal is nearer and had more ferry rides to a later time. That really made me panicked because I wanted to go home and rest before work starts again and catching the 6:10pm ferry would mean that we will reach about sg time 8pm! And what if there is no ferry?!

We sped to Nongsapura terminal and thanks to the "inefficiency" we managed to join the queue to board the ferry back :D what a close shave!!

The ferry back had a open top so we went up to enjoy the sea breeze. We were absolutely loving it!!