Road trip to Singapore - Day 4

Continued from day 3.

Reference - exchange rates:
one pound approx Rp15,000
one US$ approx Rp10,000

After a reasonable nights sleep, the next leg of the journey is to pulau Batam, one of many islands between the Sumatra mainland and Singapore. Batam has an international port for leaving Indonesia and also they do 'VISA on arrival' (VOA) on the way back.

Now I am getting the hang of the loket ticketing system and realizing that there is no way around it. The first thing is to figure out if there is a negotiation, this time there was not. The price to Batam was Rp340,000 which included a car ride to the ferry at Buton and the ferry to Batam. Strange that a major ferry terminal does not have a bus service.

The ticket bought, the taxi set off at 07:30, shared with Alex (blip image), an Indonesian on his way to Malaysia to work, and another couple of guys. A short stop for food on the way. The roads were flat and straight but still seemed to be a regular set of potholes every 100m or so. I will never complain about the state of the Bandung roads ever again.

Arrived at Buton at 11:30, checked in at the ferry terminal and my ticket was good. The boat was a double hulled, twin screw affair, built for speed. The ride was rapid and fairly smooth. Good air conditioning and comfortable seats. The A/C was a bit too cool for me, so I went out on the top deck and enjoyed the sea breeze.

All the luggage and packages were stored here under a tarpaulin. Some boxes next to me were making cheeping noises, very strange. An hour into the journey, a couple of staff lifted the tarp and broke open a couple of the boxes, transferring the baby chicks into a cardboard box. I guess this was some kind of immigration quality control deal.

After two stops at other destination islands and four hours, we arrived at Batam island at 15:30. I wanted to press on to Singapore and make the half way point in my journey but now it had started raining heavily and the taxis to the international port were not playing nice, demanding Rp100,000 for what should have been a Rp4,000 bus ride, no busses in sight though.

I remember reading on my research that there was little chance to get back from Singapore to Buton in one day. I still had a spare day on my VISA, I was well soaked and Alex suggested staying the night in a budget hotel. He does the trip regularly and knew the layout, so I agreed, feeling the need for a shower and a good nights sleep.

I paid my share of the Rp40,000 taxi ride and spent the next three hours trekking around Batam town, exploring all the full hotels. Thanks Alex, the dry floor back at the dock now seemed quite inviting, plus I could have been in Singapore by now.

We eventually found a hotel and I had to shell out another Rp50,000 and my stack of rupiahs was looking a bit skinny. The smell of the first room we were shown made it very obvious what the hotel was used for, with that heavy, musty aroma. I looked to the bed and there were about twenty assorted bugs scampering around. I didn't know whether to complain or break out the 105. The maid just swiped at them suggesting that they were not a problem - ho ho ho!

The next room was much better, no aroma or bed bugs. A few large roaches around the edges of the room should we get hungry later. The shower kind of worked a little bit, but I was not up for any more hotel searches. I washed a couple of T-shirts and left them to dry under the A/C and hit the sack.

Follow progress on the blipmap.

To be continued

Dave