Batam Info / Interest / Help Thread

[nitecrawllerr]

Originally Posted by iicycold

competition i tink....lol,good la...got compete than is good 4 cust...lol

Like tat hotel driver can bungkus leow.

Originally Posted by fde83

Definitely wouldnt want to be centre of crossfire between online and conventional taxi confrontation.

[ndnd]

This signboard name.... Sweet memories
I believed many Riau Island cheongster know this place, Sawang..

[maddog_mlvn]

Originally Posted by BFOMF5

Aiyoyo bro MadDog, bro Hawkeye was right. it only $28/kg. .

How...want to meet for dinner tonight. Same place same time.

Sorry Pak cmi, busy in Sg, maybe Wednesday or Thursday night. Tks for the offer.

[nitecrawllerr]

Originally Posted by ndnd

....

[nono1973]

Originally Posted by iicycold

actualli quite a few hotels in btm allow using online taxi 4 pick up & drop off,& @ most time,mani cn't tel if it's online taxi or no unless i myself do it obviously by standin & near tose no online taxi driver 2 order online taxi...lol

Hehehe...so long dont do it too obviously,noone can tell anyway,hehehe...anyway,i dont have Go Car or Grab's apps on my mobile phone,hehehe...just like i do not have any wechat nor watsapp or any other chatting apps in it. At times,the hotel receptionist do the job for me,hehehe...so if you ask me if i ever use Grab or Go car before,i would say YES,and i use them no less than 5 times in my every Batam trip since the start of this year.

Originally Posted by iicycold

ads frm hotel



as 4 jetty,i tink onli BC more strict onli,got notice most protest is mostly in BC & no other place else?

Quite a number of hotels dont really care whether if you use go car/grab, but they usually sided with their customer tho. And as for those conventional taxis at Harbour Bay jetty,i almost never use them for over a year already,hehehe....

Originally Posted by nitecrawllerr

30k already reasonable.

I agreed with you, 30k rupiah is quite reasonable. Over the last 4 years,30k rupiah was the lowest price i can bargain down to.

Originally Posted by nitecrawllerr

Normally 60K fm HB taxi booth. So paying half the price. Reasonable leow. No need Grab.

1 min walk down to the departure hall area to where Horizon ferry is situated,can get taxi from alighting passenger at between 30k to 40k rupiah,easily (no need much bargaining)...hehehe...

[nono1973]

Originally Posted by jumpersuit

i know this might be a weird question but better ask than be sorry. is it recommended for an indian to cheong in Batam? Btw, im of indian descent and not an indian national. had to ask this coz i do hear here and there about indians being not favored . i might be wrong , so just wanna clarify.

I think people needs to look from the perspective of the Indo girls,hehehe...

To these girls, Bangladeshi and Indian national Foreign workers from Singapore, Singapore-locally-born Indians from Singapore , or those Sri Lankanese etc were being mostly categorized as Indians,hehehe....

I think what the girls didnt like about Indian were their habits and not the race itself. If you are going to (or not going to) tip an overnight booking girl 2k to 4k rupiah after the whole night of booking in the next day morning, if you are going to force an overnight booking to drink alcoholic drinks even tho she says she doesnt want to anymore (she still drinks a bit to entertain but she will reject if she finds its too much for her), or if you are going to have a couple of friends who shared only one room and be sleeping together with her or be make to run errands like going to money changer to change money in small amount etc (there may be others)...then you are more likely to fall under the unfavorable category of Indians.

Above mentioned were taken from booking girls and taxi drivers i have met in Batam,hehehe...

Having said the above, while the girls may not favor the above category of Indians, the booking joint's OKTs love them,hehehe...becos most of the above category of indians were charge 30% to 100% higher than the usual normal pricing. And most of them dont bargain down. I said this becos i met 2 incidents where the Indians (Singapore foreign workers) tries to out-bid the price that my friend/s was being 1st quoted by the mami in 2 different occasions at 2 different booking joint. Meaning to say, Mami quote my friend 1.3 juta for a girl, the "indian" tells mami he's willing to pay 1.8 juta for the same girl.

In the end, my friend paid 1.2 juta for the girl (surprisingly we could still bargain down),hehehe... the girl chose my friend and turned down the Indian man's offer. During our get-together dinner time, the girl whom my friend booked tell us one of the reason why she choose my friend is becos she could smell the Indian's alcoholic body scent from more than 5 meters away,hehehe.... so i am guessing body odour is another one of the key thing that the girls didnt like about Indian customers too.

By far,i have brought 3 Indians to Batam (both were from this forum) in my previous batam trips (its in one of my trip summaries under my signature). They have no problem with the Batam girls. There was even a girl i knew who has a Sri Lanka boy friend,hehehe...

[jumpersuit]

Originally Posted by nono1973

I think people needs to look from the perspective of the Indo girls,hehehe...

To these girls, Bangladeshi and Indian national Foreign workers from Singapore, Singapore-locally-born Indians from Singapore , or those Sri Lankanese etc were being mostly categorized as Indians,hehehe....

I think what the girls didnt like about Indian were their habits and not the race itself. If you are going to (or not going to) tip an overnight booking girl 2k to 4k rupiah after the whole night of booking in the next day morning, if you are going to force an overnight booking to drink alcoholic drinks even tho she says she doesnt want to anymore (she still drinks a bit to entertain but she will reject if she finds its too much for her), or if you are going to have a couple of friends who shared only one room and be sleeping together with her or be make to run errands like going to money changer to change money in small amount etc (there may be others)...then you are more likely to fall under the unfavorable category of Indians.

Above mentioned were taken from booking girls and taxi drivers i have met in Batam,hehehe...

Having said the above, while the girls may not favor the above category of Indians, the booking joint's OKTs love them,hehehe...becos most of the above category of indians were charge 30% to 100% higher than the usual normal pricing. And most of them dont bargain down. I said this becos i met 2 incidents where the Indians (Singapore foreign workers) tries to out-bid the price that my friend/s was being 1st quoted by the mami in 2 different occasions at 2 different booking joint. Meaning to say, Mami quote my friend 1.3 juta for a girl, the "indian" tells mami he's willing to pay 1.8 juta for the same girl.

In the end, my friend paid 1.2 juta for the girl (surprisingly we could still bargain down),hehehe... the girl chose my friend and turned down the Indian man's offer. During our get-together dinner time, the girl whom my friend booked tell us one of the reason why she choose my friend is becos she could smell the Indian's alcoholic body scent from more than 5 meters away,hehehe.... so i am guessing body odour is another one of the key thing that the girls didnt like about Indian customers too.

By far,i have brought 3 Indians to Batam (both were from this forum) in my previous batam trips (its in one of my trip summaries under my signature). They have no problem with the Batam girls. There was even a girl i knew who has a Sri Lanka boy friend,hehehe...

Hi bro,

you've just clarified the whole stigma towards indian in one post and i appreciate it a lot for taking your time to do so. you've just showed me the other perspective of cheonging in Batam...

i was procrastinating for a while, but i guess i can break the duck now

my next step now is to look for a kaki for my virgin trip or tag along an excursion group

thank you again and have a great day.

[fde83]

Drop by to Swiss bell at hbb earlier and they mention that if any fights/arguement happen between hbb taxi and taxi online, they won't be accountable. So gd luck.

As for the 30k from hbb to jodoh area, it's 100% true. Just saw the standee. Thanks bro.

[iicycold]

Originally Posted by nono1973

Why all the sad faces? The list of places i compiled and shared before, didnt the list grew longer instead getting shorter?

When a situation shuts a door,the "batam god" likely opens another few more,hehehe....supply and demand thingy.

During my Batam walkabout,i saw this dead mouse,hehehe...caught my attention,passerby keeps looking at me taking photo of it.

the mice died bcs mice eyesight is short distance ma...lol....鼠目寸光！they all look @ thgs short distance ma...lol

i sad face bcs i dn't knw where all my best btm fav gers wil go 2 ma...lol

Originally Posted by nono1973

Hehehe...i was right, isnt it? Instead of going around sarcastically pouring cold water on someone in the forum, and if you choose to sincerely help people out, i will be almost sure at most time ,he is more than willing to shall his fair share of FR and experience,hehehe....

Which is why ,I get to read many FRs in this forum all these time,hehehe...

u tink i like the dead mice ah? onli knw hw 2 look onli short distance ah? cum here attack attack,create trouble & disturb the residents & do thgs tat no benefit others & their ownselves....tis kind wil auto walk into their own trap & ownself die de....lol

Originally Posted by nono1973

Definitely works better than cold water,hehehe...

try holy water...lol...frm btm church....ward off evil aso...lol

Originally Posted by nono1973

July coming to an end,planning for my August Batam trip now.

tis trip u plan go where? temple agn? go buy ginger powder ah?

[iicycold]

Originally Posted by Naka_Timo

Bro can try this place too.

I think normal is 90k with hair cut with wash.

ya ya...the hair cut place got plus plus or no?

mayb 2 mths later i aso can go try tere...lol,my big head hair stil quite short 2 mths later long agn....lol...unless they can willin cut my 'botom' hair....

Originally Posted by nitecrawllerr

1st time heard prices dropped.

hurry hurry...no need go btm tpk liao,can straight go buy 4D liao...lol

Originally Posted by nono1973

Yes,i know about this place and went in there before. You should one day try their massage,hehehe...

hard 2 get plus plus massage tere la, mostly is minus minus massage...but quality of massage is no bad. tere got one cantik ger do hot stone massage quite good & no bad lookin 2....lol

i no dare ask her 4 plus plus,later she gave my kkj minus minus....lol

[lee123]

hi, anyone going next week? i might going thx

[fde83]

Yes, free to order online taxi

[Leoric]

Originally Posted by nono1973

Hehehe...so long dont do it too obviously,noone can tell anyway,hehehe...anyway,i dont have Go Car or Grab's apps on my mobile phone,hehehe...just like i do not have any wechat nor watsapp or any other chatting apps in it. At times,the hotel receptionist do the job for me,hehehe...so if you ask me if i ever use Grab or Go car before,i would say YES,and i use them no less than 5 times in my every Batam trip since the start of this year.

Wanna share how u manage to Grab a taxi or get a Go Car when u don't speak Indo bahasa?

Originally Posted by nono1973

1 min walk down to the departure hall area to where Horizon ferry is situated,can get taxi from alighting passenger at between 30k to 40k rupiah,easily (no need much bargaining)...hehehe...

A smart move!

U knew abt the Batam pricing logic don't u? When business good,price often up. When the selling prices are down,what does that tells u?

From all the evidence shown here,i find that the people holding the money to pay were not stupid or at least won't stay stupid all the time,especially those who regularly visit batam. So end of the day who lose out? Obviously it's the people trying to earn the money from the people holding the money.

Conventional taxi drivers can keep creating a scene at those jetty but end of the day,they are just humiliating the intelligence of those hands who can feed them.

i don't take conventional taxis from any harbour as well,i dial for one,though not from Grab nor GoCar.

[Ojekbtm]

playground of yesteryear

[nono1973]

Originally Posted by iicycold

tis trip u plan go where? temple agn? go buy ginger powder ah?

Nowhere,jus loitering around Harbour Bay. Friends wish to try out 2 star hotel so i thought i would make them happy,hehehe...but i have a small problem, i had a hard time trying to get a 2 star hotel which allows smoking in-room,hehehe...i threw out half a dozen email to half a dozen hotels in Batam,the 1st who reply me will get the deal,hehehe...

Originally Posted by iicycold

Nice video,can see her nipple in it so obviously,hehehe...

*drooling*

Originally Posted by Leoric

Wanna share how u manage to Grab a taxi or get a Go Car when u don't speak Indo bahasa?

Like i said earlier,i dont even have those online taxi apps on my mobile phone,hehehe...but the receptionist has it,the bell boy has it, hotel security guards has it, even most girl/s has it too. So they do it for me,hehehe...i dont treat this group of people well-enough for nothing.

Originally Posted by Leoric

U knew abt the Batam pricing logic don't u? When business good,price often up. When the selling prices are down,what does that tells u?

From all the evidence shown here,i find that the people holding the money to pay were not stupid or at least won't stay stupid all the time,especially those who regularly visit batam. So end of the day who lose out? Obviously it's the people trying to earn the money from the people holding the money.

Conventional taxi drivers can keep creating a scene at those jetty but end of the day,they are just humiliating the intelligence of those hands who can feed them.

i don't take conventional taxis from any harbour as well,i dial for one,though not from Grab nor GoCar.

Hehehe...there is still those full day taxi booking option too. As the saying goes,one time kena chop is to pay school fee, 2nd time kena chop is learning the hard way, 3rd time and onward is pure stupidity,hehehe...

Nonetheless, i must say from 60k rupiah to 30k rupiah is another good option. I saved 1 min of bargaining time,hehehe... hope they can apply this to Batam Center and other Ferry terminal in future too.

If they dont, it shows that Batam Center still have the market for travelers travelling to Batam less often, meaning lesser regular travelers. If they could earn more,why chose to earn less.

Good to see more Sillyporean travel via tour agent in this aspect tho,hehehehe...the key thing is still options, clever ones pick the option that best suits themselves. Paying 50k to 60k rupiah to the taxi stand outside Harbour Bay arrival hall is not my kind of good option,hehehe.... not suitable for me.