Happy New Year from Batam everyone! Hope you all had fun of the festive season, Brian and I certainly did!
Spending Christmas here is certainly very different to back home! Because Batam is predominantly Muslim, Christmas Day is just another day to the locals so we found if quite hard to get in the Christmas spirit. However, we thought we'd make the most of being in the sun for Christmas Day and have a BBQ.
The best place to buy meat in Batam is at the wholesale cold-store. But it's wholesale so you have to but it in bulk and because we left it a wee bit late to go (Xmas eve!) they only had large packs left. So 6kg of rib-eye came home with us in the car......... we can now BBQ for the 5000!
Christmas morning arrived and we rushed down stairs to check that Santa had been.......... he hadn't :( None of our parcels or cards had arrived from the UK yet so it didn't take us long to open our presents! Brian loved his micro lego and his new coffee grinder though and I got a gorgeous new handbag (which I had picked so no surprise for Lou!)
Not very Christmassy so far......... but still, we're in a tropical country, lets make the most of the glorious weather and enjoy our BBQ............. except it rained all day.............
Still, we enjoyed our day, had awesome steaks on the BBQ despite the weather. Really missed being home though (and brussel sprouts) so think we'll definitely spend Christmas 2013 back in Scotland............
On boxing day we decided to head out in the car for a wee road trip. Batam is the most northerly of three islands areas (Batam, Rempang & Galang) that are all connected by 6 bridges known as the Barelang Bridges. At the weekend the bridges are a huge tourist attraction, with cars parked everywhere, people running about taking photographs and hundreds of hawker stands selling food. But, boxing day was particularly quiet so Brian and I had the first bridge to ourselves :)
It is about 50km from the first bridge to the 6th bridge so we didn't quite get all the way before I saw a sign for the beach. So desperate for a wee paddle and some sand between my toes we made your way down this single track road to here.........
It was a beautiful little beach but definitely for locals........... we were the only white people for miles around! So after a quick paddle we headed back to the car, just in time for the heavens to open! Whew!
On 29th December we headed to Singapore for 4 nights. The hotel we were staying in this time was in an area called Clarke Quay. There are lots of bars and restaurants and it gets very busy there at night with locals and tourists. We found a wee Scottish bar called the Highlander (ha!) and decided to stop there for some food in the hope that I could get some haggis! But, no........ they didn't have any :( I'm really missing my home comforts so I might have to come back to Scotland with an empty suitcase and fill it with stuff that we both miss!
While in Singapore, we visited Gardens by the Bay (we've started scoping out places where we can take our visitors so you better all come!) It's a pretty amazing place, lots of outdoor gardens and a pretty impressive super tree forest with an elevated walkway. I managed to get Brian to come up with me but he was looking a bit green around the gills the entire time!
There are also two huge cooled glasshouses, filled with flowers, plants and a massive waterfall. We could have spent days just wandering about inside..... a refreshing change from the heat and humidity of Singapore!
We spent Hogmanay by the Marina in Singapore. We had booked a table with some of our friends in a new tapas bar called Catalunya. Our table was on the roof so we had a perfect view of the festivities and the fireworks at midnight...... it wasn't the cheapest place in the world though but we're probably only going to do it once so it was worth it!
To be honest, although we had a great night, the fireworks weren't any different to the display in Edinburgh so it was a wee bit disappointing ......maybe we'd just hyped them up a bit too much! However, I'm glad we welcomed 2013 in Singapore though........another string to add to our bow!
So, we've been on Batam for 3 months.......time is certainly flying! New years resolutions? Well, Brian and I are going to get fit :S (there is a gym and a pool here so we've no excuse!)
I'm going to learn to speak Indonesian (at least enough that I can talk entirely in Indonesian at the market!) and Brian is going to try and learn to say 'thank you' in Indonesian (it's 'terima kasih' in case you're wondering).
So wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2013! Looking forward to more adventures this side of the world, let's see what this year throws at us!
Sampai jumpa lagi!
Lou & Brian xox
