This is the first time for me to take NAM-air flight. It was IN 377 from Bandung to Surabaya boarding at 5.30 AM (Bandung time). My expectation was low since NAM-air was not my favorite and not that money people talk about it. But to my surprise, they were good. Exceeding my expectation! Check in experience was flawless, the aircraft was consider new, the crew were great and forthcoming, the food was also good.
 
To me, NAM-air is in my top list to be considered when choosing the airline.

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There are some hotels and resorts around Nongsa, but in my humble opinion Turi Beach is the best, despite of its minuses. Well, maybe it depends on what you’re looking for from a resort anyway, while for me it suits most of my needs. Let me talk about the good stuffs first, and later I will point out the minuses.

Not all of the beaches in Nongsa is swimmable nor playable, due to lots of sharp corals along the shorelines and some beaches even doesn’t have the sandy shorelines. But in this hotel, you have 3 spots where you can play by the beach. First, on the farthest East or on the right hand side when you’re facing the sea, between the jetty and the border of this hotel property. This spot is the best part to look for seashells, play with the sands, and to get wet, but not for swimming; because on this spot there are a lot of big stones from stretching from shore line to open sea direction about 30 meters away. But you can climb to these rocks and take beautiful pictures with jetty or ship passing by as background. At the end of this 1st beach, is connected through small path alongside the shore lines to neighbor resort. But when I was there, this path was under construction after broken down by the big waves. Too bad, because I couldn’t say anything about it.

The second spot is the one in the middle. This is the spot where you can swim with mild depth up to about 30 meters away to open sea direction. Though water sometimes gets milky and the seabed full of seaweed, but if you’re OK with those, the water is nice and warm and the wave are smalls since it the strait between Singapore and Batam, not the ocean with big waves. On this second spot they have some facilities you can try and enjoy like fly-board and hover-board, jet skiing, water skiing, wakeboarding, knee-boarding and banana boat. Knock yourself out!

The 3rd spot is on the farthest West or on the left hand side when you’re facing the sea. On this spot you can play by the beach, play volley beach (the hotel provide the net and the ball), or just sitting under the unique tree which grows on the seashore. If you have small children, this is the ideal place to play with sand toys because they can play under the shade of the trees. At the end of this 3rd beach, is actually the border of this hotel property side by side with Nongsa Pura Resort as its neighbor. The guest of these two resorts are free to use each other facilities including beaches and swimming pools, though you have to bring your own towels. The most attractive place to visit and taking pictures in Nongsa Pura Resort is the Marina or ship and yachts docking terminal. It’s a tiny version of Monaco, but it’s worth a shot.

Between the first and second spot, this hotel has beautiful 220-meter long jetty with island bar in the middle and a gazebo at the end of the Jetty which is the ideal place to read books while hearing the sound of the wave and company with the breeze. Both at day time and night time, this place is ideal for taking pictures. At day time you can try fishing from the jetty or in the clear day just enjoying the view of Singapore skyline and Johor Baru land in the distance.

If you are want to cool down after playing on the beach, you have 2 choices of swimming pool. The first one near the restaurant they call it the ‘Lagoon Pool’ with combination depth for small children up until 2.5-meter deep. The color of this Lagoon Pool is light blue, when the second pool near in the middle called ‘Emerald Pool’ has the green color like emerald. This Emerald Pool has two separate pool on different height while the top pool is infinite pool with controlled temperature of warm water. This pool also has combination depth but not for very small children because the depth is not changing gradually, and step down vertically instead.

Jogging or simply walk around the complex is also something you should try especially the path alongside the beach. To get to the 3rd beach spot I mentioned earlier, you have to go through this path entering small ‘jungle’ or complex of trees where you can see monkeys on these trees if you are lucky. Just be careful to your belongings not to be stolen by the monkeys and don’t try to feed them or they would follow you begging for another treats. Along this path, is also ideal to be in your Instagram pictures.

Now let’s talk about the food. This resort has at least 3 places to eat. First is the restaurant that utilized for breakfast. The second one is underneath the 1st one, is the bar with pool table. And the 3rd one is in the island bar I mentioned earlier. All foods and drinks are consider expensive to Indonesian people and the price are very much like in Singapore. So if you don’t want to spend too much on expensive foods, you might just try the breakfast as it includes in room rates. For me the taste was not something that this resort could be proud of, because it was just so ordinary. And the menu for the breakfast for resort like this was also consider very limited. I suggest the hotel should be more creative to make more variety menu for breakfast. It’s 5-star resort for crying out loud.

How about the room? This resort has 2 separate type of rooms. The first one is the bungalow complex stretch out on the East part of the resort located on slopes from the top near the entrance or lobby to the bottom near the shore lines of the 1st beach I mentioned earlier. Of course you would always have to choose the one near the shorelines if you want to stay in this type of room. Because the one near the entrance would be full of disturbances as cars passing by, and they are too far from the shorelines.

When I was here with my family I stayed in the second type of rooms which was more ordinary room, located on the West part of the resort. It has 4 stories of building in cascading type also located on a steep slope. So if you don’t take elevator you would have to climb dozens of stares from the pool level near the Emerald pool I mentioned earlier to your room, especially when you’re staying on the top floor. If you want have the nicest few of the beach, I suggest you take the 4th floor But if you want to easy access to the pool and the beach, I suggest you take the 2nd floor. Or you can add more extra cost to stay on the 1st floor, because the rate on 1st floor a more expensive compare to other three floors. I was staying in the room 3006 on 3rd floor, because it was new year and any other room were fully occupied. From 3rd floor I still can see the beach but not as good as on the 4th floor. Overall the room was good, but I guess the furniture in the room needed to be upgraded since they look outdated. Funny thing about all the room on this complex is the way you open and close your room door. It opened in wrong direction to the point that you have to position the curtains in a way for them not to be nibbled by the door every time you’re closing and opening the door. What I did was I just left the curtains in open position. It’s true that anyone who would see clearly to my room, but it’s on 3rd floor and the only one who see it would be the hotel staffs. So I didn’t care. But I suggest, the management of this resort somehow have door direction fixed in the future.

I have one hindrance when I stayed in this room 306. One day I asked the housekeeping to clean my room before I left by hanging the sign ‘Clean My Room’ on door handle, only to witnessed when I got back on the late afternoon that my room was not cleaned. I address my complaint to manager on duty and he directly took action by coordinating his crew to clean the room. I also demand answer why they didn’t clean my room. The housekeeping guy told that he saw the sign “Do not disturb” hang on the door handle. I did hang the “DND” sign in the morning when I went swimming that morning and returned to my room after that. Before I left I changed the sign with “Clean My Room”. This is the solid proof that he went to my room in the morning and did not recheck the sign again after that. My family and I waited in the lobby and later we moved to patio on the beach. After the room was cleaned the MOD called me and we returned to our room. The problem solved, but I believe that this thing should not be happening in the hotel like this. This hotel should train the housekeeping crew to check many times to rooms that have not been cleaned in order not to miss anything. And to my surprise there are no single ‘service recovery’ from the hotel for me and my family but a simple sorry. What a lousy way to treat their guests!

The most perturbing thing about this hotel that surprisingly some part of the beach are dirty, full of garbage that swept away and brought by the waves overnight. I know that this not their fault, and maybe this is just the way it is for the beach in this area. But in my humble opinion, this 5-star resort should have special crew to clean the beach. No matter how dirty it is, they should have their beaches clean at all time, even if that crew has to work around the clock! I will return again to this resort if I visited Nongsa, therefore I hope by that time I would find that these 3 beaches they have, would be clean and free from litter and rubbish.

If it was not because of the ‘room cleaning’ incident and garbage on the beach, I would have already gave full 5-point rating for this resort.

Room Tip: With beach view or closer to the beach

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When you stay in hotels around Nongsa and you like durian cuisine, then you must come to this restaurant. They serve many variety of durian cuisine from ice durian itself, or you eat together with sticky rice like what people do in this area. I am durian fanatics, so believe me if I tell you that the taste of durian cuisine in this specific restaurant is the one that you must try! They also serve some other menu like juice and mix fruit ice called “es campur” and “es teler”.
 
It is the small restaurant located by the street of Jl. Hang Jebat on the left hand side if you drive from Batam direction. You won’t miss it, as long as it is still open. This restaurant is not open for the whole day, because when sold out, they just close for the rest of the day.

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The name of Nogsa, the famous place in North-east Batam with beautiful beaches and good resorts, is actually come from the name of ‘Nong Isa’ which was the King Isa name when he was little. This Cemetery complex is the historic proof that there is the kingdom in Batam centuries ago. It is located on the top op small hill surrounded by old trees and sap trees. If you are lucky sometimes you would find monkeys jumping from tree to tree. The atmosphere color of the complex is yellow, the color of Riau. Nong Isa himself was not buried in this graveyard which until now is still mystery where he was buried. To reach the complex you have to climb dozens of stairs until you reach the entrance of the complex and found the history of Batam Kingdom back to 18th century, printed on wooden board. Too bad that the board is already part broken and some fonts are fade away.

I suggest the stake holders and local government should pay more attention to this complex to preserve the heritage of Batam. Not like today, when this cemetery complex not even exist on the Google map! I wonder why.

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Batam Island has several ferry terminals, but this one is unique because it is actually located on the riverbank, not on the shoreline. The sensation entering the river upon arrival or entering the open sea from the river upon departing, are somewhat different from the terminal on the shorelines. To make it more surreal is the riverbank in this area consist of dense trees making you feel that you are entering the unknown territory. When you drive from the Batam city direction to reach this terminal, you will pass the bridge and you will see the terminal with ferries sailing beneath you. This specific terminal is the favorite terminal that people choose if they wanted to go to Changi intl. airport from Batam, or vice-versa.

Before boarding or upon arrival, you can enjoy a few restaurant available in the terminal with reasonable price with many choices of food, from international to local cuisine. In fact, a lot of people who stay in the hotel nearby Nongsa, go to eat in these restaurants, because there are actually the closest restaurants from Nongsa where hotels are located. Just don’t buy anything in the convenient store there, because the price way more expensive compare to the ones outside the terminal.

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This restaurant or café is actually just an ordinary cheap-eat restaurant with good grill menu. What make it so special is the location. It is located on Bukit Senyum or Smiley Hill which happens to be the highest point in Batam Island where you can see Singapore skyline from the distance across the strait. The best time to come and enjoying the view is on the clear day or on clear night. At day time you can see Marina Bay Sands very clear, and at night you can see the Singapore’s bathing in lights. This restaurant has an open wall and gets a bit windy sometimes, so you might want to dress accordingly.

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This marina located on the beach side or North part of Nongsa Point Hotel. I was staying in the Turi Beach Hotel next door when I visited this Marina or it’s actually boat docking terminal. There are two activities that people do in this Marina. First, of course, as your final stop when traveling with a boat or a yacht to Batam Island. And the second, like I and my family did, were enjoying the beautiful post card view of the Marina. You may not go to the end of the jetty if you don’t have any matter to go to the boat or yacht. But you are always can enjoy the view of the Marina with the calm sea and lots of boats and yachts as background.

Just spare some times to enjoy the scene of this marina if you’re happened to stay in one of these two hotels; Nongsa Point Hotel and Turi Beach Hotel, because this attraction is free for these two hotel guests. Its breath taking, you won’t regret it.

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This is my 3rd times went to this monumental bridge of Batam, and it’s getting worse by the time. Not the bridge, but the cleanliness of visitor plaza near the bridge. When you can't rely on Indonesian people who averagely like to litter a lot, the government should hire extra people to keep this place clean. While trying to educate people step by step.

The other miss fortune was that the police could not do anything about cars and motor bike who stop on the bridge. The situation became worse when many street vendors offering their things to visitors on the bridge, and even worse with so many garbage to the point that you could think that the bridge is the huge trash can! What a pity!

The view from the visitor plaza actually was amazing (if you don’t have garbage ruining your pictures), and the bridges themselves was also something. Barelang bridges are actually consist of 5 bridges connecting Batam Islam, Rempang Island, and Galang Island.

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This is not an ordinary mall, because of many reasons. This mall is divided by two parts; one main building with several storeys, and shop complex systems around the main building. This mall has a unique place to eat called ‘Food Street’, which is located on the ground floor in one long corridor with 3 storeys high ceiling. In this long corridor you can find almost every kind of Indonesian and local cuisine vendors and some international cuisine as well. The price are consider cheap and the taste mostly good. The hindrance that this long corridor doesn’t equipped with air conditioning system. With Batam heat combine with free smoking place everywhere along the corridor, caused this food court doesn’t suitable for small children and for those who can not stand the heat nor the cigarette smoke like my family. So we decided to eat on ordinary food court upstairs where they provide and serve almost similar cuisine as well, though the price were bit more expensive and the choice were not as complete as on ‘Food Street’.

Another unique thing, that this is the place where you can find stores selling souvenirs from Batam like handicraft, T-shirts, key rings, etc. Also stuffs and chocolate from Singapore with much cheaper price from its origin across the strait. Don’t look somewhere else in Batam to buy souvenirs, because this mall offer one-stop activities with very friendly price. Even Singaporean often shop here to buy their daily needs like toilet paper, shampoo, soaps, and other consumer goods; because in their country those stuffs are much more expensive.

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I was looking the place to celebrate new-year’s eve and had been asking many people in the area sincd morning. My choice was ended in this café because it is located the farthest point of the Harbor Bay. Three of us (me, my wife and my son) were walking from our nearby hotel at 9PM only to find that the seat were nearly full; in fact we were the last group to be able to join the new-year’s celebration in this café, lucky us! We were sitting outside enjoying our drinks and Reggae music and song as their theme that night, waiting the new-year’s count down.

It cost us IDR100K for the ticket each person, and the drinks price was more expensive that night. But we were there to have fun and for the new-year’s count down. Few minutes before new year, we got free three plastic trumpets and fire crackers. After passing the ticking second of the January 1st, they played a non-stop fire works for 15 minutes with several types and colors. We stayed there until 1 AM and I guess, it was very worth it.

I never been to this café except this time, so I can not say anything about the food, or their service and activities on reguler nights.

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