Few years ago when I was here, this terminal was still in good shape. But last December, I witness something different. I also witness that some tenant has closed made this terminal not as lively as it used to be. In my humble opinion, what this terminal needs is the facelift. The terminal authority and stake holders should think about this.

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This mall is always full of visitors, because it is located just a cross the Batam Center Ferry Terminal; this ferry terminal is connected to this mall on the 2nd floor by the bridge crossing the street. A lot of hotels are also nearby. Because of these two reasons, made this mall is a good place to transit. Before your ferry schedule, after arriving in Batam, or before you check in to your hotel.

For a mall, is actually just an ordinary shopping mall, with branded stores, toys store, book store, a cinema, and many restaurants and place to eat.

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If you are looking the place to eat along the side of harbor bay, I suggest you pick this restaurant. Because it is located on the furthest part of the restaurant complex, closest to the open sea and of course closest to the Harbor Bay Ferry Terminal. The best view of the sea and the ferry terminal is from this restaurant, especially if you seat outdoor (under the massive tent), closet to the sea. I also suggest you claim your seat for dinner half an hour before sunset, because you can enjoy the beautiful sunset and guaranteed you will get the seat. Once pass 7 PM, almost all restaurants in this complex are full, especially on weekends.

The food are actually standard and taste similar to what other restaurants have to offer. They have both Indonesian and international cuisine. Just don’t forget to have ‘gonggong’ and ‘otak-otak’. Two Batam local cuisine that you don’t want to miss.

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Location is the number one attractive point of this hotel. It is located in the heart of Harbor Bay complex which also has a ferry terminal to go across the strait to Singapore. And within the walking distance, you can enjoy sunset with many choices of sea food restaurant. If you get bored with seafood, the Indonesian local cuisine or western food are also available in many restaurant and café still in the same complex or in the Harbor Bay mall located with the same building with this hotel. You don’t need to go somewhere else.

This hotel is also consider the new and modern hotel. I was there on the new year and you can tell that this hotel is chosen with so many domestic and overseas visitors. I was staying with my family in the spacious room 500 with jumbo king size bed, a sofa bed, a desk with office chair, and bathtub in the bath room with separate shower booth.

Breakfast were also amazing, because it has buffet with so many variety of menu that I had to take turn every morning which one that I should try first. Western, Indonesian, Japanese, Chinese, and even local cuisine. The taste was also two thumbs up to the chef.

But it almost perfect... I stayed in the nonsmoking floor. But one time I saw a guest who was smoking in front of elevator near the no-smoking sign. The thing is, this hotel provide an ashtray in the nonsmoking floor, which may caused confusion to the smoker guest. I did address the complain to the manager on duty about this, and I asked him to check their CCTV recording as proof to what I was saying. You know, that I signed the agreement which stated I would not smoking the nonsmoking room, or otherwise I would get fined. I thought it also include that someone may not smoke on entire floor where nonsmoking rooms were located.
 
I believe the hotel did not do anything to that particular guest who smoked, nor fined him either; and that caused me to remove one star from the rating for this hotel.

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I didn’t spend the night in this hotel, and only use their seminar room when giving a seminar there. The atmosphere of the hotel is good, located in the business activities of North-east Bandung, and it is quite a new hotel. The seminar room is also good, but I had a slight problem with the sound system. The hotel doesn’t have the alternative cable for my sound system and wireless mic, to the point that the sound was not good throughout the session. I didn’t have time addressing complain to the manager that time, so I hope this review can be as their input to be better next time.

The food on other hand, was very good. I had both local cuisine and international cuisine in the menu. So thumbs up for the chef.

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This is the place to eat the local cuisine of South Sulawesi, the Coto. It is the meat stew you eat it with rice cake called ‘ketupat’. The best choice of the menu is that you have ‘everything’ in it or they call it ‘campur’ which means ‘mix’. I have tried some other Coto, and yet this is the best Coto so far, believe me! The place is on the way to Makassar city if you travel from the north, before the Sultan Hasanuddin intl. airport, on the right hand side of the road after crossing the bridge.

The restaurant is very inornate without fancy facilities. Only 1 TV and some electric fans, and that’s why the food are inexpensive. But when you’re eating the best food, you’d forget about everything else, right?
 
None the less, this restaurant should be in your must visit list.

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Pangkep, the capital of Pangkajene dan Kepulauan Regency is the small town. It doesn’t have the representative hotel, only some motels available. So if you have to go to the office or attend an occasion of Semen Tonasa, the only choice you have is staying in the company’s Lodging facility, which they call it “Wisma” in Bahasa Indonesia language.

It is not a hotel, so you can not find any hotel facilities like swimming pool, fitness center, bar, business lounge or restaurant. But as far as food is concern, you will have 3-times a day meal provided for you. The chefs are a local people, therefore you will find local cuisine in your menu. They are good, especially if you like to try something new and like the hot spicy food. The room itself, is standard. They are all have AC, refrigerator, TV and in-room bathroom with hot shower. Some of them has bathtub, and some only with shower booth. Channels of TV available are limited, due to poor signals in the room. But in the dining room, the signals are much better. The Wi-Fi is free, but you have to register your email once in every 24 hour. Though bandwidth is small and not sufficient for video call, at least you can browse, check your email, and chatting via Whatsapp.

Another good thing of this lodging that it is located in the housing complex of company staffs, and therefore it is quite and very good condition to rest after your busy hours. I suggest you do the exercise by walking around Semen Tonasa huge housing complex. The scenery around the complex is nice with many trees. But you have to do it before 7, because when the factory is running in full capacity, the air would polluted by tiny dust of clay and coal.
 
By staying here, ust don’t expect too much. But I guess it’s OK since you don’t have any other choice.

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This restaurant used to belongs to Hotel Aston Premiera. Since the hotel ownership changed, now this restaurant belongs and located in the Holiday Inn Hotel, Bandung which is in Jl. Pasteur, about 1.5 KM from Pasteur toll gate. You should consider this restaurant into one of your list when you are looking for a place to celebrate something like anniversary, birthday, graduation, etc. with your family. Because the place is cozy and not yet many guests which somehow make it more private for you and your family.

The food is also good, though they don’t have that many choices, but those in the menu have good taste. The price though, is consider mid-high since it is belongs to the 4-star hotel.

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If you are happened to visit Belawan and looking for a place to have lunch or dinner, this restaurant can be in your list. It’s located by the sea near the Port of Belawan. The building itself is very unpretentious made mostly of wooden poles, wooden floor and open wall, but you can enjoy the view of the sea while you are enjoying your food. This restaurant is famous of Medan local cuisine, especially variety of fish dish. So if you like fish and you like spicy Medan cuisine, this place even more become one of must visit restaurant for you. Try to order several choices of fish dish, you won’t regret it! Pricewise, this restaurant is worth it.

The drawback of this restaurant is because of its setting with open wall building. When Belawan gets too hot (like it usually do), you need to sit under or near the fan, or otherwise you will be sweating like crazy.

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This mosque was built by private and group funding, and it belongs to a family who has one of its late family member worked as the ship captain. His name was Mr. Budianto. This is the reason why his wife and family built this mosque with the shape of a ship.

The open hours for this mosque for prayer and religious activities is actually from before down until after night prayer or around 8 to 9 PM. And when in fasting month, it opens nearly 24 hours. But if you want to enjoy the architect part of its building and climb to the roof or I may say ‘aboard the ship’ it only open the staircase from 9 am to 5 pm every day including holiday. You have to dress properly to enter the perimeter of the mosque. Long trousers for men and long dress with vail for women. If it is not many visitors, you can directly ‘aboard the ship’ and enjoy the unique architectural piece of art. But if it is many visitors visit at the same time, you have to Q and wait for your turn. It’s free, but you are require to write down your name and phone number in guest book.

You only need about 15 to 30 minutes to visit this site, or about 45 minutes if you also want to say one of your daily prayers. The mosque was built with heart and with fine quality of building materials. You will awe to what you see thinking that it’s actually a ship on t land. If you are lucky and know member of Mr. Budianto’s family like me, you would have a chance to enter the helm room where the ship control wheel is located. Or it’s actually the main control room for sound system and CCTV.

If you visit Bandung or Cimahi, don’t forget to visit this mosque. Even if you are not Muslim, you are more than welcome to visit, because mosque is for every one! You will not regret it.