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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Ocarina beach is not the place where you can do beach things like surfing, sandbathing, or beach volleyball. Instead this is just a man-made attraction by the sea, with open space and has unique view of ferry go back and forth from Batam Center Ferry Terminal in the distance.

This is the second time I went to this beach, the first time was about 4 years ago when it was first opened. I noticed a huge differences. Back then, this place was like a marble in Batam with beautiful and clean scenery. But now, this place needs a lot of fixing and maintenance work. The famous ‘100-Swan Statue’ was broken and dirty, the famous ‘COASTARINA’ giant letter was deteriorating, many store which sell the souvenir were closed and the store building were also diminishing and almost collapse, the car park was broken; where it was like hit by hurricane or twister!

I did see some improvement, like they built a jetty and a restaurant at the end of the jetty. And they have a Ferris wheel for you to enjoy, dough I don’t really recommend it, because it looked old and the transparent windows on the capsule were no longer transparent to the point that you can hardly see anything from inside. But if you like flying kite, this is the ideal place, since it’s very windy and you can find a store who sell various type of kite for you to choose.

My point is, that this attraction place needs better management. With proper management, I believe that this place can be a lot better that what it is now.

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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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Eight out of ten times, I would choose Garuda Indonesia to fly for my frequent domestic travel. But this time I just had a bad experience.

It was my trip from Makassar (UPG) to Bandung (BDO) via Surabaya (SUB). The first section of the journey was on November 30, 2016 scheduled with GA 670 departure on 12:55 Makassar time, and I had already have my boarding pass from internet check in. I arrived at the Hasanuddin Int. airport at 11 AM (Makassar time) and I went straight to check in counter to report my present.

The Garuda official in the check in counter did not say anything about the problem, at least not until I asked if the flight was still on schedule, he then told me that the flight was postponed to not yet specific time due to the late arrival of the plane from previews flight from Yogyakarta, and he just stopped explaining. He did not give me suggestion how to cope with the situation, not until I asked again for his advice to solve the problem, he then ask me to go to customer service room. I checked my phone if I had a message telling me about this cancellation, but I didn’t get any. I wonder how Garuda do the training for their check in counter officials if something like this happened. Wouldn’t it be better if he explain everything nicely, starting with apologize and assist the passenger to deal with the situation?

Though I still a bit irritated, I walked to customer service room. Only to find two other GA flight 670 passenger waiting in that room. I chatted with them, and they said they had been waiting for 15 minutes but not yet talked to any of Garuda official, and just told to be waited in that room. So I waited for 10 minutes. When no single person came to see us, I went to check in counter again and saw the same person I had shown earlier. He was busy explaining to each passenger who came after me, demanding for the same answers I was looking for. I told him that nobody in the customer service room, he then asked me to visit another official in the ticketing counter. I felt like I was a ping pong ball!

I started to be more irritated than before, but I walked to the ticketing counter anyway. Only to find some other passenger there who were talking in rather high tone to the Garuda official, and I assumed they were all GA flight 670 passenger. I waited in line for my turn and only that moment a short message came to my phone telling that the flight is postponed until 17:20 that afternoon. In the message Garuda did said sorry, but failed to give solution. Instead in the message receivers were asked to contact the premium call number (08041807807). Wouldn’t it be better if the number was a toll free number? It is the unfortunate situation for passenger, then why on earth that Garuda even want to make profit out of it and we should even pay the call charge? Especially calling from a cell phone, it would be rocketing expensive for each minute! What a lousy solution!!

Anyway, when it came to my turn to talk to one of Garuda official in the ticketing counter, I addressed my problem to a lady who was there. She then asked me come inside to the waiting room and told me that Mr. Hariman would come to see me. Mr. Hariman later explained to me the complete picture of the situation. He said that the previews flight was supposed to come from Yogyakarta. But because the airport of Yogyakarta, Adi Sucipto was closed during the air force training, the Garuda plane was held on the Ground until 2 PM that afternoon. I told Mr. Hariman that I had to catch another flight GA 373 depart from Surabaya at 17:45 to Bandung. I don’t want to miss that flight since I had to be in Bandung by 8 PM that evening. Mr. Hariman suggested me to take Citilink flight to Surabaya which scheduled on 13.10 from Makassar to Surabaya (QG 607), and the time should be sufficient for me to catch the GA 373 flight. I didn’t have any other choice, and said yes to the offer.

I asked Mr. Hariman why did Garuda didn’t have any scenario how to deal with this kind of problem. Though it doesn’t happen every day, but the airline as big as Garuda should have all scenario for any kind of situation to make their work easier and far more important, to make the effected passenger at least feel more comfortable. Mr. Hariman could not answer my question.

There I was, paid by Garuda, took the Citilink flight 607 to Surabaya. But another discomforted condition happened. You see, I bought the Garuda ticket a couple of weeks before my trip. By then the Citilink ticket for this flight would be a lot cheaper compare to its price 1 hour prior to departure. Garuda gave me the refund but only IDR113,400. I am positively sure that if it was compare to the price at the same time I bought my Garuda ticket, the refund should be at least 6 to 8 times more than the nominal I received. It seems like Garuda doesn’t want to suffer the loss from this situation! By taking the Citilink flight instead; I lost the seat comfort, I lost the in-flight meal, I lost the in-flight entertainment, etc... only for IDR113,400! Wouldn’t it be better if Garuda also took a portion of the lost by refunding more to the affected passenger? And you know what? The money was transfer from Mr. Hariman private account, not from Garuda official account! And the money was only transferred later that evening before I was ready to go to bed! This is crystal clear prove that Garuda just doesn’t prepare for such situation!

I thank full to Mr. Hariman and other Garuda officials in Hasanuddin Intl. airport for all their effort. It was none of their mistake to cause me write this, instead they gave their best to solve our problems. But Garuda as a corporate, should take a lot of constructive actions to make something like this won’t happen again in the future. Garuda should create a scenario to handle such situation, Garuda should do more training to their staff, and Garuda should not take advantage not even 1 cent for condition like this. I know that this situation was not entirely Garuda’s fault for a condition that Garuda couldn’t control. But at least Garuda took a portion and took a share of the forfeiture with their passenger. At least Garuda prepare the ‘service recovery’, which turned out to be something that Garuda missed to deliver.

I wonder after I wrote this, if someone from Garuda would comment my review...

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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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