ASIALINK EASY BY PRASANTHI HOTEL IN BATAM

I got my room at Asialink Easy by Prasanthi during my 1D2N stay in Batam. I liked this place and would not hesitate to stay here again in the future.

The reasons I liked the hotel:

[1] Helpful and friendly staff: The staff were always willing to offer helping hands. They provided information like places to go. When we complained the air-conditioners were not cold enough, they came to the room and tried to fix them at 10:00 p.m. All of the staff of the hotel we met were not locals from Batam though. They came from other cities in Indonesia.

[2] Strategic location: It was actually quite near to Nagoya Hills Shopping Mall, about 5 - 10 minutes walk. However, we still took the Grab Car to get back to the hotel. We just realized there were quite a number of convenience stores at the back of the hotel when we went out to buy something that evening. There also some stalls selling variety of food at that time. The hotel was located in front of a hospital so I think the stalls were there to cater the hospital staff and visitors.

[3] We took the buffet breakfast package and I found the breakfast spread was decent enough [READ HERE]. That should cut the hassle of finding our own breakfast especially when our trip was quite short.

[4] The most important thing: the room was clean and quite spacious for me.

We actually decided to choose this hotel at the very last minute but there was no regret. Hopefully I would have the time to search for other hotels and read all the reviews when I am going to Batam again next time.

HAVING LUNCH BEFORE LEAVING BATAM

18th MAY 2024 ~ The last spot we went to in Batam was The Grand Batam Mall. This should be the latest attraction in Batam and the mall was bigger than Nagoya Hill.

The main reason we were here was to get lunch before going back, and someone still wanted to get something from Miniso which could only be found in an Indonesian outlet.

We went to this restaurant called The Ayam Kosek, which was actually recommended by the staff at the information counter of the mall. I had rice with grilled duck this time, eating like an Indonesian.

We didn't have enough time to explore the grand mall but Puan Suhaila managed to grab a piece of layer cake to bring home. That should conclude our 2D1N trip Batam Island this and I tremendously enjoyed myself. Thank you Mr. Ridwan Wahid, a friend of TESL UPM Class of 1993, for asking me to join and his family for the short excursion abroad. Hopefully we could explore other Indonesian islands which could be accessed from Johor Bahru some other time in the future.

SHOPPING AT DC MALL BEFORE LEAVING BATAM

18TH MARCH 2024 ~ It was customary to buy something to bring back home when going on a trip so we decided to shop a bit. Right after the short stop at Sultan Mahmud Riayat Syah Mosque, we went straight to DC Mall, the place I knew there were items I liked and could get them at that place.

This was my second visit to the mall. It was a modern shopping mall but at the same time, there were smaller stalls selling local products.

We gave ourselves one hour to spend as we had one more mall to visit before going to the ferry terminal.

DC MALL VISITED IN 2020

SULTAN MAHMUD RIAYAT SYAH MOSQUE REVISITED

17th MAY 2024 ~ The next stop was Sultan Mahmud Riayat Syah Mosque as we had to perform our day prayers. This was my second time here. The first visit was in 2020 [READ HERE] and after four years, the building did not appear to be as new as it was four years ago. I just realised the floor was not yet carpeted back then.

the ablution area

We were there for 45 minutes and could not stay long. We had two more places to go before catching our ferry back home in the evening.