Brandon O'Brien

Saturday, December 6, 2014 @ 9:01 PM in 2014 Asia

The plan for today was to head to Batam Indonesia since it's only an hour ferry ride away from Singapore. We hadn't really read much about the place but it would be fun to say we went to another country. We booked our tickets and got on board the ferry. We thought it would move pretty fast but it was extremely slow going. It was also raining the entire trip over there which was unfortunate since we wanted to spend some time on beaches.

We got to Batam and didn't realize we needed to buy a visa on arrival so we had to get back out of the customs line and get our visa then had to wait in line again. The next issue was figuring out what to do. There were some really good reviews for the Maha Vihara Duta Maitreya Monastery so we flagged down a taxi to take us there. We thought it would be pretty straight forward but the taxi guy said there won't be any other taxis there so he'd have to wait.

We ended up paying him to hang around with us for 3 hours while we toured the monastery and he'd also be able to drive us around some more. As we were walking around we saw that there was a huge vegetarian restaurant there that was packed. Since we hadn't eaten lunch yet we decided to eat there. It was a really good choice. They had a lot of good food and the sauces and spices used on the fake meat products made it taste really good.

We got back in the taxi and had the guy drop us off at Turi beach resort. It was also a highly rated place online so we figured it would be a good place to hang out and relax by the beach. Unfortunately when we got there they wanted to charge us S$30 per person to have access to the pool and beach area. We weren't about to pay that so we walked around to the next beach over and then cut back through it to the Turi beach area. The resort we cut through was absolutely dead and looked pretty rundown. The area was definitely not the tourist destination that people online made it out to be.

The beach itself was full of trash and wasn't very big. We hung out there for a little while then walked around and out to the pier at Turi beach resort before having the resort call us a taxi back to the ferry terminal. We were originally supposed to leave Batam at 8:30pm but there wasn't anything else to do so we were able to catch the 4:30 ferry back.

On the way back the ferry stopped due to blockage in the jets or something so we had to go pretty slow the rest of the way back to Singapore. Once we got back to Singapore and through customs we came back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We decided to check out another one of the huge hawker centers at Old Airport Road. This one was really nice. There were a lot of stalls with a bunch of different types of food. I got some black pepper chicken and a chicken curry steam bun and Mike and I split some fried wontons and beer.

It had been another long day so we came back to the hotel to do some work and relax before heading to bed.

For anyone who might stumble across this blog post and are thinking about going to Batam while visiting Singapore, I'd strongly recommend not going. Spend more time in Singapore or go somewhere else. There isn't really anything to do there that can't be done in Singapore 10x better.

Teaser photos:

At the Maha Vihara Duta Maitreya Monastery

All vegetarian lunch at the monestary

Turi Beach

Dinner from these guys at Old Airport Food Center

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Tags: batam, travels2014, singapore, indonesia

Posted from: Singapore

Saturday, December 6, 2014 @ 8:41 PM in 2014 Asia

Today was a beach and pool day. We started off by hanging out at our rooftop pool for a while. The pool has some great views and a very nice atmosphere. Once we started to get hungry we went out and found some cheap yet very good sushi place. The waiter kept mentioning cowboys after he found out Mike was from Texas.

Singapore isn't really known for their beaches but they do have a few. We headed down to Sentosa Island next where they have some man made beaches. We hung out at Palawan beach for a while and went over to explore their little fake island which was built to block the view of all the freighters and tankers on the ocean.

Next up we had to do some MRT/Bus transferring to get over to East Coast Park beach with more views of tankers. The beaches were pretty clean and nice aside from the views. We'd been outside for most of the day so we came back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We jumped in the pool for a little while longer at night to see some of the night views of the city which was really cool.

For dinner we went to the Newton Food Court and got some fried rice and beer. All the reviews said this foodcourt was a little more touristy so we headed over to the Maxwell food court near Chinatown. While there we didn't really find any other food that looked good so we had another beer then came back to the hotel to call it a night.

Teaser photos:

Our pool at Hotel Jen Orchardgateway

Palawan Beach on Sentosa Island

Palawan Beach

Suspension Bridge at Palawan Beach

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Tags: singapore, travels2014, beaches

Posted from: Singapore

Saturday, December 6, 2014 @ 9:32 AM in 2014 Asia

We left Kuala Lumpur early in the morning and got to Singapore on a TigerAir flight that only took about an hour. It was raining pretty hard when we landed which wasn't a good sign. Instead of using public transport we just hired a taxi to take us directly to the hotel for about S$9.

After checking in we decided to head out and see some of the city. We were pretty hungry so we went down to the food court of one of the malls where they all have a ton of food stalls set up. It sounds cheesy but in Singapore it's a really common and popular thing to eat in the mall. They used to have unregulated food stalls all over the streets but the country did a good job of moving them all into regulated areas and the natural progression was to end up in food courts in big public areas. We opted for a place where Mike got some curry noodles and I got some noodle soup.

After eating, we got a tourist card which gives us unlimited travel on the MRT and buses and then headed down to the harbor to see the Gardens by the Bay and the Marina Bay Sands. The Gardens by the Bay were some pretty cool gardens with these tall metal tree structures you could walk between. They also had some huge greenhouses but wanted to charge some really high amounts to get in.

The Marina Bay Sands is a really expensive hotel that has a giant pool at the top of the place that overlooks the city. Originally we wanted to stay there for a night to use the hotel but it would have cost us several hundred dollars each. Instead, we went up to the bar and had a drink so we could still see the views. I had a martini and Mike had a Mai Thai.

Once done we went down and walked around the city. We ended up finding our way to the Buddah Tooth Relic Temple and walked around Chinatown for a little while. It had been a long day so we came back to the hotel to chill for a little bit before heading out for dinner.

I did a little research and found a Japanese place called Jibiru that was right down the street from us. It was a Japanese restaurant that had a huge selection of Japanese beers. The food and beer was a little on the pricey side so we only had one drink each and then called it a night.

Teaser photos:

View of the city from our pool at Hotel Jen Orchardgateway

Gardens by the Bay in Singapore

Gardens by the Bay from the Marina Bay Sands

Jibiru Japanese resaurant

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Tags: travels2014, singapore

Posted from: Singapore

Friday, December 6, 2013 @ 7:23 PM in 2013 Europe

Day 163

I didn't sleep too well last night since the guy above me was snoring like crazy and then peoples alarms were going off starting around 7am. I had some coffee with breakfast then hung out at the hostel, ate lunch and then about 11:45 I left for the train station.

I have to say that I enjoyed my stay at La Banda Rooftop Hostel. Even though there was a snorer the last few nights, the hostel itself was really cool. The 4 guys who own it are always around and really helpful with everything. The food they cook is always great and it's an excellent way to get everyone in the hostel together.

I got to the train station a little earlier than I needed to so I just read there for a bit before my train arrived. The trip from Seville to Cordoba only took about an hour and a half and was pretty uneventful. I got a seat facing the wrong direction so it wasn't too exciting to watch out the window.

I checked into the hostel here (the Cordoba Bed and Be) and then went exploring around town for a bit. I went down to the Mezquita and walked through the courtyard which is free. It's full of orange trees and fountains and has great views of the belltower. I'll go into the actual building later in the week.

I've got 6 nights here so I'll have plenty of time to see the city in depth over that time. It's a bit intimidating that all of the guests here speak excellent Spanish in addition to their English. It really makes me wish I had kept up with my Spanish after high school.

Since no one in Spain eats dinner before 9, a couple of us from the hostel are going to head out and get some tapas and drinks around then.

Teaser photos:

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Tags: daily journal, spain, cordoba

Posted from: Spain

Wednesday, December 6, 2006 @ 12:00 PM in Miscellaneous

Eric, Matt and I just completed one of the single nerdiest things I've ever done in my life. We camped out at Walmart for a Nintendo Wii. I'm not a console fanboy or anything, but the Wii seems like it's a pretty solid piece of hardware and has some cool games so I figured I'd wait with them. I called Walmart last night to find out how many they had and they told us around 30.

Our original plan was to show up to Walmart around midnight and wait in line. We went by around 9:30 to check out the situation and the lady told us we'd have to wait outside for a while, then we could go inside. Eric and I came back home and put on our cold weather clothes and then met up with Matt again at Walmart. By now it was around 11 and we went to sit outside.

I went inside to double check that we were in the right place and discovered about 5 people waiting in the Lawn and Garden section. They had a sign up sheet and everything. I quickly called Matt and Eric and told them to come inside. We got there, signed up and waited, and waited, and waited.

We talked a lot with the other people, played Simpsons trivia, watched movies, slept (or tried to... as much as you can on a cold concrete floor). The 30th person finally showed up around 4:15 in the morning. Walmart wasn't doing anything to help with the flow of people or organization, so we all took it into our own hands to make sure a riot didn't break out.

The first few hours went by pretty quick, but the last two seemed to take forever. Finally a Walmart manager came over, gave everyone tickets and had us go buy our Wii's. I got Zelda with mine. I probably wont be able to play it for at least a week due to moving and everything.

Tags: old blog

Posted from: United States