Batam

[Wikki]

Hi Black Page,

Thanks again, but what about the girls there, will I be able to communicate in english language?

Thanks

[Black Page]

Hi Black Page,
First of all THANKS A LOT for such an outstanding and helpful report.

My pleasure to help. I just wish others would do the same...

I will be in Singapore in September and plan to stay a weekend taking the ferry over to Batam Friday afternoon. That should do, shouldn't it?

Sure, as I wrote in my report, but be sure to book the return seat in advance!

PS: any specific hotel (or area to stay) you're suggesting?

I took the list from the websites and I made a few phone calls to find a room. As I wrote in my report, where I wrote all details, I stayed in Nagoya.

[Wikki]

Hi Black Page,

First of all THANKS A LOT for such an outstanding and helpful report.

Reading your words I recognize that the both of us are into the same things when it comes to cewek.

I was wondering if you could communicate with the girls in English or do you speak local language.

Regarding your 1M lady: sure I understand that it would have been worth the amount if she'd stay with you for the night but considering the risk you had to experience it's probably wise to pay only about half maximum.

I will be in Singapore in September and plan to stay a weekend taking the ferry over to Batam Friday afternoon. That should do, shouldn't it?

Thanks in advance for telling me how you would behave your next time in Batam.

Sincerely Wikki

PS: any specific hotel (or area to stay) you're suggesting?

[Black Page]

Good report, but 1 million rupiah for a pussy in batam its a scam all white man going to batam it will cheaper to bring me along just pay my hotel and ferry bill for one night pussy I pay myself black page forget to mention my name in memory they would have shit in their pants if you say you are a friend of mine the owner of memory a lady is a very good friend of mine.

William,
I would have agreed with you about considering a scam the 1M price, but before seeing that girl. In that place, there were maybe 20 girls, ranked along a line in groups by price from 350k up to the last two, priced 700k and 1M. Believe me, the 1M was my dream girl, clearly outstanding all others I have seen in all massage places of Batam.
I am sure that you pay half than me, but I have this white face and nobody offered me any girl for less than 300k, in any place in Batam, except the 3-floors brothel (50k, but ST and girl look was not comparable).
I always tried to get lower prices in massage places, but all mamasans told me prices are fixed and bargaining is out of question.
I look forward to go hunting with you next time (I PMed you before going, but you did not reply).

[William Saw]

Good report, but 1 million rupiah for a pussy in batam its a scam all white man going to batam it will cheaper to bring me along just pay my hotel and ferry bill for one night pussy I pay myself black page forget to mention my name in memory they would have shit in their pants if you say you are a friend of mine the owner of memory a lady is a very good friend of mine.

[Black Page]

three weeks after my trip, here is my report about batam, following my report in the singapore-geylang section:
http://www.InternationalSexGuide.nl/forum/showthread.php?p=1041693

yes, i liked batam a lot! william saw is right
i love indonesians, and especially now that the choice in geylang is limited, nothing better than going to the source.
i’ve been in batam only 2 days, in nagoya, but i look forward to get back at the first opportunity, to get a better insight. next time i go to singapore, for sure i will add some days here and some days in other indonesian islands like tbk.

introduction

batam is pretty different from singapore or other destinations where i have been and had the opportunity to practice our hobby.
there are sws? not at all! (i read things changed in recent years, due to a crackdown from authorities)
there are bars where foreigners have the chance to meet various foreign girls for st or lt? yes, but not so wild as someone may expect reading some tourist information on the web: girls are only indonesians and not all of them are wgs. (not like ot in singapore where viet, thai, phil, etc. girls come from their countries to meet men)
wikipedia claims "the main lure on batam is the naughty nightlife", but this was not really my impression.

in batam, things work differently and more quietly.
the best thing to do here (well, at least according to my hands-on 2-days experience) is to go to visit a massage place or a karaoke (not all of them are actually places to find wgs, but your taxi driver will take you to the right place) and book a girl for the whole day and night.
this is not your best, if you are one who likes to change frantically various girls throughout the day and night and if you think that st is 20 mins, but it allows a priceless experience if you like gfe!
what’s more, especially on weekends, it is important to go there before noon, because later in the afternoon best looking girls will have been booked already.

in batam, booking seems to be the word used to indicate politely this profession. a girl once told me "i came here for booking, to get some money".

when you pick a girl, pay the papa/mamasan, take her out from the place with you, the best thing is to understand that you are hiring a girlfriend, not a body. you must treat the girl nicely (and would it be really possible to do differently? indonesian girls are such sweet persons!), possibly take her out for dinner, enjoy your time.

general information for tourists

this web site is the best:
http://www.bataminfo.com/ (start from the "about batam" section)
although it is a commercial web site advertising a resort/hotel run by some aussies, it is extremely informative also for tourists who are going to stay elsewhere. i found only few information outdated (e.g., prices for taxi from the harbour bay to nagoya, now fixed to 40000rp). most recommendations proved accurate.
also the wikitravel pages on batam and nagoya are not bad, judging after having been there, except some exaggerations about safety.

maps? what is a map? i could not find a decent map of nagoya and batam. in the hotel, they were surprised by my request. i must have been the first one asking it. after a long search, they gave me a photocopy of a simple outline of nagoya, not in scale. something is available on the above web site, but be ready to practice your self-orienting abilities with just a poor piece of paper in hands as a hint.

how to go there

the web site bataminfo.com is very detailed about this. i must say that i totally agree with what i read there: "if you are planning to stay in a nagoya hotel or spend most of your time in and around the main business and entertainment district it is strongly recommended that you take a wavemaster ferry to harbour bay."
i add only a word of caution: if you go to batam for the weekend, be careful to book also your return seat. on sunday, all ferries may be fully booked!

taxi

standard price from harbour bay to nagoya is 40000rp, not 20000 as i read somewhere. i thought i was overcharged, but this is the regulated price specified on the official paper of the taxi company. to pay less, you must walk outside and stop a bike (ojek), being ready to bargain. since you probably arrive with luggage, i suggest to pay 40k and exercise your bargaining ability some other time.

during my stay, i used almost exclusively ojek to go around looking for cewek, surely overpaying (20k-50k for long rides like 30’-60’) but getting in change friendly and good service at all times.

i booked a car with driver from the hotel to go to nongsa to eat seafood with my syt cewek. price was 85k/h min 3hrs (or 65k?? i forgot! ), pretty cheap compared to western standards.

places for girls

i had a look in various massage places and karaoke at daytime. i was looking for the syt/gfe type. knowing that the girl was not supposed to stay with me for 30 mins, but for the whole evening and night, made me even pickier as usually i am. in my limited experience, i saw the best selection at memory, indah2 and indah. femina massage had very few girls, but maybe because it was late (7pm).
timing is essential, especially on weekends when singaporeans come in groups and sweep all girl places: when i visited indah2 at noon the line of girls was memorable to my eyes.

i did not have the time to explore bars and clubs. i visited asylum, where i played pool with a tall sexy girl and a couple of aussie ex-pats. girls were not bad, but i assume more expensive than elsewhere (bule price). the girl asked me 500k for the night.

prices for girls

this is a summary of my (surely non-exhaustive) experience:

brothel in a building in nagoya, poor dingy room over 3 floors, 20yo-35yo girls not very attractive but yet not "impossible" imho: 50k for st on place.

massage places (memory, indah2, indah, femina, …): 300k, 350k, 450k and up (depending on the girl), booking lt till next morning.
when you enter the place, girls sit along the wall, grouped and ranked by price. in most cases, i saw two categories available: 350k and 450k, but when i went to indah2 at noon i was proposed girls for 350k, 450k, 500k, 700k and 1m!
(a girl told me that 50% is for them, 50% for the place.)

350k and 450k look higher than prices reported on isg, but they have been told me in all massage places where i have been. one possible explanation is that i am bule and thus there is a convergence of all operators to these bule prices, in some way agreed by the local community.

believe me, i don’t want to spoil the local market and i am usually determined to not overpay. however, the above prices were asked me in all places. they really looked the standard fees.

a papasan swore me that these are not bule prices. i asked him who decides the price. he told me that he was just the papasan and that girls come from the agency in java* already "labelled" with their end-user price. i guess there is some market expert whose job is scanning girls and determining the fee based on their attractiveness.
(*all girls i met come from java, and most of them from surabaya. this means something.)

bar (asylum): 500k lt. i cannot say if this is the regular price in bars, though.

safety

i totally neglected the safety warnings i read on wikitravel and other web sites, about not taking unofficial taxies, walking alone at night, etc.

i took wikitravel recommendations seriously at first, before going there, but now some of those warnings sound really odd to me, like "do not walk alone at night. (...) if you really have to get back to your hotel call the hotel and have them send a car to pick you up. (...) you may not be safe hiring a taxi off the street either."
my impression, on the contrary, is that local people is extremely kind and hospitable. i walked on my own in nagoya at all times. the only problem was saying "no" to ojek drivers offering a ride (how to blame them?).
i think that those safety warnings may come especially from singaporeans, used to their sanitized environment. having survived night walks in africa and south america, batam looked really quiet to me.

my adventures

day 1 (friday)

after some days in singapore, i could not wait to go exploring the source of sweet indonesians. thus, on friday after my week of work in singapore, duly following the recommendations on bataminfo.com, i take a wavemaster/berlian ferry from harbourfront and in less than one our i am in batam, harbour bay. i take an official taxi (40k regulated price) and i go straight to my hotel in nagoya centre.

disappointingly, i cannot get a decent map of the place. the hotel does not have it (and they even look surprised of my request). with a photocopy of an outline of a map (from the web) in my hands at 2pm i start exploring nagoya centre.

wikitravel warns tourists about taking unofficial taxies and ojeks (see above "safety"), but after one hour of walking around to see how it looks i think "wtf, i go around at night in el centro of medellin, bogota, san salvador and should i be afraid of batam??". this observation makes me quickly accept the offer of one of the countless ojek drivers who seem to be everywhere.

i ask him to take me around nagoya, to see the town, and also of course to take me to see beautiful girls. apparently, all ojek drivers stick to few massage places: memory, indah2, indah, and if you insist few others. i think there must be many more, but time is needed to make a thorough exploration.

also this first driver took me to that places. due to the late time (3-4pm), the selection was not so exciting. also, i planned to resist to the temptation to book the first nice girl. my aim was to have an overview of what nagoya can offer. usually, when i am in a new place, i strive to get an estimate of the average level (and also of the variance), to be able to pick, at the end, only the outstanding samples :d.

i insisted with the driver that i wanted to see something like a brothel, with many girls to choose for st. i think this is not an usual request from a foreigner. after a long ride around nagoya, and even questions asked to other ojek drivers, he takes me finally in a small alley (there was a name on the main road, but i forgot). he knocks on an iron door. nobody comes. a young girl is washing clothes in the alley and looks at me, not much surprised apparently.

after maybe 5-10 times knocking, we move to the front door, where a guy sends us back again, where finally somebody comes slowly to open. this place is a classic low-end brothel, on 3 floors, where girls wait for customers in their little dingy rooms. price: 50k for st (=5.50usd, still not the cheapest i found in my life).

no evidence of other customers. girls were completely idle, some sleeping, some washing clothes, some others having lunch. i dont think they saw many bule coming to their place. the guy took me to visit all rooms, on all floors, but honestly girls did not look very appealing. i liked only one girl, but she was sick (period, if i did not misunderstand it) and thus we finally left.
no pressure at all from the guy. only smiles and courtesy for the new customer.

after more than one hour riding on the bike with my driver, we finally stop at memory. the papasan tells me he has a special young new one. she is about 20yo, tall and pretty and better looking than others. i finally decide to book this one (350k till next morning).

i skip needless details, but once in my hotel room she gets apparently scared of my big thing (she told me she was used to chinese men, who have a small one). after 2 minutes bbj she starts crying and tell me she wants to cancel booking and be back to memory. i hope everyone believes me if i say that i am a kind person and i did not do anything rude (and, no, i am not that big!).

in short, we get back to memory, where i ask my money back. obviously, the manager is not there, a girl tells me that i cannot be refunded, that she does know who is the man i talked before, etc. etc. i think this is yet another scam for tourists and that this is the batam’s welcome for me. however, i don’t leave the place and i start claiming that i will spread the word among my friends.
after 10 minutes, the man is on the phone. he tells me that i cannot be refunded because the girl sucked my dick (well, i paid 350k till nex morning…). my best negotiating skills does not take me very far: i get 150k partial refund. it’s still a scam, from my point of view, but anyway not so bad as it looked at first.

it’s 7pm now. too late for more massage places. i decide to go for dinner in harbour bay and postpone hunting to after dinner, exploring bars and the naughty nightlife i read on some web site.

going around for bar hopping at night is difficult in nagoya. immediately, you have a few ojek drivers who follow you offering their services.

i entered one picked at random (asylum). i played pool with a tall sexy girl and a couple of aussie ex-pats. the girl asked me 500k for the night.
i left and walked around a bit. i took an ojek for a 30' ride visiting some more bars, but i did not see any interesting girl.

cutting the story short, i ended up my night getting back to asylum at 2am, where the sexy girl was still there. i accepted the 500k fee. i knew it was too much, but i also knew that at 2am i did not have any better option.
the girl was hot and sexy, and my experience very good anyway.

day 2 (saturday)

today, i change approach. i know it’s saturday and herds of tourists are coming from singapore, ready to sweep all places of best girls. also, i have understood that here st has little meaning. the principle is booking a girlfriend for the day and the night.

at 11am, i take an ojek and i start my quest, motivated to get the best of the best for the whole day and night.

at indah2, i get flashed by the line of girls! about 20, several ones stunning, sitting along the wall and ranked by price. the mamasan presents me the line "these ones cost 350k, these 4 ones 450k, these 3 ones 500k, and finally this one 700k and the last one one million."
shit! 1m?? why? - i ask. the mamas an tells me "because she is pretty and new".
she was however a dream of a girl: my fetish-kind syt, schoolgirl look (19yo, before anyone begins objecting). 1mrp is 110usd, which is a huge price in batam but still cheap in europe or usa (from 2pm till next morning!).
wtf, i think, if i don’t take this one i will regret for a long time. i make my booking and i say i will be back to pick her up later at 2pm or so.

i took her with me to have lunch to nongsa. since the beginning, i saw something strange in her behaviour. she clearly did not like to stay with me, although she was kind and ok. she wanted to go the hotel room and insisted to ask that, instead of staying outside. i was in batam not only to fuck, but also to see something, so i stuck to my plan.

once in the room, i had a dream fuck with one the best shy babyface syt i ever met. i will never forget that tight pussy. i asked her who are her typical customers and she told me japanese. of course – i thought – with such a price…

i still feel horny thinking about that, but problems began immediately after. she started to say she was feeling sick and wanted to leave. she asked a tip etc. etc. she also begged me to let her go, without complaining with the house.
what to do in these cases? i will never force anyone. i already paid the mamasan, so i did not have many more options:

1) keep an unwilling girl to occupy my bed and do nothing;
2) [CodeWord123] her till next morning to get what i've paid for;
3) let her go and then go back to the massage place and complain;
4) let her go free and do not complain with the house, stay satisfied of the single fuck, memorable yet paid the huge amount 1m, and go hunting for another one (a.k.a. the more the better).
if you know me, you might be not surprised to know that i chose option 4.
(i prefer to act as a dumbass, rather than as a son-of-a-bi**ch)

to cut it short: at 7pm i am in the street, long ojek drive, 4 massage places visited, a nice but not outstanding girl for 350k lt, dinner at harbour bay, 2 fucks at night and morning. girl was nice, but after the syt looked very pro to me.

day 3 (sunday)

i wanted to leave by ferry in the early afternoon, so i had no time for a gfe cewek. since i dont want to deprive myself of any experience, in the morning i entered a regular massage place for a regular massage.
a sign on the room wall warned customers "no sexual harassments", however the lady asked me 100k tip for hj.

[Betong]

FWIW, Batavia and Lion are on the EU blacklist but Garuda and Mandala aren't.

[1Ball]

Mandala and Lion fly one the youngests fleet of aicraft in Asia. Garuda is not bad. Batavia? Only if I really have to.

[CyclopUnicorn]

No problem. Garuda, Batavia, Mandala, Lion, and a couple other airlines all fly Jakarta-Batam and fares are usually pretty low.

Taking cheap flight is 1 thing. But in terms of safety, I would think twice taking the above planes, imo. To each its own.

[Betong]

I will be in Jarkata next month also like to visit Singapore, so like to fly to Batam for a few days then take the ferry to Singapore.

No problem. Garuda, Batavia, Mandala, Lion, and a couple other airlines all fly Jakarta-Batam and fares are usually pretty low.

[Fast Eddie 48]

I will be in Jarkata next month also like to visit Singapore, so like to fly to Batam for a few days then take the ferry to Singapore, this way I only have to pay for one voa visa do anyone know any cheap flight on this route or is cheaper to fly to Singapore direct because there a\is more flight.

Fast Eddie 48

[William Saw]

May I know the USD25 visa is for per entry or can be multiple entry within 30 days?

Only per entry within 30 days.

[Kok King]

May I know the USD25 visa is for per entry or can be multiple entry within 30 days?

[Cooze Hound]

Would be 60 days then, right?

But who wants to stay 60 days in Batam?

Cheers!

Yes, you are right on both counts, I meant to say the maximum of the extension is 30 days.

You can of course do the extension anywhere there is an immigration office and then move on, and some of those offices are in pretty small places. It can take 4+ days and theoretically has to be done 7 days before the existing visa expires.

You need a photocopy of your Passport main page, copy of existing visa and proof of a ticket out.

[Ekspat]

VOA's are now able to be extended, one time to make a maximum stay of 30 days.

Would be 60 days then, right?
But who wants to stay 60 days in Batam???

Cheers!