Batam

[Member #4698]

Man I am totally confused about Batam. So many conflicting reports.

Despite the fact that a few notable ISG'ers really like Batam, it has not caught on as a monger's paradise and it never will for good reason. I visited Batam onetime back in 2014. I had a good time & met some nice girls, BUT I have not been back since. Why? Well to be brief, because Jakarta is infinitely better in every way that counts. So, my advice would be to first visit ALL the other worthwhile watering holes in SE Asia like CGK, SIN, MNL, AC, Phnom, Yangon, Macau, and last but not least, LOS and then check out Batam if you still want to. It's not that it is a bad place, it's just that there really isn't anything particularly noteworthy there either. It's kind of like Subic in an offbeat way, maybe a little better girl quality, but I make the comparison because in both cases there is no compelling reason to go there and you will realize it a night or two after you arrive. Then again, if you prefer to be a big fish in a small pond, Batam might be just what you are looking for. Ha Ha. Enjoy!

[NewImage]

Thank you for sharing and writing a good report. Any specific hotel you recommend the most? I will def load up tinder next time I am there since wechat was quite disappointing for me except that it had some real massage ladies hot as f.

Man I am totally confused about Batam. So many conflicting reports. Yeah yeah I know go find out for yourself.

Like that its so close to Sing & price but conflicting reports and nothing to do there makes other places more attractive. My main MO is pick up FL from clubs, disco etc and some learned friends say not a good idea.

Just my opinion.

[Traveling John #2]

Thank you for sharing and writing a good report. Any specific hotel you recommend the most? I will def load up tinder next time I am there since wechat was quite disappointing for me except that it had some real massage ladies hot as f.

For me Harmoni was good because it was on sale with agoda and I could walk to booking sites. It also had a back door if you would rather not not walk through the main lobby with a quest.

Mr. Black also mentioned good information on hotels. Make sure to read as many of his post as you can.

Tinder was not all that good except the one girl. I think I matched with 4 others and the conversation went nowhere. Badoo and Bumble also work, but really I imagine most of the girls on those sites also work at booking sites. If you have the patience and can socialize then go and spend some time in a booking house chatting with the girls. Get a feel for who can connect with and who speaks English. I had some good laughs in one place. Another one of the girls really wanted me to pick her and we had a fun talk.

[MakeItOrBreak]

Overall great trip if living in Singapore but make sure you plan what to do when not hunting because there really is not much outside of golf, shopping, and hunting.

Thanks for all the great post Mr. Page.

Thank you for sharing and writing a good report. Any specific hotel you recommend the most? I will def load up tinder next time I am there since wechat was quite disappointing for me except that it had some real massage ladies hot as f.

[Traveling John #2]

Planet Holiday. Big rooms, big bed, big hotel. Pool was green and across major road from NED (Bars, Booking Sites, and messages).

Harmoni Hotel (not suite just hotel) - Rooms newer, right next to bars, rooms nice and good size. Walking distance to NED.

Walking around at night. No issues except every motorbike asked if I needed a ride, girls, message, anything. Even when I was standing outside booking site.

Lessons learned. Hotel staff will not protect you from getting ripped off. Taxi at planet holiday cost 200,000 just to drive me to all the booking sites I could have walked to. Also when I picked a girl went in and got his cut also. Tried to push me to book long time. I paid him after 15 minutes and went back to walking.

Rented a motorbike from hotel staff. Cost 1,000,000 for two days. Later learned from friend I could have gotten week for 200,000.

Booking sites are rooms with a few to lots of girls. Guys usually sit outside of them and urge you to enter. Happy message did not do this, they could care less if you come or go.

Happy place turned out to be the best booking. Lots of girls when open and actually closes. Girls do not pay attention and Mamason was mixed in but once I made a connection got good attention and taken care of. Short time was at a close hotel with decent room that came out of girls money. Cost was 500,000 or 600,000.

Morena or place advised against before, most other places used the rooms upstairs. They were dirty and towel looked used. Never really closed and if you go before 2 pm they will get you a girl or take to their room to look. It also had a room of girls and dancing area / bar on the other side. Service was no better or worse here.

Cost of booking did not decide quality of experience. 1 girl who was 500,000 was probably the best and she admitted to hating white foreign guys. Many did not want to do oral and if they did covered was often used.

Best experience was from the one girl I found on tinder. Later learned she also works from booking house. I agree with Black Page. Short time is better for me than long. The chase is very possible. Many girls in shops smiled and being nice went a long way. With tinder girl she sat in the room and texted on her phone. Her English was good but we are different generation so no reason to really talk about life. We had fun and she asked to come hang out a second night. Not for free, but also not at the full booking cost either. I ended up leaving her in the room a lone and she slept or played on phone till I got back. Left money sitting out till it was time to leave. Bad was she did not like to give oral or kiss, but glad I was able to trust her and she had a good sense of humor and did not try the sad story or ask for tip.

Most of the girls are not used to average size westerner but none complained out loud other than with possible fake moans but face expression showed said everything.

Overall great trip if living in Singapore but make sure you plan what to do when not hunting because there really is not much outside of golf, shopping, and hunting.

Thanks for all the great post Mr. Page.

[Black Page]

Are booking sites the same has some of the message places in the NED? I found happy8 massage and a few other places with fish bowls. Prices for one shot were 500 or 600 with using the room at the Morena.
It is much easier to walk around then have a taxi take you around. Driver from planet holiday wanted 100,000 to take me to all the places I already walked by.
The scooters are a pain, riding beside you trying to offer anything to get you to ride.

I did reply before, but my post got lost with the hard disk failure. I try to write again what I remember.

The booking sites are scattered all around. Near the NED, I remember only 1 or 2. There are near Newton, Utama, DC Mall.

Happy8 is maybe the most expensive, but also one of the most reliable. ST price should be 400-500. You have been probably overcharged. Prices are always negotiable.

Taxi drivers take a commission on the order of 100 k-200 k from the joint, if they take you there and you book. If you go there walking, you can point it out to the papi and ask discount. That's you will find drivers who take you around for free. They earn their money from the joint. I was used to take ojek, however.

P.S.: Jackson WE LOVE YOU. You left us few days without ISG, and it was scary Thank you for giving us all this virtually for free.

[Smthgrnthg]

Heading to Batam for a quick weekend gateway from Singapore, first time there, have great experience of mongering in Jakarta / Bali / Jogyakarta etc. I am basically a no frills, get to the business kinda guy. So hoping to find a place like Classic Hotel / Hotel Travel or X houses of Bali. Basically a fishbowl / large place with big choice of girls. Pick pay. Get some action, go eat dinner and enjoy the rest of the evening kinda thing.

Is there a place (or places) in Batam that provides such facility? (local branch of Hotel Classic from Jakarta?

Appreciate a hint from experienced guys here. BP?

Thanks in advance.

S.

[Traveling John #2]

Are booking sites the same has some of the message places in the NED? I found happy8 massage and a few other places with fish bowls. Prices for one shot were 500 or 600 with using the room at the Morena.

It is much easier to walk around then have a taxi take you around. Driver from planet holiday wanted 100,000 to take me to all the places I already walked by.

The scooters are a pain, riding beside you trying to offer anything to get you to ride.

[Black Page]

In my trip, I set my expectations low: special massage and that was it. Went to Formosa, got one from a decent looking girl. Started out as a legit massage and almost ended as one, till she asked the "do you want a special massage" question. Paid her 400 k for the massage and for her to take off her top. Upper roaming and I left with a smile. Ate some Indonesian food then hopped on the ferry and got the hell out of there. Didn't bother to stay overnight.

"Didn't bother to stay overnight"?? You don't know what you missed!

You did not just "scratched the surface of an iceberg", as we say usually. You simply looked at the iceberg, jumped on it, then back to the boat without even scratching to take a sample of ice.

400 k for a special massage and tit roaming? She opened a bottle with friends once back to her room.

However, I don't mean to be harsch. Batam is not trivial. It takes time to understand it and to learn how to move around. However, IMHO it does not really make sense to invest so much time and money, take a ferry, pass the border, spend a whole day, just to go to Formosa King's Massage as single highlight of the day tour.

[Here Again]

Was in Batam over the weekend, and thought some might find my experiences of some help.

So that was a wrap on my first Batam mongering expedition. Sure I made a couple of mistakes, but my impression mirrors that of some other posters on this board. The place (if it was once good) is at least, in my opinion, now shit. The best girls I saw after visiting all of the places over those two days were of a standard you would not even look at in say Jakarta or even KL. Of course I know this is not Jakarta, but if you are Singapore based, my opinion is you should just spend a little bit more and play there. The girls will be hotter, you are less likely to get hustled, and the law is more likely to be on your side if you do. Plus, Batam itself is a pretty awful place.

That being said I don't like to write a place off after one tour, so who knows, may revisit in a couple of months once the sour taste of this tour is out of my mouth. Will report back if I do!

The shithole-ness of Batam is quite jarring coming directly from the ferry in Singapore. Batam is Singapore's Tijuana. And the more I thought about that analogy, the more the locals' actions began to make sense to me.

In my trip, I set my expectations low: special massage and that was it. Went to Formosa, got one from a decent looking girl. Started out as a legit massage and almost ended as one, till she asked the "do you want a special massage" question. Paid her 400 k for the massage and for her to take off her top. Upper roaming and I left with a smile. Ate some Indonesian food then hopped on the ferry and got the hell out of there. Didn't bother to stay overnight.

Didn't ask if I could suck her tits, though I probably should've tried. I'll save that for next time.

[Black Page]

In general, one has always to be cautious when taking girls for the night, everywhere in the world and also in Batam.
Singaporeans tend to exaggerate the risk, as they are simply NOT USED to any kind of illegal behavior. Once I read, on the Singapore Police web site, the recommendation to commuters to lock the bicycles at the MRT stations before going to work , to avoid the risk of having them stolen. Where else in the world one could EVEN THINK to leave a bicycle unlocked for an entire day at a metro station??
Batam is not South America, where we all have heard horror stories about some guy even drugged by the girl, some guy who woke up two days later without anything left in the room. However, even in Batam it is POSSIBLE to catch the girl trying to steal, as reported below.

The best is taking girls from a reputed source. With the notable exception of Morena, all booking joints are usually trustable. The girl comes and does not steal, as she is an employee of the joint and cannot disappear.

On the contrary, I recommend to be extremely cautious if you take a girl to your room for the night from a disco (remember discos are like Evil's Den in Indonesia) or even worse if you find her on WeChat. I am not saying that it is likely she is a thief or worse, but I heard some stories like the one reported in the previous post. It is POSSIBLE, still I would not say likely. Preventing is better than curing, therefore keep always all eyes open (even the third).

Years ago, I found a pretty young girl at Newton. She came to sleep with me at Formosa. I was so tired that I fell down sleeping so deeply after our workout activity, that later she was able to wake up, go to bathroom silently, refresh herself, leave me sleeping, without I could hear anything. She left me there without saying bye. I woke up later in the morning, and I found myself alone in the bed. So sad!

I checked everything, but nothing was missing. My laptop was there, my watch, my money, my wallet were there.
Relieved, I moved to the bathroom and this is what I found. See the photo attached. Did I say already that I love Batam?

[Black Page]

One called MM or something of that nature, and another called Morena 30. This was where things took a turn for the worse.

"Morena" is the name of a series of pubs, short time brothels and booking joints. Whenever you see "Morena", STAY AWAY unless you have been in Batam many times and then you want to explore off track. Anyway, never consider to take a girl for more than short time, one shot on site.

Morena joints are well known because nobody ever had a good experience there. It could be that the girl has a shot, then escapes with a silly excuse and never comes back, or the worse as you reported. Don't expect any support from papi working at Morena. I think they are well used to scam or just exploit the good faith of tourists.

The only places I could recommend for booking are Sedona, Happy8, Bunga, which are more expensive, but at least have some sense of business. As you have noticed, the look of girls there varies a lot over time. This must be dry time.

To be honest, is booking the way to go in Batam? I don't think so, but it's my personal attitude. It is a long time I don't take any girl for booking. The problem is: even if the girl is a sweet brown Indo very willing to please me, what do I do with this girl in my bed after my first shot? Dinner time? After that? 99% of them do not speak English, and therefore conversation is poor. Even with English, what would be the subject of a conversation with her for 10 hours?

My strategy in the last years has been to indulge in the afternoon with some massage or short time, or just work on my things, or hunting for office ladies at malls, then have a good seafood dinner, then go for bar hopping and disco. From bars and disco I aways get some good time, including a girl for my time after 4 am.

My 5 cents! To each his own.

[BKKguru]

<snip>
After a while she suggests I go to the shower and freshen up so we can get things started. Walk into the bathroom, get the shower running, come back out to the room to grab my drink. There I find her with my wallet in her hands and half the cash out already! I'd been in the bathroom for like 15 seconds max to flick on the shower so she must be as quick as a damn mongoose to get the wallet out of my shorts and have the cash out already. She obviously got shocked when I came out so she dropped the wallet and cash on the floor. She's quite lucky at this point that I'm generally quite chilled, other guys would have handled the situation differently I'm sure. I know this kind of stuff happens, but was a first time for me in 15+ years of mongering all over the world. She then grabs her bag and walks out of the room.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

The exact same thing happened to me in Bangkok couple of years ago:

I had picked up a FL standing outside the gate of Hotel Nana (bang opposite the main entrance to Nana Plaza).
We walk back to my Hotel room for ST. I turn on the TV for her. I remove my jeans and leave it on the chair next to the desk.

I go into the shower and turn on the water. After less than 2 minutes, I walk back into the room with the towel tied around my waist. The water is still running in the shower.
I catch the girl in the act: she was holding my wallet in her hand, with my jeans still on the chair.

She mumbles sorry or something to that effect and looks very embarrassed. I gave her an angry look and point to the door. Tell her to leave before I call Hotel Security.
In all these years, this was the first time this happened to me.

The only difference is I did not lose any money. As you know, there is an advantage, when you pay *after* the deed.

~BKKguru.

[DonKey82]

Was in Batam over the weekend, and thought some might find my experiences of some help.

I arrived on the Saturday morning and was staying at the Harmoni suites. Was planning to take the easy option and hit some booking joints and try and find a cutie. I knew things would be tougher being a Saturday and many girls being pre-booked, but I started relatively early (2 pm) and went on a tour of a number of places. First I tried what (I assume) was Sedona. I couldn't see any sign, but my driver told me it was Sedona and was behind the Batam Star hotel. It has a Karaoke attached to it. The lineup there was pretty atrocious, maybe 10 or 12 girls, honestly the best was a 4/10.

I then told my driver to take me around the short list that I'd prepared from this site. First went to Happy8. I saw one girl there that had a body of 7+, but face of a 4. 5. Great body though so thought to myself I will come back for her if the other places do not produce. After this tried Sri Kandy (very few girls left, nothing above a 5), Bunga (highest number of girls. Nearly took one from here but figured the girl from Happy8 was slightly hotter and more smiley). After this I was pretty disappointed by the Batam mongering experience. But thought I would try to salvage the day by going back and taking the girl from Happy8. Before I did, driver suggested we try two others. One called MM or something of that nature, and another called Morena 30. This was where things took a turn for the worse. There was a girl at Morena 30 who looked quite good, and was giving off a friendly vibe. Overall she's probably a 6. 5, though she has some huge mole / growth thing on her eyebrow that I couldn't see until she gets outside. Nevertheless decided to forego Happy8 girl and take her instead. 1. 4 m was agreed and paid, and she came back to the hotel with me. Poured a glass of wine, she lights a smoke, chatting and listening to music. So far so good, she seems nice.

After a while she suggests I go to the shower and freshen up so we can get things started. Walk into the bathroom, get the shower running, come back out to the room to grab my drink. There I find her with my wallet in her hands and half the cash out already! I'd been in the bathroom for like 15 seconds max to flick on the shower so she must be as quick as a damn mongoose to get the wallet out of my shorts and have the cash out already. She obviously got shocked when I came out so she dropped the wallet and cash on the floor. She's quite lucky at this point that I'm generally quite chilled, other guys would have handled the situation differently I'm sure. I know this kind of stuff happens, but was a first time for me in 15+ years of mongering all over the world. She then grabs her bag and walks out of the room. Obviously we both know there's no chance to salvage a good session from this. By this time she's been in my room maybe 20 minutes total.

I see her as I'm walking out through the lobby and tell her I'm going to go back to her work and speak to her boss to try and get this resolved. The cash I paid him is not a material amount, but it's the principle of the matter now as my Saturday night is likely ruined. So I head back to Morena 30 and speak to the guy behind the desk. At first this guy plays dumb / pretends to speak no English, then he makes a phone call and I wait 10 minutes or so for another guy to appear. This guy's English is fine, but he's a bigger criminal than his thief of an employee. He just stands there with a shit eating grin on his face saying 'oh no sir. The girl say you finish with her two shots and it is 700 k per shot so there's your 1. 4 m gone'. From when I took her to when I returned is probably 45 minutes. 20 minutes in the room. Never touched her and she never undressed. I said to him what you think I'm superman I can finish 2 shots in 20 minutes? He knows its bullshit, my driver who has come back in with me knows its bullshit, but Morena (I assume) manager is just sat there with a smug grim effectively saying 'too bad Bule'. Few times in my life have I been as tempted to smack someone in the face. But I was sober and assumed the law would not be on my side if I did. In the end after 45 minutes of back and forth with the guy I left. Lesson learnt. Batam is surely a snake pit, and Morena 30 is the worst of it. So go there if you want to get robbed by the staff and the management. In some later google research I discover that Morena as well as the MM place that my driver took me to are on a 'blacklist' on another (albeit quite old) mongering website post, so I'm not the first.

I decide to give up on the girls for Saturday and go for a good feed at Barelang seafood instead.

Sunday morning go for an early regular massage, then decide to try my luck at the booking houses again (obviously avoiding the thieves at Morena 30 this time! Went a bit earlier to see if that helped. Reached Sedona by 1 pm, literally 5 girls in there, nothing above a 4 again. Quickly left. Second stop was Bunga. Again. Large number of girls, pricing was 1 m or 1. 3 m for the range depending on who you picked. Took a Balinese girl for 1. 3 m. Face a 7, body probably a 5. 5 but couldn't see this until I got her back. Enthusiasm / attitude was an 8 though. Had a good session, went out for dinner, then another good session, then let her go with a tip. Was heading back on an early ferry on the Monday so that was the end of my exploits for the trip.

So that was a wrap on my first Batam mongering expedition. Sure I made a couple of mistakes, but my impression mirrors that of some other posters on this board. The place (if it was once good) is at least, in my opinion, now shit. The best girls I saw after visiting all of the places over those two days were of a standard you would not even look at in say Jakarta or even KL. Of course I know this is not Jakarta, but if you are Singapore based, my opinion is you should just spend a little bit more and play there. The girls will be hotter, you are less likely to get hustled, and the law is more likely to be on your side if you do. Plus, Batam itself is a pretty awful place.

That being said I don't like to write a place off after one tour, so who knows, may revisit in a couple of months once the sour taste of this tour is out of my mouth. Will report back if I do!

[Eszpresszo]

But seems the good Batam times are gone.

Why? Just because somebody on an internet forum, whom you've never met, told you so? I suggest you find out for yourself. Veracity is fleeting, and the "Debbie downers" always seem to hit me as people who never got more than 50 miles from home. Then again, YMMV. Best wishes and best of luck.