Quote:
Originally Posted by marineboy99
Thank bro for your advise and encourage  now you can consider a old bird liaio  you blog of first time to batam it a must for me to read cause of useful information and your experience had a good trip to your batam trip,I think 1 timer sure get carrot head well it OK for me as a experience |
Sorry bro,i am far from being old bird. I can see you have been to Batam before,most likely more than i do. Old bird in my definition means they have been cheonging Batam for YEARS...almost becoming close to the Batam local there and speaks their language,and know when a carrot chopper is coming. Most importantly is not spoiling the market and know the places in Batam and well. I still do not know a lot of places in Batam and those i know,i have not known them well enough. I am a newbie.
Of course there will also be a handful of self proclaim old birds who cheong Batam for many years but constantly spoiling market. Those are not call Old Bird from my point of view,those are nerds.They pay a much higher prices compare to the real old bird and when they came back sillypore,they will show off that they pay premium prices for premium services but when newbies go the same direction as these "Fake Old bird" base on the real old bird's advise,they (the newbie) actually can get a lower price for the same service.
I personally know at least 2 of such real life "fake old bird" who cheong batam for more than 5 years,but when they stand at the direction of Formosa facing Nagoya Hill Mall,they didn't know how to get there when being asked to. Ask them anything abt direction or places in Batam,their common reply is often "don't know" or "i must ask my driver" type of answers.
These are the group of self proclaimed "old bird" who needs to take a taxi from Formosa to Nagoya Hill Mall while walking there takes less than 5 mins. Change money at Nagoya Hill Mall from their "exclusive" money changer for 9100/SGD while i follow advise from real old bird of this thread to change opp Formosa at 9200/SGD back then. During then,my "fake old bird" friends take taxi from Formosa to Nagoya Hill Mall for 30k to change 9100/SGD (from their exclusive Money changer) while i walk across Formosa to change at 9200/SGD within 1 min. They change S$600 while i change S$200. They go to Nagoya Hill Mall,Hyper Mart to buy their daily necessities while i bought mine from behind Formosa provision shop. They take taxi go Queens to book 2 19 year old girl at 1.2 juta to 1.5 juta respectively while i walk to Gold Bird to book 1 20 year old girl at 900k.
Conversion from Sin to IDR makes indo money very small and at times too small an amount to make any substantial saving,so I walk from point A to Point B not just to save,but more towards understanding the changing surrounding and learning the direction of places i visit.
1st timer also not necessary will get carrot head. It depends on the characteristic of the person. 1st timer usually don't know what to spend on. So their interaction with "sellers" are lesser. I still follow my own guide on my signature till today and i usually spend less than S$200 (include room,exclude ferry),even tho i keep asking 1st timer to bring S$300 (excluding ferry). Reason is i do not know the character of the person following my guide,and S$100 spare is for any "just in case" situation and for newbie to "make mistakes" for the 1st time. Just refrain from making same mistake again during 2nd trip.
Hope the above will further help you understand how the guide on my signature was build. It was build on my 2nd real trip to Batam.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Naka_Timo
Thanks for intro the shop, now i know another new place
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Thank you for your help to locate Yong Heng too,tho we reach there too late. I will be summarising up my 7th Batam trip soon. Quite a few photos & name cards need to recrop...lol.
Nice linking up with you and also had a surprise link up with Bro Madara too.
Handful of surprising info gathered in this trip as well (Luwak Coffee,Dried Sea Horse,Temple visit,new joint etc etc),hehehe....special thanks to you and Bro Madara.
Cheers!