One-hour ferry

As though I had a strange pleasure travelling by sea (which in fact, I don't), my second time travelling was an hour ride by sea.

It was my first time to depart by our local ferry terminal and it was an eye-opener to see how advanced the facilities are at the immigration at the terminal. We couldn't even beat the uncles, seemingly the frequent passengers (frequent-goers to Batam?), who even offered advice to 'newbies' like us on how to use the self-service immigration counters. We were grateful if not for their help, for sending us in a state of frenzy to hurry through the gates.

Voilà, my very first backpack holiday with two friends to a not-so-fascinating destination... setting off with mixed feelings, like excited girls thrilled at the thought of going away for a holiday with two girl friends but not so excited about where we were heading to.

Sixty minutes on a rocky ferry ride... which the captain had forewarned, "... in a few moments, you'll be screaming" (or at least it was what two of us had made out of his mumbling voice). Luckily for us, there weren't any screaming (thanks to my prior experience at Macau, this was certainly nothing compared to that). But to those with seasick tendancies, we wouldn't promise a bump-free journey for there were those who really made full use of the plastic bags available on board.