pinhole glasses

Bought this from Guardian - quite amazing - you can see without a prescribed glasses using this. It is supposed to improve your vision too. I am trying this out as other than myopia (shortsightedness) and astigmatism, age has also given me presbyopia (longsightedness). You can read more about this on http://www.thebatesmethod.com/pinhole_glasses.html

Batam Getaway 19 to 21 Dec 2009

We went to Batam for a second time this year - more massage and food. This time round we stayed in Goodway Hotel as it is located next to Sports Massage Centre. We went for a 2hr body massage on the first day and a 3hr body massage on the second day - we really need to destress our body! I was quite shocked to find out that it only cost $74 a night if we get the room from the tour agency stationed in the ferry terminal wheras it cost $115 when I booked direct with the hotel. I saved a total of $82 for the 2 nights.
I missed the steamboat and Irish coffee at Formasa hotel so we went there for lunch. This time round we made a mistake of ordering two different soup base because in doing so, they served the steamboat in 2 separate pots and they actually put all the ingredients inside. In my former visit, there was a spread and we could put in the items we like so that they would not be overcooked. I love the herbal soup base. I think the restaurant make good Irish coffee because the one which we took in Planet hotel did not taste as good.

We walked to Nagoya Hill after that and bought so many things from a shop called Sun Boss!

We took our dinner at the stalls outside Nagoya hill. I didn't quite like the satay as it is tiny and not as tender as I thought it would be. The fish tasted very plain - they should have added some salt and marinate before they grill it.

Had room service and ordered their in-house special of goreng pisang with cheese and coconut - didn't quite like it though goreng pisang is my favourite dish.

The hor-fun was quite nice and so was the shasimi set which I had forgotten to take a picture of.

The breakfast spread was good but we didn't have much appetite. I took some bacon, sausage and french toast.

We took a cab and went to BCS. We had our lunch at Texas chicken in BCS- I didn't like it at all. The sets came with rice and they were not flexible enough with the drinks. I wanted ice milo and orange juice but they did not allow top up and at the end we landed up with 4 drinks. However we managed to buy 3 bags and a wallet in BCS. Over here you must really bargain - at least to half the price! Imagine the sales person told me RP 180,000 was the best price at first but at the end sold it to me at RP 100,000.

We had our dinner at 999 seafood in Winsor foodcourt on the second day - I would highly recommend this restaurant. We ordered live lobster, live fish, lala, kangkong and all cost below $50 and they were so fresh and delicious. Remember my bad experience with Golden Prawn? I ordered almost the same dishes at Golden Prawn and it cost me almost $100 and the food was not nice at all. I think taxi drivers get commission from Golden Prawn because my taxi driver tried to convince us to go to Golden Prawn and told us that Winsor foodcourt won't be opened until 8 pm. Luckily we did not listen to him and insisted - totally untrue as we saw that there were already some diners there!

As it would be our last night in Batam, we decided to venture out to the street near the hotel. We bought some goreng udang (prawns), tahu goreng and goreng ayam (chicken) - all for less than $6! My goodness - the prawns are so crispy and I can't believe that they can sell a pack of prawns (more than 10) for less than $4!

We woke up late the next morning and went to harbour bay for our ferry. Had a light lunch at coffee town while waiting for our ferry at harbour bay. I also bought the home made kueh lapis there at RP 95,000 (less than $15 - definitely cost more than $20 if you get it from the tour guide!)

I must say that we were crazy shopping this time round - bought 4 bags, 1 wallet, 3 pairs of shoes for me and another 3 pairs for my husband, 2 t-shirts and a bermuda for me, 4 shirts for my hubby, 10 sets of jersey each for my sons.. I love the shop Sun Boss at Nagoya Hill!

tea cosy @ plaza singapura

A cosy restaurant inside the ten thousand angels retail shop @ Plaza Singapura. I would highly recommend the restaurant for their service. Their portion of foie gras was big and so were the salad which came with it. I love the kahlua latte which contains alcohol just like the Irish coffee. I did'nt like the fishbits as it was hard and was pleasantly surprised when they waived off the charges when they saw that I stopped eating after I tried on one - rare to find a restaurant in which the staff is so sensitive to the customer. I will come back and try their tea set with cakes next time!

JB get away 12 to 13 Dec Grand Paragon

Decided to stay over at JB and booked a room at Grand Paragon Hotel. Waited over an hour for the bus to take us across the causeway and was stuck in the jam for another half an hour. Reached Merlin tower and I bought my medicine from the pharmacy there as it was much cheaper than getting them in Singapore. We then took a cab to the hotel and checked in at around 1.30 p.m. I was quite happy with the room – it was very new and clean with a big LCD TV and a great view overlooking the city and the coast of Singapore. However I couldn’t get the air con and light on so I called the reception. I was shocked when they told me that there is a blackout in the hotel. She told me that the electricity should resume in an hour or two so we went to the Centre point food court which was located behind the hotel for lunch. We took porridge with some dishes. The coffee was so good and I found my favourite goreng pisang.

When we got back to the hotel, there was still no electricity and the staff told us to wait for another 2 hours. It was like a sauna in the room so we decided to walk to Pelangi Plaza. We also went to check out the French restaurant Chez Papa which I have heard so much over the internet. We made the reservation at 7pm and then shop at Pelangi Plaza. I bought a battery for my son’s handphone in one of the shops but I must say there wasn’t much to shop. We then walked along the street outside Pelangi Plaza and found a massage centre next to the no signboard seafood restaurant. The massage was pretty good but not as cheap as those in Batam. When I got back to the hotel at 6.10 p.m., there is still no electricity so we checked out to look for another hotel. We checked into New York Hotel nearby. The hotel room looked older and simpler but the view was equally great on the 19th floor. However, I was quite disappointed that the TV is so small and that there was no safe box in the room. We then proceed to Chez Papa for our dinner. We love the foie gras - it melted in our mouth and the port wine sauce was simply heavenly. The smoked duck was just average - should have tried the stuffed chicken. The butter roasted escargots were simply gratifying - rich butter smell. When we went back to the hotel, we tried the Thai foot massage which is on promotion. The service was good - they served ginseng tea and wash your feet before the massage. However, I feel that the massage was not as effective as those from the Chinese massage centre. We scout the street outside the hotel and bought some satay, otah and burger back to the hotel for supper. I like the satay and burger but not so for the otah.

The breakfast spread in the hotel is something which I definitely recommend - only 1 meat item which was sausage. I would have expected some condiments or salted egg etc with the porridge and some rendang with the nasi lemak but there were none available!