Paradise.

This weekend, I decided to take a break and head over to the little island of Batam for a spa retreat. Decided that I should show my French friends (Lesley, Morgane, Milene and Jonathan..they insist I write their names in my blog) and Jeremy my secret paradise getaway.

It has been almost one year since I took a short getaway trip to Batam . The last time I was at the resort, I was in the process of healing. This time, things were different. I was there to rest, relax and get my mind refreshed for the upcoming hellish school weeks.

When we arrived at the resort, we were greeted with some welcome drinks and were ushered to our sea-view rooms. The minute I stepped into my room, I knew it was going to be the most relaxing weekend ever. I felt like I was in paradise. Jeremy liked it too and echoed my views. After putting our stuff and chilling out in our rooms for a good hour, we headed out to the restaurant for our lunch. Adis, the resort manager, prepared a special set lunch for us and I gave her a hug to thank her for her efforts in ensuring that we were going to enjoy ourselves in Batam.

After lunch, we headed out to explore Batam a little. Jeremy slept quite a bit throughout the journey. We were a little tired from having slept only 3 hours the night before Batam. At the city centre, we walked around the Nagoya hill mall and concluded it was a grand mall of pasar malam standards. The most exciting part of the mall trip was our little game of time crisis and my snacking at A&W. Jeremy and I also did a little excursion and explored outside the mall. It was somewhat comforting to getaway from the urban jungle in Singapore and just going back to being old school in Batam.

We also went for a spa. This time, everyone went for a foot scrub, a body massage and a body scrub. I knocked out the minute my masseur started massaging my feet. I woke up realizing it was time for my body scrub. It was hilarious. After our spa retreat, we headed to Turi Beach Resort for dinner and were greeted to a splendid buffet dinner by the sea. There was a live band singing my favourite songs and even a lucky draw. Milene won the 6th prize, which was two cocktails on the house. We also received some traditional Indonesian fans as souvenirs and I got the ugliest one. After dinner and drinks by the beach, we headed back. Jeremy and I talked for about an hour and it was just comforting to let everything out. As we were both tired, we ended up sleeping really early.

Day 2 in Batam was spent by the pool and on water sports. I had so much fun jet-skiing and Morgane, who was my buddy, screamed throughout the ride. She was reluctant to drive the jet ski, so I had a full 15 minutes to myself. I never screamed that much in my life. Okay I did. When I skydived in Sydney, which was one of my most random stunts in life. Anyway, good time in the sun. I didn’t expect to get a tan, but I got one. Sucks to be me. Jeremy also nearly killed me twice with his sudden attempts of drowning me.

Finally, our last activity of the day was lunch at Selera restaurant where I had my favourite ikan asam pedas. My gawd, the chilli and sauce for the ikan was atrociously pedas to the max. Being a Peranakan, I eat chilli like every day. This pedas meal was way beyond my limit. I had to drink loads of iced water. After lunch, we headed back home to Singapore. We were lucky to be the first few to board the ferry and got the luck of sitting out in the open. Throughout the journey back home, Jeremy and I had an interesting conversation about life and I suddenly thought about my next move in life. I love moments like that – when you’re just staring out into the sea and sorting out your life.

Coming back home was depressing. Haha. It was back to work and I rushed back home to finish up my proposal for FYP, and do up some edits for my IMC powerpoint slides. I have a project meeting tomorrow too, and several books to collect. I guess being busy has its pros and cons. I think I’ll be exhausted again in a few months time.

Oh well, at least I know where I can go for my small shot of paradise.