Sailing – Batam & Nongsa Point Marina

We finally arrived in Batam and grabbed a berth at the Nongsa Point Marina next to fellow Aussie sailors Gary and Libby of SV Aquarius. It was nice to talk to fluent ‘Aussie’ speakers. Finally, I didn’t need to think about what I wanted to say and how to say it! We also met another Aussie couple, Mick and Janice from SV Zoa.

We spent our time in Batam eating, swimming in the resort pool and socialising with other sailors and ex-pats. Happy hour is between 6-9pm (half price). We met some fantastic people, and Jim, Jackie, Gary, and Libby helped us hold up the bar every second night!

Garry and Libby took us to their favourite seafood restaurant, Rezeki, where we picked live crabs and fish. The chilli crab was delicious. Dwayne said it’s the best chilli crab he has ever had…. even better than mine…ouch!

Dwayne and I hired a scooter and went into Batu Besar for dinner most nights. At the village of Batu Besar, we could get meals as cheap as IDR15000 (AUD1.50). We also used the scooter to ride to the bottom of Pulau Galang-baru, crossing six bridges and visiting six islands (Pulau Tonton, Pulau Nipah, Pulau Sotoko, Pulau Rempang, Pulau Galang and Pulau Galang-baru). It was a long ride, and my butt still hasn’t forgiven me!

On the first bridge, Dwayne stopped to buy a cooked mud crab and some deep-fried prawns from a hawker at the side of the road. We then had to find somewhere to eat them. We found a tourist beach (it cost a small amount to visit) and ate our crab and prawns. Only when he had started eating them did Dwayne stop to ask himself how long they may have been sitting by the side of the road, in the sun, with no ice to cool them. Anyway, they were yummy, and we didn’t get sick!

We visited the tourist beach at the bottom of Pulau Galang-Baru. We stopped for a coffee and a chat at the small warung on the beach.

We stopped at the “Galang Island Indochina Refugee Camp” on returning to Batam. Galang Refugee Camp accommodated Indochinese refugees from 1979 to 1996 during the Indochina refugee crisis. It is estimated that around 250,000 refugees passed through Galang during this period. The Indochina refugee crisis was the large outflow of people from the former French colonies of Indochina, comprising the countries of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, after communist governments were established in 1975. [Wikipedia]

We first visited the Cemetery, dedicated to the people who lost their lives at sea on the way to freedom. Then we went to a museum to learn more about the refugee site. Afterwards, we went for a ride to look at the buildings still standing, including the Christian churches and a Buddhist temple.

We didn’t plan on staying in Batam for long but ended up staying there for more than a week due to customs and a missing piece of paperwork that took up most of Dwayne’s time in Batam! We didn’t have a current PIB – the temporary import permit for the boat; it had expired. It took a week to sort it out. At one stage, they told us we would have to sail back to Maumere, where we cleared into customs and got the original PIB, which would take 3 – 4 weeks (if we didn’t sail non-stop). Another time they told Dwayne a gift of around AUD100.00 to the 2nd in charge would help. Anyhow, about eight trips to customs and about 30-40 hours later, we were finally clear and on our way to Malaysia.

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