P A R A D I S E

Havent been blogging for quite awhile since the last post. Been pretty busy lately as i've just opened a pre-order! 

Being a shopaholic myself, being able t get clothes at lower prices definitely makes me a happy girl! And good things must share right? So i decided t take some time and do up a pre-order so tt we could all get pretty clothes of the latest trends at really reasonable prices! 

Clothes are cheaper than what blogshops're selling them for and also cheaper than a lot of the other pre-orders going on, plus most of the pre-orders take 2-3wks. I've managed t source out ways for stocks t arrive faster so it'll only take 1-2wks. It usually takes 1 wk unless there's some delay w the supplier. Please head t jocobana.livejournal.com and take a look and show some support! 

Here's a preview of some of the items ava:

Bottoms

Bags

Dresses & rompers

Outerwear

Tops

Loafers. This is one of the 'must buy' items! Got one for myself and it's so comfy and the material's really good as well!

There're more than 100items up for sale! Thanks! (:

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I've also been planning on my tw trip (finally started) cos the boy finally passed his napfa! YAY! We were so close t not going, and if he didnt make it, he'll be entering this wk alrd. How scary! ): As much as i look forward t out tw trip, i kinda hope time will pass slower cos the closer we're t our trip, the closer it is t his enlistment ): But oh well, there're some things tt cant be avoided. 

Anyways, i've mentioned in another post earlier tt we'll be going on a 16 days trip! Gonna be the longest time i'll be away from home, havent been on sucha long trip before. Haha. Planning's gonna be sucha chore. =/ 

We were alrd almost done w booking our accommodation. Planning certainly didnt start off well at all. There were quite a couple of hotels/minsu (homestay) tt we wanted t book but were alrd fully booked! Damn disappointed. Shld've been more kiasu and booked earlier but i wanted t finish up the pre-order post before moving on t the next item on my to-do-list. ):

I started planning more than 1 mth in advance for my previous trip as i wanted t do a good one for my parents and bring them arnd and make sure i know how t travel every t single place by public transport since i were the one who was against going on tour so i offered t do the planning. It was quite 'kua zhang' t plan more than a mth in advance, but trust me, i had t stay up for nights t get it done. Think this time round we really started planning late, w slightly less than a mth, i wldnt have expected tt rooms wld've been fully booked alrd, esp the one in Cingjing! Really wanted t try Misty Villa out. ): Had a really hard time deciding on which one t book for Cingjing cos nth else seemed as good as Misty Villa. Just crossing my fingers and hope tt the one we booked wldnt disappoint. =/

I've got a srs love-hate r/s w planning. It gets me excited, but sometimes it just makes me wanna give up. Sucks t be me, cos im the kinda person tt has t plan as i dont wanna come back from a trip realising tt there're lotsa must-go places tt i didnt visit. Guess i learnt from my lesson. Haha. 

We're planning t go t  Taichung, Cingjing, Tainan, Kaoshiung, Hualien and Taipei. Hopefully we'll have enough time t plan since this time there's 2 of us planning, even though bf has t work on somedays. But at least i've been t Taipei and Taichung so its kinda like 2 places down. If you guys have any places t recommend pls let us know! Thank you in advance! We'd greatly appreciate your help! (:

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Enough of all the rantings, what i really wanted t blog about was my trip t Montigo in Batam! I'm sure Montigo is no longer a name tt's unfamiliar t everyone anm since so there're lotsa pp going there now! It's paradise so close t home. Definitely beats all the other resorts in Batam, incl Turi Beach, which i've had a really good impression on (i still do). 

Since our tw trip was still sometime away and i kinda wanted a well deserved getaway after all the exams shit, bf decided t bring me t Montigo since i've been showing him pictures from Instagram again and again. Haha

We booked out trip via Agoda (we always do) since the prices on Agoda are usually either the same or slightly cheaper, and there's rebate! The rebate's actually pretty good! We've alrd redeemed it thrice i think, including this trip t Montigo! And each time we managed t save about $30-40 thanks t the rebate! I think there're other booking websites like booking.com and asiarooms.com which're pretty established as well, but after comparing for a few times, Agoda still provided me w the best price or the same so ever since i didnt bother t compare anm and just booked via Agoda every single time we had t book a hotel room.

We paid slightly less than $300 for a Hilltop Villa after redeeming our points. Its cheaper on wkdays than on wkends or peak periods like june holidays. Prices does not include the ferry tickets. You could book them via batamfast or theres also a yatch transfer service which is more expensive, almost double the price of the ferry.

We chose the Hillside Villa over the Hilltop since there isnt much of a difference except tt Hilltop is located higher and behind Hillside. Of cos, the view from Hilltop would be better and you wldnt have t worry tt there'd be trees blocking (ours did, although some of the Hillside Villas doesnt have trees blocking your view).

We took a morning ferry at 9am (i think?), cos we wanted t go t the mall first before checking-in and the shuttle's from 10am-4pm. The time they leave you at the mall's pretty long, unless you plan t go for massage opp the mall, which the driver recommended t us. We didnt go for the massage as we didnt quite know the exact location and we had ALOT of time t kill. 

Got greeted by sucha beautiful view upon arrival!

The row of villas on the right are the Hilltop Villas and the ones on the left are the Hillside Villas.

Saw this cute lil jap boy while waiting for our check in t be processed

Took a walk arnd since we still have time t kill before heading t the mall

Look at how clear the skies are!

The place isnt tt big tt you cant walk and have t travel by buggy but they'll pick you up and send you t your location by buggy if you request for one. 

The left side of the villa is still under construction. A lot of facilities are not completed as well. 

Still waiting for the shuttle...

The bf in my hello kitty cap. Haha my gay boy!

And we're finally off t the mall! This was what we saw on the roads otw t the mall. How cool is this! Like their DIY go cart or sth.

Didnt have the usual A&W for lunch this time rnd. Decided t try this since it was pretty crowded. Not too bad! I prefer the black base bak kut teh as compared t the clear peppery ones. Its cheap as well, except for the sotong which was bout 8-10SGD if im not wrong.

Dessert!

At our all time fav place, the hypermart!

They actually sells eggs by /pc so you can just buy 1 if you only need one. Quite good if you're planning t cook in the villa! 

Their wide range of paddle pop!

One trolley full of snacks, maggi and C1000. Its dirt cheap there, like 1/3 the price of SG!

The mall's quite boring actually, and ventilation for certain areas is quite bad as well. There isnt much t do or buy there. Our main purpose of going t the mall is just t visit the hypermart. Haha. There's A&W and JCO donuts which is cheaper than SG. A lot of them wld actually tabao them back t SG. But i guess their standards dropped, prob cos its always crowded there. 

After quite a long wait for the driver t pick us up, we're finally heading back t the villa t check in! I think shuttle could be arranged if you were t reach after 10am. Cos we were the only ones tt went at 10am but there were another family w us when we returned t the villa. 

There's an ipod dock in the living room and the master bedroom!

The living room and kitchen area

Master bedroom

So nice tt they folded the towels into swans. Though it didnt really look like one. Haha

Bathtub in the bathroom and even a weighing machine!

The other room which was left empty since there were only 2 of us.

Bathroom of the other room w/o bathtub.

Some last min tanning, which was quite redundant since the sun was setting. More like taking a dip in the pool for the sake of it. Hah 

Face getting oily alrd. Thanks t the super hot weather and stuffy mall ):

Montigo's definitely one of the places you can see awesome sunsets!

Admiring the sunset. The best i've ever seen.

Always wanted t take jump shots and i finally did! This was a failed one though. It looked like im trying t catch the sun or sth. Haha

And the successful one!

And bf's turn!

Our kinda 'failed' heart. Lol

The sunset's really amazing.

My fav pic taken during this trip! Think i've got a thing w silhouette pics. Hehe

Some of the items such as the soft drinks are actually free! 

We headed out for dinner instead since we didnt feel like eating maggi and bf wanted t see what else they have besides room service. And heading out was certainly a good choice!

We headed t the restaurant near the pool, which was also the place tt breakfast was being held at. They serve western food at night, like pasta, fish & chips, platters etc. But prices were a lil above ave, almost SG's price or even higher, so we decided t head over t the other restaurant t check out what they have since one of the staff mentioned tt there's a restaurant serving seafood. My first thought was, wldnt seafood be more ex than western? I still headed over w bf nonetheless. And i was glad i did! What they meant by seafood was actually like our 'zi char'. 

This restaurant's the one near the reception area. Food was good, if not great, comparable or even better than some of the ones you can find in SG! Plus the prices are really reasonable as well! And they serve free flow of green tea, unlike some in SG tt doesnt even serve ice water. The meal costed us less than 20SGD if i didnt rmb wrongly. They're only open for dinner though.

Salted fish fried rice

Calamari, which was better and even cheaper than the ones we had in the mall!

Our all time fav veg! But theirs was slightly diff from our version. Not too bad as well!

What we bought from the hypermart. Look at how long the receipt was. Haha. Bf loves those saltcheese crackers. Extinct in SG alrd. 

Like some happy kid w my must buys. The cup noodles and C1000! And my fav teddy biscuits! Cant find them in SG at all ): As mentioned above, C1000 is super cheap in batam. We'll always buy a few packs back!

Every couple has their own soft toys. This is our 2nd one, mini fooh! And i named it after the boy since he's a monkey too. Hehe. I love craftholics! They are so soft and huggable!

Woke up t this beautiful view the next morning. Wish every morning wld be like this.

My essentials for a getaway! They're all coincidentally black. =/ 

Before heading out for breakfast. Rmb what i said about trees blocking? There were trees blocking almost half of the pool ): The row in front are the more expensive villas facing the sea. 

We stayed at villa 56!

The whole row of villas.

The restaurant where we had our breakfast.

Sadly they didnt serve buffet breakfast on wkdays ):

Breakfast w a swimming pool view

Skies getting cloudy and it looked like it was going t rain.

Heading back t the villa for some tanning!

Skies starting t get really dark ): My mood was immdly dampened cos i really wanted t tan. 

Bf prepared bubble bath for me so i could soak for a while before the rain stops. I wanna bathtub in my future home so i cld have bubble baths! 

Enjoying my bubble bath before the rain got even heavier.

Theres a window above the bathtub so tt you cld stare at the sky while enjoying your bubble bath. But it starts t leak when it rains. ):

Pouring damn heavily.

And rain's finally out! But just when i was about t dip into the pool, it started drizzling again -.-

So its time t camwhore! While the boy watches tv in the living room. Hehe

Dragged the boy out t take pics w me

And finally the rain's out for good! Time for some tanning before we check out.

Cool anot? Haha. Think i look damn fierce when i dont smile =/

Super low tide after the rain.

Tried another jump shot in the day. Jump shots in the day = can see my fats ):

Another one w a better view of the sea.

Polaroids taken during the trip. Bring my instax out on a vacation is a must! But i've got so many i needa find space or a way t keep it instead of hanging on my wall (cos theres dust) or leaving it in the album.

Checked out and headed t the pool t cont tanning! Haha

Sun's too bright bf cant open his eyes. Lol

Skies was getting a lil dark again so we headed t shower and then have our lunch at the same restaurant we had breakfast.

I ordered Gado gado and it was kind diff from what i expected though. Nice but a lil spicy for me. 

And bf ordered ham & cheese sandwich.

We had coconut creme brulee for dessert, but there wasnt much of a coconut taste t it. 

Tt pretty much sums up our short getaway. I wld return t Montigo cos there villas are really worth visiting even though its slightly more pricey than the rest. However, my only gripe is tt their service is pretty substandard, can be improved though. We got diff info from the staff there and from emails. Some of the staff are more helpful whereas some are just quite 'bo chap'. Theres definitely room for improvement in terms of their service. 

One of the staff (the more helpful ones) offered t help us change our ferry timing cos we booked the evening one which was kinda late and we had quite some time t kill and we were really grateful for her help. 

Oh and another thing about such getaways, there ought t be bugs everywhere. And i'd kinda freak out when i see them. I guess i cant go on such getaways for long. Haha. There were spiders in the villa, and those baby cockroaches in and outside of the villa. We went up t the sky roof t take pictures and bf adjusted one of the cushions and one baby cockroach flew out from below the cushion, totally freaked me out. The sky roof area's pretty dirty as well since its opened and i doubt they clean the cushions often. 

But all in all, it was a really great getaway, the best yet. The villa and the view made up for all the cons. Montigo is more suitable for families or a grp of friends though, cos its more worth it and economical if theres more pp. For those who're looking at going on a short getaway, you can give Montigo a try!

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