Collin Ng's Blog

It was still in the late 80s, I joined some of my friends to spend a short vacation in Batam.  Then, there were two resorts, namely Batam View Beach Resort and Turi Beach Beach Resort.. Both were quite pricey then, given there were not many good class resorts in the region and Bintan had yet to be developed as a tourist destination.   If I can remember well, a room night stay could have easily cost us around S$200 and it was in the late 80s where our wages were much lower then and competition was definitely less intense.  Batam View and Turi Beach were the only two good class resorts in the Nongsa area.  Finally, we chose Turi Beach, attracted by their standalone rustic wooden villas which has since been totally transformed into modern concrete blocks.  Batam View is a 5-storey building block which has commanding view of the South China Sea.  During our stay, we went to Batam View Beach Resort for their discotheque at the basement.  It was quite ...

If I can recall my first trip to Batam was either in 1985 or 1986.  I was still with KLM based at the airport.  A friend had suggested a weekend day trip to Batam which was already a ‘talked-about thingy’ in town.  One of the main attractions, if not the only attraction was the chance to purchase duty free items on the return.  I had no inkling on how this island so near Singapore was like and so, I joined the big wave of weekend crowd on one Sunday.  The departure was at Finger Pier Terminal in Tanjong Pagar.  The biggest ferry operator was Auto Batam (the company has changed few ownerships over the years and if I am not wrong, it is called Sindo now) and looking at the mad rush on weekends, they should be doing roaring business.  Personally, I will avoid big crowd if I can help it and I was in for a ‘rude shock’ when I arrived at Clifford Pier.  It was so packed like sardines and people were practically shoving each other to move in.  ...

Life was very simple when growing up in the 60s.  Our house was a no-frills type that came with no rooms and the common corridor was shared by rows of other households.  Our family of seven somehow managed to squeeze into this tiny house.  Our door was always open and so too for some of our neighbours.  As kids, the common corridor was our playground.  We chased after each other, we shouted at the top of our voice, we played 'masak masak' with the girls and we even managed to cycle along the narrow corridor without major collision.  Yep, some adults did not like our noise decibels and we were sometimes chased away. Dialects like Hokkien and Cantonese were commonly spoken and 'cursing' from the grown-ups was a common thingy.  We spoke Cantonese at home though we are Hokkien.  Communication with the other children was mostly in Hokkien too. I have had few childhood friends but we have lost contact completely when we moved out in the late 70s....