PREFACE

My first trip to SEA was to Batam in August of 2000. The culture shock was tremendous. I wrote a long report of that trip which is still archived at the revamped and renamed Batam nightlife discussion forum:
Web Site: www.nedbatam.com
Direct URL: http://nedbatam.com/classic/asiaphan.htm

In the ensuing years I managed trips to the Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand, and a return visit to Batam.
My favorite place in SEA was K11 of 2001 - 2002. K11 was mostly shut down by the authorities in late 2002 and I wanted to find a replacement. I had heard of the brothel villages in Batam's neighboring islands. With the hopes they would be similar to K11 I decided to combine a bit of adventure and research with the standard debauchery of SEA trips.

BACKGROUND

The four islands I visited are part of the huge Riau Islands chain of Indonesia, located just south of Singapore. Batam is a 45-minute ferry ride from Singapore.

The terminology used to refer to the places I visited is very confusing. The islands have names, but are often referred to by the name of the major city on the island, and acronyms are equally popular. The brothel villages have names, but are also commonly referred to in terms of their distance in kilometers from the ferry terminal.

Batam Island: main city is Nagoya, but is most often referred to as simply Batam, with no acronyms.

Bintan Island: city is Tanjung Pinang (sometimes spelled Penang). Tanjung is often shortened to TJ. This place is also referred to as TJ Pinang, or just Pinang. The brothel village is twenty-four kilometers from the ferry terminal, and is referred to as Batu Dua Puluh Empat ("dua puluh empat" means twenty-four in Indonesian, I don't know what Batu means, but is used in names for other villages too, so it gets really confusing). I don't know if there are other names for this village, the taxi driver knew what I meant when I wrote 24km on my note pad. There is also a second village called Batu15, or KM15. It is smaller and seemed even rougher than km24.

Kundur Island: city is Tanjung Batu, aka TJ Batu or just Batu. (I told you this Tanjung and Batu stuff gets confusing!). The brothel village is 7km from terminal and called Batu Tujuh. You can guess, Tujuh means seven in Indonesian.

Karimun Island: main city is Tanjung Balai, or TJ Balai or just Balai. One brothel village is 14km from the ferry terminal and is called Payar Labu, but I think can be referred to as puluh empat? (fourteen). A second village much closer to town is only called "Villa" as far as I know.

The hotels on all the islands except Batam took my passport, and would not accept a photocopy. Very disconcerting, but it was the norm and they apparently did not make exceptions. I saw all the Sing and Malay guys hand over their passports as well. Even offering a cash deposit or payment in full up front was not enough to make them forego confiscating my passport. In Batam, Hotel2000 wanted either my passport, or a credit card swipe. Cash deposit was not sufficient.

I thought travelers checks were ok in Nagoya. But the banks around Hotel 2000 would not take mine. Turns out my TC were from Visa, and the banks only accepted American Express TC. Lesson learned.

I am not sure what the term "Bule" actually means, but generally refers to Westerners. I got the feeling the term was somewhat derogatory, like farang only more so.

"Ojek" is the word for motorcycle taxi.

The exchange rate was around US$1 = 8,300rupiah.

In May of 2003 the SARS scare wreaked havoc on the transportation industry in Asia, including the air courier flights. Jupiter Air, a courier company in SF (now closed!) was having a hard time filling its Singapore flights and I got a seat for next to nothing

5-10-03: Left SFO on JAL. The flight to Narita was 70% full, but the connecting leg to Singapore and SARS!! was only 10% full, everybody had four seats to themselves to lie down. I slept the entire flight, and arrived in Singapore at midnight, not at all sleepy.

The first ferry from Singapore to Batam Island left around 7:30am, so I had a seven-hour wait. I am a budget traveler, and did not want to spend the money for cab into town and a hotel, just for seven hours, so I waited in the airport. Singapore airport has wonderfully amazing facilities if you are departing or in transit. But arriving passengers do not have access to those facilities, so I spent 7 hours sitting in a small hard plastic chair.