Flight:

On-line Interface:
I booked on tigerairways.com. One way pricing from bkk is:

67SNG (h class)
141SNG (b class)

Although primitive, the site was easy to navigate and worked. The only glich I encountered with the on-line site was the on-line change request (there was a date bug).

Business Class- NOT. I foolishly assumed "B" was business class, much to the delight of the gate agents. As far as I can tell the only difference between the two fares is that there is a small change fee associated with the "H" class tickets. Moral of the story: buy the cheaper ticket.

Customer Service: I had originally booked for the 28th, but delayed the flight, which gave me the opp to check out their phone support and customer service. Grade: A-- polite and relatively fast compared to dealing with US carriers.

Seating: Open seating, free for all. I elbowed my way towards the front and grabbed row 1 window seating. Decent as far as discount coach seats go. Refreshments cost cash tho (SNG dollars). If your not too thirsty, don't ask. I paid 2SNG for my Milo.

Once you land and pass through customs (usually a breeze), make your way out to the taxi stand and take a taxi to Harbor Front Ferry Terminal. The taxi ride went for around $15SNG.

At the terminal, make your way up to the ticketed counters. I bought a Penguin RT ferry ticket to Batam Center. Cost of the RT ticket was 22SNG + 5SNG terminal fee. Hopefully your able to jump on a shuttle ASAP as the waiting room gets packed and is none too comfy. Once onboard, I like to choose a seat near the entrance to allow rapid deployment, but it depends on your patience and time criticality threshhold. Note: on the upper floor there is a small deck that you can stand outside, which is nice until the fumes start a blowin'

Ferry Schedule to Batam Center is:

735,815,940,1015,1140,1205,1300,1350,1450,1610,1710,1755,1850,1950,2040,2150,2230

Return Ferry to SIN Schedule is:

605,720,805,915,1005,1040,1120,1220,1250,1320,1420,1520,1640,1725,1820,1930,2045,2215


The ferry takes around an hour and is pleasant.

Visa: There are two options; the 25 USD tourist visa or the 10USD 3 days visa. Buy the 25USD one if your staying more than 2 days. The 3day visa is not 72 hours, but rather day 1 expires midnight of the day of arrival. I bought the 3 day and then had to pay a "fine" to get out. I paid 200k RUP extra.

I'd been wondering how they defined "3 day", now I know.

A couple of notes.

1) In Harbour Front Center buy your ferry tickets from the window label "Current Tickets" which I believe is "window" 12. All of the ferry companies will not sell you a ticket or give you a boarding pass for a departure that leaves within the next thirty minutes (without an advanced reservation that is). The current tickets window sells tickets for all the companies and will sell you a seat for a ferry even if it leaves in 10 minutes (if there are seats of course.) I always buy my tickets at this window.

2) Make advanced reservations: on either the Batam Side or Singapore side you can call and reserve a seat on a particular ferry as long as you call 30 minutes in advance. If you have used the ferry company before or if you have a ticket in hand, then you give them your passport number and the departure time you want. Then you can arrive as little as 5 or 10 minutes before departure and proceed to the ferry companies ticket counter and you will be hooked up. This is highly advised for peak times like Sunday afternoon Batam-Singapore, Fridays Sin-Batam, or and holiday. I have a hard head and it took too many 90 minute waits in the Batam Center Ferry Terminal before I trained myself to call ahead.

3) Usually customs and immigration is a breeze on both ends and will only take a couple of minutes. However, on a holiday weekend definately allow much more time to get through the mess.

4) The late departure ferry times Don Marco gave are on the printed schedule. However, these departure times have not been valid the last couple of times I have tried. Don't count of there being a departure later than 9:50 PM from Harbor Front Center.

yeah, i overstayed as well and had to pay $20USD. As others have stated, it's wise to bring some US dollars just in case. The exchange places in Batam are very short on US dollars. The exchange rates vary from place to place, and can be negotiated down.

MX thanks for the valuable info! As you could tell, I am fan of hanging at HFC for 1.5 hours waiting for the shuttle It was New Year's weekend tho-- all things considered, traveling to and fro went very smooth.

Looks like I was a day (ok two weeks late) and a dollar short on that advice!

Also, I can only imagine what a zoo it was at HFC on New Year's weekend. Three days of smoking, gambling, drinking, cheap eating, and whoring is too much temptation for many a China man.

I do know one time I was with Epi and we were crossing on some holiday weekend, but we didn't anticipate the people crush. With boarding passes in hand and an hour to wait, I sucking down a venti sized caramel frappucino thingie at Starbucks while Epi is flirting up a couple of chinese rhinos at the GNC. Suddenly I realized we had about ten minutes until departure. We hustled up to customs and immigration and I saw a line that was unbelievable. Unfortunately, I hadn't banged anything in three days and was hyped up on sugar and caffeine. Poor Epi had to see me behave in a rather dickhead and embarassing fashion as I pushed kicked clawed and cut my way through that queue in way that would shame the most kiasu of Singaporeans. I never did apologize to Epi for my shameful conduct - sorry buddy. There was a Happy ending as we did make it on the ferry and I got laid soon after arrival, bringing my world back into a peaceful zen equilibrium.

However as you stated all things considered it things run smoothly, but then again getting shit to work and processing queues is a Singapore strong suit.

Another option from Changi to HarbourFront ... Take the MRT for S$1.80 (actually S$2.80 to purchase the tix; you get S$1.00 refund when you return the tix card). You'd have to change the train twice, at E4 (I forget the name) and at E16 (Outram Park).

"I never did apologize to Epi for my shameful conduct - sorry buddy. There was a Happy ending as we did make it on the ferry and I got laid soon after arrival, bringing my world back into a peaceful zen equilibrium."

No problem buddy, but you remember that was the trip you tried to hook me up with the "retiree"? YOU got laid but I spent considerable time staring at my boner in the room alone!!

E