Toast Bread – Butter Cheese and Chocolate

Nowadays there are so many coffee joints in Singapore and Indonesia. You can see new coffee outlets opening in every new mall; which caters mainly to the trendy young adults. In Singapore, these coffee outlets are famous more for their specialty food which is toast bread and coffee. Bread are normally toasted till it is crispy and spread with butter or kaya ( sweet coconut ).  You can normally order a set – which consists of toast bread, 2 soft boiled eggs and a cup of coffee or tea. One of the most popular outlet is the Ya Kun Kaya Toast;  which is normally very crowded especially during the weekends.

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Coffee Outlet In Indonesia

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In Indonesia, especially in Jakarta and Batam,  coffee outlets are now a norm and gaining popularity. You can see a few different coffee outlets in a single mall itself.  Coffee stores in Indonesia tend to be bigger and more spacious as compared to their counterpart in Singapore. Space, rent and labor are much cheaper in Indonesia as compared to Singapore. Another distinctive feature of the coffee stores in Indonesia is that these outlets offer a wide variety of food and beverages. In fact, the coffee outlets in Indonesia tend to be a full fledged restuarants. Besides toast bread, coffee and tea, you can also order food like fried rice, noodles, soup, fried chicken, orange and fruit juices, and so on.

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Toast Bread - Butter and Chocolate

Toast bread that are offer in coffee outlets in Indonesia comes in many forms. I will normally order the classic toast bread with butter, follow by the toast bread with cheese and chocolate. You can order your coffee or tea with or without milk. I have seen people eating toast bread during lunch and dinner time.  For me, I have them for breakfast or during tea break in the afternoon or evening. But as these restauants offers a wide choice of food in their menu – you could actually combined your order to have it all.  For example you could order fried rice with chicken,  seafood soup, toast bread, a cup of coffee and a glass of fruit juice. So you can have it all under one roof.

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Black Coffee

I find that the coffee served in Indonesia tends to be more sweet than in Singapore. Indonesians love to have more sugar in their coffee. So if you want less sugar or milk in your cup of coffee,  do let the waiter know when ordering your beverage. Beside the butter, cheese and chocolate toast bread, you can also compliment it with the local pastries.  Normally these coffee outlets also offer traditional Indonesian pastries as well in their menu.

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Traditional Indonesian Pastry

To see more photos of food and beverages, just follow the link to our website –

Indonesiapics.com – everything about Indonesia

Harbour Bay Mall Batam

The Harbour Bay Mall is the newest mall in  Batam. It was opened in early 2010 with the anchor tenant – Carrefour. For those who are unsure of the location of this mall, it is located very close to the Harbour Bay Ferry Terminal. Once you have arrived at this ferry terminal, the Harbour Bay Mall is just about less than 10 minutes walk away. Do not waste your money taking a cab from the ferry terminal. Just observe how the taxis exit from the arrival hall to the main road and just follow it. As you walk along the road, there will be plenty of touts shouting to draw your attention, just simply ignore them and keep walking. Once you see a large but short building, this is the Harbour Bay Mall.

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Harbour Bay Mall Batam

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If you are observant, you will spot a tall building beside the mall. This is the Harbour Bay Amir Hotel. It is a relatively new hotel and I have stayed there and also wrote a blog, which is my review of this hotel. If you are keen in reading it, just click the link below: –

Harbour Bay Amir Hotel – My Review

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Harbour Bay Mall Batam

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When you entered the mall, you will feel that it is very spacious indeed. But there are only 3 levels where you can browse, walk and shop. The basement level is where the famous Carrefour supermarket is located. I use the word supermarket and not hypermart because it is indeed just a supermarket. I am rather disappointed that Carrefour have chosen to open such a small store ( which is in fact their first store in Batam ) in this mall. I wonder why is Carrefour is so conservative in opening up such a small store? You cannot compare this store to the Hypermart that is located in Nagoya Hill Shopping Mall which is huge and carry a wider range of merchandise. You can read my review of Nagoya Hill Shopping Mall – just follow the link below:-

Nagoya Hill Shopping Mall – My Review

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Harbour Bay Mall Batam

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As I was walking in the mall, I notice that there are still plenty of shops that were still empty – perhaps the mall management has yet to fill it up with the right tenants. There are a few restaurants located on each level of this mall. But surprisingly there is no Macdonald, KFC or Pizza Hut outlet here. I wonder why international fast food chains have not set up an outlet here. You can see the well known Polo store here. Buy more of their clothes and you get up to 50% discount from your total purchase. For kids, there is a large fun and games outlet in this mall. Kids will love it as there are lots of kiddies rides and game machines inside. For ladies, there are a few stores that sells famous branded bags, wallets and watches.

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Harbour Bay Mall Batam

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The mall was crowded as I was there during the public holidays. Carrefour supermarket was very crowded. There were lots of local Indonesians shopping there. By the way, most of the food products that are sold in Carrefour are produced locally or local brands from Indonesia. I do hope that they expand their bakery section so as to add more variety of bread and pastries. Maybe they should even consider opening up a small cafe next to the bakery section for customers to sit back and enjoy the fresh coffee and pastries.

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Harbour Bay Mall Batam

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I have uploaded a number of photos of the new Harbour Bay Mall in my website. Just go to the photo gallery of my website and you can see the photos of this brand new mall. The website link is below –

Indonesiapics.com

Harbour Bay Amir Hotel Batam

I stayed at the Harbour Bay Amir Hotel in Batam during the Chinese New Year holidays in February 2010. The most convenient way to reach this hotel is to take a ferry to Harbour Bay Ferry Terminal in Batam. You need to take a ferry that is run by the ferry operator called Wavemaster. The journey will take less than an hour from Singapore. Upon arrival at the Harbour Bay Ferry Terminal, you can actually walk to this hotel. Here is how to do it. Just outside the main arrival gate, you can see lots of taxi outside the lobby. Looked more towards the right and you can see a small road; just walk towards the road. Alternatively, you can wait till you see how the taxi drive out from this departure area towards the road that leads out from this terminal. Just keep walking till you can see a building which is about 6 or 7 storeys high – that is the Harbour Bay Amir Hotel Batam. It takes only 10 minutes to reach this hotel if you care to walk.

The Harbour Bay Amir Hotel seems to look relatively new and beside this hotel is the Harbour Bay Mall. This is the newest mall that has just opened in Batam with Carrefour as its anchor tenant. Checking in was relatively quick and I took an elevator to my room. The hotel room that I have booked was spacious enough and carpeted. There was a king size bed but I find the pillow rather worn out. The main disappointment is that the room does not have a mini fridge and a kettle – in short there was no minibar. I do not like room that does not have minibar. I think the management of this hotel should looked into this seriously. What is the cost of putting up a minibar in each room? I think it is minimal. I am sure all guests would want a minibar in their room – to be able to make their own coffee or tea and enjoy a cool drink straight from the mini fridge. Another item that is lacking is a hairdryer in the bathroom. Many women would liked to have a hairdryer in the bathroom. The TV in the room is the small old CRT type but to me it is still acceptable. The towels given is clean but looks worn out as well. Also if there can be an additional pillow provided, it would be good. The bathroom is spacious and clean and yes there is a bathtub if you enjoy soaking in the bathtub.

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There is a lobby lounge at the ground floor which is called DLounge. I wanted to highlight something that is pleasant. I wanted to have a beer about 1 am in the night, I walked to this lounge, however it was closed. I asked the staff to confirm whether it was in fact closed. The staff nodded and told me that he could get someone to serve me. I sat in the lounge and later a male staff came to turn on the light of this lounge and served the cold beer that I wanted. Now that was excellent service which I very much appreciated. Breakfast in the morning was served in the restaurant that is on the ground level. The breakfast spread is quite standard as in most hotels in Batam. However I find that the tea that was served in the tea pot was too diluted. Overall, the breakfast is acceptable.


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One of the distinct advantage of this hotel is that the Harbour Bay Mall is just opposite this hotel. However, there were many shops in this mall that remain empty – perhaps this is still a relatively new mall. Carrefour is open and it is located at the basement level. If you intent to go to Nagoya town, then you have to take a cab which is less than 10 minutes for most locations in Nagoya. For more photos on this hotel, you can visit our website at Indonesiapics.com

If you are still looking for more information on batam and Indonesia, do visit us at –

Indonesiapics.com