Batam

A long weekend in Batam from Nagoya Hill to the Barelang bridges

Batam suits a long weekend from Singapore. Take a morning ferry from HarbourFront to Harbour Bay, spend the afternoon shopping around Nagoya Hill and eat at an open-air food court; next day hire a car with driver to cross the six Barelang bridges to Galang, and save a third day for a boat to Penyengat.

Locals shop at Nagoya Hill mall for clothes and electronics, and the old streets around it are full of small shops, bakeries and foot massage parlours. In the evening, eat at one of the open-air food courts, where Chinese seafood stalls, satay and noodles share the tables.

Day two, morning. Hire a car and driver and head south over the Barelang bridges, six spans linking Batam, Tonton, Nipah, Setokok, Rempang, Galang and Galang Baru. Stop for photos at the first bridge, the tall cable-stayed Tengku Fisabilillah. Continue to the Galang refugee camp, where up to a quarter of a million Vietnamese and Cambodian boat people passed through between 1979 and 1996. The church, pagoda, barracks and cemetery remain, slowly being swallowed by the forest, along with boats that carried refugees here.

Lunch. Eat at one of the seafood restaurants on stilts near the bridges.

Afternoon and evening. Return to Batam Centre for the Maha Vihara Duta Maitreya, a huge Buddhist complex with gardens and halls, then catch the sunset back at the first Barelang bridge, when the lights come on.

Day three. Spend the morning at a golf course or spa in Nongsa, then take the ferry from Nongsapura to Tanah Merah, handy if you are flying out of Changi.

Gong gong, mie lendir and chilli crab over the water

Batam's food is Riau Malay and Chinese, and the sea supplies most of it. The classic night out is a seafood dinner at a kelong restaurant on stilts, choosing chilli or black pepper crab and prawns from the tanks; try gong gong sea snails and mie lendir, noodles in thick sweet-potato and peanut gravy.

The classic night out is a seafood dinner at a kelong-style restaurant, built on stilts over the water, where you pick crabs, prawns and fish from tanks and choose how to have them cooked.

Order chilli crab or black pepper crab, prawns steamed or fried with salted egg, and gong gong, a sea snail from the Riau Islands that is boiled and eaten with a toothpick and a spicy dipping sauce. Steamed fish with soy and ginger and stir-fried kangkung round it off. The best-known places are in Bengkong, at Harbour Bay and near the Barelang bridges.

For breakfast or a cheap lunch, look for mie lendir, yellow noodles in a thick, slightly sweet gravy of peanut and sweet potato, topped with a boiled egg. Food courts in Nagoya also sell otak-otak, spiced fish paste grilled in banana leaf, and luti gendang, soft rolls filled with sambal and dried fish.

Nasi padang is the standard Indonesian rice meal, with dishes laid out in the window and charged by what you take.

Visitors heading home usually buy kek pisang, a moist banana cake sold in boxes at shops in Nagoya and at the ferry terminals, along with dried seafood and crackers.

Boat trips from Batam to Penyengat, Belakang Padang and Bintan

Batam itself is mostly roads and factories, so the best escapes are by boat. Ferries from Telaga Punggur reach Tanjung Pinang on Bintan in about an hour, where small pompong boats cross to Pulau Penyengat, the old Riau royal island; Belakang Padang, a quiet island village, is a short hop from Sekupang.

From the Tanjung Pinang waterfront, small pompong boats cross in minutes to Pulau Penyengat, the former seat of the Riau-Lingga sultanate. Its yellow-and-green Sultan Riau Mosque, by tradition built with egg white mixed into the mortar, the royal tombs and the grave of Raja Ali Haji, the scholar who shaped the Malay language, make a peaceful half day.

Belakang Padang. A short boat ride from Sekupang, this small island has no cars, a fishing village on stilts and a slow pace that feels far from Nagoya. Walk or rent a bicycle and eat at the waterfront warung.

Bintan's beaches. Lagoi, the resort zone in northern Bintan, has the white-sand beaches Batam lacks. Most people reach it directly from Singapore, but it can also be combined with Tanjung Pinang by road.

Plan crossings around the weather. February to April, with February the driest month at about 83 mm of rain, usually brings flat water. From November to January, the north-east monsoon drives heavier rain, up to about 290 mm in December, and makes small-boat trips rougher. Go early in the day, when the sea is calmest.