Looks like the rates are pretty good recently...
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Originally Posted by newyorker88
hahaha. I never have problems with the street food. Usually, the thing to avoid is the ICE. Bottled water is ok. Unless you are used to food here.
Other wise, these are cheap and good, but at your own risk.
Barelang? never had problems also. maybe weather too hot for you... Stomach not able to cope.
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It has almost become a habit for me that every time i go Batam,i am bound to grab at least 4 big bottles of mineral water from either Harbour Mart or the provision behind Formosa and keep them in my room. Main purpose was for drinking and making coffee in hotel rooms,some time even for emergency if the hotel suddenly have no water running from the tap,which happen during my 3rd trip. At the very least ,i still have some water to wash up.
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Originally Posted by nescafeGold
It's a quite common for singaporean and malaysian to misunderstood the connection between being a muslim country and halal food. I also get this question a lot from friends.
although indonesian is the biggest muslim country in the world (from the number of the peoples), but indonesia is not a real muslim country. indonesia doesn't apply syariah law. (i don't know about aceh though). unlike malaysian, if a muslim was caught eating non-halal food, or eating at non-halal restaurant, or drinking, they will get caught by police. That doesn't applied in indonesia. any muslim can dine-in in chinese restaurant. police won't question.
Not all the non-chinese are muslim. unlike malaysian, many tribe of native indonesian are actually majority in christian or chatolic. for example, batak, balinese, flores, maluku or moluccas, etc. and there are also many javanese or other majority muslim tribe, whose are actually christians. especially in batam, the number of non-muslim is also quite big.. in other country, this may not allowed, i mean for muslim to converted to non-muslim, but in indonesia we have constitutional law that recognize the freedom of the right to choose any religion that they want.
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Hmm...learned something today....thank you for explaining. The reason why i am curious is becos long time ago,during Suharto time,even Chinese papers,video tape and books are strictly not allowed into Indo...and am quite surprise that one could actually cook the entire pig up for a meal. Perhaps after the collapse of Suharto's dynasty,their laws not as strict as before.
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Originally Posted by nescafeGold
I think the reason prata is not cheap in batam because it's not a commonly available food in batam. therefore the price also not 'common'. unlike singapore, we can find at least one prata stall at each hawker. and it's like common breakfast food here..
in batam, i think the only prata restaurant i ever saw is the one in opposite of nagoya hill or nagoya plaza hotel. but i'm not sure if the one that you had or not.
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Yea,i was curious with the prata price during my 4th trip there hence i decide to try them out on my 5th trip.It's an indian man making the prata tho,then again I believe it's very likely that time will be my last i go there to eat...lol...i don't mean the prata is not good,but there are much better varieties of food to pick from that food court to fill myself.The food court opposite Relax Massage where they sells the prata sells Tonic soup as well,those black chicken soup,Herbal soup etc etc. Place was quite big with a big variety of food to choose from too. But i find most of their food are cater for a higher market and it is always crowded whenever i am there before their local lunch hours. Heard from friends that during lunch peak,even more people eats there.