Quote:
Originally Posted by nono1973
Hmm...while i was looking into the Harbour Bay ferry terminal taxi stand 30k rupiah issue, i chance upon a non-samster's complain on Batam Center Ferry Terminal immigration officer. I will just extract....
Keeping tabs and sharing it at the same time.
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Observations-
Those do visa runs will be tagged. Common country girls include VN, China and Pinoyland. Batam-nites also will kana from our immigration including outright u-turn. For batam they take coffee money so whatever red flags can settle with coffee money. So the stories in the forum quoted like one sided and whole story not presented. You can be sure the ferry ports got hierarchy. On one end, the immigration officers prefer BC because can makan the most money. You have ferries coming to n fro from johor beside the sg side. Most will not be taxed but if you look funny, you will be scrutinised. Sure benign tourists will get spot check once a while. They may ask where you are going or are in doing business etc. But if a fish is distressed, the sharks will smell it from a mile. If they are successful in getting a hold on your Achilles heels, they will grab what they want. The boss gets the lion’s share and distribute 20% to the lower ranks. The fat one makan the most. He is the same one sitting inside the office. All Indonesian wants to get a job as an immigration man. If can’t will try to be a banker but that is another story, no?
For this reason, the group of officers got pecking order. If you new bird or kana marked, they send you to Nagoya. There got nice tourists but most time damn boring and worse like far from civilisation like that. That side how to eat money? Very little traffic and mostly transits from casino boats. The ok one is Sekupang. If you got a handle, just pay one or two dollar for express services and an angpow for CNY and Hari raya. But familiarity breeds contempt so if you go to Batam be unpredictable like using other ports. For example, Pungol and Sekupang got domestic ports, and Barelang also got stop over to get to other parts of Riau Islands, and more importantly can connect you to sg from other islands like Bintan and TBK. You see all kind of authorities from the polis, the navy and other military detachments on Batam island. Sometimes got to look sometimes they just stare you down. This is my personal, abeit dated causal observations.