EXPAT LIFE (1)

A view of Batam - can you spot the Opera house?

Well the factory and business is coming along splendidly.  Credit goes to the skipper’s prowess and diligence.  Well done, you have achieved amazing things considering the obstacles.  Proud of you.

The staff numbers are slowly increasing and a couple of Aussies are also here to train and assist with processes.

Why stand when you can sit ?

Expat life is in full swing.
Shopping in Batam – let’s start with shopping shall we?  Oh so different here - where the heck is Bunnings when you need it, not to mention Dan Murphy’s.  The crew has been sent on shopping missions to find things like .......... paint rollers, shackles, pulleys, welding rods, truck tie-down straps, stationery, plastic containers, brooms, floor cleaner….and the list goes on.  Most of the factory tool requirements could be obtained from any Bunnings store but here’s the thing  --  THERE ISN’T ONE.

There are however, material shops (material not in the sense of fabrics which is called ‘textiles’ here) but materials in the sense of everything you could possibly want for the shed or factory….EXCEPT…maybe the bit or the size of the bit that you need.  Having said that, there are very many ‘material shops’ and you just need to rely on your good driver to find them and keep asking until you find what you want.  This can take several trips depending on the varying store stock until you are satisfied that the sample ‘thingy’ the boss gave you to find is the same as the ‘thingy’ you are looking to buy.  I’m a girl!

A well stocked, tidy 'materials' shop

Many 'Rukos' in Batam (shops with house atop)

This task also requires one to be quite proficient at mime and drawing in order to explain what exactly is required if one is not yet proficient in the language.  The crew has overcome this hurdle by finding images on the internet and taking a photo of the screen with her phone.  “You have one like this?”  Much easier.

Now shoes, bags, clothes, perfume…..a different story.  YAY, love the girlie shops – Barbie shoes, you know girls, the ones with sparkles and bows and heels and colours.  Gorgeous.  Shoe heaven. 

Bags too and although they are only copies of the well-known brands, are cheap enough to buy a couple in case (or when) the first one falls apart.  DVDs for a fraction of the price anywhere else and usually you can watch the entire movie without seeing a shadow of someone getting up and leaving the cinema halfway through.  Funny.  What the heck, take it back and they will normally exchange it with a sheepish grin. 

There are many Malls on the island of Batam which cater for the “Chinas” (this is our driver’s pronounciation).  Each weekend many Singaporeans (Chinas) flock into Batam for cheap shopping, accommodation and food.  So here’s the lesson “Stay Away From Malls on the Weekend”.  The influx of tourists and the fact that Sunday is considered ‘family day’ sees Batam’s shopping population double and the shops are bedlam.  Singaporeans can also purchase very reasonably priced land, villas and houses here so they make Batam their 'weekend-getaway-holiday' destination.

Supermarkets are a little more challenging.  The supermarkets are much like any you have seen but are not as well stocked on Batam as in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore or the UK and it generally takes the crew a couple of trips to several different supermarkets to find all the things on the shopping list but - one trip to the Wet Markets caters very well to fill the fruit, veg and meat larder.

At the Wet Market

Surprisingly, not smelly !

The wet markets are a ‘must see’.  Vegetable stalls, fruit stalls, individual small grocer shops, live chickens, dead chickens, cleaned chickens, fish, live eels, meat, eggs  – the list goes on.  It all takes place under one roof, no air conditioning, no fans, many people, a bit of haggling and stepping over water puddles produced while stall owners clean livestock , scale fish and wash away melting ice.  A picture of bedlam but very well worth the effort.

The crew also got her sewing machine serviced and repaired (after many valiant attempts by the skipper who is much too focussed on the factory management to look at the machine AGAIN) and was very pleased at the price and the “3-day warranty” cheerfully and proudly announced by the shop owner.  The repair however, was short-lived (around 3 days I think).  Maybe the fact that the crew’s mother purchased the machine in 1969 and has been used frequently, has something to do with it.  Now to find a sewing machine retail shop.  Good luck!

One of three rooms in the textiles shop - so many fabrics

Of course, the electronic stalls that abound in Asia

Well, that’s enough of the shops, although we’re sure to have stories to tell ..... like this one -

Crew was shopping for eggs at the wet market where she is quite well known now and after the first walk around saying hello to people she heads for a stall selling eggs.  On the tray on display are 30 eggs all brown, on the tray next to them are 30 white ones.  The crew feeling a bit devilish asked the shop keeper what the difference was between the two coloured eggs.  My driver and the shop keeper had a fairly lengthy discussion about the difference and I waited patiently for the translation.  I did actually have some idea that the white eggs were ‘free-range’ but decided that I would wait to see what explanation I got.  Finally my driver told me that the white eggs are “natural”, you know “native madam, from a village”.  My suspicions were confirmed.  The somewhat frustrated shop keeper however was not satisfied with his description and burst into the conversation with her limited English vocabulary with  “oh this one had injection and this one not”. 

Always something to make you smile.  More stories later.

This is where you get keys cut - at the rear of the jeep

Timber delivery Batam style