Grandma and Grandpa came to Singapore. We showed them around, but we also went to Batam, Riau Islands, Indonesia.

We took a ferry from Singapore to Batam. It was really nice. We looked at all the other boats and ships that were on the water! When we docked at Batam, we took a van to our hotel, KTM Resort. The hotel had a humongous Buddhism statue of the god of mercy, Dewi Kwan Im. We were like mice compared to it! We lived in one of those awesome villas on stilts that you see in the movies. It was not on the water, but on a hill nearby so the view is breathtaking. You could sit and stare into the distance and not get bored (and this is what Grandma liked doing). When we came out of the villa, we had a surprise. We saw – guess what – a monkey!!!!!! It had this neat mane, and a nice tail. It was really cute! It was just walking by with this bored “Oh, more humans!” kind of look…

We went down to the pool and swam around. There were floating pillows in the pool on which you could lie on, swim around and not get wet! Eventually, I had to get off and swim around. The water was very warm! We stayed there, then went to the hammocks. The hammocks were on a bridge on the sea. When we were getting off, we walked near the side of the bridge and saw a LOT of fish! There was one, two fish, red and blue fish! I especially liked the fish that was really thin and had a lot of design and color! We fed them croissants and bread. 

The next day, we woke up to the sound of loud bonking/thumping on the roof of the villa. We got out of bed and saw monkeys jumping and climbing around. We were very astonished! There was one that was sitting on the balcony. There was one that was throwing down leaves from trees, and one that was catching them from the ground. There was also one that was upsetting a trash can that was standing outside! It was pretty funny. We fed the leaf-catcher with apples and I named him Apples. I don’t know why, it just seemed appropriate.

We went back to the pool and swam. We also noticed monkeys on the sand. They were eating some sort of fruit. We hypothesized that is was Guava. After we swam more, Mom and I got a paddleboard each, Dad and Grandpa got a kayak, and we went on the waves. It was really hard, harder that in Thailand! Mom and I had trouble paddling and balancing. The DadGrand kayak team made it look easy. When we (unbelievably) got back and played around more, we went to the bar to eat dinner. The bar was nearby the ocean. It was very quiet, too. It was our best meal near the sea.

The next day, we had to go back to Singapore. It was a great experience. I hope we come back again!