From the moment we walked in it seemed as though every waitress wanted to serve the bules, and we were immediately surrounded by about 20 of them, all trying to persuade us to drink their beer or buy their food. I am not great at making decisions at the best of times, and was instantly lost. Luckily the others ordered the beer and the surplus waitresses left us, so I had chance to drink Bintang (the local lager) and peruse a menu. I decided I wanted to try flower crab but, as the menu had no prices, I was advised to check the price before ordering. Tommy came with me to translate. I chose my crab from this tank;
and we negotiated a price, then they asked me what I wanted with it, I chose some broccoli and then Tommy (whose English isn't the greatest, but not for lack of effort or enthusiasm) said to me "Do you like seafood?", to which I answered; yes, I do.
When the food arrived there was more than I expected, at a higher price. It seemed what Tommy wanted to ask me was "Would you like extra seafood with that?". So this is what I ended up with;
but it wasn't a problem, I ate it all anyway, and it was delicious and still relatively cheap.
After food we started to play some drinking games, with waitresses watching interestedly. One of the waitresses asked me if I was married, I said, "No, I'm not", shortly afterwards another waitress asked if I was single, and before I had a chance to reply, the first waitress said, "Yes, he is.". It seems there are no shades of grey here. We continued to play drinking games and listen to the strange choices on karaoke (the most popular song was a dance version of 'Happy Birthday to You').
As we were heading home, I was drunkenly telling Tommy he was a good guy, to which he answered "I am not a guy." I had about a minute of confusion, where I was wondering about ladyboys, until I realised he was confusing the difference between 'guy' and 'gay'.
I didn't do much for the rest of the weekend, just a trip to the supermarket and some minor chores. This was the most intriguing thing I saw in the supermarket;
Now, I've heard of whitening toothpaste, but whitening body wash???
On Monday it was back to work for a busy week. I am now taking more classes each week, and really do have a full schedule. Monday was good though, my regular classes are easier to manage now I know all the kids names and habits.
Today is Tuesday, and it's already been a long day. I have now been in Batam for 30 days, and my original entry visa was about to run out. Indonesian beauracracy moves even slower than Polish, so my final work visa has not yet been confirmed, but the easiest way to fix this problem is simply to leave the country and come back, getting a new entry visa. So I have woken up at 5am this morning, taken the ferry across to Singapore, hung around there for the return ferry, and returned to Batam. All I did there was buy a couple of books and some breakfast sushi, and take this photo from the returning ferry;
So now I am pretty tired and still have 3 classes to teach... I wonder if I can get Red Bull in Batam?
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