Batam Info / Interest / Help Thread

[nono1973]

Originally Posted by BFOMF5

Yes they still open..
Vivo side still need to queue to go in yesterday afternoon(12hrs ago) as the supermarket n F&B still going strong.
As for Hbf side you can imagine like you are at HBB mall

I try to avoid going to malls whereby i need to register myself before entry.

Just too bad, Singapore already made it a compulsory thingy. Need to scan some QR thingy before entry.

Went over to Horizonfast ferry the other day, and they were closed.

Actually, i was there to buy liquid alcohol sanitizer (not those gel type). Unity there sells the better and cheapest version,hehehe....contain at least 70% ethanol alcohol and chlorhexidine gluconate, which would stays on my hand for a couple of hours and continue to prevent virus/bacteria from surviving on it. Especially when my hands start touching "things",hehehe....

(there's another brand that Singapore Changi airport is using but its too expensive now)

Another good method to keep myself as bacteria/virus free as possible.

Originally Posted by Leoric

Ha! You'll be surprise how much each box of mask cost in Batam without tourism now.

Want to make a guess?

What i hear from the Batam girls were Indonesia online market place were selling at about 50k rupiah for a box of 50 masks.

Cheaper than the lowest i found in Singapore online market which i saw at S$11.90 for a box of 50 masks. But those were made in China, hence i arent buying,hehehe...

Look at such tremendous drop in face mask pricing over the recent few months. Luckily, i didnt over stock myself.

Batam apotek shops is selling at around 100k rupiah right now tho.

Notice the big difference in pricing WITH and WITHOUT tourist?

Originally Posted by hawkeye007

The government’s main focus, or should I say initial focus, will be on the re-opening of travel with ASEAN itself...

Thank you for sharing.

My guess would be indonesia will be one of the last few countries who could open up itself again to the world again. Or whereby Singapore will allow Singaporean to travel to Batam Indonesia w/o the compulsory 14 days quarantine rule.

Singapore still have a long way to go, let alone Indonesia.

[nitecrawllerr]

Originally Posted by retirebatam

Formosa Hotel asset was finally bought over by an investor for around Rp 2.7 billion which is about sing $270,000

$270K Thats a steal!

[AdamKLf]

nice story

[Black Page]

Originally Posted by funboi

Why the owner of the hotel never come SBF ask for investors.
If he can find 2700 samsters each pay $100, he can raise the 270k liao.

I would have participated. A dream comes true!
If am stakeholder of Formosa, every time Nono takes a room to enjoy with his girls and to develop complex business analysis at room desk on how to save 1% buying apples, I earn some cents.

[fde83]

Singapore is in talks with other countries on whether travel restrictions can be lifted with safeguards in place.

If there are sufficient precautions such as COVID-19 testing before departure or upon arrival, Singapore is prepared to work bilaterally with countries and regions that are ready to put in place such safety measures, said National Development Minister Lawrence Wong on Tuesday (May 12).

Discussions on how to reopen national borders are ongoing, he noted.

“If these sorts of safeguards are put in place and agreed upon potentially, we can have green lanes for travelers to travel between countries,” said Mr Wong, who is also co-chair of Singapore’s COVID-19 multi-ministry task force.

"In these discussions, all countries are quite mindful and quite careful that we have to ensure that it's safe for us to have this exchanges, so therefore I think it's important for us to put in place safeguards both locally in our own country as well as in the partnering countries if we were to establish these arrangements."

The infection rates in countries, the types of precautions in place, the effectiveness of infection control and safe distancing measures, as well as the countries’ testing regimes will also be taken into consideration, said Mr Wong.

“There are multiple factors that we will take into account to ensure that even if you want to open up in a limited way ... it has to be done so in a safe way," he added.

[Lingo]

I wonder whether they talked to Indonesia or Malaysia...they prefer New Zealand and Australia..hehe!!!

[Black Page]

Originally Posted by fde83

If there are sufficient precautions such as COVID-19 testing before departure or upon arrival,

This is something often neglected and misunderstood even on newspapers: there is NO chance to do a reliable COVID testing on borders. If there was, why would we worried?
If there was unlimited capability of doing such a test, we would have solved the pandemic problem without a vaccine: test everyone every 2 weeks, then quarantine for anyone positive, borders closed. How many tests per day are needed in Singapore? In Malaysia? In China? do the math.

1) IGG/IGM testing tells you if someone developed antibodies, that is if he/she had contact with the virus weeks or days before. This is interesting, but does not say anything about whether he/she is presently sick and contagious.

2) The only suitable test is the test that checks the presence of virus, a.k.a. swab test. There are testing machines that allow fast testing in 15 minutes. Abbott (ID NOW, m2000) produces such machines in USA, for single or massive testing. There are several other brands. Then what is the problem? The testing capacity: how many tests per day a country can buy and carry out?

Consider that Abbott announces on their web site, as a major achievement, that they plan to achieve production of 50,000-70,000 tests per day. This is very little for a country as USA, with 300 millions people. The overall testing capacity of USA would not enough to eradicate the virus from Singapore. Just Changi was used to see 60,000,000 passengers per year, that is 160,000 per day. The overall testing capacity of USA would not be enough to test routinely all international passengers of Changi.

In conclusion: it is possible to test only suspects, and in many countries not even them. Too many.
Forget the possibility to test passengers on borders to allow or deny entrance. At best, they can check the temperature.

[retirebatam]

Originally Posted by Black Page

Can you elaborate further? Why this means no more hotel? Selling the assets may not mean that the new investor could launch a new hotel, a.k.a. Formosa Baru?

I presume that when they said selling of the hotel assets were actually referring to the movable assets like sofa, dressing table, king/single beds, towels, TV, wifi router, fridge, table lamp, toiletries, gym equipment, KTV systems, dining table and chairs, kitchen utensils, electrical appliances, etc.

However those non-movable items aka fixtures & fitting like central air-con, bathtub, carpet, timber floor, furnishings will not be sold.

I think that if the investor who bought the assets wanted to take over the operation of Formosa 2.0, he would have signed a rental lease with the building owner. However nothing was mentioned about the contract agreement between the two parties.

Therefore there could be a possibility that the investor bought the assets and then sell the items to other hotel operators to make a profit.

Originally Posted by Black Page

Nobody can take this thought out of my mind, that the Taiwanese boss saw the future before others, and because of COVID closed everything to save his money.(

Taiwanese boss has signed a lease agreement which expires in Year 2021 with the owner of the building who was a Batam Chinese businessman .

He was an intelligent man who has the foresight about what covid -19 will bring to the economy therefore fast hand fast leg make a quick decision to "run road" to Taiwan to see if he could borrow some funds from his friends. But the result turn out to be negative and he had no choice but to give up Formosa and probably sacrificing his rental deposit placed with the owner.

If there was no covid-19, his business could have been able to sustain. He has 105 employees and lets say every month average salary per employee was 8 juta, then he will need to pay them 840 juta = S$84k per month

His overhead per month to run the hotel will be:
Employee salary (lucky no need pay cpf in batam)
Utility bills
Building rental
Vehicles installment
Petrol
Tax
Food & Drinks
Toiletries
Laundry
Maintenance cost for M&E equipments like pump, lifts parts, air-con service, lightings, etc

Over the years, he has invested the following:
Renovation of the rooms
Provide wifi service in all rooms
Enlarge the space at king massage
Tea story

Since Formosa Hotel has 110 room and lets say take the average of $70 per room per night. (some room cheaper, some more expensive)
He would have earned $70 x 110 rooms x 30 days = about S$230K per month. But that is provided that the occupancy rate is 100%..

However if covid 19 plus low season had caused the occupancy rate to fall below 50%, doubt that the business can sustain..

[retirebatam]

Originally Posted by Retire Samsters

Very hard to find a good boss.

There is one good boss which you will surely love to work with..

Be your own boss

Aka self employed

[retirebatam]

Originally Posted by nono1973

My guess would be indonesia will be one of the last few countries who could open up itself again to the world again. Or whereby Singapore will allow Singaporean to travel to Batam Indonesia w/o the compulsory 14 days quarantine rule.

Singapore still have a long way to go, let alone Indonesia.

Indonesia covid cases is far more serious than it has reported. There are many cases in indonesia was not reported according to news update.

Indonesia has a population of about 270 million compare to singapore of 5.6 million.

However the number of test carried out in indonesia is only 203k (pathetic low) compare to spore 246k (till date). According to statistic, the no. of cases and fatalities in indonesia was also on the rise.

Therefore the possibility that spore allowing border crossing to indonesia is very slim.

Before spore opens its border with another country, spore will evaluate the measures taken, no. of test carried out, covid 19 situation of that country before deciding on lifting the travel restriction with that country.

Also it takes both hands to clap means that even if spore allow travel to a particular country, that does not mean that country will allow spore residents to enter.

In the past, it was known that Indonesia garmen does not encourage indonesian to go overseas. (dont want money to flow out of the country)
Indonesia is the only country in this world that has imposed an exit tax for their citizen to leave the country. The exit tax aka fiscal (in bahasa indo) is 1 million rupiah. But then the tax was later been phased out.

We reckon that the earliest indonesia open its border will be when the world pandemic cases reduced substantially most likely will be end of this year to early next year..

[Pictionary]

Originally Posted by Black Page

2) The only suitable test is the test that checks the presence of virus, a.k.a. swab test. There are testing machines that allow fast testing in 15 minutes. Abbott (ID NOW, m2000) produces such machines in USA, for single or massive testing. There are several other brands. Then what is the problem? The testing capacity: how many tests per day a country can buy and carry out?

Consider that Abbott announces on their web site, as a major achievement, that they plan to achieve production of 50,000-70,000 tests per day. This is very little for a country as USA, with 300 millions people. The overall testing capacity of USA would not enough to eradicate the virus from Singapore.

No point to know what instruments/equipments(ID now, m2000) Abott using. Employers when interviewing dun want to know that u got such great knowledge in such technologies. And the software user manuals is not just a couple of pages, a lot more. It contains ALL IN ONE PDF FILE the checklist reports, components, equipments drawings etc.

Also Abott can anyhow get a lowly educated worker lowly paid to operate such instruments/equipment. Technician can train the workers, no big deal even if they are not street-smart and poor hands-on or whatever.

It's good that u do a bit of research, however I will not be going in that direction. And i am not sure how the ID NOW, m2000 is useful. If u really want to mention it, then u need to provide a useful info. Not everyone here are from pharmaceutial background.

But if u want to write entertainment/jokes, then u can write more. More ppl will be interested bec these knowledge learnt in the end throw in the dustbin. No one would want to be hungry for knowledge for the sake of passion nowadays, since got economic uncertainties.

[milfmilf]

Originally Posted by Black Page

I would have participated. A dream comes true!
If am stakeholder of Formosa, every time Nono takes a room to enjoy with his girls and to develop complex business analysis at room desk on how to save 1% buying apples, I earn some cents.

5555555555555

[nono1973]

Originally Posted by Hurricane88

This is the best time to conserve resources for future...when we have cash money not worried these countries dun welcome our cash in future...

Cannot agree more on this.

I kind of like the covid situation in Singapore right now and ever since they started the circuit breaker. Everything was within expectation and everywhere is so quiet, so much lesser people. Thats other then not being able to go to Batam (which is a real pain), the rest of it was pretty much alright for me.

I dont like crowded places, be it in Batam or in Singapore or anywhere else. I prefer less crowd, less people.

[nono1973]

Originally Posted by Naka_Timo

...is about sharing info and ownself anslysis

I have been reading and analyzing. There's certainly some reason/s for everything.

I followed and learn from successful countries who manage to contain the virus before it hits hard on their people.

And some of them were :

1. Using UV lights to sanitize rooms and large scale places. I mean hospitals in successful countries were using this method (Singapore too), why not me?

2. Using food-base alcohol to sanitize blind spots, hands and body parts, even on objects. I shall share about its weakness later in another post. (food-base alcohol do not means no other chemical involved)

3. I use sodium chloride and chlorine dioxide to sanitize things, hands and body parts even on objects. Except this is a much cheaper version. I mean Taiwan's been using it for decades. I saw on news that Vietnam is also using it. And they were some of the popular successful countries i am learning from.

(二氧化氯 = sodium dioxide, not sodium chloride )

4. I have been to less crowded places since i step into Batam in 2020 and earlier. Places in Batam i frequent were often lesser ventured into (can be noted in my past post before covid started).

5. I have been encouraging aunties and uncles to wear mask during their trips with me to Batam since Feb/Mar BEFORE the Singapore government starts encouraging its people to do so during April 2020. i even give them ONE FREE pink color mask each,hehehe...remember? My 1st box of mask i bought in Batam during CNY2020 at 20k rupiah,hehehe... (i even got criticized by others for that)

In my own analysis, people were saying that countries who manage to contain the virus w/o much damages were because of their respective governing bodies. But base on my own analysis, its MORE becos of each respective country's CULTURAL BEHAVIOR.

Hongkong : There was some street demonstration before the epidemic whereby people were told NOT to wear mask in public places. Or they will be arrest as being one of those demonstrator who create havoc. Lots of mask were snap up back then and it came to good use later during the covid-19 epidemic.

Taiwan : Every household has at least some mask with them. And they were rather popular for NOT listening to their governing body. Their governing body told them not wear mask at 1st, they did the direct opposite and start snapping up the mask in shops. Their governing body were also popular for giving in to its people, hence their language later switch to encouraging members of the public to wear a mask. Even give household some free mask during a time when Singapore governing body were STILL discouraging its people to wear a mask.

Vietnam : I am no expert on their culture but what i know that this country, covid or no covid time...wearing a mask were part of their daily life. I have been to Vietnam few times during non-covid time, as a tourist. In the street, 8-9 out of 10 of its people had mask on.

Now, i look again at those countries who suffered major damages. I am not going to name them,just talking about their culture, their daily behavioral gesture etc.

1. They greet each other face touching face. Sometime with a light kiss on each other's cheek.

2. They tends to hug each other during greetings.

3. They worship human rights. They believe in freedom of speech, expression and behavior, even to the extend those freedom is going to affect another person's freedom.

Example : "i choose NOT to put on a mask EVEN if i am not well, what can you do?" in those countries.

4. With a good environment of freedom, many who are used to those environment would feel difficult to adapt to a very restricted environment like that of a social lock down.

5. Majority of the people in those countries believes in Science. And they worship an organization that were constructed with its basis base on science. One of them were called, WHO.

Remember, WHO says mask dont protect a person from getting coronavirus? (but nobody actually ask the question why is medical staff in hospital wearing one) And it says there were no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus? They were proven to be wrong at a later time. But already so many governing bodies in the world took their words for it for a few months period.

6. In one of the most developed country who suffered many deaths, one box of 50s face mask can cost as high as 125 USD at Amazon during April 2020. Not many could afford that kind of price. How i wish to could be the one buying 20k rupiah mask from Batam and bring it to US to sell it at 100 USD,hehehe....just joking here.

All of the above were analysis of my own.

I engaged a bit of common sense before i execute my plans. I ask myself questions. i learned from successful case/s. And try NOT to jump into conclusion out of impulse.

a) Why are many hospital/malls/public places using UV sanitizing, even in their air conditioning system? And even for rooms and public walkway? I asked myself.

b) Alcohol sanitizer is flammable, Everyone knows, its chemical/s contain harms the human skin one way or another.

c) 99% of soap contains Sodium laureth sulfate (aka SLS), the exact same thing can be found in washing detergent. Is it harmful to human? Probably even your toothpaste has SLS too,hehehe...

(definitely can find one of the below ingredient/s in sanitizer/soap)

d) Sodium chloride can be a health risk factor, according to the internet. Not going to elaborate on this, but on my personal scale find this safest among most if not all soap/sanitiser. (safest herein do not mean not harmful)

e) Many types of UV rays in different strength are harmful to living things, especially so to micro-organism.

f) A Taiwanese lady got into an accident becos she was wearing a face mask while riding a motorbike and during her ride, the strong wind blew her mask to cover her eyes. Hence the accident. It also cause allergy reaction, bruises on the face and shortness of breath to some medical staffs and members of the public too.

So, EVERY known ways written above were sort of harmful. But hospitals and medical facilities were still using it as a form of protection/weapon against current covid-19 epidemic. So, i can safely say, its either the higher risk of contracting the virus OR getting humanly harmed. Its a choice.

I use all those above collected data to form my own analysis, so as to create the safest environment in my own way if i were to travel to Batam in the near future.

My conclusion is, a tools i have, use it appropriately in its correct way, it becomes a useful tool. Use it in the wrong way around, it may hurt. The MOST suitable way for myself when it is being use correctly (and follow appropriately by "tool's" instruction) is my very own BEST way/s,hehehe...and yes, i did some modification so it better suits me (shall share in later post).

Learn from "successful" countries and engage some common sense.

Disclaimer note : My above analysis and whats written were opinion of my own, meant to serve as precaution solely for myself in my future trip/s to Batam.

27.05.2020 : Add-on to amend between sodium chloride and sodium dioxide.

Originally Posted by BFOMF5

Bro think you make a mistake...

二氧化氯 = chlorine dioxide（ClO2）
Not
Sodium Chloride (NaCl) =氯化钠,
is in our common table salt 食盐

Originally Posted by nono1973

Thank you for pointing that out.

Yes, the mistake was kind of deliberate. Because when i search for sodium chloride, all the things in the online market on what i was looking for regarding sodium dioxide turns up. Kind of becoming a habit for me already,hehehe...

Look at what google translate gave me :

My mistake.

Shall amend my post by adding yours into it later on to rectify.

The correct word i need to use should be "chlorine dioxide effervescent tablets" instead, and in short, i actually mean CLO2 instead of sodium chloride.

[OnlyLiveOnce]

The testing of Covid19 is implemented in SG using the gold standard PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) method where a full laboratory setup is required.

Initially 2000 tests were conducted daily and were recently ramped up to provide 3000 tests daily for the foreign workers (FWs) in the dormitories and factory converted units and up to 5000 tests daily for citizens and others. The number of tests can be further ramped up to 40,000 daily if needed. Some 10% of the FWs were tested so far.

However, the number of tests are carefully calibrated so as not to overwhelm our medical services and facilities and the recent overloading of a lab severely restricted the number of daily tests.

The high percentage of + Covid19 results among the FWs severely stresses our medical services but fortunately most of these cases are asymptomatic, ie. displaying little or mild symptoms but require quarantine to prevent the spreading of Covid19 while others with symptoms are hospitalised. The asymptomatic patients are housed in specialised community facilities including cruise ships. The high no of such cases easily filled up the Superstar Gemini and Aquarius in about two days.

Luckily, the spread of Covid19 among the community at large is at a low rate.

So to summarise: Until the day we complete the testing and management of all FWs (another 80 - 90%), the main source of Covid19 cases in SG, the changes for people in SG to travel overseas remain slim.