Our church conference was held at Harris Resort, Batam this year. It was the first time for the church, heading to Batam, and the first time we were there as well.
The hotel was very very average. Thankfully I have lower expectations for these group holidays! We don’t go for the hotel anyway, but to get away, to enjoy fellowship with one another, and to spend some time learning something new from the word of God. We were warned before hand that the food was pretty bad but somehow, by God’s grace, the food actually turned out quite good. We all believe that picking the right sister to be in charge of F&B really made the difference, though she was quick to praise the Chef instead.
We had lectures every morning and evening, but had the afternoons free for exploration. One thing the resort had going for it was the large number of activities there were available. On top of the usual swimming pools, tennis courts, squash courts, table tennis table and pool & billiard tables, it also had a bowling alley and an air rifle range and a large site for paint ball, if you were so inclined. There are water activities like canoeing and banana-boating available too, but I didn’t pay much attention to these since they were obviously not suitable for my little ones. What I did discover was their Kids’ Club, with an air-conditioned kids’ activity room containing some swings, a couple of slide sets, a TV screening kids’ videos, colouring sheets and materials, and various other toys. Needless to say, we easily found ourselves gravitating that direction during the hot afternoons!
Commander of the Fort, Naomi, directing her troops.
Another thing we were surprised to discover was that the Kids’ Club organized activities like games and even cooking classes for young guests, a lot of it for free. My helper noticed that they had fishing on the schedule, and persuaded me to check it out. When I confirmed that it was REAL FISH we would be catching in a pond on the property (as opposed to plastic ones like I originally thought was the case), I decided we should try it.
Noey & Sophia, our anglers for the day, selecting their equipment.
Stoic looks from my little man.
I did wonder how they were going to catch any fish at all when we started. Having been to Kids’ Kampong with both kids where I ended up having to catch all the fish while Noey directed me, I was anticipating my call into action again. The good thing here was that there was bait. The staff member leading the group came with a big bag of bread and the fish just went into a frenzy trying to get at it when she threw some pieces in to start. I took that as a good sign. She helped the kids put bread on their hooks and showed them how to cast their lines in. Most of the time, the tiny fish that attacked the bread were too small to be hooked, but just as I was starting to have my doubts, a girl in the group managed to catch a fish! That was when we realized that there were bigger fish deeper in the murky water.
The staff member moved over to help Noey with his line and in a short span of time, helped him pull one up! Noey was beside himself in excitement, and I felt quite sorry for the poor fish who was left dangling at the end of his line for a while.
The first fish he’s ever caught on a line!
Upon seeing Gor-gor’s success, Naomi wanted to have a go too. We found her a safe fishing rod with no hook and let her have a prod in the water.
Poke, poke!
Would you believe we caught 3 fish by the end of our 40 min session? I helped Noey and together we hooked another fish, and after he started losing interest I continued to cast his line and managed to catch one more.
Two of the catch, lying resignedly in the bucket.
It turned out a lot more fun than I expected. I think I would have gone on trying to catch more fish but Noey had had enough. So we returned the equipment and headed back. I figured they’d throw the fish back into the pond once they were done. We couldn’t have brought them home anyway.
It was a kiddy activity, but it was definitely one of the more memorable moments for me on this trip.
We’d make an angler of him yet.
The resort had a much better play room and kids' club than my church camp's did – golf resort at Tanjong Puteri, JB. But it was only a 30 min drive from causeway and food was splendid so not complaining. (Of course we were there for the teaching and fellowship lah haha.)
I would have preferred being able to drive to retreat. We went the last 5 years to Sofitel Pam Resort, also about 30 mins away in JB, and when driving up, we never had to worry about packing – just chuck everything into the car! This time we had to bring 3 big bags, with the most items going to the smallest person in the family. Sigh! But yes, at least the fellowship and teaching made up for it 🙂