Expats in Batam?

[timyts]

Compared to other parts of Indonesia, is living in Batam worth it -- for a Western expat?

[Danny Dangler]

In my opinion, Batam is the best place in Indonesia for a Western expat. Course, the number of expats in Batam varies with McDermotts workload.

[timyts]

What is McDermotts workload?

[jared1981]

McDermott is the main employer for expats here in Batam, and they have been here forever. They build rigs for oil and gas companies, and employees are on contract basis, so when there is a new rig being built, they get a bunch of people from US, Australia and UK as managers, engineers and inspectors.

Most people that work at McDermott live in the provided housing, which is fairly nice, but dated (imagine the Dharma Initiative housing on LOST). They're pretty isolated from everyone else, and have their own community there. The single men usually spend their evenings at the bars in Nagoya, and the majority are 45-60 (being senior engineers and such).

[reneva21]

Actually, the single men usually live at McDermott (some aka D.O.M) and there is only about 4 families (with children) living in the housing facility. If you're a family person or your wife is here, then there are many expats at Villa Panbil, Sukajadi and Shangrila in Sekupang, in addtion to a few in Nongsa - in fact Batam is fastly filling up with expat families which is nice although I don't think the DOMs appreciate us wives turning up for drinks on their patch hehehehehee.

All good - Batam is good - it has its frustrations but the people here are nice even the DOMs

And jarad1981 - lol you are so right about the housing there but I had never made that analogy!!