Got off the reservation today (Friday, April 27) when the power went off at Smiling Hill and Doug and Trevor decided to go see Trevor’s new house in Sukajadi. Trevor is one of the owners/directors of Smiling Hill, and works at an offshore oil rig, two weeks on and two weeks off. Sukajadi is an upscale residential area in Batam. For my Atlanta friends, think Buckhead, except the McMansions here mostly don’t have sprawling landscapes around them. The houses are built abutting each other but they are huge.
Trevor’s house is a renovation project of a house built in 1992. He expects it to be finished next February. Currently, he and his wife, Anna, and their two young children, live at Smiling Hill.
I can’t help but be struck by the wealth exhibited at Sukajadi (mostly Chinese, Western expat and Singaporean owners) as compared to the squatter slums that line many of the roadways here.
