Bintan: afterthought

What is my conclusion on a 3D2N Bintan getaway?

Firstly, I have to admit that December is a bad time for a holiday anywhere. It's cold and windy than anything else. Minus that, Bintan is truly the island of idling, if you don't count eating, drinking and spa as a sufficiently tedious activity. Well, come to think of it, idling is not necessary a bad thing especially for holiday. Leave your baggages behind, sit back, relax and do nothing. If you think that Bintan lacks activities, I would say it just leaves you with no option but to make the most out of whatever little things that you can find there. Like us, we have fully utilised (almost!) every single bar and restaurant there - and discovered all of them have similar beverage list! 

Bintan is definitely not the most fascinating, exciting destination. Nor was it the cheapest getaway. But all in all, it was not a bad place to hangout with a few great friends to chill, relax and enjoy doing nothing.

So would I consider a trip to Bintan soon?

Maybe, but not so soon (I've figured out most of the eating and drinking places at Nirwana now - perhaps a change of resort will do the trick?).

Well, happy holidays to all and have a great 2009 ahead. Cheers to more great holidays in the coming new year.

Final day at Bintan

23 December 2008, 8.00am

Our final day at the island of idling was short and nevertheless, relaxing.

We woke up and did our packing in the morning before we headed for breakfast. Chipmunks and Mr Bean's Holidays were on TV...

Breakfast for the day: Teochew porridge wih sausages and scrambled eggs plus a glass of orange juice.

With still some time left before the massage, we went back to Resort Centre for some final shopping spree which we grabbed more Bali scrubs and soaps!

Then came the time for our head, neck and hand massage at Warung Kadaton, a spa located in the hotel lobby. Three of us went in for a relaxing, if not so invigorating massage by three indonesian ladies. They pressed, rubbed and massaged our backs and stretched our fingers like cracking peanuts. It was not a feel-so-good kind of massage but a relaxing one, nonetheless. And it smells (strong scent of aromatic indonesian massage oil) too. We were also offered a tea after the treatment.

Thereafter, we headed back to our room for a final check and did our check-out. With one and a half hour more to go, the girls were practically tired and bored while I was still pestering them for some final pictures before we go.

When time was up, we climbed up our coach and were on our way to the ferry terminal.

Tuning back to Singapore time: home sweet home!

Calypso and The Pub

22 December 2008, 7.30pm

Our second night on idle island and by this night, it was no longer a night of doing nothing. We had in our plan to chill out at Calypso bar - a place we'd seen from someone's else travel blog, and with great chill-out attributes as recommended by the hotel, "a Carribean-style bar situated in the middle of the sea, with an influence of Rastafarian playing all kinds of reggae and calypso songs." (http://www.nirwanagardens.com/)

And so with a great chill-out night in mind, we set off again to Kelong, where Calypso is located. It was no doubt another cold, windy night. It was as dark as it could be... led by only the Neon signs from Calypso bar. We walked on the wooden planks... like from a kelong to a kelong.

We had some drinks and a plate of chicken and peanuts as finger food (supper following the hot and spicy tom yam cup noodles we had in our room to warm ourselves after the dip). It was a nice chill-out place but a little too quiet with only 2 tables of customers a bartender with barely anything to do. All was nice but lacking in the live band which could have livened up the place much more (but our guess: the band don't play on weekday ya?) By then, we were too tired to complain.

Following the disappointment the night before, we were happy we finally got to sing - KTV time in Bintan. KTV sounds fun anytime anywhere... but not here at Nirwana as we discovered.

There was a live band in The Pub by the time we got into the KTV room. It was loud and noisy as the private room didn't seem to be sound-proof at all. We could hear the live band outside and can even sing along with them. It was a major disappointment for us as:

1. the KTV system didn't work. We spent half of the time figuring out the system than singing away.

2. the songs available were not from our era... maybe from our dad's era. We ended up picking any, and I mean any song that we seemed to know or have heard of before. But the best part was, we sang all the xmas songs available on the list!

3. when we figured out the system, we realised it was just slow and not that we didn't know how to use it. And it was very slow.

We had to order four mocktails as minimum order for usage of private room but we were not very happy customers.

By the time we were done with the KTV after 1.5hr, we were grumpy and sleepy girls who just wanted to head back to the room for some sleep. At least, I was.

Elephants and a white horse

22 December 2008, 4.00pm

Back from Pasar Oleh Oleh, betting on the good weather earlier, we wanted to try our luck at the beach at Resort Centre with its great seaviews.

The Resort Centre was just 5-minute walk away from the hotel. In the vicinity, there were also archery and paint-ball recreation areas. There were also motor seasports seen from afar. As we managed our way down to the beach, we saw several elephants in what seems like a construction site, where it was in fact an elephant park that we had heard of earlier but didn't realise was there. There were about six elephants there feeding on grass and we could get an upclose view without fences!

As we got closer to the beach, we realised the beach was not cleaned up due to the construction and was like a wasteland. A pity indeed. The view was superb and we could see a small island in the middle of the sea. Out of nowhere, we saw someone riding a white horse in the waters. It was a rare sighting as we stopped to see the boy and his horse galloping towards the shore and past us.

Back at the hotel, we went for another dip in the pools, this time soaked to our skins. It was still cold.

*Photos courtesy of Xiu Ting

Pasar oleh oleh

22 December 2008, 1.30pm

Regrettably, it was good weather for tanning when we reached Pasar Oleh Oleh.

The shops there reminded me of the row of shophouses along Arab Street except that these were mainly souvenir shops, mini-marts and spa houses. We were supposed to make our spa appointments at Pasar Oleh Oleh but we ended up booking a head, shoulder, neck massage at the hotel for the next day's morning. Souvenirs were supposed to be cheaper at the Pasar but we thought we'd spent enough at Resort Centre so we were pretty much left stranded at the Pasar. We were surrounded by the staff from the cafes and spas, handing us leaflet after leaflet and asking us to patronise their spa/cafe.

We were tempted to try the spas but were a little dubious still. So I decided to try the foot scrub and bath at one of the spas. My girls joined in and we had three big men at our service - scrubbing and massaging our feet. It was awkward to have men scrubbing our feet but it was better as they tried making small talk and cracking jokes to break the ice. It was a thirty-minute scrub and bath... I thought they had scrubbed so clean, a better job than I'd ever done to my feet.

After we left the spa with clean and featherlight feet, we settled at a cafe with some coconut juice. As my girls would advise, "never judge a coconut by its husk". The juice was more that our stomach could take.

Shopping time!

22 December 2008, 10.00am

After a filling breakfast, we headed back to room since we had some time before our bus to Pasar Oleh Oleh at 12.20pm. We had the chamber-man made our room - this time a older chamber-man who kept shaking our hands and saying thank. He did appear a little weird to me. Afterall, he left the broom in our room after he left. Anyhow, we were browsing the hotel leaflets and found another hangout place - Resort Centre - which is still currently under refurbishment with an upcoming Nirwana resort (a must-stay next time as the seaviews are great from that place). We were told by the hotel staff earlier that we could find food at reasonable prices there - the foodcourt. Foodcourt certainly sounds home to us... and they even had CNA switched on. A very SG food place but being on vacation, we would rather have something different. 

Though the place looked pretty bare, we were practically stuck at the place for nearly 2 hours - doing nothing but shopping! Okay, we know. Those souvenir shops were charging us at exorbitant prices even though the sales assistant kept assuring us he was giving us at special prices, "this $5, I give you $4. this $3.90, I give you $3", which pretty much didn't turn out to be case as we found out later that we were paying much more than we should. But hey, it's holiday and we shouldn't crack our brain over stuff like these right. Anyway, I was one of those simple-minded, uncalculative tourists who doesn't mind spending in these souvenir shops... so here's what I got:

Key chain souvenirs for friends and family and some bath salt and scrub from Bali which costs nearly SGD50 in total.

And that's not all, as you will read on later.

Breakfast at the Coffee Shop

22 December 2008, 8.00am

It was planned to be a sunny day for us as we woke up early for our showers and get all dressed up in our bikinis and sunglasses. Sunblock lotion, all ticked. Despite all the vanity efforts infront of the mirrors, we were greeted by the cold wind. There was no sun for tanning, not to mention get freezing cold by the strong winds. One look at the sea and you could always see the enormous rush of water up the shore. Unwilling but we abandoned our sun-tanning plans. It was afterall the monsoon period and the rainy december back home. We were lucky enough not to have a wet weather.

To satisfy our morning hunger pangs, we went ahead to have our buffet breakfast at the Coffee Shop. Yes, Coffee Shop is a buffet restaurant in the resort, not our typical kopitiam. I must say I was a less fussy eater than our missies as I ate what I could (thought not much as usual)... from a selection of teochew porridge, pancakes, sausages, fried rice, pastries, toasts, scrambled eggs, fries (in the morning?) and more.

Bats and lizards at Dino Bistro

21 December 2008, 9.30pm

Following our heavy dinner, everywhere was pitch black and it was really sheer darkness that we could see. I wondered how the bus driver could even drive in such lighting.

We were back at the resort and it was KTV time according to our plan. We entered The Pub but was greeted by a non-attentive bartender who were busy mixing his drinks than to listen to us. After a series of waiting, we were told that we had to make a prior booking for usage of private rooms. Talking about inflexibility or perhaps miscommunication again, he wouldn't let us use the room for the 1.5hr before the alloted timing. So we made a booking for the next day and left the pub... hunting for another chill-out place. We crossed the poolside which got me reciting a childhood poem about a dark, windy night (the first line fitted in the context perfectly)... and we walked past the poolside restaurant which serves drinks and ice cream (the server uncles are nice and chatty too). And after a 'walking' snake and ladder game, we ended up ordering drinks at Dino Bistro which is located at the hotel lobby.

At Dino Bistro, they don't serve exactly appetising food. I saw the tiramisu served with a lump of whipped cream on the top so we decided to go with the drinks only. I would have preferred dining alfresco style if not for my girls who were screaming at the slight sighting of lizards.

We settled for indoors under a wooden pavilion. I had Bloody Mary which was my first and I believed my last (at least at Bintan). It tasted horrid. It was spicy, sour and bitter... barely tasted like tomato. And what more, it was served with a celery sticking out of the glass. Awful. But I still managed to down three quarters of it. The girls tried more fruity stuff... Mango Madness and Pina Colada which were definitely much better.

The horror highlight was perhaps not my Bloody Mary but the bats and lizards lingering on the ceiling of the pavilion which got the girls panicky. I was told there was a bat hanging upside down directly above me. Ignorance was a bliss, at least. Or short-sightedness, in my case.

After the drinks, we headed back to our room. It was about midnight then. There were all the local channels back home, plus Disney and TV5Monde (great way to revise my French!). I was tuning in to this old cantonese movie in malay voice-overs... hoping that the story would twist into a horror show...

The girls were resting with paper masks (at least for our Miss 'Beauty Care'). Before we or I knew it, I was in dreamland.

A night in Kelong

21 December 2008, 7.00pm

The major part of the day went by without us realising what we had done earlier in the day.

But it was a dinner to remember at the Kelong restaurant. It was a dinner we had planned, it was also a dinner we had heard from several other Bintan-goers - a must-try! We arrived at the restaurant, transport made easily by the hotel shuttle service, with a hearty appetite. From word-of-mouth, we knew the Kelong served quite a spread of seafood at quite a price too. Seated at the table with the menu, we decided to go with the set menu for three (the easy way out since we were always taking ages to make our choices).

Here are our menu for the day in pictures:

 

  

 

Braised sharkfin soup (lovely!), roasted chicken, sotong with chilli, black pepper crab (the best!), butter prawns, kailan veggies (really crisp and juicy!) and fruit platter.

The best picture to conclude our gratifying dinner at the Kelong:

Freezing in the pools

21 December 2008, 4.00pm

If you did your research on the hotel like what we did, one must not miss the the infinity pool and jacuzzi pools at the resort. That was one single thing that we couldn't experience back home.... being under the sky, near the sea and in the pool at the same time. It was definitely worth the view.

 

So the very first thing we did at the hotel was to take a plunge in the pools. Everyone was in their bikinis and ready for the sun but it all wind and cold brushing against our shivering bodies. It was cold!

One good reason why we should learn how to swim: the edge of the infinity pool where one can catch the gorgeous view of the sea while being in the pool is 1.8m deep so either grow your limbs or learn swimming!

So soak in the sun? Not really. More like shiver in the cold. We were scrambling for some warmth in the room as we waited to take turns to shower after the dip. And trust me, the missies took a really long time in the shower! You don't want to be left in the air-conditioned room in your wet skin any second longer. We assured you that we switched off all fans and air-conditioned but it was still freezing.

Bintan... the chalet style

21 December 2008, 1.00pm

A 15-minute ride into the north-western part of the island brought us into a private area of the island called the Nirwana Gardens. This is where all the Nirwana resorts and the restaurants and bars owned by the same group are located. It took us quite some time to realise we were in fact ''trapped" in this adequately planned enclosure for the tourists throughout our stay.

Stepping into our hotel, it was a little disappointing that we weren't in time for the welcome ceremony with traditional drums and dance but nevertheless, we were served the welcome drink... if a welcome drink on a beach resort conjures up the image of a bright-coloured cocktail with fruit garnishes and a cocktail umbrella, you'll be surprised to know that the welcome drink was nothing more than a dark ginger tea (those you normally drink before/after a spa). Traditional indeed.

We headed for the reception counter to do our check-in and were glad to know that we were able to get a room 2-hour earlier than the check-in time. My friend was even sharp to notice that the room key didn't tally with the room number that was assigned to us on paper. Not that it made a big difference though but we would better play safe than be sorry later if we had to pay for the incidental charges from a room we didn't stay in.

That aside, we were already eager to schedule our spa treatments so we did our asking. The polite hotel staff did show us to this guy in the souvenir shop to make our spa booking at Pasar Oleh Oleh... but SGD 75 doesn't sound very attractive, ain't it? So we too politely excused ourselves to settle into our room first.

Having drawn out our very own itinerary prior to the trip (to make sure we have each hour fully occupied), we had 2 more hours on hand left to explore the surroundings. Our room being assigned on the first floor, the passage-way reeked of damp wood or the smell as though you had opened an old wardrobe that you hadn't opened in a long time. It was also not the most well-lit place in the resort.

I was sure noone else's room door creaked quite like ours as our door always let out such a loud squeaking sound as we pushed the door. Enter the room and you would imagine yourself quite like in the chalet back home at downtowneast.

Except the fact that the fridge and wall lamp weren't working, we didn't have anything to complain. We had a chamber-boy to put in the third single bed in our room. We tried speaking to him but it was a half-futile attempt as we doubted if he even understood half of what we had said.

Welcome to Bintan!

21 Dec 2008, 12.00pm (Bintan time)

An hour lullaby of bumps and rocks on the sea finally brought us to the idle island. As the sight of blue waters and palm trees came into view, we were convinced this was going to be a pleasant trip... if not exciting.

As we waited in the queue impatiently to get out of the legal formalities the soonest possible, we were joined in by many other SG islanders... families and friends alike, all looking ready to soak in the sun!

In the arrival hall, we were greeted by smiles from hotel staff who came from the several resorts and hotels. We were quickly identified by the orange-uniformed staff from Nirwana Gardens - and they made a slip right at the beginning; by classifying me as a Mister instead of a Miss on their guest list! I immediately made a point for correction, of course! - we were then escorted to the hotel coach and settled in with many other tourists alike!

The trail to the hotel was not any fascinating as the island had suggested to us... a one-way grey path crossing through the lush greenery and distracting cable lines with odd-looking ball shapes hanging from above... "Are these cable cars?" one of my girl friends asked. Seriously, I doubt so.

One-hour ferry

As though I had a strange pleasure travelling by sea (which in fact, I don't), my second time travelling was an hour ride by sea.

It was my first time to depart by our local ferry terminal and it was an eye-opener to see how advanced the facilities are at the immigration at the terminal. We couldn't even beat the uncles, seemingly the frequent passengers (frequent-goers to Batam?), who even offered advice to 'newbies' like us on how to use the self-service immigration counters. We were grateful if not for their help, for sending us in a state of frenzy to hurry through the gates.

Voilà, my very first backpack holiday with two friends to a not-so-fascinating destination... setting off with mixed feelings, like excited girls thrilled at the thought of going away for a holiday with two girl friends but not so excited about where we were heading to.

Sixty minutes on a rocky ferry ride... which the captain had forewarned, "... in a few moments, you'll be screaming" (or at least it was what two of us had made out of his mumbling voice). Luckily for us, there weren't any screaming (thanks to my prior experience at Macau, this was certainly nothing compared to that). But to those with seasick tendancies, we wouldn't promise a bump-free journey for there were those who really made full use of the plastic bags available on board.

Finally, after 3 years!

I wished I could have travelled more in the past few years but indeed, I didn't. Finally it pops up this once-in-3 years-affair or opportunity to take a breather out of sunny, or rather the rainy homeland in december. I swore that I'd wanted to go Hong Kong this time, if not for the soaring prices and last-minute planning, I could have made it. Well, I can always save it for next year. Hopefully.

So this december, my destination for a 3D2N getaway was: Bintan.