bintan bums

Pak and I had planned a mini-holiday within a holiday during my trip this time around. Being ever ambitious, we wanted to venture overseas to Taipei or Bangkok for 2 days whilst I was in Singapore. Obviously, that did not pan out very well, since I only took 10 days off, of which 40 hours was spent on the plane to and from New York. Since we weren’t going to stoop so low as to take the cable car across to Sentosa and call it a day, it was decided that we go somewhere closer instead. Somewhere like Batam…

Nah, I’ll leave Batam for the ah peks… In the end, we went to Bintan for 2 nights and on a somewhat damp Thursday morning, we left Singapore via the Tanah Merry ferry terminal. The holiday literally took off with a rocky start. If you thought it was romantic traveling on the sea to our getaway, I am sorry to say that the Straits of Singapore wasn’t being very cooperative, and our stomach churned while the boat rocked vigorously with the murky waters. Thank God Bintan is an hour and not 2 or even worse, 3 hours away.

Luckily, Bintan, or rather, the resorts in Bintan did not disappoint. Being accustomed to the poorly maintained chalets in East Coast and Desaru, I was pretty apprehensive about staying in one of them in Bintan. Luckily all the worries I had about the chalets (Mayang Sari, in Nirwana Resorts) were unfounded. They were clean, smelt fresh and came as close to the pristine private beach as they had advertised. I only realized how silly I was post-trip to have such low expectations. The resort was run by a Singaporean company after all, and given the appreciably higher price point, I obviously shouldn’t have expected NTUC Income Pasir Ris or Costa Sands treatment. I decide that I like Mayang Sari, especially Seahorse 2!


Luckily, the grey skies had also cleared up by then and stayed sunny the whole time we were in Bintan. That obviously meant plenty of time under the sun nursing our tans. Tanning is really not for me, although Pak found it a lot more to his taste. I would rather spend time in the sea or just doing something more productive rather than lying on the beach chair, where the weather is too scorching hot to think, read or make conversation, and all you can do is vigorously rub sun lotion and flip yourself every 20 minutes to ensure tan evenness. Still, I can’t say I’m not happy with browner forearms and standing out from New Yorkers pale from being overexposed to artificial lighting. Haha…
Well, on Saturday, we were both very sad to leave the island and the idyllic lifestyle we have enjoyed for 2 short days, and even more terrified of confronting the open seas on the ferry journey home. Luckily it was a much smoother ride and we were distracted watching Li Jiawei trash her opponents in the table tennis semis at the Commonwealth games on the big television onboard… Being a beach bum was great, and Bintan was much nicer than I had expected. I think I can easily stomach a second trip there, and when I go back next time, I will try to make it to Tanjung Pinang to a certain shoe butik my friend’s dad owns =)


P.S.: What else did we do? Oh, I initiated Pak to the rituals of massage at the spa in the resort. We got a tour of an outdoor pavilion where couples can get massages side by side and enjoy a soak in an oversized tub together. According to the spa employee, the pavilion is extremely conducive for couples to get in touch with their emotional and spiritual sides, or just get frisky… haha… We didn’t find the prospect of lying flat on our stomachs together while masseuses pound on our bodies very romantic so we opted out. We also valued being indoors, where it was air-conditioned… call me spoilt, I need a/c all the time.

Besides tanning and spa, we also:
rode a golf buggy to dinner
took walks along the beach and counted stars
played/got trashed at pool (Ruoxi)
swam in the pool
drank beer
ate
and ate

Food was bad, but what can you expect, coming from a hotel… It was so bad at breakfast time that the best bet (with the hotel package, thank goodness) was usually cereal with milk =) It was also infuriatingly overpriced in general, but again, what can you expect coming from a hotel, a Singapore-run one too… The Sumatra-themed buffet was nothing to shout about as well, except for the nice ox-tail like soup. =) We had a slightly better meal however at the Kelong restaurant, which was a Chinese seafood restaurant in a faux kelong on stilts. The food was simple but decent and we had an intriguing homemade ice-cream dessert. Intriguing because I don’t believe they would make ice-cream on their premises, but I had to believe it was homemade because it didn’t taste like anything I’ve ever had before=).

There it is.. homemade or not? You be the judge...