Back from Bintan
25 December 2005 8:36 pm
I'm back from the Bintan trip. It was a great opportunity for the family to bond. We had a lot of fun.
The ferry ride to the island was a little choppy, and Nu threw up five minutes before we arrived. (It was the nasi lemak that did it. Moral of the story: never eat a heavy meal while on a sea vessel.) Ifa the baby fortunately slept through the 45-minute journey.
We were blessed with decent weather. The sun wasn't strong, but at least it didn't pour, so we got our day at the swimming pool and the beach. It was especially nice to see everyone, swimmer and non-swimmer alike, enjoying themselves at the beach, either sandcastling, taking pictures, kayaking, sitting on the sand waiting for the waves to crash, swimming or having sand fights. I like the beaches in Bintan, particularly the beach along Mana Mana Beach Club and Mayang Sari Beach Resort, which was where we went. The water is clean and clear and the sand is soft, two ingredients sorely missing on Singapore beaches except for the man-made ones on Sentosa Island, and even those can only boast one (soft sand) and not the other. Some people think that Bintan is overrated. Nothing to do there, they complain. I think it depends on what you're looking for. If you go to a beach resort and expect good shopping, you're going to be disappointed. Yes, I suppose in Bali you get the beach and good shopping, but then it's not 45 minutes away and it costs twice as much to go there. So, expectations must be managed. I personally think that Bintan's accessibility and good beaches are enough reasons to go there.
Since we arrived on Christmas Eve, we would have had to pay $40++ each to attend the Christmas Eve dinner at the hotel restaurant (no a la carte option that night). Fortunately we were clever enough to venture out of the resort to the souvenir market, Pasar Oleh Oleh, in the evening. POO is unabashedly a tourist trap, made up of shops selling uninteresting and inauthentic commercialised souvenirs - the stuff you've seen in practically all beach resorts. Its saving grace, at least for us that evening, is the seafood restaurant. The set menu for four persons - two of us, Brother K1 and Nu, decided to have an early night at the hotel - consisted of five entrees and only cost a very wallet-friendly $50 total! It was a good meal too. I'll make it a point to dine there again the next time I go to Bintan.
This morning after breakfast Ifa went swimming again and the rest of us played table tennis. Brother K1 is a CLOWN. He tried all kinds of silly strokes that sent the ping pong ball flying all over the place. It was hilarious. He clowned around again when we played pool afterwards. I think that boy - in fact, young man, since he's 21 - never outgrew the hyperactive child stage. He's just better at hiding it now. :-) Mother actually tried playing table tennis and pool. She's better at the former than the latter, but only relatively speaking, heh heh heh.
Only one unpleasant thing happened: my Olympus Mju film camera and Sister Y's Olympus C-300 digital camera both jammed. It must have been the water splashing onto the cameras that did it, although my camera is supposed to be weather-proof. It's probably just old, by camera years. I've had it since 2001. Good thing K just bought a digital camera. Once we're married, it's my camera too. :-D
Another family gathering is scheduled on Hari Raya Haji. Sister Y managed to book a chalet in Changi. Looking forward to it. Now I'm going to chill out in front of the TV.
Older entries
Ramadan - 08 October 2006
Where I Have Been - 03 October 2006
Baby Talk - 10 August 2006
6 Weeks of Separation - 16 July 2006
Unacceptable Rudeness - 21 June 2006