Sunday, June 20, 2010!
it's 5:39 pm now
ALOHA!
i'm back from bintan, and after a series of unfortunate events, i finally can squeeze some time out to compose my bintan trip! :)))
alright, i shant let the accident dampen my mood in doing anything else. what had happened already did. learnt from it and be careful next time!
day1 - 14june2010, mondaythe day started as early as 7am, alright mayb not that early for some, but it was damn early for me, especially when i got into bed like 2plus am the previous night.
prepared, packed, did some last minute checks and off we went.
got onto the cab at about 7.35am, and reached Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal at around 8am.
camwhoring lar.
checked-in, and filled up the immigration cards and we were all ready to check ourselves in! had a little bicker over the filling up of the cards as none of us has been to Indonesia. hahaha. all that we are familiar with is Malaysia's immigration cards!
settled everything, and checked ourselves to the boarding area at about 8.25am, and waited around for our ferry, which was scheduled to leave at 9.10am.
camwhored, looked around the DFS, nothing interesting over there and more camwhored. XD
the gates opened around 8.45am and found nice seats at the back in a corner. stoned, camwhored and fell asleep during the 50min ferry ride to Bintan, Indonesia.
the ferry ride took kind of long cos i kept waking up at intervals, only finding that we were still in the middle of the sea. but it wasnt long till we arrived at Bandar Bentan Telani Ferry Terminal at 9.05am (bintan time)!
we earned ourselves an hour ahead. hahahaha. and so, the following paragraphs would all be detailed in bintan time (GMT +7, which is 1hour behind singapore time).
welcome to Bintan, Indonesia!
cleared the immigration customs pretty quickly, and most of the passengers were singaporeans. you see how Bintan has become a little singapore. hahaha.
after clearing the security checks, we went to ask the person-in-charge of Nirwana Gardens if we could hang around the ferry terminal for a little while before hoping onto the shuttle bus as there is a factory outlet located just next to the ferry terminal! but the next time was only coming in an hour, and she said that there was practically nothing interesting around so we decided to catch the shuttle bus to our resort.
our shuttle bus to Nirwana Gardens! ride took us about 15minutes.
and on the left, you see trees.
on the right, you see more trees.
haha, the ride was pretty boring, luckily it was only 15minutes. if not i could have end up sleeping again.
the first stop was at Nirwana Resort Hotel, where everyone alighted. and i meant really EVERYONE. we were the only ones going to Nirwana Beach Club. hahaha. i supposed singaporeans just want to pay more to stay at a better hotel. but i have no complains over at where i stayed. it was great and cosy!
reached Nirwana Beach Club at about 11am, and we were served welcome drinks and then got our keys to the room. so before they released the keys, i
"had to sign this check in form on a table, which seemed to emanate the contract-signing image. LOL." extracted from sam. XD
Cabana room #01!
2 single beds, 1 day bed, 2 chairs, 1 mini TV, 1 mini fridge, and surprisingly, the toilet was kind of well furnished! though not hotel standard, but it was good enough for a beach club! it was way better than the toilets in Tioman. HAHA.
slacked around and occupied ourselves with Monopoly Deal - a must bring game everywhere! - cos it was raining slightly outside.
OH, did i mention that it rained 2days out of the 3 when we were there???? *grrrrrrr*so after much decision, we decided to head to Pasar Oleh Oleh. hoped onto the shuttle bus at 1.30pm and the journey took us about 15mins too.
alighted, paid $5 for the shuttle bus and went scouting around for food.
settled for Oleh Oleh Restaurant and what welcomed me was lizards! i saw one crawling behind the pillars, just 20cm away from me. and my expression tells it all. hahhaha.
the food was not too bad, and the price kinda reasonable too. $3.50 per plate, consider yourself at a tourist attraction, the price kinda cheap!
the centre of Pasar Oleh Oleh
quiet and peaceful. :)
the shops there were mostly handicrafts, batiks, EROTIC figurines (as you can see from the pictures in facebook), local foodstuffs, and POLO shops! went into almost every shops to take a look, except those spa and massage shops.
the stretch of shops across Pasar Oleh Oleh, more modern and civilised.
but they were selling the same stuffs too.
got ourselves some POLO tees at the store over there at 2 at $69! cheap cheap! :) and they were of the flag editions! i got myself a white tee with brazil flag, while sam got her black tee with great britain. :)))))
spent almost 3hours there before catching the shuttle bus back to our beach club at 5.15pm.
back at our room at 5.30pm, unpacked, took pictures of our loots and then brainstormed on where to go. we headed out to the beach for a stroll, and took lots of pictures.
beutiful coconut trees against the sunset, and a quiet and peaceful beach awaited in front of us.
took a slow stroll to Mayang Sari Beach Resort, went straight to the washrooms to wash our feet and then popped by the POLO store over there. kind of the same stuffs over there so we decided to take the shuttle bus to Nirwana Resort Centre. scouted around the place and found this store which huge collection of handicrafts upstairs. went in to walk around and saw more erotic keychains and bottle openers. hahahaha.
i guess they might be lacking in some night recreations. XDtook the shuttle bus back to our room at 8pm, showered and spent the night slacking in the room, munching on our cup noodles. hahaha, food kind of expensive over at Bintan, so always prepare instant noodles there! get your hot water from the cafes or restaurants or call room service if our room is
ATAS enough. HAHA.
day2 - 15une2010, tuesdaythe second day started past 9am. woke up and realised it was drizzling outside. washed up and then went for our breakfast at La Luna Cafe. they were having ala carte breakfast that morning, so we ordered what we wanted. the breakfast was a spread. nice yummy food! :)
i went to check out the beach in the rain after breakfast before heading back to our room to get changed. hopped onto the shuttle bus and reached Nirwana Resort Hotel past 11am. got our towels at the club house and then it was time for a swim!!!
swam, slacked, talked, gossiped and camwhored before we came out of the pool past 1pm. (ok i'm kind of lazy to type so here is an extract from sam's) then we
"wiped ourselves dry in the bathroom and then got changed before we attempted to walk back to our resort. Turns out it was just a 5 minute walk away. HAHAHA. And to think that we kept taking the shuttle bus, whose frequency was every half an hour. LOL."went back to our room to rest a bit and charge my camera and brainstormed on what to do, or whether to have lunch or not cos we were on a budget trip! hahahaha.
came out of the room at around 3pm, and found out that the skies was bright and sunny!!! so we headed out to the beach and camwhored, seize the opportunity to take lots of pictures cos who knows if the sky would rain the minute after. hahaha.
then we decided to walk back to Nirwana Resort Hotel and settled for lunch cum high tea at the Poolside Restaurant. had beef pepperoni pizza and a plate of fries. the price quoted was reasonable, like those you get in singapore.
and then it was a slow stroll at the beach along the hotel, while waiting for our food to be digested before dipping into the pool again. found ourselves nice sunbeds, but to realise that the club house ran out of towels. we thought that our swimming session would be cancelled, but not when sam went to ask and then came back with towels!! it happened that they just replenished the towels! whoopee! :)))))
perfect timing for a swim, late afternoon sun, nice resort, nice ambience, cool waters. everything was just great.
one thing that wasnt that great was that i had to run to the toilet twice cos my stomach was kind of acting up. hahaha but it was ALL GOOD. :))))
we didnt sign up for any watersports cos like i said, budget trip! haha so everything we went were either cheap, no-choice-but-to-spend, or FREE! hahahaha.
came up of the pool past 6pm, wiped dry and got dressed, and then walked back to our room. took pictures of the coconut trees,
again, and then showered, and then the rest of the night was spent slacking in the room, watching Channel 5 shows. HAHA.
day3 - 16une2010, wednesdaylast day in Bintan!!!! :(((
set our alarms at 7.30am, but didnt manage to wake up till 8.30am. hahahaha. was woken up by sam, cos i complained that it was always me to go around waking other people up. so that morning i had the luxury to sleep in a little more. hahahaha.
went for our breakfast past 9am, and this time round, they had buffet instead of ala carte! and they served more variety of food! yummy yummy!
went back to our room to change, and then went to the front desk to enquire on the buggy services. it turned out that we have to rent it at Nirwana Resort Hotel, so we ended up taking the shuttle bus to Nirwana Resort Hotel, to only find out that the earliest time slot for the buggy was at 2.30pm. :(( couldnt make it cos we had to catch the shuttle bus back to the ferry terminal at 1.15pm.
disappointed, so we headed to the POLO store again and we finally succumbed to the temptation and got ourselves POLO tees again! hahaha. this time round, i got myself a black tee with USA, and sam got herself a navy tee with russia flag.
went back to our room, showered and then did some packing before we checked out at 1pm. caught the shuttle bus at 1.15pm to Bandar Bentan Telani Ferry Terminal. then went to check out the POLO store at the terminal, then walked over to the Real Bandung Factory Outlet.
the factory outlet wasnt anything fantastic, went around the outlet and nothing really caught my eye. finished my rounds in less than 20minutes, and found out that we got about 2hours to waste. hahaha, our ferry was scheduled at 4.35pm. so, went around the outlet again and looked at every rack. in the end, i got myself one pair of boxers at $4 and an Esprit tee for $11. :))))
went back to the ferry terminal and slacked at the one and only food store. had our lunch, played Monopoly Deal and camwhored.
our POLO tees!
it was around 3.20pm when the crowd came in, and as kiasu singaporeans, we joined in the queue to go into the immigration. hahaha. cleared the immigration at about 3.40pm, and sat around the boarding area for the ferry.
got onto the ferry at about 4.15pm, and got ourselves nice and cosy seats at the back in a corner again. same corner to be exact. but this time round, the ferry was much much more posh. :)
played a round of Monopoly Deal and then ended sleeping my way through. and surprisingly, the journey back was much faster than i expected. hahaha. i jumped up once the ferry switches off its engine. hahaha. and as a result, my sudden movement woke sam up too. hahaha.
got off the ferry, cleared the immigrations, popped by DFS and then it was HOME SWEET HOME. nothing beats my own cosy bed. XD
though it rained for 2days, but the trip was awesomely blossom. :))))
