Resort Retreat

The exams had just ended and it was time to relax....

Day 1 (10 Dec'07)

Waking up early in the morning just to reach the ferry terminal early. After checking in, getting our tickets, eating breakfast, we boarded the ferry..

Boarding pass::The gate
Onboard::Reaching soon
The ride was filled with sounds of people vomiting, especially the two women sitting behind me who made so much nauseating noise.

Anyway, the 1-hour bouncing ride was soon over and we were on Bintan!

We were welcomed::Welcoming dance at resort
The welcoming drink::The resort lobby
A bus transfer from the ferry terminal to our resort was provided and upon reaching, we were greeted by Indonesian traditional dance and music. Ha, made us like VIPs.

Next, we rode on buggy to our villa!

The exterior::Living room
Bedroom::Kitchen::Toilet
With just 5 of us, the 2-storey villa was too big for us. There are 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and completed with everything else.

Despite a rainy day, we still had to go out and explore a bit. So we took a bus to Pasar Oleh Oleh where it is said to be a market place and shopping area. Once there, we settled our lunch first, though only at 4pm Singapore time (Bintan is 1 hour behind). The food wasn't that bad and expensive actually.

The resort's pool::The gloomy sky and beach
The restaurant which we had our lunch::Black-pepper chicken and fried noodle
Next, we wandered around but nothing much to buy. There were a lot of fake goods though.

With the signage::The shops with Indonesian flavour
New, modern area
So we went back resort at 6pm+, were so tired that we slept for about 2 hours before going our for dinner again at 9pm. We decided to indulge ourselves....

At Kelong Restaurant::Frosty-cold beer::Black-pepper crab
So many dishes::The receipt::Cheers
There were soup, prawns, fish, crab, scallops, chicken, fried noodle etc. Yeah, and the meal added up close to 1 million rupiah!

It was still raining then, so we went back to resort, washed-up and watched a movie till 2am++. There were times when the lighnting caused the whole villa to black-out which was quite scary.


Day 2 (11 Dec'07)

Buffet breakfast in the morning and the weather was very good after a day of rain previously. So we got to the pool shortly after and basically just relaxing, swimming and sunbathing and went to the beach....

My breakfast::Table of food
The pool::Sun tanning
The trees::The waves and beach
Sandcastle by DQ (the small one, but is big in real life)::Anyhow sandcastle that is actually very small::ZW's sandcastle (looks big but nothing taller than 10cm in real life)
My creation of river, gorge, valleys::The cliff
The valley
The creations looked big but in fact, they were no taller than 5 - 10cm. It's all camera trick. Ha.

After some childish fun at the beach, we were back to the pool. But we were getting sun-burnt after staying for about 3 hours, so we left shortly.

Idyllic haven::Lying down
The sky and very-tall coconut trees (the view when lying down)::Darken

It's back to sleeping time at the resort and also playing games on ZW's laptop. Somehow, it was easy to feel sleepy when there, don't know why.

Anyway, our resort package comes with a BBQ dinner. And we didnt know they prepared so much for us. Possibly 8 people's portion when there were only 5 of us....

The spread of cooked food::The pit outside our villa
BBQ-ing fish, sotong and chicken wings::Chicken wings
At first, i thought there were only beef steaks, fried rice and vegetables since when i checked in, that was what the receptionist told me. In the end, we even had otah, chicken wings, fish, sotong, baked potatoes, sausages, salad, fruits and all sorts of accompanying sauces. We definitely couldnt finish and had to throw away full plates of rice and vegetables away...

Movie again at midnight but were too sleepy to watch it fully awake... Ha.


Day 3 (12 Dec'07)

Leaving on this day. After the breakfast buffet, we checked out of the resort and went to the ferry terminal to shop since there is a factory outlet...

Outside our villa::In front of the outlet
One last picture::Back to Singapore
The factory outlet wasnt that big but still has several branded stuffs which im not too sure if they are real or fake. Imagine Hugo Boss, Giorgio Armani blazer jackets at only S$30++ when in Singapore's boutiques, they can be at S$1000+. But still, i bought 1 t-shirt, 1 polo tee and 1 bermudas which cost S$30+ total. Ha.

With that, we boarded our ferry back to Singapore, and this time, it was much smoother, less 'bouncy' but took longer.

And bought Absolut Disco at DFS at the Ferry terminal

To sum up, it was much like going to a chalet, albeit in a different country. Fortunately there was still 1 sunny day among the 3 days and had the chance to sun-tan a bit.

And it was all about food and more food for this trip.