Bintan Agro

The journey is longer than expected. The ferry ride took us 1hr and 50mins and the waiting has spent us more than 3hrs. Our city tour starts from the ferry terminal and our guide, Jeffery, took us around the local shopping centre. Together with our group are 3 NTU students and we shared a 12 seater mini-bus transport.

Lunch is catered at a local restaurant with the menu pre-selected by our tour guide. This place is quiet as we are the only table of customers in the restaurant. I would expect our resort to be similar as batam, to be as quiet as a private beach all to ourselves. I am surprised that there are so many good foods under the package. In a single sitting, there are kangkong, steam fish, cereal prawns, chilli crab, seafood soup and gonggong.
Before we get to the resort, I asked Jeffery to possibility drive us to a nearby bakery shop for getting a birthday cake. Jeffery says that he will arrange the cakes to be delivered into our room.

As we have reached the resort late, we are not able to follow our itinerary as planned. After the birthday celebration, we moved on to the oceanic spa and selected the 1.5hr lavender scent traditional massage. Subsequently, we bathe and walk to the renowned Sun Moon Restaurant. Once again, the table has been reserved with the dishes pre-arranged. This time, the food given were sweet and sour chicken, calamari, mixed vegetable with fish, corn soup and another combined dish.

We sit by the sea-side for a short chat and sing a few songs together before return to the room for a long-and-almost-never-ending UNO card game.

The following day, we have scheduled the meet at 5.00am in the morning for the sunrise. The day in Bintan starts early and by 6.00am in the morning, the sky is already bright and clear.

We went for the buffet breakfast before we took 0.5hrs from our agenda to go for a swim/ water soaking. Without proper goggles, I have got myself a bump at the forehead, as I have no idea that I have reached the edge of the other side of the pool.

As we proceed to our water activities, the island hopping to the White Sand Island, we have been recommended to take up the combined trial package with the 4 activities for 3hours at $30. Due to time constraint, we could only go for one activity that is to the White Sand Island. The speed boat ride is extremely bumpy, as we are speeding against the wind; the experience is more than exciting.

Back to the resort, we went to swim at another pool. Since we are the only ones in the pool, probably no one else would care if we brought rubber duckies along.

We continued our swimming until it is time for us to pack and return. As our Ferry departs at 2.00pm, we were told to board the shuttle bus at 12.30pm so that we can board the Ferry on time. The journey home is long and tiring, the bus ride is almost an hour, and the boat ride takes two hours. I was a little stressed out by the return ferry, as the water is choppy and the cold wind is indicating that there is rain in Singapore. This means that it is unsafe for us to stay at the unsheltered top of the ferry, without any safety gears, and the movement makes it difficult for us to walk back to our seats.

Surprises in the trip:
* We have celebrated Gernice’s birthday in the kids’ party way. Since we are in a resort similar to chalet type, we are able to hang birthday decorations and filled the room with balloons.
* The four of us all be wearing the Little Miss tees – Giggles,
* My ex-boss appears in the same resort!!

* Visited a majestic Buddhist temple, newly built, magnificent and peaceful.