Bintan Trip (28-29 March 09)
Being 21 is probably the best thing that has happened to me. It gave me all the freedom I've always wanted and allows me to travel out of the country. It was a last minute decision. He only made the booking on the week itself . But I like spontaneity :) All my life, I have dreamt of visiting beaches. Hence, we decided upon Bintan.
I woke up like super doper early on sat morning in order to meet him at 7.15am at Bedok bus interchange, where we had arranaged to meet and then take a ferry to the Tanah Marah Ferry Terminal. I practically swallowed two eggs in my rush to get out of the house to avoid being late (See how I can't wait to see you XP). My moods were immediately lifted the moment I stepped out of the house in the cool morning breeze. I met him there, then we took a bus to the Ferry Terminal, and we got worried that we would be late and missed the 1.5 hr departure check-in time. We were slightly late but timing was exaggerated to avoid any "mishaps". We still had about 30-40 mins to spare so we went to Kiliney to have our breakfast of french toast and kaya toast. Simple but sweet :) It was there we filled in our arrival card and then queued for the extremely long queue to get into the ferry and off we were!!!!
My dear commented that my wings were out and I could fly now :) An hour later and after adjusting our clocks to one hour behind, we arrived at Bintan Indonesia!!! We then took the shuttle bus provided from the arrival place to Nirwana Beach Club, where we would be staying for the night.
As we arrived earlier than our check-in time of 3pm, we couldn't check in unless people checked out by 12pm. So meanwhile we enquired and researched upon our iternaries and decided upon the mangrove swamp visit for the afternoon (which we got the reception to make arrangements for us). We also considered shooting or ktv if we have time in the evening and the Heritage Tour the next day, which will take up the entire day and lead us out of the the resort.
As we were still waiting to check-in, we went for the walk by the pristine beach in the blazing hot sun. I've never felt so relaxed in my whole life. I never knew I could feel this way, away in a foreign land with my loved one, away from all of my troubles. Then, we chanced upon a nice nesting spot by one of the insects-themed cabins and I laid on the hammock there to get a little tan.
I got really tanned and slightly red after the less then 30 mins tan. Then we made our way back to the reception where we thought we could check-in already. But the room still wasn't ready and our driver, Edy, has arrived. So we decided to go out first, then come back to check-in later. Edy dropped us at Pasar Oleh Oleh for lunch, where we had their local delights such as their traditional chicken rice and their oxtail stew (according to dear). I didn't find the food particularly appealing. The Indonesia chicken rice dish was too dry and the side vegetables were too raw(apparently they weren't cooked, which I only realised much later). And while we were about to finish our lunch, it started raining, which ruined our plans for the visit to the mangrove swamp. We almost thought of not going or maybe postphoning it a little later, from 3pm to 5pm.
But since our driver already arrived, we went ahead with the mangrove swamp thingy. The mangrove guide spoke english, which is a good thing. I'm actually quite doubtful we would be able to see anything after the rain. We are supposed to see the following:
We took a boat to the mangrove and I learnt from the guide that large snakes such as cobras and pythons and the like sleep in the morning (they are almost blind) and are only active (and thus dangerous) at night, hence allowing us to be able to view them up close without being in danger. The guide said that large snakes are in fact very common in the swamps and you can sometimes see them coiling just around the branch in front of you. However, we didn't manage to see any large snakes right in front of us. We didn't even managed to see any snakes in the main river, as the rain must have drove them down into the waters. It was only after searching the second river, that we managed to see these:
They were coiled far up upon the branches of tall trees and they were just medium size (not huge as expected), which was kinda disappointing. We also didn't managed to see any monkeys. If we had came before lunch (before the rain started), there were apparently lots of large snakes and monkeys around, instead of what we were staring blankly at now. Oh well what luck!
But he did mentioned something about the snakes which I found meaningful. The strength of the snakes lies in their tails, instead of their heads. If you snap off their tails, you will render them harmless. If this doesn't make sense, liken it to our fist. When we try to form a grip using our little finger, excluding the thumb, you will realise how firm your grip is. Try to grip it the other way with your big thumb, excluding your little finger, you will realise how weak your grip actually is. Simple but meaningful :)
And we saw the 'pong pong' sea apple tree, which was supposedly the tree Eve took the poison apple from in the Garden of Eden. It looks like this:
And the charcoal kiln whereby old seaboat people used to transport charcoal over trechaerous oceans in order to sell them to other countires to buy valuable raw materials (Was it rice?). My guide happens to be one of the seaboat people and he apparently has some connections with some foreign athletics or something, which i forgot -_-
The trip was kinda disappointing because of the lack of sights. He was very disappointed. I could tell from the look on his face. The guide felt bad too but then again we questioned the sincerity because being in this line for so long, they should be able to tell when the animals would go into hiding (that is after the rain) and warn us about it, giving us the option to back out of it. But probably both the driver the guide wanted to earn some money out of it (I don't blame them). But the visit felt like a rip-off, $38 per head for seeing 2 snakes? And we tipped the guide $10 afterwards -_-
Anyways, Edy drove us back to Nirwana Beach Club after that, where we could finally check-in and have some rest.
We skipped our shooting plans since it's already late. After which we showered and caught part of an episode of the "MARS" show (can't remember its chinese title), and then went out for supper by the club's bar, where we chilled and listened to their live band and their "gay" Indonesian male dancers danced. We even dedicated the song "The Reason" by Hoobastank and the guy who sang it was not bad.
Next day, we woke up late for breakfast because lazy piggy was still lazing about in bed. We had breakfast American style:
I love eggs so I ordered a omelette with ham and mushrooms fillings and a sunny side up for him. It came as a smiley face.. how cute :) He drew that smile though.. After that we took some pictures along the beach for remembrance, checked-out and left the Bintan resorts.
We then headed for Tanjung Pinang where we visited temples (one of which was hundred of years old), mosque (I didn't go in cos I was wearing shorts), graves, cultural centre and an exhilarating detour about a broken bridge. I pretty much didn't understand much for the rest of the day as the guide didn't speak English. He communicated with dear through Malay. I can only rely on him to translate it for me and even then it was limited, which made me realised the importance of learning the local language of the country you are travelling to, else you will be lost like me.
After which, we went to shop for some snacks and then went for a late seafood lunch cum tea. Tanjung Pinang is said to have the best seafood, so we tried and the verdict is: it is good! We had the crab steamed and it was yummylicious.. Though I had a minor accident; I got sliced by the crab pincer across my right thumb due to my clumsiness. I have no idea why I decided to pry the pincer open with my bare hands when they have the tool provided (silly me). Oh and did i mentioned that while we were having our meal, half the time we were busy swatting big fat houseflies. Even though the waitress had helped to light up the lights (I didn't know houseflies are afraid of heat) by the side of the tables, it helped, but not for long. The houseflies were very persistent and so were we in swatting them ;)
When we are finally done with our super duper long lunch (we had Edy waiting outside for a very long time), we went to the hypermart and got some goceries. There wasn't really much to shop at there. At the end of roughly an hour, we head back to the car for a long ride back to the Ferry Terminal.
That's the end of this wonderful trip. I will definitely remember these 2 days of my life (the best days of my life). Thanks baby for making this happen and granting me one of my very first life wishes. You bring me such joy I simply can't quantify it. Spending 24 hrs a day with you is simply amazing. Everything else at this point in my life pales in comparison.