A trip that I was looking foward to very much and boy, did I enjoy every minute of our stay in the rustic resort. Wish the stay could have been longer though, but well, its a good experience and I hope that we'll be back there again some time. (Not forgetting that the trip was also part of D's birthday celebration too!)
This is probably the first time I have gone on a trip without any involvement in the planning. The only things we knew was that we were going on a trip to Bintan and what time we had to board the ferry and that was it!
Had many questions before the trip... Where were we staying at? How did the place look like? Facilities? Toilets? Water? Towels? Ha... all we were told was that the place was rustic. Hrm... That wasn't very helpful and we began thinking thoughts of small wooden huts along some deserted beach. Oh, would we be feeding the mosquitoes there then?
Anyways, Friday morning, we boarded the ferry from Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal (after getting our tickets that were pre-booked for us) and were on our way. It was pretty exciting not really knowing exactly which part of Bintan we were supposed to be putting up at. I just knew that someone called Iskandar would meet us there when we arrived. Ooh...exciting.... D said it was like being on Amazing Race. Haha!
Just as the ferry pulled into Tanjong Pinang Ferry Terminal I got an SMS from Iskandar. It said he was waiting for us at the terminal exit and he was in a yellow T-shirt... and our 'Amazing Race' continues to unfold...
Iskandar turned out to be a nice guy who spoke rather good english. He told us that a vehicle had been arranged for us to take us to our 'rustic stay'. Clue: The resort was in an area called Trikora. He also arranged our homeward bound tickets for us before walking us to our driver who would get us to our stay. What good service!
Now, here's a bit about driving and traffic on Bintan...
1. Only the rider on a motorbike needs a helmet
2. Motorbikes are the perfect transport for a family of 3 (1 helmet still!)
3. You may ride you bike on the center of the road with your family of 3 on it
4. You can get around without a side view mirror
5. There's no need to speed up when overtaking traffic on single lane roads (even if oncoming traffic is approaching ahead!)
After our eye-opening drive of about 45 minutes, passing severals famlies of 3 on their rickety motorbikes, rustic villages, tress and more trees and plots of empty lands, we arrive at our destination: Trikora, Guridam Resort!
Lovely place! We were amazed when we were shown to small chalets that were built on high stilts out above the sea!
Roamed around the resort after lunch, played a few rounds of pool, then headed out and took a walk along the beach at evening time when the low tide was far out. It was real nice and peaceful to just stroll along together. Its so quiet that when you stopped and listened, you could hear the sounds of many small crabs digging in the damp sea bed! D thought that sound was creepy! heehee... When it started to get dark, we headed back for our BBQ dinner which we had ordered earlier. Yummy!!
Karen and co arrived with D's birthday cake! Birthday celebration in Bintan with cake from Singapore! Wow! How often do you get that?! After cake and chats, D found a fishing instructor a.k.a Jason and tried his hand at fishing. Patience paid off after one failed attempt and he did get a fish that night! But the poor fishy had to endure with some hard knocks though :S
The next morning, we went out to sea for more fishing and to take a look at an island opposite Trikora which we heard was rather nice! How exciting! I think I was the first to wake up as I wanted to catch the sunrise. It seemed like it was going to rain but luckily the clouds cleared up and the sun was soon beaming! So I grabbed the great chance for a quick tan outside the room before the rest of the bunch woke up for breakfast.
Breakfast was a quick one as we were all eager to set out on our boat trip. We piled all the equipment and people into the boat and were our way. The views were superbly breathtaking! The waters were clear and blue. We had to decide if we wanted to stop over on the beach or head out for fishing as there wasn't time for us to do both. :( We decided we'd try fishing after some thought so after leaving Karen and B off on the island (felt like they were some contestants on Survivor!!) we headed furthur out to sea to some good fishing spots to catch lunch.
Fishing was fun... Look at our catch...
Tried out several different fishing spots and soon it was time to head back to pick up the 'stranded ones'. I could not resist and had to take a fast dip into the clear blue water just as the boat pulled near the island.
After lunch, it was time for us to head back. I thought it was a great experience, although it felt a tad bit too short! Hope we'll be back again sometime!
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