Bintan, Indonesia Trip (Day 1)

24th November 2022, Thursday

Finally, traveling is more ease now but there are still many regulations while traveling to different countries. So, I booked an all-in package ($1,100) with Club Med Bintan for a 4 days short weekend gateway. This was my first trip to visit Bintan. Left house super early to go to Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal, took 1 and half hour to go from punggol. Bus 35 is also took a long wait to arrive, the frequency was like 20 mins per interval. I got confused and climbed over to the opposite side which was the wrong direction. Luckily, i realised and made the way back to the opposite direction. The bus finally came and off to the terminal. Reached the terminal around 8:45 am and went to the Bintan Resort Ferries counter to collect my ferry ticket. Then i went to find a breakfast place in the terminal. Unfortunately, there was only one small coffeeshop for breakfast. Ended up buying a hot milo ($3), 2 eggs ($2.60) and 2 plain toast ($2.50), expensive breakfast. The gate only open at 10:15 am, so there was a lot of time for me to pass.  There were also many people going to Bintan and Batam today. Later on, i passed by the Bintan Resorts Ferries counter, the queue was super long with people queueing to collect their ferries tickets. 

Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal

I went through the customs and went in to wait at the gate. There was a mini duty-free shop and a mini eating place inside. Nothing much to do but to sit around and wait for the ferry. So waited until almost 10:30 to 10:45 am before the gate was opened for boarding. At last, the gate opened and everyone scrambled to board the ferry. There were a lot of families going Bintan today and everyone was choosing the seats. I found a 2-seats on the right side of the ferry and there was some empty spacing which i could put my backpack without blocking anyone. But so unlucky, a kid was seated behind me and tended to kick my seat. Since the ferry ride's duration was 50 mins, the parents had to keep the kids entertained with some chips...

Doulos Phos The Ship Hotel

When the ferry was about the reach the dock, the ship hotel can be seen from outside. Everyone all rushed to get ready to alight the ferry. But at least the people still tried to align in an orderly manner. The Indonesia customs officers collected everyone's health declaration form and everyone walked towards to the customs counters for clearance. There was a little gal, seems to be very bad mood...kept whamming since she boarded the ferry to the time she alighted the ferry with her parents. But could see she was very active and getting naughty. After i passed the customs counters, there was another boy who was crying and just sat on the floor instead of going through the scanning gate. But of cos, when the father moved ahead, he just got up and followed crying. After that, I went to the Club Med office in the terminal. It was a very tiny office which just a small counter and 2 staffs trying to register all the guests. It was quite confusing because of the people standing outside with their luggage and making the place so crowded. So if you are going there for registration, you can just walk towards the counter and see where is the queue. If you are travelling with big group, it may be good that one representative to do the registration for everyone while the rest of the people can wait outside. 

I went for my registration and i was greeted by Miko (Welcome and Services Manager) warmly.  Pity them, they had to find through a paper name list of guests arrived today printed in tiny fonts. The registration was quite manual, so it took a while for each group. And i was given my door tag and club med map. However, there was a group of 18 people doing the registration first. So she had to scan all their passports first before she could scan mine. So i had to wait patiently for my passport to get scanned by her. After that, i exited the terminal and boarded club med bus while waiting for the rest of the people to get boarded. Once everyone boarded, the bus left to go to the resort which was 15 mins away. The club med welcome staff first greeted us and welcomed us. Next, he told us to always lock the balcony door in our room as the monkeys there already know how to open the door themselves and make their way into the room. It could be troublesome for them as the monkeys always make a mess in the room. After the announcement, there wasn't much to do on the bus until the bus arrived at the resort. 

My room's door tag

Cafe at the Ferry Terminal

The bus waited for some time at the guard house and when the bus drove into the resort's main entrance, the welcome team were welcoming us. And each one of the staffs was holding a piece of paper printed with our names to receive us. Each group was handled by a staff individually, so it was like 1 to 1 handling. The staffs would bring their own group to seat around the main lobby and started introducing the resort and providing information like what facilities do they have and what was included in the package. There was a $300 sgd security deposit which the staff charged to my credit card. The security deposit will be refunded back later when you check out from the resort on the last day. Some of the groups had their rooms ready, so they were able to proceed to their rooms. However, mine was not ready yet, so the staff told me to go the main restaurant for lunch first and proceed to the reception again at 3 pm to check on the room. 

Bar at Main Building

So i went to level 2 and went to the main restaurant for my lunch. There was many different cuisine and each counter was manned by a "chef" to prepare the dish of the day for you. There were some food which you could take on your own like buffet style. Anyway everything was included, so you can eat to your fill with the food and drinks. There were a lot of nice looking food, like gourmet standard. I tried a sea brass dish, soba, ebi curry rice and some fruits. The serving was quite nice for 1 pax but you can take as many servings as you like. The food wasn't that fantastic but was not too bad too. But i found their milo is damn sweet. After the lunch, i wandered downstairs to the poolside bar to have a look as it was still early. Then I returned to the reception and saw Miko from the registration counter at the terminal. So i checked with her if my room is ready for me. Funny thing was, the housekeeping staff was telling her that they had already informed that the room was ready since 11 am. Some more, i arrived in the resort past 12 pm but i was not given my room at tat time and i had to carry my heavy backpack around for extra 1 hour plus (Jialat). 

Anyway i was so glad that i can proceed to my room and dump my heavy bag in the room. The room was quite spacious and there was even a sofa beside the window. After resting for a while, i decided to go to the pool for a swim but i realised i actually forgot my swimming goggles. Gosh...but i just went ahead and ended up soaking in the water...hahha...only swam a little once a while...There was two pools..one pool was 1.2m and all the way to 1.6m while the other pool located below is with 1.0m and all the way to 1.7m on the other end. So i just stayed in the 1.2m side. One thing i wasn't quite happy was that there was no staff to enforce the kids to shower before going into the pool after coming from the beach. If the parents did not enforce, the pools will end up having sands inside. There was an opening space where swimmers can see out to the palm trees and beach. I tried to swim towards it but realised it was deep when i no longer can touch the ground. Then i quickly paddled myself back to 1.2m side...so scary (no confidence of swimming without my goggles). 

Rooms

 

After soaking in the pool for almost an hour, i headed back to my room for a shower and rested until it was near to dinner time. Went out to explore around the resort and tried walking the road behind the block where my room was. There were a lot of monkeys swinging around on the tall palm trees and they even climbed around the resort rooms. They could literally climb up and down from the sides and sliding down from the top to the bottom. Even saw one monkey climbing around with a pair of shorts on its mouth and other monkeys tried to snatch it from it too. There was also squirrels running around on the trees too. So i just walked back to the beach area as fast as i could (too many monkeys and getting scary).  The spa was at the end of blk D resort rooms too (but you need to make reservations at the main building's lobby and it was not included in the package).

Later I passed by the bar at the beach, saw there was bbq going on. The guests were having bbq wings and satays. Then i headed to the bar at the pool and the first world cup match of the day had already started screening on the screen. So i ordered a cocktail and sat there to watch the match. At 6 pm, the bar staffs brought out some mini snacks. So i tried the snacks as the dinner at the main restaurant will only be available from 6:30 pm onwards.

Cocktail with snacks

I found the cocktail was super sweet until i don't order any cocktails for the rest of my stay...hahaha...After this snacks, i went up to the main restaurant for dinner. The concept was the same with lunch but the dishes were different. There were some big groups where they had their designated tables for their meals. So i just tried whatever dish i feel like eating..didn't find the prata and seafood nice but the soup was not too bad. After dinner, i went back downstairs to the pool side bar to watch the football match again while waiting for the evening's performance to start in the theatre. When it was near to 8pm, most of the staffs will head to the theatre entrance and form a line on the left and right side. Whenever there were people walking towards the theatre, the staffs will start clapping like welcoming the people. Today's performance is called "Colours", a dance performance by some of the Club Med staffs. The performance is about a girl who was finding colours of happiness and sharing the happiness to everyone. There was also circus performance incorporated in the performance. It was a nice performance and the staffs did made great effort in putting the best show for the guests. At the end of the performance, all the performers were introduced one by one and they were staffs we would see during the day like the yoga instructor, or the staffs working at the reception. The host was asking everyone not to go back to the rooms after the performance as there will be a party starting at the pool side...

Mini salmon don & Soup

Acrobat part

So everyone left the theatre and headed to the pool side. Immediately the party started and the emcee brought up the atmosphere. Everyone and the staffs started to dance in front of the stage (it wasn't a big space so i just stood at the back to avoid the crowd), everyone started to have a great and fun time. The theme of the party was a tribute to the Queens, so the songs were quite 80's. There were 2 mini stages and there will be two of the staffs doing imitation of the Queens (i think). I only knew some of the songs and i was even surprised that the emcee was able to sing the chorus part in Chinese when they played "小苹果" as i think he wasn't Chinese-speaking. Anyway everyone went so high when this song was played as it was known by everyone. I left the party earlier as it was getting past 11 and i getting tired. So i walked back to my room and showered so i can rest for the day. 

Party Time!!