Last Day in Bintan (Day 4)

 27th November 2022, Sunday

Today is the last day of my short gateway and have to go back to reality again. Woke up around 6 am and prepared to go for breakfast. Was thinking what to do after breakfast as the checkout time was 11 am. In additional, i still can stay around and use the facilities in the resort until the pick up time to leave the resort. The weather was very gloomy and could see very thick dark clouds up in the sky. I also noticed there was a cocktail session today at 11 am, so i went to the reception to enquiry where can i sign up for it. The staff informed i could enrol for it at the poolside bar at 9 am. So i went to the main restaurant for breakfast first. There was nothing much special today, so i took the same food i ate yesterday. While i was still eating, the rain came and there was strong wind. After eating, there was still about an hour to 9 am. So i went to sit at the bar at the main building and could see the lightings flashing with thunder sounds.

Breakfast

Main Reception

I just sat around until about 9 am and went down to the poolside bar to enrol for the cocktail session later. After that, i just went back to my room to rest (just sat by the windows and watched people doing aerial yoga) till about 10:30 am. After that, i left the room and walked to the reception to do the check-out. After that, i went down to the pool side bar and there were already snacks available which i went ahead and had some. There were 3 small tables setup at the back of the corner and i went over wondering if it was for the cocktail session. Luckily it was and there were another 3 groups with kids joining too. The bartender gave a brief introduction of herself and a short introduction of the tools used by a bartender to mix any cocktails drinks. She had prepared the ingredients for a particular cocktail for us in this session. So the ratio was all the same, only difference was those with kids has no rum given. The white color liquid was personally mixed by the bartender and consisted of coconut as the base. It is for sweeting the drink, so you can add as little or as much as you prefer. The blue liquid was for the colouring and the last liquid is rum. So the bartender guided us through on how to mix the liquids and ice together. I added only 1/3 of the given rum but i had poured all the white liquid into the mixture. After mixing, we can drink our own cocktail. Boy, it was soooo damn sweet and i can't even taste the rum...😅

Cocktail Tools

Finished Product!!

After playing with the cocktail, I stayed on in the pool side bar to have some snacks as the staffs were cooking satays and sausages. There was also fruits available. By then, the aqua gym had already started for today and the people were having water polo games too. At the end of the exercise, some of the sports team staffs also came by and began to dance around the pool. There were also some foreigners being sporty and started to dance while the music played on. I stayed for quite some time there since there wasn't much left to do. 2 of the massage staffs were also giving a 5 mins trial as part of their promotions to get people to sign up for their massage packages. So i went over and was treated a short massage on the shoulders. It was quite shiok...hahaa.....

Satays

Water Polo game

When it was around noon, i went up to the main restaurant for my last lunch there. I just ate a little and i wasn't very hungry. There was still about an hour left before the bus comes, so i walked around the resort again. Later on, i went up to the reception and collected my ferry boarding pass from the staffs there (which was great, don't have to collect from the ferry terminal). The bus came around 2 pm and everyone started to board the bus. While boarding, the resort's staffs were at the entrance bidding goodbye to all the guests leaving.  And we were off to the ferry terminal. There was nothing much there except a few mini shops selling some souvenirs for tourists to buy. I saw there were some people already starting to queue at the gate and it was only like 3:00 pm (Ferry was 4:30 pm)!! But still, i joined in the queue as there was nothing to shop. And slowly, the others started to join the queue and a line was formed quickly. The kid who was throwing temper when he arrived on the first day as me was in front of me. Same thing again, he was being naughty and throwing temper on and off while the parents queued. Think we waited till 4 pm and the gate opened for people to go in. Another queue was formed quickly inside the gate to the ferry too. It was another 15 or 20 mins wait inside before we could board the ferry. After that, it was just ferry back to Singapore which I reached about 6 plus or 7 pm. 

Laksa

Bintan Ferry Terminal

And this marked the end of my Bintan Trip of year 2022.

Bintan, Indonesia Trip (Day 3)

 26th November 2022, Saturday

Woke up around 6 plus and headed out for quick walk before breakfast in the main restaurant. The food was quite the same as yesterday with some different varieties today. After breakfast, i headed to the reception and waited for the power walk (activity by the resort) to start at 8:30 am. So when the time reached, the instructor was already waiting near the entrance. He was Logan, the south korean guy and quite handsome...hehee...Apparently, i was the only one who participated. So we walked out of the resort and the target was to reach the first power station outside the road (which was like 2 km plus away) in 30 mins (back n fro). But my walking speed was so pathetic until the instructor commented that it wasn't even a power walking...😅

Breakfast

But he still followed to my walking speed and i tried to chat with him so that it won't be so boring and quiet. From the chat, i got to know that he just arrived at the resort two weeks before and the club med staffs always get to rotate to different locations every year. So they have to adjust with different culture, people and climate every time they shift between different locations. And the instructor said he is quite enjoying his job as he is doing what he likes in his job. They do have a day off each week but most of them just stay in the resort as the nearest town in Bintan is like 15 to 30 mins away. Anyway we didn't manage to walk till the target destination, so we headed back after half the distance as he could only spend 30 mins for the activity. The instructor did mentioned that there were people who walked faster than him and he could not even have chat with them as we were having. And some people brought fruits along and the monkeys will snatch from them. 

When we reached back to the resort, i thanked him and went for another round of basket ball despite having muscle ache. I played for a good full hour, but while playing there were monkeys walking on the fence and passing the court. I scared the monkeys will take my stuffs, so i headed to the inner court but the condition of the board and net was not not as good as the outer court. I headed back to the outside court after some time when the monkeys were gone. Then my left sandal also opened it mouth...hahaha

After basketball, i went down to the practice golf area and attended the beginner course conducted by the resort. There were two instructors around, Putu and Osman. There were no one around when i reached there. Putu was the one who guided me first and then there were other people coming to join afterwards. It was not easy to learn the golf techniques and to be able to hit the ball correctly. Anyway, i played there for an hour since there is not many people playing and the pits are available. Also, had chat with the instructors while I played After playing, i left and walked slowly back to the poolside bar. The aqua gym has already started and the instructor today was Logan. Everyone seems to have a lot of fun working out in the pool (seems this is one of the popular activity). After that, they had water polo game which looked fun. I ordered a coke and had snacks (chicken wantons) in the bar to cool down first before headed back for shower. After that, i went into the leisure room, there were 2 pool tables and 2 mahjong tables at the back of the room. One of the mahjong tables has an auto shuttle mechanism too. 

Aqua Gym

Snacks

After that, i went back to my room for shower. Luckily the housekeeping came early today and i was able to rest in the sofa until past two. Later, i went to the other restaurant for lunch which i ordered 2 main dishes (a cold fish dish and sotong rice) and a dessert (blue berry cake) today. The fish dish was nice but the toast bread was very hard and mine was missing a lemon slice. The cake was too sweet for me though. After lunch, i headed to the sport centre and played archery again. This time i played from 2 plus all the way to almost 5 pm as there weren't many people playing around 3 plus. So the staff has no problem of me playing longer there. Heard the staff  going to leave the company soon, he was quite a nice guy though.

Cold sea brass dish

Sotong with rice

After that, i went to the bar at the beach to check out the snacks for today. There were a vietnam style pop piahs, beef satays. So i took the pop piahs and went to the poolside bar to eat and watch the world cup match. I stayed a little longer today as i wanted to go to the The Terrance and try their dinner menu. However, when i reached there, reservations was required for dinner as they have limited tables and there were more people for dinner. So i had to go dinner at the main restaurant and there were many people there. The food tonight was not quite nice, though the first clayfish dish i ate was favourable. Anyway i ate my dinner slow since it was the last night in the resort. Tonight's performance was by the kids who joined the kids' club so it was performance for the parents. So i did not went for the performance, instead i just watched the 2nd match of world cup in the bar until it was time to go back to rest. When i was switching the channels in my room, i realised i could also watch the world cup in my room...hahaha...But it seems more fun to watch in the bar with all the football fans around.

Pop piahs

Clayfish dish (Up for grab dish)

Roasted duck & sotongs

Bintan, Indonesia Trip (Day 2)

 25th November 2022, Friday

Woke up around 5 plus, thinking to see the sun rise of the day. However, it was cloudy and the sun was already rising behind the thick clouds. Since it was still early, i tried to walk around the resort to find where the facilities were located. I took a walk around the bench to pass time and walked up to the sports centre. It was located up on a hill and have to climb flights of stairs before reaching the centre (like a warm-up before you start your exercise). There were basketball, tennis, squash and badminton courts available. You can also get to the gym and archery station. Found there was a turtle nursery located at the end where the turtle eggs were nursed and released out to the beach. Too bad, it wasn't time for turtle eggs to get hatched.

Golf Training Ground

Seats available on beach

Morning sun

As it was getting time for breakfast (started on 7 am for the main restaurant), i decided to go for the breakfast first. Just ate some breads and bacons and fruits as wanted to go exercise. Was planning to go for a power walk activity (organised by the resort) but it started to get raining. So i changed my mind to go up to the sports centre instead. Waited for some time before a staff managed to come by and i asked to borrow a squash racket. There were 2 pathetic squash balls available and when i played with it, the ball can't even bounced properly. However, when i asked the staff for another new ball, he said there were the balls available. So i just played with it for half an hour (not bad for a lousy ball and just wearing with sandals...^_^).

After that, i switched to playing basketball (also had to wait for some time before the staff comes back and i could ask for a basketball. But the staff said i could just go in the counter and get whatever equipment if there is no one around...haha). Anyway, i was glad i played basketball (Still my favourite sports). Also, the ball was soooooo much better than the pathetic squash ball. So i just played for 2 hours straight with my sandals. And of cos, my right sandals gave way and started to "open its mouth"..... hahahaa.....After that, i decided to go back to my room to change to my swim suit and went for a swim in the pool. But i still walked around the resort for a breather break. Passed by the spa reception and decided to book a spa package (as there was a promo for 1 for 1). But realised, it was expensive and the cash which i brought along was not enough (can pay by credit card in the spa place later on. Did booked but cancelled it later on). So i ended up going to the boutique to get a pair of slippers to replace my sandals. The slippers cost $150k Indonesia rupees.

Tennis & badminton courts

Basketball Court & Football Pit

Open mouth sandals..😅

Then i saw there were snacks available at the poolside bar, so i went to have some snacks and ordered a glass of orange juice. Omg, the orange juice was sooooo sweet (until i don't dare to order any drinks for the rest of my stay there). Then i went back to my room for a change of clothes and walked back to the pool. Saw the aqua yoga activity was going to get started but there was like no space available to join. They had taken up the 1.2 m space and since i can't go to 1.6m side, i went down to the other pool which had the 1.3m side. There were 4 gals playing there too and the life guard passed them a volleyball to pay with it in the pool (The life guards had all their balls hidden in the tall vase beside them). So i just soaked myself at my side watching other people. Later on, there was a couple who came into the pool but i think they wanted to get passion with each other rather than swim. The gals were still playing with themselves and don't even want to get out of the pool when the father asked them to get out for lunch. Later, there was a young boy coming in to the pool with the mum. The mum did not want to get into the water, so she sat on the edge and tried to get the son to show his swimming skills to her. But the son was trying to bargain with the mum to stay in the water longer and making all those whining sounds (kind of annoying).

Spa packages promotions

Before lunch snacks

I was still thinking if i should go over to the beach and try stand-up canoe (which i had decided to have a try before i get here). In the end, i didn't go for it cos i don't like having all the sands on my feet and don't like water. I headed back to my room to take a shower and then i just rested on the sofa watching out the window. I was waiting for time to pass until 2 pm, then i could go for lunch in the other restaurant (The Terrance) which serve late breakfast, lunch and dinner. Just so the housekeeping arrived to clean my room, i headed out for my lunch. In the other restaurant, the guests has to place ala carte orders. But everything was included inside the package (except those with prices), you can literally order everything off the menu...hahaa...I ordered a coke and a fried rice dish with grilled chicken. The food was much better than the food from the main restaurant. And the view was on the beach, no ac though (natural wind). There was also not many people eating there too cos most of the people will be out doing whatever activities. 

Restaurant Entrance

Lunch!! 😁

After lunch, i walked back to the sports centre and went to the archery range. There was some guests playing there. So i joined. There was only 3 arrows for each person, and at the end of the 3rd arrow fired, everyone will walk to the target boards together to retrieve the arrows back. At one time, i pulled the arrow out from the target board too hard and the whole target board fell off. Luckily it didn't fell on me but still brushed against my back...hahaa...later on, the staff need to get some help from some guy guests to help carry the board back up...It was super heavy for one person to carry it. We played for about 4 rounds, then i left even though the staff said we were free to play since there was no people to queue. But i still left and went back to my room for some water (very easy to get drinks from any of the bars around but the drinks were all too sweet). So i rested for some time in the room before going out again. I really love sitting on the seat by the window and just see outside the window cos i could see the spot where the yoga classes will be conducted (It was so funny watching the guests doing aerial yoga...hehhe). 

Archery Range

Aerial Yoga Class

When it was about 4:30 pm, i headed out to the bar at the beach and checked out the snacks prepared today. It was satays, bbq wings and sausages and there were a lot of kids and parents around. Seems like there was an activity for the mini club earlier on. So i just walked over and took some food and went to the poolside bar to eat as there wasn't any available tables around at the beach bar. There was a weird taste to the satay sauce and the bbq wings wasn't nice too. Sausages were still ok to eat. So i just went to get a table inside in front of the screen in the poolside bar and watched the first half of the first world cup match of the day. The snacks were brought out at around 6pm for the poolside bar but there weren't much difference from the day before and today. So i didn't eat much snacks today, i went back to my room for some water and waiting for the dinner from the main restaurant to start. 

Bar by the beach

All having fun...😀

Teatime Snacks

Afterwards, i just walked back to the main restaurant for dinner. Tried a pasta dish, sashimi, soup and sea brass dish. The food wasn't nice tonight, the sashimi i got wasn't fresh (it was having a bad fishy smell). But i overheard the other guests were commenting the roasted pork was nice (didn't try it though). After dinner, i went down to the theatre and there was a bingo game going on with the kids. So i can't play even i want to..haha...I just sat there and watched the kids playing the bingo. There was one kid wasn't even interested in playing and it was the parents' playing. But when the parent called for Bingo, it was the kid who got out to pick the prize...hahaha...After some time, i walked outside to the poolside bar and sat there watching the world cup match while waiting for the performance to start. There were some mini stalls setup by the pool to sell some local souvenirs tonight too. 

Snacks at Poolside Bar

Carrots & chips

Kids' Bingo Game

I made my way to the theatre when it was about time for the performance. Tonight's performance theme was Music Hits (of the 80's and the 90's). But i did not know what to expect from tonight's performance. When it started, the staffs put up an amazing performance by imitating the popular singers and bands from the 80's and 90's.  They did not sing but just danced to the music. Everyone got so excited and were having so much fun. I think i really enjoyed their performances and night parties more here...hahaha.....The host introduced all the performers for tonight and the staffs were a mixture of different nationality too. Some were from South Africa, Australia, Taiwan, Malaysia, Japan, etc and the host introduced one very fit guy - Logan who was their number 1 handsome guy in the resort....hahaa. Of cos, the night party started immediately at the poolside after the performance ended. Tonight party's theme is Bintan (45/88) with neon colours. You can actually buy the tshirts for the daily theme from the boutique. Tonight, the bartenders also did a domino of drinks around the bar with alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. The bartenders had mixed the drinks themselves for the party. The host was joking to the bartenders if the domino breaks, the bartenders will have to go into the pool...hahaa...However, when the domino started, there was break in between but the bartenders just continued the flow manually and everyone was very high to bother...Everyone took the drinks and the party continued on.....I stayed on for a little while and then headed back to the room as it was getting late (also starting to feel muscle ache coming).

The Beetles?

No idea who this band was...😂

Deng Li Jun

Guns n' Roses

Backstreet Boys

Pool Party

Rawa Isand, Malaysia Trip (Day 2)

27th August 2016, Saturday

First Staircase to climb

Sun covered by Haze

Today, we woke up and sad to see the island was surrounded with haze...deadly and hateful haze. We can't even see the surrounding islands. It was sooo weird to wash our teeth with the salty water as the water was too salty. So we just took our mineral water to brush our teeth. After that, we walked out to the beach. As breakfast was not ready yet, we went for a short hiking up the part of the mountains behind the resort. There was a long staircase to climb up and after that, it was just rocks path to climb to the top. However, the haze had covered the sun and it was just red in colour. Got tired of the hiking, legs got too wobby when going down the stairs. My activity for the day had been completed...hahahaa...

School of Fishes

Corals in the sea

Unfriendly Sun

After that, we went back down to have our breakfast. It was also a buffet-styled, having nasi lemark, cereals, coffee and tea. We also ordered eggs which we can choose the cooking style (sunny side up or scrambled). After breakfast, two of my friends went to play their game. Then they went to change to their swimming attires and prepare for their swim. As for me, i went to the jetty and see the school of fishes swimming near the water slides and the jetty. I walked along the shore to pass my time while i watched my friends swimming out in the sea...However, there was not much wind today due to the heavy haze. So i went back to lie in the hammock to just relax there. There were also big bats hanging on the trees up on the trees in the mountains. I can even hear them screeching sound too.

Billiard Tables

Lunch

I walked to the other side to explore on the other chalet. There was free wifi at their lobby and there was a small shop with aircon. On the 2nd floor, there were pool and billiard tables (which were very dirty). After that, i walked back to our resort house and saw two of my friends came back from their swim. So i sat with them outside the house. My friend lent me her ipad to watch video as to pass time while they went back to swim again. We saw the speedboats bringing more people onto the island. Finally came lunch time, the resort manager will call out to everyone and announced that lunch is ready. Then everyone will just make their way to have lunch. We just ate at our own free time and after that, 2 of my friends hit the water again and went kayaking. My friend took some slices of breads, saying going to feed the fishes. However, i ate one while passing the time...hahhaa...

TV area

Another friend of mine and I then walked to the jetty and fed the fishes. It was fun to see the school of fishes dashed to the bread pieces we threw. The bread pieces were all gone very quickly too. After that, my friend went down to try kayaking. So i walked and stayed in the other resort (at least got ceiling fan to blow).  When i walked back to our resort, my friends were back from their swim. I then brought them to the new resort after they asked me where i went. There was a TV area where the TV was turned on with one person watching. So i told my friends i will just stay there to watch TV while they went back for their water activities.

BBQ Seafood (with my friend's iPhone)

Buffet Dinner

Eventually i watched TV until 7 plus, when my friend called me to go back for shower and get ready for dinner.....hehehee....Then i went back to the resort, where i saw my friends sitting on the beach waiting for dinner. All of them had finished their shower, the resort staffs were doing bbq for our dinner tonight. It was a feast..we had some buffet dishes, fish, bbq chicken, prawns and sotongs. Tables were also placed outside too with a candle as light source. Basically, we had our dinner under the dark sky. Pity, there were no stars tonight. The staff informed that there will be a party till 3 am after dinner too. Some people went for a dance after dinner when the music started. We went off and played fire sprinkles. But we did have problems lighting the matchstick as the wind keeps blowing off the fire. A couple of my friends went to buy drinks and party while the rest of us just lazed on the bench. After some time, my friends and me went back to the room to rest for the day.

Resort Stayed: Alang's Rawa Resort