Travel Blog: Bintan Island Day 3, 民丹島之旅第三天, 9 Dec 12

It's our last day at Bintan Island. Finally caught a glimpse of sunrise, with only parts of the sun peeking out of the clouds on the horizon. We made use of the last item in our Groupon package, a ride on bicycles around the resort. We explored most of the resort on our bikes, which were old and seemed almost about to fall apart. Then we headed to the restaurant on the kelong for the last time. As it was low-tide, the mangrove swamp around the kelong area could be seen and there were probably hundreds of fiddler crabs coming out from their homes to look for food. Took some pictures while waiting for our food.

That's the best sunrise we can see.

A fiddler crab coming out of its home looking for food.

Melon juice anyone?

This is ayam penyet if I'm not wrong.

Grilled fish.

Can't remember what this was.

The food was pretty ok. And after the scrumptious meal, we headed back to the hotel lobby to wait for the coach to bring us back to the ferry for our ride back to Singapore. Quite a relaxing weekend getaway. Certainly worth the time (except for being stranded at sea for an hour!) and money.

For a list of the hotels/resorts available for booking in Bintan Island via Agoda.com, click here.
To make a hotel/resort booking at Bintan Agro Beach Resort, click here.
To make a hotel/resort booking at Bintan Cabana Beach Resort, click here.

Links to my Bintan Island Trip 2012
Day 1
Day 2

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Travel Blog: Bintan Island Day 2, 民丹島之旅第二天, 8 Dec 12

And it's Day 2! I think we wanted to watch the sunrise but think we ended up sleeping all the way till 8am+ and then went for breakfast.

Where's the morning sun?

And so we went down to the hotel restaurant for the complimentary buffet breakfast. It's an array of Asian food food like kueh (cakes), curry puffs, and various other types of food like porridge, roti prata, omelettes, fried rice etc. Quite an interesting spread of food, which is rather different from what you get in normal hotel buffet breakfasts.

After breakfast, we decided to walk around the area and wandered off to the kelong area of the resort. It was comfortably windy, which gave us great picture-taking opportunities.

We then took the free shuttle service to the sister resort, Bintan Agro Beach Resort. We brought our swimwear along to swim in the swimming pool over there.

The iconic slanted coconut tree.

A small chill out area with pool table and a bar.

We found a tree swing!

Dangerous stunt. Do not try this.

We had a small lunch at the cafe. Spaghetti bolognese with a generous topping of cheese.

And some mushroom soup.

The beach area was so deserted.

We crossed the road to the chalet area containing the villa units.

The club house is in the background. And we had the whole swimming pool to ourselves!

After a swim, we played pool.

And enjoyed the rest of the afternoon just chilling out along the beach.

Leaving our mark on the Bintan beach.

So after our swim and pool session, we headed back to our resort and had dinner at the restaurant on the kelong again. This time we ordered quite a lot of food as well. How did we manage to finish all the food below!?

For a list of the hotels/resorts available for booking in Bintan Island via Agoda.com, click here.
To make a hotel/resort booking at Bintan Agro Beach Resort, click here.
To make a hotel/resort booking at Bintan Cabana Beach Resort, click here.

Links to my Bintan Island Trip 2012
Day 1
Day 3

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Travel Blog: Bintan Island Day 1, 民丹島之旅第一天, 7 Dec 12

Who doesn't like getaways? And who doesn't like voucher discounts? Yeah our first Groupon purchase for a short getaway - Pulau Bintan! We've never been to a short getaway on a beach resort together, so needless to say, this is our first time setting foot on Pulau Bintan!

First time taking ferry at Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal. Such an ulu place. Luckily father-in-law fetched us there. Our ferry is called the Falcon 3. The Groupon includes an Ayam Penyet lunch, as well as 60-min massage and 2-way ferry.

The ferry is pretty old, but that's ok. Problem is, the propeller got stuck as it caught some fishing net along the way. We got stranded in mid-sea for almost an hour or so while the crew had to dive down to untangle the net from the propeller. Made us all seasick cos the ferry bopped around for that hour.

The culprit for making us stranded in mid-sea for an hour

We finally reached Bintan Island at 1am or so. And had to wait till the tour guide came to pick us up. We boarded a coach which brought us to have lunch at an Ayam Penyet restaurant. The portion was kinda pathetic. And the meal wasn't fantastic at all...

I wonder what's that scary-looking thing they are serving

Looks kinda pathetic...

That's the name of the restaurant we were brought to.

Next we were brought to a massage parlour for a one-hour massage. The masseur spent almost 30 mins on one of my legs. Gosh! Until I told him to switch to my other leg, then he switched. And it wasn't comfortable at all. Not a good experience.

And next is some Indonesian massage.

Looks clean enough

After massage, we were brought to our resort, Bintan Agro Beach Resort. Looks kinda old but good enough I guess. Just to spend a relaxing weekend with Dear.

The room and bed look ok but could be better.

There's a door which leads to the balcony.

And it overlooks the swimming pool and the sea. Woo!

This is the lobby which one can use Wi-Fi for free, but not at the rooms.

Baby pool

Looks like quite a lot of facilities eh?

And yes, there's free shuttle service to the sister resort, Bintan Cabana Beach Resort.

Here's the swimming pool next to the sea.

Our room is one of those on top.

That's where we will settle our dinner.

We walked over to the kelong area, where there was a restaurant, karaoke facilities etc. There we had our dinner which was included in the package. But being so hungry and the food was so cheap, we decided to add on a few more dishes. Ended up hardly able to move after the dinner lol. We strolled along the place and went to the supermarket to grab some food and drinks before we ended the day.

Our package came with a dinner set each, but we topped up with several other dishes.

Some fruit juice to quench our thirst. An appropriate drink for our stay at a beach resort too.

And what's a stay at Bintan without Bintang beer? :D

For a list of the hotels/resorts available for booking in Bintan Island via Agoda.com, click here.
To make a hotel/resort booking at Bintan Agro Beach Resort, click here.
To make a hotel/resort booking at Bintan Cabana Beach Resort, click here.

Links to my Bintan Island Trip 2012
Day 2
Day 3

Read More