Having bintangs at Bintan

From Singapore, the Indonesian island of Bintan is only a short boat ride away. After getting the wrong directions from our hostel, we got to the right terminal and on the boat that took us there. The island was just beautiful. Long beaches with a powder like white sand that felt like cotton under your feet, and warm clear blue water.

Sunset at the beach.

We stayed in a nice little bungalow just 20 meters from the beach. It was so calm at night that you could hear the waves breaking.

Monica spent the better part of the wednesday sun bathing in one of these.
I had enough of the sun the previous weeks so I took the chance to go to the resort’s gym where after some discussion I managed to enter “at my own risk”. The problem - I didn’t wear proper training shoes. I managed to work out without any incidents.

 
Though being part of a resort, the nature in the surroundings was quite impressive. I went for a short trek and discovered a lot of cool things like crabs living under a log, butterflyes in wonderful colors and strange fruits which I don’t know the name of.

 

We had a really relaxing time at this beach. As you can see on the photo, the sun was so strong that you easy got the photos over exposed.

 

   
There was a really nice seafood restaurant located out on poles in the water. This is the bar that was connected to it by a bridge.

We had a great time at this place. The nature and the setting was just perfect. However we both had a slight tendency to catch the “resort madness” symptoms you get not able to move around much. The place was a lot more remote than we initially realized and it was impossible to walk to the nearest village which was over 20 km away. The staff seemed well drilled in the art of discouraging every attempt to leave the resort, and prices were inflated beyond what can be considered sane, they were actually higher than in Singapore though we were in Indonesia.

Though there were some sour things about this place, I can’t really remember it as being a bad experience even if I try. The wonderful scenery and the company made it unforgettable. :-)