Bintan!

Yay~ We finally had our long awaited holiday! Back from Bintan, a wondeful island with beautiful beaches. We booked a package from GR travel worth $130++ per person which included accomadation, complimentary breakfast, return ferry tickets and land transfer.

Stayed at Mayang Sari Resort, one of the 5 hotels/resorts owned by Nirwana Resorts, a sub-group of Sembcorp. We got a sea-view one and it was really a indeed sea-view! Alright, pictures speak a thousand words, check out the picture...


Sea view from the chalet!!!


View from the restaurant for breakfast.


Another view from the restaurant


Went to Pasar Oleh Oleh for lunch. The trip there cost $6 two way bus trip. Yes, it's expensive! Considering the bus comes every half an hour and it was only a 15 mins journey to the place from our resort. So there we reached the place. Lunched at this place "Hello Hello" (refer to the picture below) The food prices are Singapore's food court range. Horfun, Kway teow, Fried Rice, etc are priced at $3-4. There's another restaurant at the place, charging about the same price range. The shops there are basically selling souveniors, T-shirts, Batik, local made toys, paintings, etc. Nothing much interesting there, so unless you want cheaper food, that's the place you can give it a miss. But both of us got lucky over there and I will tell you why later on...


Pasar Oleh Oleh!


Cafe Helo Helo @ Pasar Oleh Oleh


Then we headed back to hit the Beach of Mayang Sari. Changed to our beach wear and applied sunscreen to our already burned skin (resulted from the trip to Pasar Oleh Oleh), we only tanned for half an hour before going into the sea and rode the tremendous waves due to the Northeast Monsoon current. Oh speaking about that, the ferry journey there was bumpy due to the NE monsoon also! Lots AngMohs puke as a result of that and I almost too, after smelling the papaya like smell of the AngMohs' puke in front of our seats.

Dinner time. Took an internal shuttle bus (free) from the resort to Kelong restaurant. Basically at Bintan, it's restaurants everywhere, that's why it's called an resort island! So ya the food there is bloooooody expensive. All typical restaurants prices and they are either in US dollars or Singapore dollars. So there we were at the Kelong. Checked the menu and prices were slightly more than the "Zi Cha" in Singapore. However the sea food there should be really fresh as it is a Kelong and you can literally see the fishes in captive swimming around in the sea. Fish per 100 gram is priced at around S$5-9 with a minimum of 400 gram for a fish. The other dishes are all set at minimum serving for 1-3 persons, which is quite a huge amount. We ordered a bowl of soup, mini squid and a plate of HongKong Noodles and it cost us near S$50, included the 10% govt tax and 10% service charge. The food was yummy but just a bit too much on the high side we felt.


The expensive Food we had at the Kelong Restaurant


Took a few pictures and spent the rest of the night exploring the other resort of Nirwana group. We turned in quite early, not surprisingly as both of us haven't been sleeping much and well over the past one month in Singapore. So we got our deserved rest.

Woke up for the complimentary breakfast the next day. It's the typical international buffet kind, by the way, Mayang Sari is rated 3 stars so the standard is pretty acceptable. We saw the chalets of Mana Mana, another resort owned by Nirwana and it's pretty like the small huts that you see in Sentosa, slightly bigger I guess. Don't know about the interior though. But those are rated 2 stars and I have a feeling it's shag.

So we spent the rest of the monrning sun basking again and picking all sorts of seashells and hermit crabs! Check out the pictures! Too bad you can't see how lively the crabs were in those pictures :D The beach was lovely, slightly dirty but definitely cleaner than those we have in Sentosa!


Sea Shells? No! It's Hermit crabs!


Hermit crabs in bottle :)


Bintan was truly a holiday destination for couple who simply just want to relax and relax and relax, Zuobo and Zuobo and Zuobo, Suntan after suntan after suntan... And unless you are prepared to spend money on food, please prepare some cup noodles if you are on a budget trip there.

Oh ya, as for the lucky component of this trip. We got a free 3D2N stay at one of the Laguna Resorts. For those who don't know what the hell this resort is, it's a 5 stars rated resort with beautiful faiclities and rooms that you can only dream of. We chose the one in Phuket as we are planning a trip to Bangkok again this summer holiday, anyone interested can join us there but the Phuket stay will only be between jL and me.

It's a worthwhile trip. We've gained so much from it :)

I Love Bintan~ the beach that is.

Rest of the pictures can be found at my photolog.