One of the reasons we moved to Singapore was to have the chance to travel around Southeast Asia. Singapore is a fantastic travel hub because of all the budget airlines that fly direct to other countries from here. You can travel by ferry and bus as well to the neighboring countries of Malaysia and Indonesia. August 19th was "Hari Raya Puasa" in Singapore. It's a Muslim holiday marking the end of "Ramandan" which is a month of fasting and prayer. Tony had Monday off so we took advantage of the three-day weekend and hopped on a ferry to Bintan, Indonesia.
 |
| Ferry Ride |
 |
| Filling out customs forms |
 |
| Here we go! |
An hour later we arrived! Just like that we're in another country. Bintan is a resort island on the Riau province: http://ayokeindonesia.com/travel-tips/bintan-island-of-indonesia/. You have to get a visa when visiting Indonesia so luckily it was easy to purchase at the port. The visa took up a whole page in our passport! Many Singaporeans visit Bintan for quick vacations and companies also host team-building events there. The main resort on the island is Nirwana Gardens: http://www.nirwanagardens.com/ which owns four hotels with varied prices and accommodations. Nirwana Gardens has an activity center where you can ride ATV's, do archery, shoot rifles, hang on a zip line, and ride elephants. For this trip, we just wanted to relax and play in the water. We stayed at Nirwana Beach Club which are cabin-style cabanas.
 |
| Our Cabana |
 |
| Village-Style Living |
 |
| View of the Beach Club Restaurant |
 |
| Lily pads in front of our cabana |
 |
| In bloom |
Nirwana Gardens made vacationing easy. You can utilize the facilities at the other hotels, such as their pools and restaurants. There's also a shuttle bus that takes you to other sites around the resort. After checking in to our cabana we had lunch and enjoyed the beach scenery.
 |
| Happy Hari Raya! |
 |
| Local Brew |
 |
| Getting ready for the evening |
 |
| Take 2 |
In San Francisco, we often attended live music shows. Singapore doesn't have much of a music scene so we missed it. We heard about a local group called Zoom Band that played
nightly on the resort. In evening we planted ourselves at "The Pub" in
Nirwana Gardens Hotel and enjoyed the show: http://rsamanyaphoto.wordpress.com/tag/zoom-band/.
The
lead singers were really talented and the musicians were good too. They
mainly played cover songs, but you can make requests. We
requested "Come As You Are" by Nirvana, "Moves Like Jagger" by Maroon 5,
and "Santeria" by Sublime. They only played "Moves Like Jagger" but it
was a spectacular performance. The singer belted Christina Aguilera's part
to perfection and gyrated his hips just like Jagger.
 |
| Tony chillin' at The Pub |
 |
| Zoom Band |
 |
| Bar Art |
The next day we wanted to go on a guided hike at Gunung Bintan, the tallest hill in Bintan: http://www.bintanbagus.com/document /gunung_bintan_adventure_trek.html.
However, due to the holiday weekend the tour company was closed. We also thought about riding ATV's, but laziness kicked in and we opted to chill on the beach instead. Not a bad decision at all.
 |
| The perfect moment between sun and rain. |
 |
| Secluded Beach |
 |
| This is the life! |
 |
| The water was warm too! |
In the afternoon we had lunch and enjoyed one of the delicious Bintan Coconut drinks.
 |
| Tony's first coconut drink |
 |
| Hari Raya Decor |
 |
| Selamat Hari Raya |
 |
| Afternoon dessert given by the hotel (tasted like Filipino Babinka) |
Before getting ready for dinner, we stumbled upon a mini-zoo next to our hotel. This resort had everything! The iguanas were cool to see, but we were glad they had cages versus roaming around in our room.
 |
| I-guana sleep! |
 |
| Feeding Time |
 |
| Tree sleeping iquanas |
 |
| Gator Nation |
 |
| I forget the name, but it's a cross between an ostrich and peacock. |
 |
| Furry Bunnie |
 |
| Hiding from us |
 |
| Proud Eagle |
 |
| Loud Cockatoos |
 |
| Vultur standing tall |
For our last night in Bintan we had dinner at The Kelong Restaurant: http://indra.nirwanagardens.com/the-kelong-restaurant. They specialized in seafood and the place was built on stilts above the sea. The seafood was so fresh that Tony even got to pick out our grouper for dinner.
 |
| Seaside Dining |
 |
| Spicy Eggplant |
 |
| Char Kway Teow Noodles |
 |
| Spicy Scallops |
 |
| "Tony caught" grouper in ginger soy sauce |
Before catching our ferry back to Singapore we had one last fun activity. We rented a kayak for an hour and ventured out to the sea. The water was quite calm and at one point we were able to stop paddling and float on the water. The views were picturesque and we didn't want to leave. Thanks Bintan for being such gracious hosts!
No comments:
Post a Comment