Long write-up of Bintan

Monday, May 03, 2010@ 1:35 AM by DRUSILLA CHOO

Bintan was kind of awful. I think the trip makes me sick instead of rejuvenating me.

1) Puked

Puked madly when I disembark from the ferry at Bintan.

Puked the second time in the big sea after I get down the boat from my snorkeling trip. Sorry for polluting the sea man. Imagine vomit floating beside boyfriend! He was gross-out to the maxxx. Haha. Snorkeling for the first time was quite an experience though. We saw lovely seabeds and fishes around us :) But we had to cut it short because I was having terrible motion sickness. Tide was high, looking at the waves I felt terrible. Stupid me.

Almost puked on the way back to Singapore. Glad the pills helped a lil.

2) Buffet provided by the resort, not awesome!

Not a huge variety of food, perhaps most of the dishes on the buffet counters were not to my liking. Quality of food is not yummy, just normal. Although we had buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner at the restaurant, we spent less than 1 hr each meal period. Lucky it was part of the package. And seriously, people gained weight during their holidays and for my case, its lose weight instead.

3) Expensive Food & Beverage, Expensive activities...

A can of drink cost $3 at their provision store and $5 at their restaurant. A packet of Jack & Jil chips cost $5/$6. A plate of Spaghetti at the restaurant is much more expensive than restaurants in Singapore such as Cafe Cartel, Fish & Co etc etc.

Snorkeling costs $35 per person and Jet-Ski cost $50 for a ride (a rider/a rider & a pillion).

Boyfriend wanted to try Jet-Ski but he felt $50 was very overpriced for 1 person because I didn't want to ride, for fear that I'll puke again :(

4) Minimal/Zero night activities

After dinner on the first night, we went to the Business Centre to surf the net. I think you don't do this on a vacation at the resort right? After that, we went back to our room to watch TV. For your info, they have Channel 5, 8, ESPN sports all those, exactly like Singapore. I watched the shows that I watched at home every night, WTH right? Boyfriend dozed off halfway, I continued watching alone and dozed off after an hour or so.

So the 2nd night, we decided to go to the Concierge and ask the staff if there were any night activities at the resort. He realized he couldn't answer my question because there's really no night activities except for the SILK club (somewhat like a pub/disco). Im sure a couple wouldn't be interested to go there and drink or dance, plus, they may be playing indonesian songs. So the 2nd night we ended up with TV again. This time much better, we slurp pizzas on bed.

There's another night activity that we did consider, which was the fireflies tour. The timing of the tour is quite off. 7-9pm. We didn't wanted because it clashes with our dinner time. Another reason was we were afraid we can't see much and it would be quite wasted since its not cheap. $30 odd per person.

5) Travelling time

The journey to the resort bores you. We were initially excited but it became tired and dreadful. You have to make your way to Tannah Merah Ferry Terminal, take an approx 1hr ferry ride and then a 20mins ride to the resort. We immediately dropped the idea of stepping out of the resort to any nearby town/village. Very inaccessible and very far.

So boyfriend and I concluded that this is a first and last time to Bintan Lagoon Resort. I shall not say Bintan yet because the girls have planned a getaway to Bintan this May. LOL. Its a different resort and we should give others a try! My opinion? Go with your family or with a big group of friends. Though resort seemed to target couples, I say a nono for them.

Enjoy the pictures! Blogger is being moody, it tooked me more than 3 god damn hours to upload these pictures!