Selamat Datang Bintan!
23/05/2005, Monday to 25/05/2005, Wednesday

yawn! wake up early in the morning 5am after only 1 hour plus of sleep... that's because of late night supper with my long time no see OG pals and also last minute luggage packing... today marks the 1st day of bintan trip with my family... it had been donkey years since i went overseas last time... as u know, it's hard to get overseas leave as a NSF...

although i wake up at 5am, but due to last minute preparation and my mother's slowness, we only left home around 7.30am and reached Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal around 8am... well, the ferry trip is actually only 40 minutes, but it cost a whoppping $45! (to and fro of course) with that money i think can fly to thailand liao lor... btw, except for my parents and siblings, my brother also brought 6 of his friends... we had our packet breakfast on the ferry, because we really didn't had time b4 that... reached Bintan around 10am (9am Indonesia Time), the ferry terminal immediately a feeling that i'm in malaysia... well, besides the furtest place i had been is Batam... after which we took a "bouncy" 20mins shuttle bus to the resort we are staying... check in time was 3pm, so we put our luggage there 1st... then it begin to rain... oh shit, that means cannot go beach liao... so we decided to take a S$3 bus ride to the nearby "Pasar Oleh Oleh Shopping Village"... (Note: It's Sing dollars, not rupiah, surprisingly most things are paid by Sing dollars)...

Pasar Oleh Oleh Shopping Village... I thought it's a shopping centre at 1st, but I was totally wrong... It's a place of a few modified wooden houses that becomes shops, resturants and minimart... quite boring actually... after some walking in the rain and in the minimart (which sells very expensive things)... we had our lunch at a simple sort-of restaurant... the fish porridge is damm big and nice, and only cost 3 bucks... after which, we went back to the resort, but still cannot check in... while waiting, we choose a cake to celebrate my mother's very belated birthday... the villa (standalone 2 storey chalet-type house) we staying is actually quite near the main lobby... eqipped with 4 bedrooms, a full kitchen and 3 toilets... the best part i like is we are given a buggy (golf car) for our own use! after some tidy up, we celebrated my mother's birthday in the late afternoon, then 4 of my brother's friends went back to sg... i also got to drive the buggy without license! (according to resort rules, only people with driving license are allowed to drive the buggy)... this had been my 1st realistic driving experience... after watching some TV, that marks the end of the day...

on tuesday, after having breakfast, we went to the beach, no mood to go down to the sea, so the rest went into the sea, while sat down to write my blog... after some time, we went back to the villa and had instant noodles for lunch, because the food at the resort is really too expensive... after which, we went to some greenary to take photos and i got a few chance to drive the buggy... then we ended up at the leisure centre... we played ping pong (only 3 ping pong tables), arcade games (limited out-dated games) and pool (only ONE pool table)... i think even the NTUC Downtown East has a leisure centre better than this lor... well, after that, we went over to the main lobby, where we started to search for a affordable dinner... i saw a can drink selling at S$3! a set meal costing S$60! OMG, everything there needs a lot of $$$... luckily, we found a meal at $17++ at an Italian Restaurant... although, it's a simple restaurant, but the service was excellence... my order is a hawailian pizza, when we all thought that it's a personal size pizza, but it's turns out to be equivilant to a medium size Pizza Hut pizza... thus, we had a fulfilling dinner... in the night, we played some board games like jenga... then that's end of the day...

wednesday, wake up, had breakfast, then went over to leisure centre... where my brother's friends tried on the traditional Indonesia costumes and took photos... then we went over to the archery to shoot arrows... finally, i fulfilled my wish on trying on archery... there, we shoot about 30 plus arrows each, mostly on the ground... hehe... but it was really quite an experience... we went back to villa after that, done some pack up and went to the main lobby, getting ready to departure... at 1pm (indonesia time), we are already on the shuttle bus to the jetty... it was a 2.30pm ferry... don't know why, i really tired and dozed off... it was 5pm (Singapore time) when we reached sg again... then we headed back home in a cab... when reached home, I done my usual stuff like surfing net and writing blogs and slept around 3am...