Bintan Getaway Day 1

This is the start of the holidays and I am required to go back to school everyday over the next week. So, CT and I went to Bintan during the weekends for a very short getaway before baby Caleb is born. I figured I would not have anymore time to do so since when its the June Hols, I will be going through my 3rd trimester.

I chose Bintan, even though its expensive, because I prefer to take ferry and moreover, I only had time for a 2days, 1night stay. So no point going somewhere further. I also like the beach and the surroundings there.

The last time I went was with CT during our 'honeymoon' in August, 3 years ago. So, it was a good time to relive those times before the baby comes.

I enjoyed the ferry ride as I love being in the sea. So, the choppier it is, the more exhilirating it was for me and CT,despite my condition now. There was TV mobile shows in the LCD TV too. So, it was quite a comfortable and entertaining ride.

When we first arrived, we went to the hotel to see if we could check in early. They only had 2 single beds available..which we didnt want. So we told them we would wait. We dropped our luggage with the resort and went for lunch at Pasar Ole Ole. Where else could we go? When we arrived at Pasar Ole Ole, we walked 5 mins away from it and went to the hawker centre for local food amongst local people. So the food there was much cheaper.

We just had vegetable rice to fill our stomachs and the only regret is, we didnt change our money to Rupiah. So we still had to pay in Sing dollars which they would earn more. Anyway, still much cheaper than tourist places food, I figured, and happily gave them $6 sing dollars for both our lunches. I enjoyed the Indonesian vegetable rice dishes, especially this wierd looking green chilly sauce which was very tasty and spicy! We both had fried chicken, fried prawns in skewer, and veggies.

After a nice and cheap lunch, we walked back in the sun to Pasar Ole Ole for shopping. We bought ice cream and prawn crackers. We had to spend our time there while waiting for the bus to take us back to hotel. Once we headed back to hotel, we checked in to our room which CT upgraded for my comfort and treat.

Check this out...the living room

Our bedroom...And our spacious toilet with 2 sinks..

By the time we checked in, it was 4 plus already. We went to our hotel, bathed and rested till dinner time. We were watching TV and doing my Math Olympiad questions. To me, this is relaxing..to be able to stimulate my brain a little but yet in a relaxing environment. It was fun as CT did the questions with me.

At night, we went to the Kelong for dinner...our usual dinner experience in Bintan. We would go there to catch the sunset. We actually just missed the bus to the Kelong but the hotel staff was nice enough to take us on their private jeep to the place before the sun sets.

This is the picture of the kelong restaurant..
We ordered a dinner set for 2 and boy, there were a lot of various dishes. Take a look!

Let me tell u what we ate: vegetable chicken soup, seafood fried rice, seasonal veggies (xiao bai chai), fried lemon chicken, sweet and sour prawns, gong gong, chilli stone crabs. All tasted really nice. It was probably one of my first time eating the gong gong as the whole thing...and when I pulled out the flesh, it looks exactly like the shell just that it is darker in colour and of course, softer.

It sure looked like a dish from fear factor right? But who cares if it taste good?

After a very filling dinner, which we wiped the food all out, we went back to our hotel and walked in the beach from one end to the other end within the hotel. We were so exhausted after that that we fell asleep when we went back to our hotel room, which was only about 10pm then.. zzzz...