Jul

Under the Sun, On the beaches, In the Waters.

An advance birthday celebration for Vampy, 10 July 10 – 11 July 10.

Albeit a short and near trip to our neighbouring resort, I’m glad that Vampy had fun and he wasn’t as tired as I expected him to be.

—–

Dark clouds began hovering above us as we reached the Indonesia’s side ferry terminal. Before we knew it, we were already leaving Bintan. That was deja-vu as the day before.. we arrived at the terminal also with dark clouds forming. We got worried as that would mean we have to cancel our water sports plans.

Arrival.

Our arrival was ‘warmly’ welcomed by the strike of the lightning and the roar of the thunder. As we were too early for checking-in, we went ahead to dine at one of the restaurants at the basement (Kopi-O). I had a light Caesar salad which I wouldnt really recommend. It’s lettuces were rather limb than fresh.. And the chicken in it was really tough and dry. So, is that how the vegetables and meat on the other part of the world taste like? Vampy couldn’t resist the callings of the Beef Burger which remotely looked like his favourite Mega Burger from Swensons. But the beef had a funny indonesian vibe to it. Unique, you can say that. But it’s still pretty yummy.

Checking in and lazing in.

Checking into accomodations when you travelling can be one fun part when you swing the door open and step into and see how closely (or not) the room before you matches the one you’ve seen virtually.

The rooms in the Bintan Lagoon Resort are one of the freshest rooms on the island as they have just been renovated. With a contemporary touch, the room preserved its indonesian style by having a ‘sofa-bed’ just by the windows and a wooden wardrobe with a flower handle. We lazed on the sofa-bed for almost an hour as the patchy rain crack a joke on us again and again; each time we stand up preparing to leave the room for a walk, it would start raining again.

Jet-Ski, here we come!

Standing on the damp sand, we watched as the jet-skis go in full speed and water moving in projectile motion at the back of the vehicle. Man, it looks so fun! Without hesitation, we registered for one, took our life-jackets and climbed up the jet-ski from the back of it.

If you were present, you might have thought that I’m one crazy girl. But I prefer to say that I’m enjoying myself… very much. It was an half an hour ride. As a start, Vampy who had some experience led the ride. Omg, and i was screaming like crazy at the back. AT some instances, I closed my eye. =x. I was, however, very very in awe when the waters and the now cleared blue skies meet at the horizons and rays and rays of sunlight align themselves on the skies. It was a splendid view.

15 minutes later, vampy allowed the clumsy rider (me) to ride us around. Well, it was said that I shouldnt scream when I’m the one riding coz I have the control. But guess what, I screamed throughout too. And sometimes vampy thought that I was driving alil too slowly that he stretched his arms from behind to squeeze on the accelerator. Man, that was sooo thrilling, so fun as the vehicle jumps on the choppy waters and tilting upwards as it goes against the waves.

Evening – Where are the colours?

There was a minimal colours in the skies when evening came about. Kinda disappointed but i guess the weather wasn’t too kind that day for a nice sunset.

A slow swim in the sea and we headed back to the room for a bath, Vampy played his games while I ‘stoned’ before we head out for dinner.

We set our eyes on this place when we were there. The 3 degrees signature restaurant. A transquil location just by the beach. It was in the form of a glass house; i thought that was a perfect design for a chill-out bar and restaurant by the beach.

Dont expect any cheap prices in Bintan as they are not. Dinner was something – Coconut salad with Chicken. As I usually hate coconut-anything, this turns out fine and appetising for our next dish to come – The combination grill. One meaty dish – Beef steaks, snapper steaks, prawns and lamb! The beef is about 1-cm thick hence it makes it easy to chew on. Snapper steak was nice, sweet and well-grilled. Prawns were not that amazing but the lamb was pretty good.

With that lil amount of space we have left, we went alfresco. Out of the indoors and just by the beach to chill.

I see stars.

This is really worth mentioning. You know, nature puts me in awe every time I see new forms of them. This is not exactly totally new but it was the first time i see a million stars studded in the skies! I’ve never seen so many stars in my whole life. In between the restaurant and the lobby lies a huge space that very dark. Hence, it allowed us to see almost every single stars above us. It was sooooooo beautiful. I love stars, always do! On hindsight, I should have attempted to count the total number. Overwhelming, breath-taking.

Snorkelling

The highlight of the next day is snorkelling! I was afraid to go initially coz i havent really swam in deep sea before and i was afraid of jelly-fishes and other organisms after hearing friends getting bitten badly recently. But i decided to be brave as the man really wanna go quite badly, i can tell. He always tell me that he regret not going years ago when he had the opportunity to.

Then here we are, on the motor-operated boat with our fins and life-jackets AND the face-mask. A very refreshing ride out to the sea but the next step was to jump off the boat. That was one scary step to take for me. And well, i just jumped! Probably not in the most stylish form of jumping. I was told that my way of swimming was wrong immediately i jumped down! So i had to learn how to operate the fins. Unfortunately i only know breast stroke and the usage of the fins didnt come instinctively to me. I manged to grasp the technique at the end of it nevetheless.

I dipped my face into the (extremely) salty seawater and found myself looking at nothing but waters. But swimming alil further up, we found corals sitting comfortable on the sea-beds. Occassionally a few small fishes swim past and through the corals. Quietly, slowly; the corals have a soothing effectt. OR maybe it’s the waters. Being in waters makes the time seemingly slower. Some of the corals resembles brain structures. They twine around each other exactly like how brains do and have the similar oval shape too. Found a really nice heart-shaped coral too. What i didnt really see was colourful corals. Maybe they are just not found in that area.

Charm.

I didnt mention but the restaurant we dined and chilled at the previous night was much much more charming in day-time. Just by the bar, the picturesque beach with blue-green sea water and a really blue skies makes the sitting by the bar a truly enjoyable experience. Needless to say, for me.. it makes a really good photography spot. I had Calamari Fritters for that meal since i was craving for some sorta finger food. Vampy’s order of Club Sandwich was very well-done too.

Club Sandwich