Located about 1.5 hours southeast of Singapore by ferry, Bintan is a resort island for Singaporean tourists looking to get away. We intended to leave Singapore bright and early the morning of Saturday March 31st, but like all good students, we slept in and managed to miss the early ferry out. No matter, we still made it in fine form, with enough time to eat at KFC, take out money (after taking too long to decide how much), find a creepy cabby, have him dump us in his brother's 'resort' eat some good food, drink too much beer and make it back to Singapore on Sunday night.
Accommodations were more rustic than any of us were used to, but a good experience nonetheless. Sleeping over the water in an old shack, listening to the ocean at night, and experiencing rainfall in the morning were all worth it. Plus, it wasn't the girls who had the 'luxury' cockroach free, shower equipped bedroom, it was the guys! I was too tired to even offer to switch rooms when I found out they had a cockroach the size of a mouse in their room. What a gentleman. Sorry girls!
Initially we were scared of eating the food they prepared for us, but upon first bite we knew it was solid. For the equivalent of S$4.00 we ate rice, fish, cooked cabbage (delicious), various kinds of tofu (the girls opted for vegetarian fare), cuttle fish (like squid) and a few other delicacies that I can't remember. It was some of the best food I've had here, and I'm happy to inform you that Sapna thoroughly enjoyed every bite of her veggie food. Go Sapna!
All in all, it was a fun but restful weekend away, complete with cheap beer on the beach, sleeping in my first 'shack,' eating delicious food and bargaining with our 'honest' cabby. A word from the wise, never ever under any circumstance pay the cab drivers what they initially offer. You can always bargain the fare down. The rule is to start at half what they offer then barter; we'll nearly always pay more because we're white. We paid S$45 for a return journey but our cab driver's brother said we shouldn't have paid him more than S$17.00, so don't be afraid to haggle!
Here are a few pictures to put a face to what I described above:
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