Spring Break in Bintan

We just got home from our trip to Indonesia for Spring Break so here are the highlights from our experience...

We set out for Bintan, Indonesia, Sunday morning. The trip got off to a rocky start when we discovered, along with our taxi driver, that the highway to the ferry terminal was closed that morning due to a triathlon. Thankfully we still made it with plenty of time to spare before our boat departed.

What made Bintan such an appealing destination for our family is its proximity to Singapore. It only takes 45 minutes by ferry to reach the island. After all the logistics to fly 20 hours with our children a few months ago, a short boat ride sounded nice! When talking to other expats about Bintan, we heard mixed reviews so our expectations were fairly low. We figured 3 nights would be a safe bet, in case it didn't go well. Needless to say, we were pleasantly surprised. The ferry ride was uneventful and upon arrival in Indonesia, we noticed a stark difference between their immigration procedures compared to Singapore. It was one of those experiences that reminds me that Singapore operates at a different level than its neighbors. Once through customs, the resort transported us to the property in one of their SUVs. We don't know why we didn't take the big shuttle bus with the rest of the ferry passengers -- it was just another instance of being treated differently on the trip. I guess an American family of 5 stands out a bit in these parts.

We stayed at the Angsana resort, a gated property at the north end of the island. They have 2 sister properties nearby but we only left the resort once during our stay so I have no idea how they compare. Our resort was really nice. Every room had a view of the beach and the employees were so friendly. They seemed genuinely pleased that we were visiting their country and their warm personalities definitely made the girls feel at home. We had a spacious 2-bedroom suite which undoubtedly helped with sleeping arrangements.

Angsana has its own beach on the South China Sea and it was beautiful. Nice, powdery sand and sparkling clear, warm water with almost no waves at all. It was a perfect spot for 3 little girls to play. We basically divided our days into dining at the casual restaurant, pool time, beach time and sleep time. Repeat over and over again for 4 days and that's the vacation!

Megan and Elizabeth both spent a couple hours at the kids club at the hotel. Megan made a bead necklace and bracelet and learned Indonesian dancing one day and the following day, Elizabeth did a puppet show and painting. Not to be outdone by the girls, Brian played with windsurfing one morning as well :)

To say that the island was lush would be an understatement. We didn't spot any monkeys but with a jungle next to the resort, we saw plenty of critters. Beetles, bees, and mostly just tons of lizards. They defied gravity scurrying along the ceilings of the walkways outside our room. At night we heard all kinds of bizarre sounds that came from who knows what creatures. It was pretty funny. Thankfully we never shared our room with any of the little guys.

Brian had a fun excursion to a nearby town the first night we arrived. He took the shuttle bus to town to find drinks and snacks for our room. The bus only had headlights every now and then and once in town, shady folk were muttering mysterious offers. He was gone for almost 2 hours, at which point I became a bit concerned that he had caused some kind of international incident. When he got back, he was laughing at how the artwork on the outside walkways of the resort were "in motion" with lizards covering all the pictures in the breeze way.

This trip was our first real beach experience with the girls so it was amusing to see how they all reacted to the environment. Megan wanted to splash in the water and inquired about sharks a few times. Elizabeth stayed in the shallow water at the beach but loved playing with the tiny little sand crabs that popped up everywhere one morning. Megan steered clear of them but Elizabeth squealed and picked up all the shells looking for their inhabitants. Even Emily got in the game at one point, thinking it was funny to see shells crawling on the beach. Emily wasn't at all interested in the water. She loved the sand. She spent hours rolling around in it, rubbing it in her hair and even tasted it once. We nicknamed her Tornado Emily because any time we built a sand castle, she destroyed it.

Another benefit of our resort that I hadn't really considered was the variety of food options. They had a fair share of Indonesian food but also a nice selection of Western items to keep the kids happy. We didn't fully appreciate this until we took a trip into the little town, Pasar Oleh Oleh (don't you just love that name?) We planned to do some souvenir shopping and grab dinner our last night. The shopping part went well but when we looked at the menus for the two restaurants we saw, I couldn't visualize at all what our food would look like and that's a problem with children to feed. Many items had some sort of bean curd mentioned and that didn't sound appealing. In the end, we ate dinner back at the resort, our safe haven. On the ferry ride back to Singapore, Emily and I sat next to a couple students and the boy mentioned that the food situation was difficult at their resort. He described several meals of chicken and rice so I guess we were fortunate that we enjoyed variety at our place.

We encountered a pleasant surprise at the ferry terminal -- duty free shopping. We bought a couple bottles of liquor because they were about half the price we would pay normally. That certainly helped end the trip on a positive note. While packing up our stuff to head home Wednesday, it hit me that the post-travel blues that normally emerge while unpacking at home and spending the next couple days in the laundry room would not materialize this time. Thank goodness Delia was waiting for us to return to make our lives easier once again.

So, we had a good first trip to Indonesia. I'm looking forward to my Bali weekend in April to compare. I'd say that we'll plan to return to Bintan but in reality, we have quite a list of places to see before we leave Singapore so we may not have the opportunity. Either way, Bintan was a fun destination for the Deans!