Off to Bintan!

Can you believe we have almost been here three whole months?!

Time is flying and yet I feel like we have been here for years. Everything has become so easily familiar. Our apartment is amazing and starting to really feel like home. We received our most prized possession – our custom neon babels sign by Brite Lite Tribe in the mail. It survived its international journey all the way from NYC! Thanks to Katie and Eric for keeping it safe and then getting it to us!!

While it’s here and displayed beautifully on our kitchen table, we’re afraid to plug it in. WHAT IF IT BLOWS UP AND THE SINGAPORE PLUGS CAN’T HANDLE IT?? I’ll keep you guys updated.

I have started working! While inside I am still a rocking lady of leisure (LOL) always will be, I have gone back to the 9-5 grind. -__-

The fantastic thing about this is I solidified my work permit! Even though we have only been here three months, we had refrained from leaving Singapore until I had my work visa solidified. Since it’s good to go, we popped over to Bintan Island for the long weekend (Good Friday is a holiday here).

Bintan is an island in Indonesia that is immaculately close to Singapore. Pop on a short 45 minute boat ride and you arrive at beautiful beaches, crashing waves, Indonesian massages, and resorts touting the best rest and relaxation you can imagine.

On a recommendation from a friend here in Singy, we opted to stay at the Bintan Lagoon Resort. Lagoon offers its own private ferry to and from Singapore with a ferry port right on the resort grounds. Since this was a bit of a last minute trip, we were unable to book the private ferry on the way there but did book it for our return voyage!

From the ferry point we took a 15-20 minute ride on the hotel shuttle bus which bought us to the outdoor lobby of Lagoon where we were greeted with Indonesian dancers performing in welcome.

This group was everywhere. They performed at regular intervals throughout the day and also at all of the restaurants at night!

Hello! YES!!!!!!! This is what we were here for. To catch some PTRs (prime time rays ugh), relax, and have a fun first venture outside of SG. The views were pretty spectacular. The hotel is enormous – it felt like we walked 20 minutes to our room but the upside is the layout pretty much ensures gorgeous views no matter where your room is.

TT can have the bed! I will lounge here on my day bed for days.

As it was already late afternoon, we threw on our bathing suits and headed out to explore the grounds and check out the pool!

Stopping for some early evening Hunger Games training.

Before heading back to the room to get ready for dinner!

Neither of us were very hungry and hadn’t made a reservation anywhere so decided to wander and see where we ended up. We headed to the beachfront restaurant Nayalan and were seated outside right on the water.

I didn’t really take any pictures of the setting – and to be honest, pics probably wouldn’t do it justice. We were one step above the sand, seated on the open patio overlooking the ocean, easy music playing over the speakers, with smiling waiters circling to make sure every care was handled! No pics of the resto itself but here’s a pic of us before going to our table.

We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to order the Rijsttafle – have you heard of rijsttafle? Directly translated, it is a Dutch word that means rice table. Rijsttafle is almost more of an experience than a dish – it is a series of many side dishes all brought out together and presented with rice…hence rice table. It can have as many as 40 dishes! Unfortunately, we only had 8.

The food was brought out on a giant hanging wooden tray, two waiters struggling beneath the weight.

It was quite a spectacle!

They set the dishes out one by one before us.

Starting with Soto Ayam – a chicken soup with Indonesian spices.

Stewed beef in a tomato chili sauce – this was the best!!!!

An omelette frittata with tofu, fish, and veggies

Some sort of spicy potato cake!

A myriad of fresh seafood in a green curry broth

Crispy chicken wings in a chili sauce ! (I think)

Seared dorado fish with a kind of puttanesca sauce on top served over wilted water spinach and chili.

All accompanied by yellow rice spiced with turmeric and ginger.

Drinks also made an appearance – all spiked with Blue Curaçao

Dessert was a green pancake stuffed with Kaya – a Singaporean coconut jam, and accompanied by some fruits and tapioca pearls.

Not yet ready to go to sleep, we decided to see what the hotel bar/disco encompassed. We were greeted with a beautifully assembled bar- liquors stacked to the ceiling, fun goblet glasses and a full menu of drinks. There was a live band and a DJ who I have to applaud because there really wasn’t anyone in the room but they had so much energy and were really good!

We had one drink and then headed back to our room, ready to rest up for day 2!

Stay tuned for more of our Bintan adventure!!