Life @ Homemaker Inc.: Travel stories: Bintan Lagoon Resort at Bintan Island

This trip turned out to be a few "first" for us.

The 1st First. I consider both of us as travel-savvy. Hence it was highly inconceivable that we both set the wrong time on the alarm clock. Hubs thought he did but realised that it was set at 5am weekday and the day we traveled - Saturday. As for me, I overheard Hubs informed Pak Sumiran (our driver) that we wished to depart for airport at 'setengah enam' (literal translation 'half six'). I did not realise that over here 'half six' actually meant 'half to six' i.e. 5:30am and not as in the English way of 'half past six'. So I set my alarm to get up at 5:30am. So you can imagine the tornado-ish jump-out-of-bed-get-ready-in-5-and-mad-dash-out-of-the-house action that went on.

The 2nd First. We were SO late for airport. Home to airport should take about 45 minutes without traffic. We made it in 20 minutes. Traffic was a breeze coupled with some fast driving from Sumiran. Phew!

The 3rd First. Bintan is an island in the Riau archipelago of Indonesia. To get to Bintan, there's 2 routes: via Batam on "super" local airlines or via Singapore on Garuda Indonesia before catching a ferry to Bintan . Hubs opted via Singapore because he's not going to risk our lives boarding the "super" local airlines, i.e. these airlines do not have very good safety record. *touch wood* Can't believe actually got out of the country to get back into the country again after 6 hours on the road. Just filling up the arrival/departure cards can make one go into a state of confusion.

The 4 First. Bintan is a playground for Singapore and her expats. Or rather the part where all the resorts are situated. When we arrived at Bintan Lagood Resort, we could only check in at 3pm (like who in the world checks in at 3pm these days?!) and so we went to the resort's coffeehouse for lunch. First we noticed of the menu was everything was priced in SGD, although official transactions (read: hotel receipts and billings) are stated in Rupiah. Secondly, the place is overrun by weekenders Singaporean. Everywhere we went we could hear people "jiang hua yu" (speak Mandarin). And by the time we got to our room, I noticed that the hotel is equipped with 3-pin sockets instead of 2-pin. So out goes the window the universal adapter.

But all in all, the resort is rather nice. Great pool, refurbished modern rooms and white sandy beaches. The staff speaks excellent English as well. Weekends are crazy with all the families and vacation groups. Go during weekdays if peace and quiet are what you are looking for.