Bintan, Indonesia 2007

Bintan Lagoon Resort Pool and Main Building

Bintan Lagoon Resort is a fast speed ferry ride, about an hour, from Singapore. The Resort overlooks the China Sea and is in the Riau chain of islands of Indonesia. You go through Customs and Immigration and you can buy duty free. We added this trip to our Singapore holiday, where we were visiting my husband's family.

Bintan Lagoon Resort Beach

Red neck palm trees are beautiful and the gardens are tropical and lush.

Koi carp in the foyer pond.

There are two 18 hole championship golf courses, the Jack Nicklaus Sea View course and Ian Baker-Finch Woodlands course. They are in fantastic condition at all times.

The restaurants are all good quality and there is a shop selling clothes, souvenirs etc. There is also a small grocery store selling basics. There are 12 restaurants and bars in this resort ranging from traditional fare through Japanese, Grills, beach bars, ice cream cafe karaoke and a nightclub. There was always something different on offer in regards to food and beverage here.

The gorgeous staff of the Horizons Bar. Our son played chess here with the staff. They taught him some of the names of the chess pieces in the Bahasa language of Indonesia. CHESS - SKAK. King 'Raja'; Knight (horse) 'Kuda'; Bishop 'Mentri'; Pawn 'Pion'; Queen 'Ratu'. No problem at all they love people talking to them while they work and they must meet so many different nationalities of people.

The resort staff were so very friendly and there are nightly traditional dance performances held in the main reception area of the hotel.

There are lots of water sports and other activities including jet skiing, snorkelling and banana boat rides plus the resort has its own Amusement Arcade, pool tables and Laser Quest Centre.
There are cooking and painting classes also.

Puppet for sale

There are cooking and painting classes also. I painted this in oil which took ages to dry and gave it to our relatives in Singapore.

I also went on a bus and boat trip to the mangroves and saw monkeys and snakes along with beautiful orchids and there were villager's fishing 'houses' set up along the river where they stay and fish for a week and then pack up and go home.

The Kelong is a fisherman's wooden structure built above the sea by driving wooden piles into the seabed and used for commercial fishing. In the past, the Kelong was built permanently for about 6-8 months or during the fishing period. These days, fishermen build the structure on land and drag it by boat to the sea whenever they need it.

Fisherman setting traps

One thing about this place is that the whole island seems to revolve around the many resorts. They are so organised and there are hundreds of activities. Along the way there are flats which are 'staff quarters' where the people who work come for a few months, work, go home for 2 days and then come back again to work.

Bintan was the first place I have been where they checked under the transfer bus with a long handled mirror to look for anything concealed under the bus. I guess that terrorism has well and truly put an end to uncomplicated travel.

Oh well ... don't let things like that ever stop you!!!