what can i say, our trip to bintan was a blast! but first, we must express our gratitude to the neos (jeremy, heriati and naufal) for planning the trip, from the sourcing of accommodation, to the booking of ferry tickets (taking leave to do so, just to make sure things were in order), even right down to the itinerary and checklist and, ahem, requesting for baby cots. heck, they even handed out to everyone anti-mosquito patches and slathered sunblock on all the kids. they were ever so reliable! you can become our vacation planner anytime. without this resourceful family, the trip would not be even possible. 
we must admit, on any trip, there will always be glitches, so most of the time we ended up free-and-easy and made the best out of the situation. “no whining!”, just as we always tell aniq…
we managed to try the kelong seafood that Is visited. the gong-gongs (ie. snails) are da bomb! although the price is a bit on the high side, i must say, the seafood is excellent. the freshest i’ve ever tasted, better than the kelongs across the causeway, which pale in comparison.
i managed to capture 2 days of bintan sunrises with my shutterbug buddy, jeremy. although the skies weren’t that ideal, we weren’t complaining, we just needed to train our eyes and lenses better to capture the morning view, which by the way, jeremy managed to capture beautifully. check out his flickr!
i had a great father and son bonding with the lit’ one. it’s a great feeling when he would come to me (for a change) instead of his mother, pull my hand and point to something he wants, saying his favorite phase of the moment, “nak!”. we went swimming in the pool for 2 days straight! i remember when i was little, our family had regular trips up north and everytime we checked in the hotel, the first destination would be the pool. just put down our bags and changed into our swimming costumes. aniq is also becoming like that, he just loves the pool. he would constantly nod his head, point to the water slide and say “nak!” but just don’t get the water in his face! even when he is crying, i would deliberately ask him, “nak pergi swimming, tak?” and he would immediately stop crying and answer nonchalantly, “nak”, the little brat! haha!
we had the BBQ on the second night as the pits were all rented out the first night. there were no worries of running out of charcoal as they provided us with plenty, enough to last a week. although more than 50% of the food that Jeremy and i BBQed were on the “dark side”, we enjoyed the ntuc ready-made satays, which tasted really good, especially the gravy.
on the last day, we had a sumptuous breakfast buffet at the hotel. they had everything that you could ask for, except prata. that, you need to get in good ol’ singapore. since we had nowhere to go after checking out, we decided to take a trip to pasar oleh-oleh. (but like what moby said, “not recommended if you have a hyperactive 7 month old baby and an even more hyper 2 year old toddler”…) what i didn’t know was that the place had not changed since i last visited the island, which was like 5-6 years ago. it was really a ghost town, without your love, like a ghost town, baby, can’t you see…. opps, sorry i digress!
it was a really hot and deserted place, but we cooled down in one of the few air-conditioned cafes, ordering tehbotols. i guess we stayed quite a while at the cafe, coz the music suddenly died down, but after we ordered another round of drinks, the sound of bob marley miraculously appeared again as if on cue!
the next shuttle bus back to nirwana wasn’t coming anytime soon, but aniq, being really friendly, managed to charm one of the bintan babes into carrying him. she could be our potential bibik since the current maid’s contract is expiring soon. (well, we DID offer the bintan babe a babysitting job in singapore, hah!) he also effortlessly attracted a cute little thang, but he wasn’t really interested. perhaps someone older? 
with the shuttle bus still nowhere in sight, we hitched a hike in a cab with the mobys (thanks dude!), who were becoming rather uncomfortable in the hot sun, back to the resort, but not before aniq made us buy a mini tabla for his musical collection.
the ferry back to Singapore was delayed for more than an hour, but that didn’t deter aniq from spreading his cheer (and saliva) to the other passengers who were rather amused by his antics. shaking and hi-fiving their hands, from the angmohs to the koreans, he was really enjoying himself amidst the long delay. (his mother’s “no whining!” warnings really work after all.) we really are thankful to God for giving us such a bundle of joy, literally!
so, in the end, the 3 days were well-spent indeed with the family. can’t wait for the next holiday! looks like the mobys have sworn off all holidays for now, so… where to next, neos? ;D
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