After our four full days in Singapore, we hopped a ferry (I booked the ferry tickets in advance of our trip) for the Indonesian island of Bintan. After customs and some paperwork upon arriving at the Indonesian Ferry terminal, we were escorted by our driver (sent by the resort) to the Banyan Tree Bintan. This was to be our haven on the island and haven it was!
When my kids saw what was to be our home for the next four nights, my daughter, Jessie, exclaimed “I feel rich”. The fact is, we don’t go to many resorts as we favor cities and outdoor experiences over resorts and islands, so we never had a plunge pool. In Bintan we had one! Our villa had two bedrooms: one for Rob and I and one for the kids. We had a front seat view of the ocean, although every afternoon when the tide let out, we only saw mud. (They don’t tell u that in the brochures 🙂 ). In between the indoor bedrooms was the plunge pool and a large outdoor sitting and dining area and an indoor kitchen to keep out the animals, huh? We enjoyed our villa each afternoon during our stay. I kind of felt rich too!
There were 3 restaurants on the property, and 2 others at the sister resort next door. Our walk from the villa to the main area was long and hilly. But that wasn’t a problem! All you needed to do was call a buggy and a staff member would be there to pick you up within 5 minutes. Some of us made great use of the buggies. Others of us (um me and Daniel), made great use of our legs, hills and all!
Each morning we enjoyed the breakfast buffet at Treetops. We had our options of American breakfast items as well as authentic Indonesian food choices. We also had dinner here one night as well and that menu was more focused on the culinary delights of Indonesia. Yes, we had more satay with peanut sauce because we didn’t get our fill in Singapore.
The other 3 nights, we made sure to check out the other resort dining options. One night we had Thai at Saffron. This restaurant was my favorite one of the four nights. The food was amazing!
We enjoyed a Mediterranean meal at The Cove (we also had lunch here one day but it wasn’t cheap!). The wait staff prior to and after the meal brought you over a bowl in which to wash your hands. Funny experience!
Our last night, we walked over to the sister hotel, the Angsana, and ate at the Lotus Cafe. This was my least favorite night, but we had exhausted our options at our resort. I enjoyed our lunch on the beach much more at this hotel, where we ate 2 times during our stay.
Now for what we did on Bintan….um not much! And this was hard for us even for 4 days. We made our way to the beach a few times but the sand wasn’t that grainy soft white sand, it was hard and a bit rocky and every morning, oil washed up on to the shore. (I don’t think this happens all the time, and I will say that the resort was on it each morning having staff rake it up). There weren’t cushy lounge chairs on the beach either and instead we lounged around on bean bags which weren’t so comfortable. We enjoyed the waves, but felt wary of the deadly box jelly fish that Daniel made sure to read about before our trip. Needless to say, we were happier relaxing at the pool enjoying strawberry margaritas and at the plunge pool in our villa, where we could go inside to the AC when we got too hot.
Speaking of hot, Indonesia is hot! (Singapore was too). It was so humid during the day, the nights were cooler but still sticky. In the beginning I was trying to do my hair each night before dinner. I ultimately stopped attempting it, as it would frizz up the minute I stepped foot outside. And this was after having had a keratin back home in NY!
One of the days on the island we booked a driver to take us “wherever we wanted” on Bintan. We couldn’t not do it as our driver was about $100 for the day in a nice air conditioned SUV. What! However, he barely spoke English so it was up to research where we should go. After some frustrating and confusing conversations with our driver and all of us looking at google maps together, we finally arrived at Gurun Pasir, a place Jessie found looking through instagram pictures. 
Here we took some amazing pictures. The water was crystal blue and the dunes were gorgeous. We were the only Americans at the site (there were many other tourists) and I guess we were also somewhat of an attraction as many of the Asian and Indian tourists asked us to take pictures with them. It was surreal. The rest of the day wasn’t as smooth…
With much difficulty, we directed our driver to take us to Bintan’s largest town, Tanjung Pinang. We really needed a guide because we were dropped in what seemed like a seedy part of town, without any other tourists. We stood out as Americans and we were getting the side eye from some and leers at my 16 year old daughter. We were very uncomfortable and after just a block or 2 made our way back to the car and had the driver take us away. Next, with the hopes of going to a local food market, we ended up at a supermarket- that’s not what we imagined! 
We bought aloe and cashews and some other supplies we were lacking. We decided that the smart thing to do was to cut our day short and make our way back on the 1.5 hour trip to the Banyan Tree. We were grateful and relieved when we arrived back to our comfy (safe) villa.
Our last day on the island we got picked up by a local spa in the small village (a sort of strip mall) for our very inexpensive massages. This was the first massage for both Jessie and Daniel (Mason took a pass and stayed back at the resort). The massage facility was clean and quite nice, it was three floors with different treatment facilities on each. It was fun reading all of the messages made of rocks as we ascended up the stairs. However, the AC wasn’t that good, especially on the third floor where we were led to for our treatments. The massages were decent despite the heat and we couldn’t beat the price. Each hour long massage was about $35 dollars when converted from our Indonesian rupiahs. Can I get another massage please!
Later that night, we sporadically booked a firefly river tour. We were picked up by the company and taken about 20 minutes away to the local river. We were placed in small motor boats that held about 12. The tour was fun and exhilarating but also super scary. It was pitch black and our guide made sure to inform us that there are snakes in the trees and crocodiles in the water. Yikes!
The next morning, we took a last dip in our plunge pool (after all who knows when we may have another one) and we boarded the ferry for our return to Singapore for our New Years Eve celebration.
