After getting back from India early Thursday I just had two days in Singapore before heading to Indonesia with Elsa and Djamila, to the island of Bintan about 45mins ferry-ride from Singapore.

 

We left Saturday late-morning (I changed our 8am departure to 11am after getting back from India :-)), arriving in Indonesia around noon. Not having booked anything, we started off by trying to find out where to go. We had a few ideas, and definitely wanted to get away from the resort-part of the island - a secluded area off-limits to locals, where most Singaporean and other tourists stay in western-style hotels and resorts. We had read about the East coast, which was supposed to be more ‘authentic’ and far less crowded, so we looked around until we found a taxi willing to take us there.

 

The driver was kind enough to show us a couple of different places we could stay once we got there, and we decided on a nice rustic place with huts sitting on stilts in the sea, and something that looked like a decent eating-place.

 

The beached were white, the palms green, the sky blue and the sea turquoise - If paradise didn’t have fresh powder and steep slopes, I guess it would have looked something like this. The contrast to Hawaii, my only real point of reference for this kind tropical island, is the poverty amongst the local population, and the fact that unless the beach happens to belong to a resort that cleans and maintains it on a regular basis, it appears to be littered and polluted. I imagine partly as a result of the heavy traffic in the Strait of Malacca, and partly by the lack of waste (or recycling) facilities. But granted I could be wrong given my limited sample...

 

There wasn’t too much to do, except rest and eat, so that’s what we did. I had hoped for some snorkelling or SCUBA-diving, but they told us this would be a complicated affair involving boating and guiding, so we didn’t bother. And it was surprisingly nice to just rest and read on the beach for a day - although I usually tend to prefer to be more active when I’m out :-).

 

We caught the ferry back late Sunday afternoon - merry,  relaxed, and lightly sunburned. I’m not sure I’ll go back to Bintan, but it’s nice to know paradise is never further away in case I have a weekend to spare, and need to escape city-life for a while!