Mr Koh's birthday coincidentally falls on the Deepavali Long weekend this year =) hahaha.. Good news for him, as the whole Indian community is celebrating his birthday with him.. hee!
So this time round, we ventured out of Singapore and went over to Bintan for a short getaway / celebration.. haha.. a first time for both of us! Naturally, we were excited.. haha.. Coz we are going to get our passports stamped again!
We woke up real early to catch the ferry at Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal.. haha.. We woke up when the sky was still dark.. haha.. reminds me of my schooling days..
and had paus and tea for breakfast.. haha! while we filled up the departure cards... it was a nice wait outside the ferry terminal.. enjoying the morning breeze and admiring the birds chirping.. =)
This is dearest Mr Koh, all ready for a fantabulous weekend getaway... haha.. with his small bag (I'm truly amazed)
This is me, inside the waiting area.. behind me, as you can see, were gps of families, and alot of AMs... goodness.. I didnt know we have so many of them in Singapore.. all heading to bintan too.. perhaps for some golf sessions.. =P
Us inside the comfy ferry... much more spacious and comfortable than the ferries to batam.. haha.. Behold, we are heading to the 'tok-tourists-until-siao' island.. HAHA!
This is their arrival hall... and just a simple stroll around the shops, I got a taste of how much things will cost here.. We got ourselves prepared.. Thankfully I got my card with me =P Not enough cash can swipe swipe swipe... haha... Things there are similar to the prices in Singapore, if not even pricier.. HAHA!
Posing with the shuttle buses.. haha.. Ours was the white bus on my left! =)
We reached in about 15 mins of bus ride..
We were welcomed with some traditional dance.. I must say the dancers had very wide and nice smiles.. haha.. The lobby was pretty spacious too =)
We had a welcome drink too! Bintan is a land of AMs... hahaha... We were easily outnumberd by them... We knew check-in time was 3pm, but was just trying our luck to see if there were any available rooms for us to just unload our barangs.. haha..
No luck on that! haha.. so in order not to waste time waiting for 3pm to come.. we walked around the resort to see what we could do for the day, and the next day too =)
This is the swimming pool! =) Lush greenery.. coconut trees, palm trees.. huts, blue waters... how beautiful! I can't wait to just dive in and play / wade in the water.. haha..
Skies still looking good! =)
snap snap pictures of the terraces facing the sea.. haha... how I wish we could have gotten one of those rooms.. =P
Self timer shot of us.. =)
Slowly, we appraoched the seaside.. to enjoy the sea breeze and lovely sunshine =) What's a resort getaway without Mr Sun? haha...
This is one of the nicer looking restaurants in the resort.. haha.. sea-facing, open concept, loft layout... pretty cool.. appealed to the AMs alot.. haha.. reminds me of cafe del mar in Sentosa.. =P I'm sure the charges are exorbitant too..
We didnt spend too much time at the beach, but instead just walked around the resort =) exploring and snapping pics along the way..
Other than the usual rooms, the resort has villas to accommodate larger groups of tourists, be it families, large groups of friends, etc... Cool! imagine a whole house to yourself.. haha.. fully equipped with a kitchen, living room, a private pool, etc...
We sneaked into a vacant house.. hee!
See the private little pool behind him? haha.. far cry from the bigger pools nestled by the resort rooms.. and see the can of 100 plus in his hand? That silly can costs $3... If we hadn't felt super thirsty, we wouldnt have entered the 'convenience' store in the resort to buy this.. haha.. our first 'tok' of the day =P
We continued with our exploration and stopped by a pool when we saw these 2 little angels... =)
Red baby says to Pink baby: "Stop running, I'm coming after you..." haha.. so cute!! *pinch their cheeks*
Enough of wandering round the resort, we succumbbed to the evil growls of hunger.. We were so hungry we could devour a cow! haha.. Initially we wanted to go for the lunch buffet, going for $22++ per person (I think so.. haha!), but thinking that we would be going for a nice dinner in the evening, we decided to opt for ala carte instead...
We were at Kopi-O cafe.. haha.. the same place where we would have our breakfast the very next morning..
His lamb burger with fries.. haha.. He's very into burgers..
Can't figure out what I'm having? haha.. It's chicken fillet coated with egg... drizzled with tomato paste with vegetables..
Lunch was not too bad... enough to fuel us till evening.. haha..
Still no luck with the rooms, we decided to walk to the recreation centre.. and see if we could play/try any games.. haha..
We chanced upon his favourite darts... haha! and I picked up a thing or two abt this game.. haha.. accuracy and good mental calculation is all you need.. I think I did averagely well... haha.. for a beginner =)
Tried our hands at carom too.. this game made my fingers hurt.. haha! must be the way I hit the chips.. =P
Finally, we got to check in! =)
Nice interior decor.. clean, and modern looking.. no complains... haha..
only disappointment we had was the balcony view.. hahaha.. tell me what view is this? =P reminds me of some halls' window view in NTU... quite pathetic~ haha..
We went for a swim in the afternoon and hopped from one pool to another.. haha.. We played with our favourite hoops game.. trying to perfect our shooting skills in water.. haha! We went to try out the water slides too... and again, I need to emphasize.. again, that I slipped and fell... HAHA! =P Thankfully, it was just a harmless slip when I was at the start of the water slide... maybe just a small baluku on my head and butt =P
Skies started to turn grey.. and we were able to spot lighting and hear thunder after an hr or so of water fun.. =P boo~ such a wet blanket *pun intended* We decided to head back to the room to rest and clean ourselves up before dinner! =)
Dinner was at this cafe del mar-like restaurant called 3 Degrees.. Weather was pretty bad coz the rain didnt seem to stop.. since evening time =P and we just had to carry our brolly along coz we were too hungry to wait for the rain to stop.. haha..
As we didnt make prior reservations, we were given outside seating, and it was a hair raising experience, more so for me.. haha!
As it was super windy... my hair was flying about everywhere... HAHA! I really mean everywhere.. and it lasted for quite some time throughout our dinner.. until I had to borrow a rubber band from the waiter to keep my hair in place.. at least together.. =P
Seafood tempation - succulent king scallops, big prawns, mussles, and fried mashed potatoes.. $36++
BBQ chicken with garlic rice and vegetables.. $33++
We ordered drinks to go along with our meals.. haha.. how often do we get to splurge like that? But it was Mr Koh's pre-birthday dinner.. it was all worth it =) Food was nice too!
Yay! A nice picture of us to remember the dinner that night =)
Not feeling very full from the dinner earlier, we went in search of some light snacks after that... haha!
posing with the lobby again, different atmosphere at night... Felt very balinese...
The birthday boy striking a handsome pose..
Our cheese platter... with an international selection of cheese, I'm not good with the names, but I know there's blue cheese... haha.. my fav part of the dish - the grapes! hahaha... next the crackers.. =P
We went back to our room few moments before the clock struck 12 midnight... haha... I whipped out the Jacob's creek bought from the tanah merah ferry terminal and a little muffin I prepared earlier.. hee! Forgetful me forgot to bring a candle + lighter (how could I?).. but I brought along the candle stand.. How silly! =P haha..
Birthday celebration in a simple fashion... See the invisible candle? haha...
Another fruitful year has passed... It had been a good year for us =)
Happy Birthday my dear!
