Ok lil background abt this island. It's privately owned by some expats in Spore (heard they r developing another island, but tink it's more atas than this). They r v eco-friendly and emphasise on leaving as small a footprint on e island at possible. the design of the houses are amazing. it's v open, alot of natural light, e seabreeze just blows into e house all the time, everyting is crafted and built to perfection! i felt v liberated stepping into the hse.
You have to tk a ferry from tanah merah ferry terminal to bintan. afterwhich you will b driven (1-hr car ride) to the private ferry terminal, where u take another ferry (half hr) to e island. So in totally takes abt 2 and a half hrs to reach there.From observation, only couples and families w young kids visit this place. the accom is $330 per night, e food is $80++ per day and the transfers to e island from bintan ferry terminal $70++. All the activities on e island is free. you can snorkel, windsurf, kayak, everyting is free (except diving).
So once we reach there, we explored e hse a lil, went on e beach took some pics, snorkeled a lil den went for lunch. all these while i only had sunblock on my face. stupid me :(
e food i tell u, is delicious lk hell! i polished everyting they serve me! im lk in love w e food there. some of e nicest dishes are not above coz i didnt manage to snap any pics before i gobbled them up. my fav dish e whole trip would have to b e risotto! it felt lk e whole sea was swimming in my mouth. i loved loved loved it!
ok. anw so aft eating so much (lunch r usually 3 course n dinner 4 course), we went kayaking arnd e island. and guess wat? we saw schools of flying fish! and while kayaking we kept hearing thunder. lk constant thunder! but everywhere looked bright and sunny, until we were abt 2/3 through, we could see e rain clouds approaching, and tt was when both of us started to panick and hurry back to shore (we were doing 1 whole round abt the island rem?) e last 1/3 of the journey was e toughest as we had to go against current most of e time. sososo happy when we finally made it back to shore before it poured lk crazy. so from abt 4pm to e nxt morn it rained. but it was really exciting! e wind was so strong e whole hse was shaking at nite!! hahaa.
e 2nd day was spent doing pretty much e same tings. eat.slp.read.snorkel.drink.eat.slp.kayak.eat.drink.slp.
haha. one of e exciting tings we did was to stop at tis bunch of rocks at sea while kayaking. it was just a crazy idea lor. had to struggle to tie e kayak to some rocks so tat it wont float away while we explore e rocks. lets just say i wont try it in e near future.
the staff on e island outnumbers e no. of guest, can u imagine that? there's only 16 houses on e island. the staff r all extremely friendly. had alot of fun chatting with them at e bar, which was our fav haunt on e island.
anw, i strongly recommend anyone who wants to go for a real short hol. although this might b a lil pricey but it's definitely worth it!
