Bintan - Day 1 (Part 1)

... Continued from previous post ...

Once we got to the jetty, Dearie and I took our attendance at the Nirwana booth and was told to board a green bus. The ride to the resort was very quick. When we got there, we admired the very beautifully landscaped resort. Very Singaporean styled cleanliness. Haha!

Once we reached the lobby, we were greeted by YL and Evon (they stayed over on Friday night) who calculated our arrival extremely accurately. They handed over their room key and were off to their 30min head and shoulder massage ('cos 2nights stay entitles them to this free massage).

Dearie was planning to sleep till the afternoon. Both of us still sleepily browsed through the channels offered. Nowadays hotel TV channels getting better. Not only got HBO and CNN, even got Disney channel, and at Bintan can get the Singapore channels also. Haha!

It wasn't long before the girls got back. They were going for their breakfast so I decided to tag along. I dragged Dearie along. Here's a lesson YL taught while we were going to the lobby: Smile on 3 when taking photos. Why? 'Cos it makes the smile look more natural. Here's what they took when they held their smile from the count of 1:


Here's the one on the count of 3:


Really got difference horz?

Anyway, a quick shot of the lobby with Dearie giving a whole-hearted yawn there.


Then we saw this somewhat life-sized chess set and decided it was only appropriate if it was used as a phototaking opportunity, so we all got into a frenzy and started messing it up.

Here are the ones with Dearie and me:



And then there's Evon and YL:


After that, Dearie couldn't take it any more and so we gave him the key to go back to the room for his sleep.

We girls just continued with our photo taking. haha!
Here's me as queen:


And YL as king:


We rushed off for breakfast at The Coffeeshop (yep, that's the name of the place where breakfast is served). The regular hotel looking place for breakfast. It was already 10am and breakfast was to stop being served at 10:30am.

I was hungry but I watched them eat anyway. It seemed like a good spread... then I saw on Evon's plate - SPAGHETTI. My tastebuds just awoke and craved for some too. YL helped me get the ala carte menu and I asked the waitress to get me a plate. She told me it'd be a long wait 'cos the kitchen would be busy with the lunch menu, but I told her I'd wait.

Before long, it was 10:30am. A waiter came over and told them that they were going to clear the buffet spread. Then he told me something I'm sure I wouldn't have heard in Singapore - "The kitchen is too busy to be able to cook your portion. You can go get the food at the buffet. We won't charge you. We're clearing up already. Quick go and take." (Ok, so I can't remember the exact words, but that was what he meant.)

I was so happy but paiseh sia! I got Evon go go help me grab the food 'cos I just felt bad about eating without paying. First thing I attacked was the spaghetti of course. Mmmmmm... As we got to the other end of the spread, the fruits were already being kept. The same waiter came over and (these ARE the exact words), said "Quick! Quick! You must be fast! You want some fruits? Take take!" WOw....... He led Evon over and scooped some onto the plate before we hurried off, unable to contain our laughter. Such a nice fella that guy....

Anyway, breakfast ended soon enough and we smuggled a cupcake and pastry for Dearie (confirm once he wake up, I know he'll look for food). We wrapped it up in a serviette and tried to hide it from any prying eyes but alas, we were spotted by the waiter and YL said he saw him laughing before he ran off. Oops. So much for discretion.

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I wanted to go take a walk around the place so before heading up to our room, we walked past the poolside restaurant (where Evon and YL had their dinner on their 1st night and said it was BAD), the pool (so tempting to jump inside there and then), and a playground (with 2 swings! you don't get swings in Singapore any more!). We walked over to a hammock and it seemed to be the only one around. It was in a good spot and again, it was phototaking time - else what to put on blog right?

YL and me


Evon


YL and Evon


YL and I


YL was getting really comfy so Evon started to swing YL off. Heehee.. Have a nice video clip of that. heeheehee...

We found a couple of trees with a good view behind and took the rest of the photos for this entry.

YL


Me pretending to climb the tree (but land up looking like I'm humping it)


Evon - Indian style


Evon and I fooling around


YL acting cool


Me acting chio


Evon just being Evon


YL being narcissistic


Actually, YL was being really narcissistic this whole trip and took alot of her own photos. (The following 2 are just a preview horz.) She made sure she deleted the bad ones though. Damn..




It was noon and very hot indeed. We headed back to our room. [We dropped the camera case for my camera. We went up a flight of steps nearby, realised it, walked back and scoured the area and couldn't find it. Mystery till now. There was no strong wind, no passers-by, and the ground was relatively flat. Where did it go?!]

Anyway, stay tuned for part 2...