Happily Drooling in the Corner...of Indonesia

On Monday morning I rode the ferry from Singapore to Bintan Island, Indonesia. On the hour-long ferry ride, the tv screen mounted on the upper corner of the ceiling aired nothing but Michael Jackson videos. It was weirdly satisfying to hear "Billie Jean" while seeing Singapore grow smaller and smaller in the ferry window while heading to Indonesia.

I’d heard that the Teluk Sebung area where the Bandar Bentan Telani ferry terminal is based was pretty touristy, so based on the advice from the trusty Lonely Planet, I opted to search for less traveled places and instead took an hour-long cab ride after the ferry ride to Pantai Trikora on the eastern side of the island. I split the $36 (U.S.) cab ride with an Austrian urologist guy, Josef (could pass for Woody Allen's cousin) and I hate to say this (and I know it's terribly un-PC) but his accent reminded me of that Austrian-turned Nazi-character, Rolff, from The Sound of Music...I'm sure he would've loved it if I shared that with him! Once we arrived to Pantai Trikora, the cab driver offered to take us around to several lodging options since neither I nor Josef had made hotel reservations.

The first place was the most secluded, at least ten minutes from any other lodgings but the mosquitos ate me alive during the few minutes we were there and, despite the incredible view and solitude, I knew that the bloodsuckers would've affected my experience quite a bit.


I felt like Goldilocks (“This bed’s too big, this bed’s too small, this bed is just right!”) self-indulgently weighing which place in paradise would be suitable. But when we reached the fifth place, Nostalgia Yasin Bungalow, I knew this was the place for me. Each room was a small, charming sea cottage raised on stilts above the water and close to shore. My window and small back balcony overlooked the ocean and a few nearby islands. The rustic bed comes with a rose-patterned, white mosquito net around it (which is needed) and a floor fan (no air conditioning or hot water by the way, but I don't think they should missed here). Nothing fancy--you could see the water below through the floor slats and the ants and mosquitos were even closer--but it was charming and perfect all the same. Although the water here wasn’t quite as mesmerizing or as clear as the waters of El Nido (it probably isn’t fair to compare any place to El Nido’s beauty), the sounds of the waves lapping and the peaceful expanse of ocean was more than plentiful in their own beauty. And the best part was that this room cost $35 SGD (or $25-27 U.S. per night) as opposed to the $100+ rates for places usually found on the island. Here are some views from my back balcony during low tide.






Here's the sign for the Nostalgia bungalows (love the two Ls in “welcome”).



After the sun set, I rode a pretty-painted tricycle (motorcycle-driven pedicab) to the nearby Argo Beach Resort to email Cai, Ces, and my sister about my exact whereabouts (so they wouldn’t worry) but then also stopped by their Asian Bistro restaurant for dinner. The restaurant, too, overlooked the night ocean. I ordered an Indonesian dish, Gulai Ayam—a somewhat spicy curry with chicken wings and rice. Plus another Indonesian dish, Pempek Kapal Selam and Lenjer, basically a glutinous-y fried fish cake with boiled egg yoke as a filling and served with a sweet vinegar-based sauce. And to complete the meal and wash it all down--a can of Bintang, an Indonesian Pilsner. Together it all cost about $8 total (U.S.)...pricier than the Philippines but cheaper than many places in Singapore (with the exception of affordable places like the food stalls at hawker stations). The electric moon, in dramatic form, began to rise above the now-darkened horizon, orange as the hottest piece of coal.



On my second day, while having a breakfast of toast and an omelet (more Western-style breakfasts on the menu), a butterfly (the back of its wings were black with white dots outlined in purple) came for a visit and kept coming back to the table, landing on my head a few times. I took that as a good sign and started to head back to Argo. My day consisted pretty much of two things, either reading or staring out towards the horizon and ocean. I did more of the latter, several hours of it, in fact, eventually feeling drowsy in the afternoon and taking a nap. My favorite spot was sitting on this adirondack type of chair under a large umbrella made up largely of palm fronds for shade. I leaned back in the chair and just stared at the sea, listening to the waves lapping against the rocks. Eventually, I did return to my room for a nap, but that was the gist of my day--a lovely itinerary of pure idleness! This was my view from my chair...



A dramatic storm clouds brewed for about an hour or two later in the afternoon. I stayed in the chair (and stayed mostly dry under the umbrella) until the sight of lightning nearby forced me to move inside.


Don't these boats just beg to be sailed?



For dinner, I headed to the SunMoon (complete with a small attached room for karaoke), an open-air restaurant facing the Java Sea, and tried two popular dishes in Indonesia: Seafood Kway Teow (flat rice noodles with squid, fish cake, mushrooms, chicken, and kailan served with a serving of some kind of spicy pepper--habanero?--sauce) and sauteed kailan (also called Chinese kale) with garlic, mushroom, and oyster sauce. Somehow I fit all this, plus a mango shake, in my belly! God, the gluttony never ends! Funny thing is that Josef (Woody Allen's cousin in another life) was sitting across the way in the restaurant watching the World Cup when an operatic cover of the first song that Julie Andrews sings in the Sound of Music ("The Hills are Alive...") began to play in the restaurant...weird. I almost choked on my shake from laughter. Well, my short trip to Indonesia was such a tease, but relaxing and I hope to return for a longer stay...

Some cool images of vintage Indonesian ads in the ferry terminal:


Onto to Ho Chi Minh...more soon!

Some quick factoids about Bintan Island:
1) It's the largest of 3,200 islands in the Riau archipelago
2) third largest of the 27 provinces in Indonesia,
3) population: less than quarter of a million
4) mix of different cultures and ethnicities, include Malay, Bugis, Chinese and a unique tribe called the Orang Laut (sea nomads).
5) Land area is 927.53 sq mi
6) According to Wikipedia: "Bintan's history is traced to the early 3rd century. The island flourished as a trading post on the route between China and India, and over the centuries it came under the control of the Chinese, the British, and then the Dutch when it was declared part of the Dutch East Indies through the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824.[6][7][8] In the 12th century, the Bintan island in the Strait of Malacca was known as the "Pirate Island" since the Malay pirates used to loot trading ships sailing in these waters."





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