A little R&R

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Singapore was great, but we thought a vacation in February should really include some beach time. So, we hop on a ferry for a 1 hour ride to a nearby Indonesian island, Pulau Bintan. This little resort island is a favorite destination for Singaporians, and as we discovered, expats like us who are enjoying touring around Asia. Not much to do here. Mostly beach and food - yep, I can live with that! A few of our first day quotes might help set the scene: "Was that a monkey that just ran into the road?" "Uh Mom, there's an elephant on the beach." Exploring beach tidepools: "Ahhhhh! Everything is moving!" "Wow, this pool is amazing!" and finally, "Ohhhh, the pool is warm" . We had more fun in the pool with this loppy little $5 ball we purchased in Singapore. We enjoyed 2 days of family time and then met up with some friends from Shanghai who also had a 15 and 13 year old boy and girl (Now how lucky is that!) for our last 2 days there. We read books, enjoyed too much sun for our white caucasian skin, and feasted on a few interesting meals. Other memories: Toes in the sand, otter like rodents playing on the beachside rocks, warm, tropical breezes, locals gathering dinner way out in the low tide corals, dinner on a stilted restaurant with big storage pens beneath for the fresh catch, and difficult choices of either "nothing" or ride awhile into a town, or rent a bike or tour fishing villages....nothing always won out.

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Photos

Island cruise
On this ferry, we traversed the Straights of Singapore to the island. The number of boats - all kinds - outside Singapore is UNBELIEVABLE!! Major shipping goes on here. I managed to avoid sea sickness while Ty and Jess enjoyed watching Chinese soap operas and their humorous Chinese-English translations.

Smells like vomit
The people of the region LOVE this fruit - durian. However, it smells SOOO bad, that they have to ban eating it in public places. Must be an acquired taste....

The best part...
The pool at this resort, perhaps the largest I've ever been in, was perfectly leveled with a rim that dropped off to the beach below. We spent many hours in and out of it.

Playtime
Because of the nets, this became one of our favorite areas of the pool. We played "keep away", "pool hockey", and because it was so tough to get a basket, the usual game of "P-I-G" had to be shortened to just "P". Pity the nearby poolside loungers though that suffered from our many missed balls.

Chinese New Year
The poolside Chinese New Year buffet at the hotel included such things as a Mongolian Barbeque, exotic fruits, lobster, squid, crab, and of course a dessert assortment. I must say though, Chinese just haven\'t figured out how to make a luscious, fattening, chocolate dessert like the Americans have! During the meal, these dancers performed traditional Chinese and Indonesian dances. Lovely, warm evening.

Tossed salad
The hotel celebrated the new year with a lion dance, performed by locals, and the largest salad toss I've ever participated in. Large tables were spread around the lobby, each with a large salad bowl, large amounts of tropical type salad ingredients piled on, several extra large chop sticks, and regular size chopsticks for everyone. On the count of three, everyone shouts, digs in the chopsticks, and flings the salad into the air. We're covered with stringy, oily, salad ingredients and then we all get plates and scoop some out to enjoy. Tasty! Gong xi fa cai!

Yes, we have no bananas!
This 24 year old Sumatran beauty is named Hanmet. She has a boyfriend at the zoo and, as Jessica discovered, LOVES bananas. Jessie lifted a banana toward her and discovered that "the trunk is quicker than the eye". Jessie, Ty and I all took turns riding her along the beach. Personally, I could have used a few more inches of padding under the tooshi, but loved her gentle loping gate and hearing the forceful slushing of the water as she trod through the water on our walk along the beach.

A stroll on the beach
Ty enjoys an evening ride along the beach.