First think I must say up front this blog will be short, well shorter than normal, so you can all breath a sigh of relief. This is due to no longer having a blackberry so I'll be remembering everything :(
My trip to Singapore and Bintan started on Friday, September 25th at the crack of dawn after checking in at the ever convenient Airport Express at IFC. After the day at work I had the pleasure of watching the sun set on my way to the airport. Cleared through security and immigration then set off to the closest lounge to my gate. First job was changing my seat....then locating a seat in the lounge with a glass of champagne.
Always a great way to start a holiday! Just before heading down to the gate I checked in with reception and managed to get a new seat - I hate sitting at the back of the plane! Had a very easy flight, caught up on movie watching and before too long we landed then seemed to taxi forever to our bay. For those of you that haven't been to Singapore before, the airport is the best in the world (my opinion of course) - everything moves along very nicely and there is never a hold up....that's until I arrive and it all goes pear shaped! Clearing immigration was the easy part, watching for the bags was not so much fun. Then came the super long taxi line, it was the F1 (Formula One) race this weekend so I feel like half the world was in the taxi line. Finally made it to the front of the line and was off, although within a few minutes I wanted to get out. The driver would not stop talking and unfortunately as his English wasn't the best kept repeating everything - I was asked every question under the sun (brother, sister, parents, where I live, am I married, how long I'm here for and the list goes on!) and did my best to answer without seeming too rude. I did after all want to get to Juliana and Pete's in one piece. One thing that slightly concerned me was when he said, in an evil laugh, "don't worry I look after you". It all ended well and Pete was sitting outside waiting for me, which was so lovely! I had a couple of hours catching up with him before sleep had to happen.
Saturday morning was very relaxing - lots of chit chat with Juliana. Mid morning Juliana and I decided to go pamper ourselves and get our nails done. Before leaving Juliana and Pete's wonderful apartment Juliana gave me a tour of all the great facilities they have, all SO nice. Don't think I'll be returning to HK!! Anyway back to the nails, sounded like a great idea however as you all know things don't always go to plan for me.......2 hours later I walk out with a different colour than I wanted and literally no nails!!! The first lady I had was useless to say the least, don't think she had ever done nails before. The lady doing Juliana's nails had her sister come in to chat to her and before too long I had her trying to fix my nails. We also had one of the men stylists gluing to us, trying to get us to have our hair done. I was so engrossed in making sure my nails were going to be ok that I wasn't paying attention to the music, however as soon as JJ made a comment about it I couldn't stop listening - every second or third word was the F word and the beat had us in a club, totally not a nail place music. Needless to say Juliana won't be returning there!!!
We returned to home for lunch then I finally started to make a plan for my day. Seems that every time I'm on holiday my organization skills go out the window and I'm on a total "go slow" mode! In the end things always work out though. Mid afternoon Pete and I headed off to Boat Quay to catch up with a very good friend of mine, Matt, who I went to Uni with. Matt had 3 day tickets to the F1 race (which happened to be on that weekend, which I'd been too slow to get tickets) so came out to meet up with us. It was such a buzzy atmosphere and sitting listening to the cars whizzing by was awesome. It of course made me mad that I didn't have tickets. Oh well there is always next year!! Pete and I had a couple of hours there before returning home and having dinner with JJ.
Sunday I headed back to the Boat Quay area to meet up with another friend, Jeremy (son of my "American" parents Anna and Mort) and his girlfriend Kendall. They had been traveling around Asia for a few months, which made me extremely jealous and were about to head to London. It was pure luck we were in the same city at the same time - thank you facebook!!! We visited one of the Singapore Museums before heading back to the Boat Quay area where we met up with Matt and his friends.
I returned back to JJ and Pete's for dinner, where we got a mixture of yummy takeaways from the hawker centre across the road from their house.
Monday I was suppose to work in the office, however was very unwell (thanks to the dinner last night) so had the day at home.
Tuesday I was in the office then went out to Matt's house for dinner. After half the world being on the subway Tuesday morning I decided to take a taxi to work on Wednesday, cuoldn't face trying to get me and my suitcase on!
After work I took a taxi straight to the Ferry Terminal and of course arrived there FAR too early! Was told to be there 1.5 hours before the crossing time and given I wasn't sure how traffic would be I made sure I was there between 1.5 and 2 hours early.
So not needed! As I was walking up to the counter to check in the check-in man called my name, a little scary but he explained I was the only person who had booked in a certain class so he knew it was me. I headed off to clear security and immigration but on talking to the security guy I decided not to go through quite yet. He said there is nothing to look at, but I thought I didn't to at least see what was in the terminal....that would be nothing!!! Decided to kill some time by having something to eat and drink while reading my book. Eventually through security and immigration, waited a few minutes then boarded the ferry.
Bintan, Indonesia is a 45 minute ferry ride from Singapore. After a few rocky bits leaving the harbour we were off and before long arrived in Bintan. I had my own special lane to go in to clear immigration and even had someone do it for me - was a tad worrying when I had to hand over my passport to a stranger and he left the room, thankfully though it returned with no issues. He then walked me out to the hotel transport desk and with my luck it was closed, so back into the lounge area for a bit before the transport desk opened. This was probably the only painful thing about the trip, but it worked out in the end. The bus trip took around 40 minutes, and stepping out of the bus I immediately felt relaxed and on holiday. On arriving at my room, I noticed I had some friends both outside the door and inside my room to greet me - which was of course very nice of them. As I would step closer to them, even though I wasn't actually going towards them, they would dart away and my room would be lizard free to the eye only.
Thursday morning I woke early and went out for a run, it was warm but thankfully not too hot yet. Managed to survive my first outside run in 6 months, although at one stage I could have quite easily have lay down for the day and enjoyed the quiet! Had breakfast at the hotel then headed straight to the pool for the day, where I stayed firmed planted all day - SO relaxing reading and swimming. The hotel is literally in the middle of nowhere, and apart from being next door to another hotel there is nothing else around. So dinner was in the cafe followed by a massage in the amazing spa.
Friday morning no run, but did manage to have a walk along the beach before breakfast. The only noise was from the tractor, going up and down making sure the sand was nice and smooth, and the waves. It was so peaceful as no-one was around. After breakfast I headed to the pool for the normal reading and swimming, I can definitely get use to this! Early afternoon the dark clouds appeared then before too long thunder. I decided to head inside and shortly after the heavens opened! I had made the move at the right time, but to be honest it didn't last too long, so I was able to return to the pool for a couple more hours.
Dinner was on the beach, there was a special Indonesia Satay BBQ buffet -- ooh so yummy. It was nice to spend my last night relaxing listening to the waves crash against the shore line.
Saturday morning I did some laps in the pool before going for breakfast. Basically had the pool to myself which was a lovely change for the previous two days. Had a few hours by the pool before having to pack up and leave for the airport. Two and a half days was enough here to completely relax and given everything was in USD at US prices my bank balance and I were ready to return to Singapore!! The return ferry ride was close to full, a big difference from coming out when it was basically empty.
On arrival into Singapore cleared through customs and then joined the long quee for taxis, there were lots of taxi's around but they were all ordered. In Singapore you can ring and order a taxi, which I think its just brilliant! So the waiting continued before it was finally my turn and I was on my way to Juliana and Pete's place.
For dinner we went out and met up with an ex-colleague of Juliana and I whom we use to work with in NYC. Stephanie was in Singapore for Business and had one night free before jetting off to London. The restaurant we ate at was across the water from where I'd been the weekend before, which I'd be sussing out.
Sunday I went for a walk around Little India, before it got crazy busy with all the crowds! And I thought HK crowds were bad………. Had a couple of hours to relax before heading to the airport to return to Hong Kong.
I had a wonderful week away, was very fortunate to catch up with very good friends and visit a new country!
I hope this finds everyone well and happy, next trip is not until December….really not sure how I will manage!
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