Travel Log: Year End Celebration at Bintan

Destination: Bintan Island, Indonesia

Duration: 2 Days 1 Night (December 9~10, 2016)

Day 1: It’s Zumba Time – How is this even Possible?!

Apparently it was a tradition of our Singapore office to have an offsite Year End Celebration where company-employee contribution was 80%-20%. Family was also invited and the company would subsidize the 80% as well (Flight ticket not included for family from other location though). Therefore, I found myself at the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal in Singapore on a Friday morning boarding the ferry with hb and my Singaporean colleagues.

At Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal

It's time for Bintan!!! An Island that i've never heard before until this trip.. =P

Sammy is happy!!!

We boarded the 9.10am ferry and arrived in Bintan at 9.10am too since Bintan was an hour behind Singapore. 

Time for Boarding

A bit similar to the cruise terminal in Penang.. LOL!!!

Jump!

We got a great spot!

The ferry is similar to the PEN-Langkawi Ferry

Ready?

We had to go through a long queue for custom before getting picked up by buses from Angsana Bintan – our resort for the night. It took around 10-15mins to arrive in the hotel and were served with hot towel, welcome drink (gingery lemon glass drink) & pastries at the lobby.

Arriving in Bintan

This is the Bintan Resort Terminal

Angsana Bintan

The Lotus Cafe underneath the Lobby

Seating

Welcome Drinks & Pastries!

We finally got our key from our lovely organizer to get to 108 – our sea breeze room. The room was okay with a queen size bed and a sofa which served as “THE CHAIR” for our 1 night stay. LOL!!! The best thing about the room was the toiletries which smelled heavenly but unfortunately cannot be taken home as they were in big glass bottle in the name of environmental friendly! *facepalm* If you ask me, I would say it was due to cost cutting. =P

The Chair needs no Introduction!

Our Room - Funny that they have fancy cups but with no complimentary coffee or tea pack

Our Room Key!

View from Balcony

Our group dined in Lotus Café for lunch and the food was mainly Indonesian such as Gado-gado, Soto Ayam, Satay & Otak-otak. I liked the otak-otak but did not really like the gado-gado as I felt like swallowing a bottle of peanut butter. LOL!!! The best of the bunch was the Chili!!!

Greenery beside Lotus Cafe

Lunch Choices in Lotus Cafe

Our Lunch!

It's time to fail the Diet plan again!!!

We had some free time after lunch thus we ended up walking around the resort cam-whoring. The weather was really really scorching there but since free time was scarce, we braced ourselves under the hot sun to walk along the beach and finally getting some swim time! =P 

Time to burn some calories after lunch!

The Angsana Bintan Block

A Small Lake? Drain? LOL!!!

Continue on an Alley between Coconut Trees

Arriving at the Pool!

Jacuzzi!!!

The other End of the Pool

Which leads to the Beach

The Resort & Pool

Looks nice huh? But too HOT!!!

Where should we go?!

Here Perhaps?

A Couple sitting at the far end..

I think this is Bayan Tree Resort

My Crazy Hair!!!

This proves that i was at the Beach under Hot Sun! LOL!!

Thankfully the sun was playing hide & seek with us thus we did not getting burned alive. The bad thing about the pool was there were absolutely no shade at all – the tiny coconut tree didn’t help at all. It started raining cats & dogs after a while but we still soaked in the pool ignoring the risk of getting struck by lightning. *facepalm*

Jacuzzi anyone?

What is this Foul Creature underneath the heavy downpour?

Heavy Rain!

Since the downpour did not stop in time for our games, we had to move our activity to recreational center instead of the beach. First, we had to plank – 90seconds for 3 times consecutively! Holy $hit! First 90 seconds was alright, 2nd 90 seconds was killing and the final 90 seconds definitely killed us! I just wanted to lay on the dirty floor for hours after that. However, that was not to be! We had to start our game immediately!

In Front of Recreational Center at 3rd Floor

Let's start with PLANK!!! *sweat*

There I was hoping for something tame and my hope was crushed when the game was revealed - ZUMBA!!! *facepalm* We were dancing like a (clueless) loon mimicking our instructors’ moves but failed spectacularly. LOL!!! After 5-6 songs, it was time for private sessions for competition! *shocked* Team 1 consisted of 8-9 misfits which I suspected most never dance Zumba before and I was definitely one of them!!!! *hang my head in shame* Frankly speaking, I did not even had any clue on the moves that the instructors taught us. LOL!!!

Zumba!!!

There were 4 teams and for some strange reason, we actually won against Team 3! *shocked* Now we had to dance against Team 4 for the Final without our instructor leading us. WHAT?! We were all like “Can we surrender & let them win?!” LOL!!! One of our colleagues’ wife was the better dancer and ended up have the misfortune to lead the misfits group. Pity her! =P

A bunch of Misfits!!! LOL!!!

Anyway we ended up forgetting most of our moves and kept repeating the same moves over & over again to the crowd’s laughter. Even we were laughing nonstop at our half-a$$ efforts. *facepalm* Our opponent also forgot their moves and amazing our team actually won the Zumba challenge!!! O_O!!! “How is that even possible?!!! Did you bribe the judge?!!!” – cried our Singaporean based Caucasian colleague from our own team which mirrored our sentiment exactly. LOL!!!

We are the Champion!!!

After the games, we were given some times to dress up for our Hawaiian theme dinner. The dinner was moved to the Club house instead of on the beach due to heavy downpour earlier. I did not have any Hawaiian theme dress so I simply brought my old MNG Flowery dress which happened to be the same dress a girl was wearing when we stepped into the lift to get to our room to change. Thank goodness I never saw her again during dinner. How embarrassing!!!

We were driven to the Clubhouse for our BBQ dinner which tasted delicious! I especially loved the BBQ Squid with sour sauce and the super tender BBQ Beef! The desserts were all heavenly and there went my diet plan! *bawling* Did I mention there were free flow of alcohols as well? *evil grin* We had another game after dinner – the Philippine’s version of Hip Hip Hooray and needless to say it was fun. 

At the Club House

All the Hawaiian Beauties!

Imitating Nara!!!

Love the foods there!!! <3

The Hawaiians!

We were also given t-shirt for tomorrow’s game – custom made pokemon t-shirt with our name! How cute! The club house had to be closed early so the party continued to room 116 – the boss’ room! We did not join in the drinking game though as we were all too tired after all the exercise & food.

CUTE!!! But i want Clefairy - not because it's pink but its fingers! LOL!!!

Day 2: Exercise, Exercise & more Exercise!!!

Day 2 began with a short swim at the pool before breakfast at Lotus café. Breakfast choices was aplenty with local & western food such as noodle soup, soto ayam, porridge and pastries. Btw, the chili in Bintan was really yummy and I actually ate it with my egg sandwich. LOL!!! After breakfast, it was time for check out so we left our luggage with the concierge.

A Morning Swim!

Breakfast Time!

Pastries!

See how much food we sampled!!! *facepalm*

THE CHILI!!!

The weather was scorching as usual and we continued on to the beach for our beach games! *drum rolls* Our 1^st game had such complicated rules until all of us were confused which in turn became no rules! *facepalm* Basically, you tried to get the water filled balloon to your team in any means necessary. After the games, chaos ensured with everyone gunning the VP with water filled balloons. Revenge time!!! LOL!!!

Time for the Beach Games!

Getting burned by the Sun!!!

Then we had jump in sack game and balloon train game which we failed miserably. Did I also mention that I won last place for the 50m run competition? LOL!!! The last time I ran was in high school PJ class I think.. *facepalm*

A Picture before all hell breaks loose!

After the games, we were given some relax time before lunch at the beach front café. The food was similar to yesterday’s lunch and nothing special. The beef satay was particularly hard to bite though and there were less choices than yesterday.

Time for Lunch!

Dessert Counter - not that attractive though.. =P

Eating less Lunch due to Heavy Breakfast

Desserts for the Day

After lunch, we had gift ceremony for winners of the games – Esprit Towel set for the girls & Daiso organizer for guys! Oops! It was finally time for Secret Santa! Woohoo!! I saw my name on a Longchamp paper bag and was wondering whether it was really Longchamp or my Secret Santa just wanted to prank me. Well, it was definitely not a prank and I got a Longchamp pouch! Yippee!!!!

The Zumba Winner!!! LOL!!!

Secret Santa!!!

My Longchamp Pouch!!! =)

Since we were only needed to meet at the lobby at 4.30pm for transfer to Ferry terminal, we had another short soak at the swimming pool before taking shower at one of the extra rooms that got extended. It was a long long day and we finally got on the ferry on time and reached Tanah Merah by 7.35pm.

Waiting at Bintan Ferry Terminal

Selfie!

We took the taxi with our KL salesperson to get to Changi airport and had our dinner in Soup Restaurant at T1. The soup was really flavorful & thick whereas fried fish were crispy & appetizing with its sweet & sour sauce. The vegetables were just normal though. We managed to get a voucher to purchase Pokemon plush toys at SGD9.99 instead of SGD29.99 and bought an Eevee. So CUTE!!!

Pokemon Christmas Tree at Changi!!!

Yummy Dinner

Eevee!!!

Isn't it adorable? <3

All in all, it was a fun short trip and I think I exercised more in the 2 days than in the whole 2016. =P