Our trip for the winter holidays did not get booked till very very late in November. As we finally had figured we would meet with friends in Singapore and Malaysia around new year we decided for the week before, when we would be with just the 5 of us, to find a relaxing place near there. Not wanting to take another flight (too late to book a connection) we opted for Bintan Lagoon. A planned resort area by the Indonesian government on the otherwise unspoiled Bintan Island, only 50 min by fast ferry from Singapore. The place caters it appears to 80% Asian clientele (many Chinese & Indian) and offers beaches, spa's, jungle, pools, restaurants and mainly a lot of golfing. We ended up with a 4 bedroom villa with our own golf cart to drive ourselves around the resort - bot bad at all!
The little resort tourist shopping village really was tiny but we got a dress for Kaat, water gun for Rick, cap for Eelco and wine for mama and crackers for Duuk so all sorted. Nothing much to photograph - liked this one only as it is such a nice reminder how small even my little boy still is!
The beach was very nice. The sea to wild to swim (red flags) but the kids are more interested in the sand when on the beach anyway. It being a little overcast most of the day was also nice and saved us from sunburns (we still all got a good tan & lots of freckles)
And the beach bar was nice & relaxing and served very good fish.
For swimming the kids preferred the pool. There were 2 big ones so we spent hours & hours in the water;
or under:
By the time Rick finally came out of the water he often still refused to leave the pool and wanted to stay nearby in case he wanted to go back in later
Fortunately no problem at all to get some snacks & drinks serves poolside - just a major challenge to keep it away from our super fast grabber!
Duuk really discovered his tongue whilst on holiday (and got 2 additional upper teeth - huge ones) and so was very impolite but funny to everyone.
The only real touristy thing we did (Elephant rides we can easily do on India, same with visiting spice plantations etc) was a Mangrove tour by boat.
Rick got to help the pirate captain steer the boat.
Duuk clearly loved it a lot too - even though we suspect he saw none of the snakes, lizards, monkeys etc.
The beauty of the place is difficult to capture on camera.
Instinctively Duuk also appeared to grasp what to do as soon as the boat made some speed.
On the way back we also got dropped for a little while in a fisherman's village. Nothing sold there so it was not really a tourist trap. Rick & Kaat resorted to weightlifting coconuts.
and pretending the pigmy trees where houses.
The Christmas celebration was not a major affair, as could be expected in a muslim country. The hotel was decorated in the to us familiar colors of Mardi Gras. At first we thought they maybe had mixed things up but it was the theme for the new years party. There were a few xmas trees, turkey was served at the christmas buffet, we could buy christmas cookies & loaf (stol) at the coffee shop etc. Good enough for us.
And even Santa made an appearance.... considering there were 50 villas and 300+ hotel rooms and this being the WHOLE turn out for Santa, Christmas was clearly not that important to most guests there.
Santa's visit lasted 15-20 min which was good enough for our kids.
Kaat felt a bit the need to look after him and stay close. We where not convinced Santa understood enough English to realize Kaat was chatting to him non-stop from hotel entry to the function room.
Ho Ho Ho - Santa was so small that he scared none of our kids. After the 'Zwatte Pieten debate' in the Netehrlands it was funny to se ethat Santa had painted his whole face white - as in ghost white.
Lovely relaxing week with lots of quality family time -:)
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