B is for Bintan

B came up to visit me last weekend. Because he'd seen most of the sights in Singapore on his last visit I decided we'd head to Bintan, an Indonesian island frequented by Singaporeans for a quick getaway.

After being so disappointed with Penang's beaches earlier in the year, I went to Bintan without huge expectations. I was pleasantly surprised and B and I had a really relaxing and fun weekend.



The lowdown:

• We stayed at Mayang Sari, which I thoroughly recommend. The rooms weren't 5 star luxury, but it is a small place and the staff are great. I am really not a fan of big hotels, but if that's more your thing, Nirwana Gardens also looked great.


• The beach near the resort was clean and really nice to swim in. The pool at Nirwana Gardens is really nice and worth the walk up to road.


• We dined at Kelong seafood restaurant on Saturday night. It was an average Chinese Seafood restaurant, that was a little pushy with trying to get us to order more expensive food than we wanted to. It is a really fun location floating over the water though. Also worth visiting if you go to Kelong is the Calypso bar, playing their cool reggae music and serving carribean inspired cocktails. We still haven't figured out why there is a rasta bar in Bintan...


• On Sunday night we went to Baan Aarya and enjoyed really good thai food in a very romantic environment. We followed that with some luxurious spa time - though B has asked that I don't anyone he had a full body scrub, yoghurt rub, 1 hour massage and flower bath.


• We went for a kayak on Sunday and I really enjoyed being out on the water again. I should start paddling in Singapore sometime soon.

Bintan is only 45 minutes by ferry from Singapore and really worth a visit.

We also had two hours to fill in between arriving back in Singapore and B needing to be at the airport, so we raced down to East Coast Park for chilli crab. Yum!