HWMBO and I decided that we should take a three-day holiday during our holiday (what I just wrote sounds like “Who put pineapple juice in my pineapple juice?”). We booked one at Angsana Resort and Spa on Bintan Island, Indonesia.
It’s an hour hydrofoil ride from Singapore. However, one thing that I’ll have difficulty getting used to is Southeast Asian immigration. Most countries have an entry card that you have to fill out when entering their country. It consists of a few questions and boxes to tick. When you live in Singapore, however, you get used to immigration queues up the wazoo. To travel anywhere is a foreign destination. Every country I’ve ever visited in SE Asia requires a relatively long questionnaire to be filled out before disembarking. It’s usually a three part questionnaire with the usual questions about who you are, but also asks questions about your travel history and the like. You memorise your passport number pretty fast here.
Then you go stand in a queue for the immigration people. They stamp your passport and the form about a thousand times, then one section is torn off to stay in your passport until you leave. Always remember: put a paper clip in your passport so that you can clip the card into it so you don’t lose it.
I state all this to set the stage for the surprise of this trip: when we arrived at the ferry terminal they already had immigration cards for Indonesia printed for both me and HWMBO! There were only a few spaces left for us to fill in. This was a first for me.
The hydrofoil ride is fairly glum, with nothing but canned TV to entertain and virtually nothing to look at out of the window but -sam, both the flot- and the jet- kind.
British citizens have visa-free entry into Singapore and Malaysia. However, we (and USans) have to pay US$10 to get into Indonesia. They won’t take SG$ or UKP or anything else. The money changers at the ferry terminal do a land-office business in US$.
So we queued up separately (HWMBO, being Singaporean, doesn’t require a visa) and I paid my US$10 and got a receipt, which I then took to the immigration counter, at which three solemn officials sat. The first one took my receipt, passport, and immigration card, and indicated that I should join the queue to my left. He passes them on to another official, who apparently stamps all the necessaries, and passes it on to the third, who produces a lovely page-size visa, complete with holograms and the like, pastes it into my passport, and lo! I’m in Indonesia. Holograms, for a three-day stay!
The resort is wonderful! We got on a bus marked “Angsana” and were driven to the hotel. Coconut palms all around and other lush vegetation surrounded a low-rise hotel built in the colonial style (large verandas, ceiling fans, Sidney Greenstreet^W^W). The staff were a lovely group of people: they greet you in the Thai manner (hands held vertically pressed together in front of the chest, with a slight bow). The colour scheme is tan and lime green–fluorescent lime green (especially the staff trousers).
There were hitches: they thought I was a Danish Christian Hansen who’s stayed there before, and I said “I’m British!” Then they finally decided I meant “British Overseas Territories” and I didn’t have the heart to correct them a third time, so I just crossed it out and wrote “UK”. Our room wasn’t ready; we were sent to another room which was quite nice but a bit small, with a double bed. However, while HWMBO and I were debating whether to ask them to let us stay in that room, we got a call: our room was ready.
The room was spacious, but with twin beds! So much for a dirty weekend…We got ourselves dressed appropriately and went out to the beach. What a lovely site! The beach was wide, relatively clean (they have sweepers, not wearing lime green, constantly at work), and waitrons running around putting orange-tinged icewater in your glass. I just sat, read a book, and enjoyed it, as did HWMBO.
Dinner was a beach-side barbecue. The price was US$24 per person, and we sat next to the beach and enjoyed the very good food on offer. It was buffet-style, and at buffets I usually go around and pick small amounts of lots of things that I think I might enjoy, then go back for large portions of things I really did enjoy. There was quite a stiff breeze coming off the ocean: no wonder they chose this place for a resort: evenings are very cool for just north of the Equator. Here endeth the first day.
Second day was also lovely. Sat by the pool getting somewhat tanned and watched HWMBO swim. What a life! Dinner was at the neighbouring resort, the Banyan Tree. It is a posher resort, but the food wasn’t as good as at Angsana and it was much more expensive. Plus, they had a DRESS CODE at the Thai restaurant! In the tropics? That’s a first for me. So dinner wasn’t as good.
Third day we lazed by the pool in the early morning (after partaking of the breakfast buffet). Buffets in this neck of the woods have to cater for lots of different tastes. You have the Chinese from Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and the mainland, who usually want congee (rice porridge). You have the angmohs from everywhere who want eggs, bacon (in a Muslim country, no less!), sausages, and toast. You have people who want lots of fruit (that’s not hard around here). There are Swiss and Germans who want ham and cheese for breakfast. French people want croissants. So, the breakfast buffet had all that, and more. We were stuffed. The first full day there we ate no lunch to speak of as the breakfast was just right for the rest of the day.
Going back to Singapore, reverse the process. The hotel had our Singapore arrival cards printed out and ready, and then gave us the bill. If we paid in US$, the price for all our meals and drinks was about $250. However, if we paid by credit card, it was in rupiahs, and the price was more than 2 million of those. We paid by credit card, and got back to Singapore in one piece.
Unfortunately, I chose a pricey cab, and HWMBO was very miffed. Tried to apologise, but no dice. Sad end to a nice holiday. My host will be working on him today to cheer up and come on the duck boat tourist ride through Singapore that we had been counting on. If he doesn’t go (his method of making me feel like an overspender was to refuse to go on the trip) then I won’t either. No fun by yourself.
As HWMBO was dining with his parents and brother, I changed hurriedly and went out to dinner with a blogger (on a different system) whose blog I read but had never met. Kevin is really sweet, very shy, and fun. We met up with BK and went to Vincentz, which is the successor to the oldest gay pub in Singapore, Vincent’s Lounge in Lucky Plaza. Quite a drag: I know Vincent and Roger (his partner) slightly as my ex was their lawyer. They weren’t there. So we had one drink and went to Tantric, one of the new pubs. Very nice d