I met Dear at Tanah Merah Mrt in the early morning at 9 plus. He fetched in a cab from his home. I was waiting for him at the taxi stand and wow, he came in a Merc cab to get me, so 'high class'. Haha.
We arrived at the ferry terminal and checked in...and waited for our ferry.
The sea view from the ferry. The water has started to turn blue as soon as we get out of the grey waters of SG.
And the itchy famous Dear's hands posing for the camera
We reached the blue waters and blue sky of Bintan. Check in at our hotel- Mayang Sari!
Dear at the patio of our sea view chalet!
Our room- pretty spacious though a little old. The wooden floor creaks.
The inner part of the room with the changing area
The view from our patio. Beautiful! And ya, that's how close our chalet is to the beach :)
We changed and went to explore the beach. The blueness of everything was simply amazing and beautiful.
The white sand was so soft. And the waters were gradients of blue. It was mid noon. Super hot too! 
As we walked along the beach, we took photos and picked seashells. The water was so clear and nice!
The water was so clear that we could see fishes swimming around!
And we saw lots of hermit crabs! My first time seeing them. Even saw a mini crab but it got tossed away by the sea waters before I can take a photo of it.
Dear lazing around. He said: "So nice that I can walk around without wearing a shirt. Only at the beach can you do it." =_=
After we had enough of hanging around the beach becos it was so hot, we decided to go to Pasar Oleh Oleh for spa and lunch.
It was quite late after we bathe and booked a car to take us to Oleh Oleh. Around 3 I think. Was super hungry.
We got one of the restaurants there, Helo Helo, to fetch us there- free transport provided we pay around $35 at their restaurant.
The small little van that came to fetch us. Almost felt as if we are on a mini safari trip haha.
The village of Pasar Oleh Oleh.
The people working here are so savvy. Once our mini van stopped at the village, the restaurant staff started asking us if we want a spa and recommended us to the Aura day spa in the village. They insisted that we booked our spa first and pay a deposit if we wan to have a spa.
As they led us to the spa and transfer us to the spa's staff to take a look, I felt almost as if we were being handled by a tourist- tricking syndicate haha.
The people at the village were friendly but you can tell that they were eager to earn tourism money. There were almost no tourist at the place. While it is good to have such peace and quietness, but it was also kind of spooky for me.
Our super late lunch at Helo Helo. We tried the satay, grilled prawns and cereal crab. Not too bad but the dishes were not really to my liking, maybe because the whole meal was so dry. All the dishes don't have sauce. But the satay was pretty good, tender and juicy and so charred like the ones in Singapore.
We also bought a big bottle of mineral water to top up the $2 we needed to fulfil the minimum spending.
The rustic feel of the place.
And as we were eating, we saw a squirrel ran into the cabinet of the outdoor cooking stall of the restaurant. There was a small commotion as the staff tried to chase out the squirrel. Not trying to be picky since we are in a nature place but so much for hygiene. Eww.
We went for our spa after the meal. Here we are doing foot reflexology after the spa.
It was my first time doing a spa. We chose to do a full body massage and scrub. The massage was quite painful and the scrub was super painful though it did remove my rough skin. But next time, I'll pay more to go to a better spa I think.
It's quite cheap here but the quality's not as good. The staff was nice but I felt grossed out that they started massaging my feet first and then with the same pair of hands, massage the rest of my body. Hello, my feet are dirty ok after stepping around in the sand, and they didn't even ask us to shower first or have a foot bath first.
After the spa, we bought some snacks and went to the new shopping village opposite but there was nothing. Dear had wanted to buy polo tshirts but they were still quite expensive, like not really dirt cheap. We later went back to the hotel. See the dark roads? So scary. Amazing how they can drive in the dark.
And after getting back to the hotel, we went for dinner at the Thai restaurant.
We walled along the stretch of dark road to the restaurant. I had read online that the food was good although it's expensive. But the food in Bintan is expensive, better to eat the better tasting food to make it worthwhile right.
The restaurant was so much more posh than I thought it would be, it's like a fine dining restaurant. There's an al fresco area that has a great view of the sea that I think will be very beautiful in the day when we can see the blue sea. It was all pitch dark when we were there, no scenary at all.
We ordered grilled beef tenderloin, sauteed bamboo shoots and pandan leaf chicken. Very nice!
The beef tenderloin was very well done, just nice. I'm so impressed, considering this is not a western restaurant and not western restaurants can do it so well.
The pandan chicken leaf was very aromatic although some parts were charred. And the bamboo shoots were great. First time that Dear act ordered vege and enjoyed it although after a while he started getting sick of the vege.
It was my best meal in Bintan I feel although it was pricey.
After we paid the bill, the staff was nice enough to send us back to the hotel on a buggy. No walking back on a full stomach! Yeah.
Our resort was all pitch dark with no road lamps along the walkway. We retired for the night before I was awakened by Dear in the middle of the night because there was a bat flying in the room.
How it got in, I have no idea. But I'm amazed Dear can hear the bat flying around, he said I was sleeping like a pig to know anything.
I was pretty freaked out by the bat and pushed Dear to walk across the room to open the door to let it out. Lucky it went out.
And then back to sleeping again for me. Heeheehee.
p.s But yes I was really quite disturbed by the invasion of the bat although we are supposed to be surrounded by nature. But hey, isn't this a civilised resort? But oh well, it's one of the few times that I'm glad I have a man with me. ^ ^
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