Our New year trip to Bintan, Indonesia ( Day 1).

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First of all I wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous New year 2018.

Since this year Jan 1 falls on a Monday we decided to go on a new year weekend holiday trip to Bintan. Islands of Indonesia have been a great destination of weekend getaways from Singapore.
Our itinerary for the whole trip was as follows:
We boarded the Ferry at 8:40 am on 30/12/2017 at the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal.

20180101_175055 — Tanah Mera Ferry Terminal.

caption — Departure and Arrival. PC: tripadvisor.com.sg

Travel from Singapore to Bintan takes about 2 hours. Due to difference in time zone. The local time at Bintan is 1 hr behind Singapore time. We reached Sri Bintan Pura Ferry Terminal at Tanjungpinang at 11 am Singapore time (i.e)10 am bintan local time .
We had hired a taxi driver to drop us to our hotel. We stayed at Comfort Hotel .

We had our lunch at the Hotel and then after settling our Baggage in our room we decided to start our day as planed .
Below are few pictures of the Hotel Comfort that we stayed in.

Day 1: We went to Treasure Bay .This is an amazing place to visit. A must Visit for Water Sport Lovers and Adventure Seekers.( you can spend an entire day here since treasure bay is upto its name – you find so many fun activities to do here.
Things we did and the places we visited in Bintan:
1) Mangrove Kayaking : This was an incredible experience. Controlling the direction of the kayak was at first a bit confusing, though we ( me and my husband) got the knack of handling the paddle and control on directing the kayak soon. We were given 1 hour for kayaking since that is what we had opted for.

20171230_161646 — Our Tram that took us to the Mangroves from Treasure Bay.

20171230_161523 — Pic taken from our Tram, en-route to the mangroves.

20171230_161741 — Entrance -The Entrance itself gives us a feel of the adventure ahead.

20171230_161929 — Each one of us were asked to pick a paddle and so we did.

20171230_161915 — Kayaks gathered together ready for the Adventure.

Yay! we are ready for Mangrove kayaking.

20171230_164752 — Row ,Row, Row,Row your boat gently down the stream.

There is also a 30 min kayak and many more combo packs available where you can choose the list of adventure sports you wish to try out.
For more details click on the link given below.
Click here for more info on Treasure Bay Bintan.
2) Bintan Mangrove Firefly Adventure: This was an unforgettable experience . How often do you go on a motor boat into the mangrove at night to catch fireflies.

20171230_182137[1] — Welcome to Bintan mangrove ( time was 6:30pm when we went)

20171230_193748 — Path to the boating area.Looks spooky at night doesn’t it?

2018-01-03-12-54-50-223[1] — The Spooky Path that I showed above leads to the ticket Counter.Well, a little suggestion, book your tickets early since the tickets get booked quite quickly in here.

We had booked 6:30-7:30 pm slot for the firefly adventure. We were then taken to a 6-7 seater motor boat, but the day we went it was just us ,the other slots for the night were all booked but ours was empty. Well this added to the beauty of the whole experience. Haha, this had now become more like a private boat trip into the mangrove to catch the fireflies. I couldn’t record or click pics in the dark but the whole experience was amazing and worth the time.

2018-01-03-12-57-08-3381 — Our Motor Boat.

As we sailed across the Sebung River into the Mangroves. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Nature’s beauty is truly the definition of exquisite beauty. The brightly shinning moon above us,the serene vast river around us,dark night sky lit by shimmering stars and the mangroves lit by the little fireflies and in the middle of the huge river just the two of us ,there was so much beauty around us ,it truly is a splendid memory that I will cherish all my life.

20171230_183700[1] — Guide Map of the Sebung River where we were taken for the adventure .Fire flies were in abundance at point 4,5 and 6 in the map shown.

We were given instructed not to clasp our hands to catch the fireflies as this could kill them. We followed the instruction and caught many fireflies(Though catching them is just momentary as they are smart little ones that escape quite quickly).This was fun and at the same time the most beautiful experience in my life.
This is definitely a MUST-GO adventure trip if you plan to go to BINTAN.
3) Indonesian cuisines to try out:

bitmoji-20171215052629 — **Now comes the most delicious part of the travel, a list of all the different Indonesian cuisines we tried during the trip.**

To know the names of each dish click on the respective image below.

4) Shopping at Tanjung Pinang: Below is a list of places we checked out in person for Shopping:

Ramayana Wiratno.
Tanjung Pinang City Centre.
Bintan Indah Mall.
Pinang Lestari.

To be frank Bali was much more fun for Shopping. Out of the four shopping malls mentioned I personally liked Tanjung Pinang City Centre. The rest are just usual city malls . Ramayana Wiratno Mall ,prices are cheaper compared to rest, this mall is mainly for Clothing.
There is something called Tanjung Pinang morning markets which has been voted the best according to most of travel bloggers whose blogs I have read.This however is something I can’t comment on much since we couldn’t go shopping here as most of the shops in the morning markets were closed as it was New year’s eve.
Nevertheless, I did manage to find a lovely traditional Wooden Necklace in Tanjung Pinang City Centre.

20180103_211715[1] — My shopping Collection from Tanjung pinang.

We love collecting Fridge Magnets of places that we visit and guess what we did manage to find one from Tanjung Pinang as well.

5) Maxx Coffee for Coffee Lovers: This looks like a Starbucks replica . Similar ambience and service.I tried my usual Starbucks favourite ” Chocolate Chip Frappuccino” in my opinion it did taste similar to that of Starbucks as well.When you go to Bintan do give it a try. It definitely is worth a shot.