FIVE HOURS IN BINTAN

It was sunny Saturday morning in April 2019. My colleague from Jakarta, Mbak Sherlie came to Batam for a day trip to collect some documents from customer. Our office's driver picked her up from the airport while I was waiting at the office.  

Once she arrived in office, we went together to our client office in Kawasan Industri Kabil to collect the documents. We waited for quite long there in silent because their office was so quiet. After around thirty minutes, they were sorry to informed that we could not collect it because of some troubles. We meant to go to Bintan after collect it because Mbak Sherlie should go back to Jakarta at the same day (evening flight). 

Long story short, we decided to go to Bintan while waiting the documents to be settled. We asked our driver to drop us in office then we went to Punggur Port by my scooter. 

We parked our scooter at the port's parking lot and bought two of two tickets to Tanjung Uban Port by speedboat. It costed around fifty thousand rupiah. By speedboat, it takes around 15-20 minutes from Punggur to Tanjung Uban, much faster than by RoRo. For those who have short time, I advice you to take this option (even a bit costly). 

We departed from Punggur around 10.30 and arrived around 10.50. Once we arrived there, we rent a scooter from an ojek driver there. It costed 25.000 per hour exclude fuel. I remember we only filled the tank 20.000. Mbak Sherlie left her ID card to the driver and he shared his phone number in case something happen during the rent. 

Our destination was Lagoi Bay. I had been told by a friend of mine, Mas Joko, that from Tanjung Uban to Lagoi Bay should be taken around an hour. But our actual trip was two hours!!!!  😂😂 

Me at Lagoi Bay

Well, with the help from Google Map, we finally arrived in Lagoi Bay safely. The road was so quiet and best for road trip. I really enjoyed the ride even I had so painful butt after 😓 

We had a bit stop during our way to Lagoi Bay. We freely took picture in the middle of the road because no vehicle passed at that time. Don't worry, it is a safe place for traveling, even solo. 

Me, in the middle of the road in Bintan 😍

Sadly, there were so many forest burning along the way. We could see in the right side and left side. 

Can you see forest burning behind me? 😓

We had lost somewhere before we arrived in the right destination. Two hours!! We parked our scooter and made sure it is safe. It took quite long from the parking lot to the beach. We passed some empty shops and playground. It was free to enter the beach. 

Lagoi Bay is a tourist area in Bintan which completed with beach, resort, hotel and plaza. The most interesting thing is the beach. It is typical beach in Bintan with the white sand, clear water and calm waves. Lagoi itself known with its resorts and expensive life because they uses Singapore dollar standard. 

Some of my friends who live in Singapore been to Bintan so many times, much often than to Batam. Bintan is well-known in Singapore. 

We played and took some pictures at the beach before ate our lunch under a tree. We bought nasi lemak and some snacks at Punggur port before we departed. After lunch, we took some more pictures at the beach but unlucky, rain suddenly came and we ran to a shop. 

Before lunch under the tree

We had some ice cream and snacks in front of the shop while waiting for the rain to stop. We talked each other and kept updating the documents status from the client. 

Once the rain stopped, we walked back to the parking lot and rode back to the port. It was surprising me that the journey back took shorter time, an hour only, through the same road. 

We returned back the scooter to the driver and took the ID card back. We departed back to Punggur around four and rode back to office with tired and happy face. Such a short and nice adventure. 

Nos vemos,

Kirei