Bintan 2015 Day 2 – To the beach and back

Woke up the next day at 930am Singapore time and thought that we were late for the included breakfast where in fact, Bintan was 1 hour later than Singapore. Proceeded to the Treetop restaurant for the breakfast using the buggy and unexpectedly we saw so many people dining in the restaurant, a stark difference from the dinner the day before. The breakfast included was buffet style, a combintation of local and international food. The end time for the buffet was 1030am Bintan time but that was more than enough time for us to eat. As usual, baby slept a while in the stroller before fussing and thus we had to rotate to carrying him and having breakfast. Bringing him to the view deck outside made him sleepy before we were ready to leave, he was fast asleep in my arms.

Buffet table.
Buffet table.
Variety of crepes, pancakes and pudding.
Variety of crepes, pancakes and pudding.
Mixed Omelette ordered from the kitchen.
Mixed Omelette ordered from the kitchen.

It was after breakfast that our displeasure for this stay started to accumulate. We received a call somewhere close to noon time, asking if we needed a buggy to check out. I didn’t expect to hear that as we were booked for 2 nights. I told him to check as we were staying for another night and he quickly apologised.

One of the activity we were looking forward with Jr. was to gave him some swim time in the tub. So we tried to fill the marble tiled bath tub with water but the lack of hot water issue was there. We called the reception and they got engineering to come have a look but after checking, they informed that we had to wait for the hot water which was about 45 mins and that the amount of hot water wasn’t enough to fill the tub. That was just utter disappointing as we knew the baby would enjoy the swim in the tub (as what we had given him in the staycation). Furthermore, with Jr. crying in my one arm and the staff explaining to me concurrently (as the wife was busy), I couldn’t get him to work on it further and excused them.

We had to use quite a bit of tissue paper to dry out the feeding bottles and the tissue boxes ran out. We called the reception not once or twice but three times before it was finally delivered to us. We didn’t know if this was because we were staying in the villa the whole day (we skipped lunch due to the full breakfast) so that the housekeeping wasn’t able to do their job or what but we weren’t happy with the slow response. The housekeeping only came in the afternoon and topped up both tissue boxes and some mineral water.

We ordered a light meal and it was delivered and set up at the table at the balcony. It became cold quickly since the sea breeze was consistently strong. Portions were quite big so we left them unfinished. Staff later called to have them picked up, which was good, knowing that these would definitely attract ants.

Spring rolls and laksa. Didn't look appetizing.
Spring rolls and laksa. Didn’t look appetizing.

Wanted to visit the beach so we fed the baby before leaving. The beach was located at the other end of the resort and definitely required a buggy ride. There were 2 other restaurants, The Cove, mediterranean cuisine and Saffron which served Thai, at the beach entrance. There was also another pool as we approached the private beach, shared by Banyan Tree and the Angsana branch. We stroll around first visiting Angsana, which seemed more crowded (as it was more family oriented) with quite a crowd at the pool before taking a stroll on the wooden bridge to the rocks. There was a sign that offered insect repellent to prevent sandflies bite. I wasn’t in the mood to feed these insects and so we briefly took some photos and returned back to the room, getting on board the buggy which had just ferried some guests over.

Swimming pool near the beach.
Swimming pool near the beach.
Large pool at Angsana resort.
Large pool at Angsana resort.
Private beach shared by Banyan Tree and Angsana.
Private beach shared by Banyan Tree and Angsana.

After arriving did I realised that I left the room key behind because housekeeping was at our villa before we left. Luckily he was just a 2 villas away and he helped us open the door.

Didn’t get to dip in the pool for 2 reasons. The pool water was “dirty”, contaminated by the fallen fauna in the morning as it rained. Housekeeping didn’t clear it up either and so I only dipped my feet into it for a while, and activated the jacuzzi jets just for that. The other reason was that baby had to be looked after while my wife was busy.

For dinner, we visited Saffron, the Thai restaurant. For this meal, I only brought along the car seat since I could just place it on another seat, removing the extra load of the stroller. As we arrived and got seated, there was a lion dance going about at the entrance before the 2 lions came into the restaurant itself. We were at first concern if the noise was going to frighten the baby but there was’t an issue. We even managed to take a picture with the lion, which was modernly designed with ironman-like lighting on its head.

Modern design of Saffron restaurant.
Modern design of Saffron restaurant.
Lion dance in the restaurant.
Lion dance in the restaurant.
Tasty desert but don't know what it is.
Tasty desert but don’t know what it is.
Appetizers of chips of sauces.
Appetizers of chips of sauces.
Chicken kebah.
Chicken kebah.
Phad Thai.
Phad Thai.
Tom Yum soup.
Tom Yum soup.

The Thai dinner tasted so much better. Even though it was fine dining, the food portions were adequate. This, of course, came with a cost as well.

Retired back to the villa after dinner, catching up with some Tv before going to bed.