Sunday morning started with a cloudy morning. The lack of curtains made the room bright even as early as 530am. I was woken up by my body clock and spent some time in bed writing up the happenings (not much in fact) the day earlier and even had time to wash the milk bottle and the utensils that I missed out washing the night before.
As mommy and K laid sound asleep, I decided to explore the island by myself, walking around barefooted like an islander. Proceeded past the usual building of the bar and then past the bigger villas, meant for families and further through a forest to the swimming pool. Dipped my foot in the slightly chilly water and took a couple of photos before heading back to the main beach. Took in the powdery sand with gentle turquoise waters view and returned to our villa, to find mommy and K downstairs, awake already.
Bad news was, K was having a fever. Worse news was, we forgotten to bring the paracetamol and we had to return home today, one day shorter than the planned. Obviously this meant that we had to forgo the SGD480 per night room plus ferry tickets to be paid for changing of time. What a bummer.
Went to the reception to borrow a comb and thermometer but they didn’t have at that time so I returned to the villa and together with mommy and K, we went to the dinning place to have our breakfast.
One set of Indonesian and one western, plus K had a bowl of honey stars, out of a choice of 4 giant glass jars. I ordered omelette, tomato and sausage and they delivered more than one plate of omelette, a mistake that they admitted later on. For Indonesian, there was some curry flavoured stuff, some kueh lapis and donuts. There was also toast with butter and a fruit platter to finish off. Fruit juice and coffee were the drinks. Very filling.
We broke the bad news to the staff when they asked how we wanted our lunch. The orders were changed to just rice and some bread so that we could take those away. The staff helped to make arrangements for our sudden need to depart and managed to find the ferry arrangements. We were then due to leave on the 1pm boat from the island, checking our at 1230pm.
Wanted to try fishing and so we proceeded to where the makeshift fishing rods were and asked the staff at the bar for some fish baits. The staff came back with the squid fish bait and showed us how to attach to the hook. Walked to the pier and started to fish. As soon as the bait went under the surface of the water, we could feel the rod shaking as fishes attacked the bait. Then as I picked up the rod, we saw a fish trying to shake itself off the hook. We caught a fish!
Quickly took a few photos to mark this momentous event when we caught a fish and then tried to remove the fish so as to release it back into the waters. Tried a few more baits later only to find the bait totally eaten without catching any fishes. I guessed they learnt.
As we were trying to lure the fish, I noticed something fell into the water making a splash. I asked if mommy had dropped something, like her handphone and it was! It slipped from her pocket when she sat down. I immediately informed one of the staff who was on the pier and he quickly jumped into the water and attempted to retrieve it. Through the clear waters, I directed him to the location and he got it back for us.
We returned back to the villa after returning the bait to the bar. Mommy put her handphone into the bag of uncooked rice that we have packed for the trip, initially meant as dinner for K. Since the kitchen cooked for K, we didn’t use it.
While mommy cooked soup for K, I did whatever packing there was. Then we went over to the reception to ask for the staff who helped us retrieve and handphone and gave him a small appreciation of SGD50. Later we visited the kids club for a while and K tried the old free house which he despised after climbing a little and went over to the new but not yet opened tree house to take the swing and cross the bridge. Mommy took some time off to explore the island later joined us at the kids club.
Back at the villa, K started to have lunch first and so I returned to pick up the meals which was already ready at the bar. After k finished his lunch, both mommy and I quickly took turns for a quick bath before the resort staff came to pick up the luggage.
We did our checkout at the same bar, mommy paying the meals for SGD200ish, a price mommy found steep which I thought was expected since it was quite delicious and supply was a monopoly. We also had to pay for the transfer that didn’t come with the hotel booking and it was another SGD200ish. We waited until it was time to go and proceeded to walk to the other jetty, as it had left choppy waters there. Other than us, a couple of other families were also leaving the island. Boarded the fast craft and not long later, we were waving goodbye to the staff on the pier and the boat sped across the waters, creating water splashes that interested the kids seated at the back.
K was not as active as he was, probably due to the fever and also nearing afternoon nap time but he didn’t puke. 20mins later, we were at the same private pier and onboard the MPV by ourselves, each families getting their own. While on the road, K fell asleep real quickly and both his parents follow suit soon after.
The journey back to the terminal was uneventful and as the car stopped for us to disembark, K woke up. One hour of nap time wasn’t enough, evidently as his activity level stayed low. We went to the ticketing counter and mommy paid additional SGD78 for the change in tickets. The economy option was an additional SGD60 so it was not a bad deal to just settle for the Emerald, in return for priority embarkation and disembarkation, lounge use with free drinks and more comfy seats.
After using the restroom, getting a free drink and getting online with the free slow WiFi, we were called to board the ferry. There was no need to rush since we had allocated seats and sat comfortably, except that my chair was automatically in inclined position upon resting my weight on it. Got a free drink onboard as well. K though constantly being sponged by us was enjoying the early bits of the onboard show of Alvin and the chipmunks (again, patience too short to last the entire movie). And before we knew it we were disembarking, going through immigration and one of the first few in line and waiting for the luggage on the small belt. Carpark fees was SGD42ish.
Trip was a nice return to nature, a getaway true to its name. While physically we were away from the day to day familiarity in the form of electronics and online games (no Pogo monsters on the island) that created time for bonding, such as fishing and playing sand. However, as unpredictable as life itself, the trip was abruptly shortened due to a fever and we weren’t prepared like we were used to, having forgotten to bring along our paracetamol, a lot of money spent wasted and value of traveling time under utilized. Nikoi Island could have been fun, evidently family oriented as observed by the number of families there but expensive due to its exclusivity. Our boy may have been too young to enjoy it all, and we would probably not be back anytime soon, considering other more convenient places available.
