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.Variety of crepes, pancakes and pudding.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.
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.Large pool at Angsana resort.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.Lion dance in the restaurant.Tasty desert but don’t know what it is.Appetizers of chips of sauces.Chicken kebah.Phad Thai.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.
This is the first outing for us where we are bringing Jr. with us. Our trial destination to test your baby’s temper while overseas is Bintan. At least there isn’t a need to negotiate the flight which could be very difficult due to the pressure equalization during flight, causing many babies to cry, some I heard could last the entire flight. How tramatising is that for everyone on board. In order to get back to the old traveling lifestyle, we were going to introducing traveling progressively to our newcomer. We started off with doing staycation to test how both us and the baby can accommodate to different room environment, at Equarius Hotel over at Sentosa. Managed to keep the baby happy and ourselves managing the duties well. So onto stage 2, overseas resort stay.
We chose Bintan Bayan Tree resort for a couple of reasons. First it is reputable brand and therefore should be most comfortable for stressful travelers such as 1st time parents like us. Transportation could be arranged so that we need not be concern with how to move about and focus on taking care of the baby. Secondly, the resort has baby friendly necessities to be rented, things like sterilizer, baby bathing set and cot. These made feeding a little easier. Third and most importantly, there weren’t other options available already since we booked really late and the rooms were mostly fully booked, many like us have taken advantage of the super long weekend of the 2015 Chinese New Year. The popular Club Med and the sister company of Angsana was fully booked. Obviously, this comes with a (hefty) cost as well.
I had taken leave on the eve of Chinese New Year in order to prepare early for the trip while my wife was still on maternity (best time to travel without taking leave). By the time we are done packing, we had a whopping 6 number of luggage/package for a 3D2N stay. Both my wife and I share a backpack for our clothes while others consist of 1 bag for baby (clothes and stuff), one diaper bag (with many bottles), one day trip bag (containing pumps and carrier), 1 stroller and 1 car seat. Loaded everything onto the car and off we drove to Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal, arriving just past 1 hour before boarding, and parked the car there (maximum parking fee cap at SGD $20/day).
Checked in 2 bags at the counter (and they advised that we should bring up the stroller where people will help us bring up the ferry and not check in since it might get crushed) and proceeded to have lunch at the big but crowded Killiney Kopitiam, where choices were limited. Had to gobble down the fried rice before the baby woke up after napping in the stroller. It was a struggle to negotiate the snaking queue and managing a stroller, a restless baby and the other bags on hand, but the most difficult was to get through the detector where we have to drop all the bags, empty the pockets, push the stroller to the other side and pick up everything again, with hordes of passenger passing through.
Once we were through to the immigrations, it became better. Went to the counter together where we had to scan the thumbprints for the adults while the kid had to pass through. As we have purchased the Emerald Class seats (something like the business class for the Bintan Resort Ferries), we then proceeded to the lounge on the immediate right hand side. Again, there were other choices as the economy tickets were all fully booked for that time slot of 2pm and no more tickets till after 8pm.
Lounge at Tenah Merah. Not many people since it was already boarding time.
Baby started to fuss after we entered the lounge and there were many people in there, all waiting for boarding for the same ferry. Successfully calm him down by walking him around within and outside the lounge (there was a door to the hot weather outside) and feeding him with milk (important to keep the milk supply in the carry on bag). The boarding time wasn’t on time as the ferry came back late and the passengers in the normal seats were boarding first (exceptional since Emerald class was supposed to have priority booking), so my wife brought the baby to the restroom (where there is a changing pad) to change his diapers. The call for boarding came soon after and eventually we were the last to board, with quite a bit of walking from the lounge to the ferry. It was easier though since people were available to help with the barang barang and the stroller. I had to fold the stroller myself since the people weren’t familiar and brought the car seat up to the 2nd floor of the
Emerald class where the baby can sit inside it, placed on an individual seat between me and my wife.
Some say that babies enjoy ferries trip since the up and down motion of the ferry on the sea makes a baby sleepy. That was true to a certain extent but mine wanted to fuss before going to sleep. Before he made a huge ruckus, I carried him and walked and rocked him a bit before he felt asleep. Put him back into the car seat where he slept till we got off the ferry. There was a free soft drink or mineral water for those in the Emerald class on top of the supposedly more spacious seat and the priority boarding.
Priority in getting off the ferry was a gift for us as it was easier to be ahead of the crowd that could get a little rowdy. It also meant that we were first few to clear immigrations and get on with our journey quicker. Baby slept through immigrations, and luggage claim and even at the waiting area that Bayan tree had for guests. Though we had arranged for a private transfer, we had to wait about 10mins for it to arrive before it was a 5 mins drive from the terminal to the resort. The driver was wary of the sleeping baby and drove smoothly and slowly over the many road humps within the resort.
Bintan terminal.Banyan tree waiting area at the terminal.
Once at the Banyan Tree resort, we were brought to the library to do the check in, where every guest was being served with the paper work brought to them. While we waited, we were some gingerly drink, not so tasty. After the signing of the papers, we were brought to our villa using buggy. We tried asking for late check out (as wife needs to use the facilities before boarding the ferry back) but as expected, we were told that they were fully booked. Travel about the resort would require buggy most of the time since villa were isolated and to get to the restaurants was a bit of distance. However, buggies were readily available upon call.
Gingerly welcome drink.Library where check in took place.
The villas were built on slopes and there was a stairway down to the main door of ours from the main road. Climbing up and down that flight of steps was challenging with the amount of luggage we have but it was ok with help from the porter. The first door of the villa led to a small garden/compound before a 2nd door to the main villa. This reminded me of a temple, whereby the front door had a small stepover.
As we entered the villa, we were impressed by the spa like design of the villa, nice wooden furniture with warm dim lighting and also some scent incense for use. The bed was a little high to climb up onto. It faced a majestic view of the South China sea with a constant cool sea breeze blowing about. There was a huge open balcony that had a small dip pool and a sun bed and a spacious area that had a table with 2 chairs, good enough for tea.
Spa like design.Comfy bed facing the sea but quite high to reach.Side table with Nespresso machine.Day bed.Open balcony with dip pool.Toilet in a separate room as the sink.Concrete bathtub with rain shower.Open closet with bathrobe hanging.
During booking we have requested for some baby items to be prepared but unfortunately it wasn’t ready at the time of our arrival. We had to make constant calls to get sterilizer, cot (which we didn’t use as it was too deep), diapers (Drypers that we didn’t trust), bathing tub and accessories. The milk warmer was a struggle to arrange as the staff wasn’t sure what it was and never came. Spent some time in the villa, enjoying the sea breeze and waiting for my wife before it was time for dinner.
Baby accessories like sterilizer, cot etc.
The buggy came soon as we called for it. We brought the stroller and the car seat along so that we could place the baby inside it while we have dinner at Treetop restaurant, the main restaurant in the resort. It was empty when we were there and remained so till we were almost done. Jr. was napping in the stroller for some time until he woke up for milk where we had prepared some bottled milk to feed him. Ala Carte dinner wasn’t particularly tasty, and we were left disappointed with the Otah, thinking it would taste about the same as the ones in Singapore. Not to mention the hefty price tag that came with it. The staff helped to call for the buggy as I trudged the stroller up the stairs.
Starters.Siew Mai cabbage and Tohu.Otah Otah.Caramel coffee.Omelette wrapped rice with satay.Local soup.
Night had fallen and as we arrived at the villa, the stairway was in complete darkness. Seemed like lighting have broken down and the staff said that they would get engineering to look at it. In the meantime, I had to navigate using phone light with all the barang barang.
The milk bottle warmer was delivered but not working. We called the reception and they delivered another sterilizer. Then we called a second time and they said they had to check but didn’t get back to us. Some time later, we called only to be told that they do not have another one. We made do with the disfunctional one by manually boiling water to warm up the bottles.
As I took a shower, I noticed that the water pressure wasn’t consistent and the rain shower wasn’t able to sustain due to this. The water temperature wasn’t hot too but since I wasn’t using the tub, it didn’t occur to me as a major concern.
Since it was the eve for Chinese New Year, some treats we delivered to the room while we were away for dinner. But we didn’t dare to take these chocolate/sweet treats as there was an ant standing on it, which was a real turn off. They also gave a red packet with 2 chocolate golden coins, interesting way of mark the day but no thanks to the ants, we left everything untouched.
Ang Bao with chocolate golden coins and the breakfast in room menu.Mandarin Oranges and CNY treats.
Spent the whole night in the villa itself, perpetually busy with entertaining the little one and feeding him with cleaning his feeding bottles and freezing the milk in the little bar fridge punctuated with watching some satelite programs on TV before going to bed, with the familiar routine of interupted sleep and night feeding. As Jr. wasn’t quiet all the time, it was great that the villa wasn’t close to the next one, and thus there weren’t complaints of him being too noisy when he cried.
Total duration 3D2N Singapore is 1hr behind Bintan. Ferry time is 1hrs on Bintan Resort Ferries from Singapore to Bintan. Afternoon ferry on 18th February at 2pm and arrival in Bintan at 2pm.. Return ferry is on the 20th February at 230pm and arrival in Singapore at 430pm.
This escape plan was planned as our trial trip with the coming of our little one. We chose to visit Bintan because we wanted to introduce progressively travel to the baby and therefore find an overseas trip where a flight was not required. It was a super long weekend holiday as the Chinese New Year was on Thursday and Friday and what better way to travel without taking official leave?
Budget nature: Budget buster.
Although it was a simple trip to Bintan, the last minute booking coupled with the long holiday period meant that prices would be marked up. The amount spent on accommodation was already very high, the Chinese New Year day room rate was more than double on the usual day itself. Due to unavailability of the ferry tickets at that time slot, we had to settle of the “business” class seats and that was slightly less than twice an economy class seat.
Complexity: Easy, except for adapting to traveling with a baby.
Since all the transfers were arranged, there was nothing difficult about getting to the resort. All these comes with a cost but when travelling with a young one, paying some to remove transportation worries might be worth it.
