Bintan

One day, Mr G and Good Friend decided to go to Bintan.

Mr G met Good Friend at Tampines MRT where they took a train and bus to Tanah Merah ferry terminal. Their exciting day began with their awe at the spacious and comfortable Mayang Sari room. But because Mr G had not slept much the day before and since both of them were early for their planned itinerary, they napped for a while before leaving for Pasar Oleh Oleh.

Enchanted by a particular sleepy restaurant tucked at a corner where there was hardly a soul, Mr G and Good Friend decided to fill their tummy in this refill station. By refill, it also meant a Bintang beer! It is usually not advisable for one to do a massage straightaway after a heavy meal, but the two went ahead anyway with a two-hour body massage and scrub. Both agreed the soothing head massage was a blast, but Mr G was actually secretly hoping that the head rub would not give him a literal post-massage hair-dropping experience!

Thereafter they returned to hotel to walk down the wet beach. Wait a minute, wet beach? Durrrr... but it was wet as it had showered mercilessly earlier and the sand was slightly cold to the touch. Sill Mr G and Good Friend thought that might have been a blessing since nobody came out from their warm little huts. Thus the entire beach was theirs. Until they realised later that they shared it with the mosquitoes!

Admidst the tiger balm that Good Friend was quick to offer to Mr G in their room for their itch, they realised they were losing their cup noodles eating time! Good Friend hardly ate anything while Mr G could have been easily mistaken as a part-time fire-eater when he gobbled down the entire cup within a min. Not that they would be disturbed by their hunger pangs later for they were totally floored by their mangrove firefly tour, what with all the river cruising and firefly catching (and releasing of course)!

Their stomach forgave them when their late dinner was settled at a near-forgotten beach side restaurant after the tour. Soon, iced wine in the hotel room washed down the entire fatigue of the day, and the day culminated with Mr G and Good Friend doing a Watson's facial mask that made them really really sleepy… What Mr G lacked Good Friend made up. It was the astute Good Friend who reminded the myopic Mr G to set the alarm clock lest they fell asleep.

Thanks to Good Friend's most enterprising thought, they were in good time for the breakfast. But the sky had hardly been doing them any favours again when they saw over the course of their meal, a most wondrous sky turning moody and then great, it poured....As if that was not bad enough, they missed the bus to Pasar Oleh Oleh as the call of the concierge eluded them. They could only content themselves by taking the internal shuttle bus to other resorts and checking out their facilities. If there was a silver lining, it was the conclusion that the resort they stayed was simply the best. And with this "best" word which they had continued to use to describe their whole experience, Mr G and Good Friend left Bintan for Home Sweet Home.