2010/12 – Bintan – Cigars with Lizards

14 Dec

Lizard time

Mayang Sari beach

December 2010

After a few days in Singapore we took the speedboat across the Singapore Straits over to Bintan island/Indonesia – just under an hour away but worlds apart.

We had almost a week of solitude, really, some 50 chalets but just 6-8 couples there weekdays and a bit more going on week-ends. All guests there from Singapore, currency used was the SIN $ and, unless you ventured out of the resort, you’d not imagine you were in Indonesia.

But to me it was a bit like coming back to my old “hippie” days in the late 70’s – early 80’s where I travelled in Indonesia ( Bali / Lombok / Java ) and got to love the place and its friendly people.

So, right from my first morning there I started making friends and having fun with the staff by using some basic Bahasa Indonesia – especially with one of the waiters, Mr Muhammed Alee.
Well, with that name you should be able to “fly like a butterfly and sting like a bee”, and I tested his boxing skills right at the buffet, to his and the rest of the staff’s pleasure. All of them came from different parts of the Indonesian archipelago to work on this island that is being promoted by Indonesia as a tourist resort, much like the tourist ghettos of Varadero in Cuba or anywhere else. The difference here is that it is very well organized and managed and the staff, besides earning well, had well maintained quarters, schools and facilities. Very boring overall for them, but a way out and up.

We visited the nearby village of Lagoi where all the shops, quarters and some small malls where located to taste the local food, stroll around and get away from the very quiet resort but after one hour there was nothing left to see.

The one thing in favour of the vast Nirwana Gardens Resort is that it was home for some 5 or 6 different hotels, chalets, villas, etc. with different stretches of beach and many restaurants so that in the week we spent there it did not become too boring.

Our beachfront chalet at Mayang Sari Resort gave us the chance to sit outside after early dinner and enjoy the sound of the waves and the rustling of the palms without any other noises – absolutely peaceful.

We would just watch the surf lighted by the full moon, see and hear the waves crash on the beach, follow the lights of the super tankers and mega container carriers as they passed by from the Indian Ocean into the South China Sea and enjoy the peace, solitude and for me, some of the unique cigars that Jose sent me from LA earlier this year. Gracias tio !!

I shared some of the cigars with some pretty big monitor lizards ( or, as I know them from earlier travels in Indonesia : Komodo dragons ), both on the beach and behind our chalet in the water. True lounge lizards moving very slick to their own rhythm.
I sure preferred these kind to the kind of lizards I have had to share cigars with some times.

The daily routine would consist of early breakfast, beach walks, swimming in the surf, long reading sessions under a palm, a tour outside the resort area like to the fabulous Banyan Tree Resort Bintan or the above mentioned local village of Lagoi or to a good health spa for a massage.

Sundowner would be at the Calypso bar looking across to Malaysia and dinner mostly at the Baan Aarya Thai restaurant which even had a humidor on duty – or for seafood, the open air Kelong restaurant on stilts over the sea catching the breeze.

All in all, a great time – considering the bitter cold and snow-white landscape back home we should have stayed there ………..

Nino