Bintan, Kepri - Selamat detang,” welcome to Bintan!, Mohammad Nasir and his dance troupe warmly greeted us as we entered the hotel lobby of the Bintan Lagoon Resort. As we sipped on a refreshing lemon grass drink, the lively dancers performed a traditional Sumatran folk dance to herald our arrival. The dilettante in me was visibly amused and my heart skipped a few beats as they circled around me in a show of warm hospitality.
My husband and I had just enjoyed a major shopping spree in nearby Singapore, where we stayed at the Royal Plaza on Scotts Road. It boasts being Singapore‘s very first non-smoking hotel, with a very efficient Filipino front desk staff that made us feel right at home. Ideally located, the hotel is walking distance to popular shops like Mango and Zara and is surrounded by department stores and shopping malls. After exploring the Lion City‘s cosmopolitan attractions like Clark Quay, discovering interesting finds at Mustafa in Little India, and sampling the street food of Newton Circus, we were ready for our Indonesian sojourn.
Bintan beckoned with promises of languorous seaside escapades by day complemented by Bollywood style partying among friends who flew in from Manila, by night. We all boarded the high-speed ferry at Singapore‘s Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal and berthed at the Bintan island jetty an hour later. Bintan is the largest of the 3,200 islands in the Riau Archipelago and is one of the world‘s oldest and busiest maritime trading routes. Interestingly, it is more accessible through Singapore than any other Indonesian island.
Endorphin chasers and serotonin junkies would surely find what they yearn for at the picturesque Bintan Lagoon Resort. Leisure is their mantra and each frazzled urbanite can have a pick from the myriad island offerings, which run the gamut from swinging through a round of golf at their Jack Nicklaus designed 18-hole sea view course to having a Javanese massage at the Taman Sari Spa, or maneuvering an all-terrain vehicle on the coast. The resort, which spans a sprawling 300-hectare lush landscape complemented by the sparkling azure South China Sea, seemed to have something to suit every guest‘s idea of downtime.
Tia Ayesha, the hotel‘s public relations manager, and food and beverage director Nadeem Riaz Chaudhry had meticulously planned a traditional Hindu wedding alongside our hosts, the Manila based Natasha Sehwani and Sunil Karamchandani. Replete with elaborate “sarees” for the women and “sherwanis” for the men folk, a Hindu “pandit” (priest) and a Mumbai-based disc jockey to liven up the evenings with high energy Bollywood remixes, the wedding was to be a four-day celebration of non-stop merrymaking alongside the 350 wedding guests who flew in to witness my favorite young lady tie the knot with her prince charming surrounded by family friends, mostly from Manila. Natasha is like the daughter I never had. I recall during the kiddie party days of my three sons, she would always make sure they got the best toys from the “pabitin” and offer to entertain them with games and her lively chatter, while I bonded with all the other moms. Natasha and Sunil took their sacred steps around the fire in traditional Vedic style under a blanket of stars by the beach facing the South China Sea. As the priest chanted ancient Sanskrit “slokas” to seal their wedding vows, the four days of dancing and toasting to the newlyweds‘ happiness and prosperity came to a close.
Mangrove Discovery Tours and Elephant Park
We ventured out in the days that ensued exploring the many other attractions of the island. The Mangrove Discovery Tour, a two-hour eco adventure that takes you on a speed boat as you journey down the Sebung River was most interesting. The value of maintaining mangroves for coastal protection and sustaining its ecosystem has been a rally call among all tropical islands worldwide not just to abate natural calamities but also to provide a habitat for wildlife that thrive in their rich environment. Mangroves play host to a variety of exotic wildlife like macaques, monitor lizards, snakes, kingfisher birds and purple herons. At night, fireflies gather around the area, flashing together in natural synchrony. Forty-seven thousand tons of fish are caught in Indonesia‘s mangroves every year and just a hectare of mangroves can yield over 160 kilos of shrimp! Our informative guide, Lianna Wijaya, took us on a scenic route, meandering through the Sebung River pointing out the many fishing houses built on stilts with families who lived off the mangrove forest.
The Bintan Elephant Park is another must-visit when on the island. Seven Sumatran elephants amuse guests with their antics like playing football, swinging their trainers playfully on their trunks and a host of other delightful activities. The gentle well-trained elephants take guests for rides into the forest trails and are rewarded by being hand-fed by grateful passengers.
Beachfront gardens amid traditional Javanese ambience, world-class golf courses, nature‘s bounty for guests to enjoy, Bintan‘s indulgences await every guest of this tropical paradise. Pristine white beaches, water sports, mangrove fishing trips and an abiding Indonesian hospitality… need I say more?
Source: www.manilastandardtoday.com (5 Oktober 2007)
