Less than two weeks after my arrival back in Jakarta, my friends asked me to join them going to Batam, Bintan and Singapore. It was on Wednesday night and then I already got on the flight on Thursday night with them. As the airplane was going to land, you could see the island mostly still covered by the forest. It was already late night by the time we arrived there. According to the taxi driver, most of the population in Batam are from Sumatra and Java who work at factories which are everywhere here.
We went early in the morning to Bintan by a ferry to spend a day at Bintan Resort. Most of the people who come to Bintan are going for golfing. Unexpectedly, I met with my old friend in Bandung when we’re heading to the mangrove forest. I hadn’t run into him for ages. Bintan mangrove forest itself is magnificent with the plants, water, blue sky, sleeping snakes, lizards, and big colourful butterflies. I could imagine that Jakarta had this kind of mangrove forest before it was destroyed on behalf of developing the town into a modern one.
On the afternoon, we were sitting on the beach, two kind of beach actually: the beach inside and outside the Bintan Resort. The beach inside the Bintan Resort is the beach that usually pictured in a travel agent brochure: white sand, blue water, coconut trees and cottages along the beach line. While the beach outside the Bintan Resort is a little bit different with the inside one: grey sand, the still blue water, and muddy, since the beach line moved farther temporarily. The coconut trees still there plus the coconut sellers who will serve the coconut on a rotten wood table.
We went across to Singapore on the next morning by ferry. One thing that impresses me a lot is the hostel we stayed for a night. It’s the kind of hostel that we didn’t even dare to use its public bathroom to take a shower, so we had our shower on the next day in Jakarta. We just hit the nearest available and affordable hostel on Bencoolen street, thanks for speculating on the accommodation on the peak season. Impressed by the hostel experience doesn’t mean I will spend the night there again on purpose.
