yes i am back from bintan, wearing a singlet tanline and load of bugbites! awesome place really. though the sea tides were not very cooperative, the low shoreline meant LOADS of sand and shells. managed to find a few good looking little pieces of shells, and almost killed a seasnail for its shell. i mean, the seasnail had this awesome looking orange gradient on its perfectly shaped cone, and i really wanted to turn it into a pendant of sorts. its THAT awesome. but the snail got the better of me, and hid deep into its home. i should have brought it back and killed it in bleach water or sth. grr! but either way i have loads of shells to work with now, i just need a mini drill and some keyrings or necklace strings. hopefully people do not call me cheapskate for bring those back as souvenirs, there really isnt anything to buy in bintan!

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alright i shall give a general lowdown on the 3D2N stay at bintan!

DAY ONE.
took a morning ferry to bintan, wanted to reach there earlier to exlpore the area. but apparently the resort was really secluded, but hey! awesome beach, whose complaining? engaged in some illegal activites which i shall not say what here, and resutled in my extremely bad sunburn and one of my mates in a bad condition.

only day one, and already one man down. took him back to the resort all patched up, and later went off with another to the shallow beach in a mini underwater exploration. it was there found my first 5 shells, including a really cowrie shell. saw loads of tiny hermit crabs crawling across the seabed like a little army.

dinner was normal, had pineapple fried rice. night time was awesomed. due to having almost no lights, the stars shone brightly. the night was made even better knowing that there were 2 pretty hot spanish girls around the site as well.

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DAY TWO.
woke up early with the intention of going snorkelling, but the sky was pouring. the rain did lighten up after a while, and we went to rent the snorkel gear, which was really dirty. the breathing tube(?) has mould on it =.= in the end, we just snorkelled using our own goggles and the life jacket. and just when we were far out, the worst thing happened, the it started raining again.

me and another dude tried to walk in the showers but were freaked out due to the fear of lightning. so instead we decided to stay low and stake it out. our conversation in the rain went something like:

Me: What if there's lightning? We're the tallest thing out here.
Him: Oh ya! Shit we better hide in the sea.
and we went into the water..
Him: There's a reason why life guards close the pool when it rains right?
Me: Heheh. Yes.. Thats right.. So it's either we walk or we hide.
Him: Yeah! So we hide in the water.

my shoulders sucked as the rain pelted down on the burnt skin, absolutely terrible. eventually the rain did let up, and we walked back along the sand banks. snorkelling was over.

it was then that we went around lifting up driftwood buried in the sand to look for sea critters. little lobsters, hermits, mudskippers, crabs, etc. and also for the first time i got clawed by a crab. more shells for the collection, as well as more hermits for the injured guy stuck back at the shack.

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DAY THREE.
started off with a very cold morning even though we closed all our doors and the shack had no windows. generally a slow end to the trip, everything was easy and relaxed. sat down at the balcony with the rattan chair and stared out into the beautiful scenery, talking to a friend of 8 years.

i went down to the beach to collect more water for his hermits using a mineral bottle, and i was shocked. the water in the bottle looked exactly the same as normal mineral water. even under the sun, the water was crystal clear. shortly after 3 of us packed up and paid our tab. we had the driver take us to the town area to explore, and man was i disappointed. not to be rude, but the town was really outdated. similar to the street areas of malaysia if you've been there.

ended up walking aimlessly around, eating at their KFC which had overfried chicken. not being able to withstand it anymore, we told the driver to take us back to the terminal, where we eventually tipped him for driving us around. and then a 2 hours later, i was home [:

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finally coming back to mainland allowed me to finish up some thoughts that i had left undone when i left for bintan. seems that perhaps i had hoped for a little more than reality could provide. while not that im complaining. friendship isn't all that bad anyway. only wished that some times wishes do come through. [:

Waihong, out.