In terms of acreage, Bintan Agro Beach Resort is a rather large place. Everyone congregates at the beach or pool, but there are extensive gardens as well. Tucked away in one end of the resort, there is a camping ground with a Long House that provides hostel-style dormitory rooms for school groups. They even provide a free buggy service to transport guests around the resort. It's a nice touch, although only really needed for the elderly or those who have difficulty walking. Or maybe the terminally lazy....
View of the resort's private beach, and the Sun Moon kelong restaurant in the background.
The beach here isn't pristine picture-postcard perfect. Perhaps it's something to do with its location along the Trikora Beach stretch, but this segment of the shoreline is very shallow. One could walk out for what seems like an entire mile and the waterline would still be only around knee level. The seabed is covered with seaweed washed ashore during low tide, and it makes the water look murky.
View of rocks in the foreground and a kelong far off in the distance.
The rocks were picturesque enough in the looming dusk, but bore the signs of oil stains. I guess the source could be the boats used for water sports. One thing I really appreciated was the total absence of large vessels dotting the sealine. In Singapore, a "seaview" usually means looking at a bunch of tankers and container ships. Even in the Lagoi resorts in northern Bintan, ships are observed in the distance, so it was nice to just see nothing but sea.
Another view of the kelong restaurant and the walkway.
The "Blue Ocean" rooms, built above water.
Bintan Agro boasts 4 "Blue Ocean" rooms, which are specially built in kelong style directly above the water. All four rooms are housed in this building. Compared to the main residential blocks, there's definitely more privacy here. And yet, how much nicer it would be if each room was in its own building with its own bridge. Another thing: I wonder how much privacy there really is when curious onlookers (like yours truly and DH) could casually cross the bridge to inspect the view.
View of the bridge to the Blue Ocean rooms and the gardens of resort, taken from the front of the Blue Ocean building.
View of the Blue Ocean building and connecting bridge from the entrance.
These pictures of the Blue Ocean building just scream "wedding photography backdrop"! It must be the combination of the sea, the drooping tree branches, the pseudo-Balinese architectural elements and the whiff of Chinoiserie in the design of the bridge. Alternatively, this could serve as a location for a historically-inaccurate Chinese period drama. Certainly, when standing on the bridge and looking out at the expanse of water, one could indulge fantasies of being an overlord of a minor coastal province.
View of the Blue Ocean building and connecting bridge from another angle, with the Sun Moon kelong restaurant is the background.
View of the Blue Ocean building, taken from the bridge to the Sun Moon restaurant.
By this time, the sun was beginning to set and the pictures were getting darker. As we would soon learn, there isn't much lighting around the resort outside of the buildings. Anyone wishing to take a moonlit walk should bring a torch along.
The "Timber House"
Another "specialty" accommodation option is a room in the Timber House. Not sure if the interiors are much different from the standard rooms in the main accommodation blocks, but the Timber House boasts unique all-wood exteriors, and are situated to have an unobstructed view of the sea.
View of the resort's beach, which is in reality more of a sandy field, designed for beach volleyball and other beach sports.
The outdoor massage and foot reflexology pavilions, facing the sea. Nice in theory, but the heat and humidity are big minus points in my book.
Close-up of the almost-full moon, complete with double-image thanks to a slightly shaking hand.
View of the moon from the edge of the Sun-Moon Restaurant island.
We had dinner at the Sun-Moon kelong restaurant. No pictures taken, because we were too busy eating excellent creamy peanut-sauce chicken and Indonesian-style satay. Prices were acceptably affordable given the location; we were after all dining at a resort restaurant. Much cheaper grub is probably available outside the resorts, but by Singapore standards, this was mid-range zichar.
As it happens, we were there two nights after the Midsummer solstice and the moon was as good as full. There is always something special about the night sky in places without highrises and city lights. The sky is darker and the celestial objects shine brighter as a result. It was too cloudy for us to see any stars, but the moon was large and mostly round. Gazing at the silver orb was a nice way to end the day before we headed back to our room.
Coming up in Part 3: power outages, sunrise and "OMG, what happened to the sea???"
I cannot believe there is a part 3!
