I am getting behind on pictures so I wanted to go ahead and get this post out. The 3rd and 4th of July I was on the island of Bintan, Indonesia. I spent our nation’s independence day lounging on the beach drinking tasty beverages. It was an excellent way to celebrate FREEDOM.
The trip started very early the morning of the 3rd. Our cab arrived at around 6:15 AM to take us to the ferry port. We arrived in Bintan and it was a different world. 200,000 people in about a 10 mile^2 area. The island is much bigger than that but much of it is uninhabited. We were met by Natalis, a guide from Lobo’s place (more on Lobo’s later) at the dock. Cat, one of the girls in our EAPSI group at NTU this summer, had been in communication with Lobo by SMS. So when we arrived, Natalis was looking for Mr. Cat having no idea that Cat was actually a girl. The nickname Mr. Cat stuck and is still in use today. We wandered around the city for a bit and then got some lunch. 2 others from our group were taking a later ferry so we decided to wait for them. They never showed.
We caught a little boat made out of 2x4s to the island of Penyengat and went and looked at some temples and an old fortress. There were more chickens and cats per capita then any place I have ever been before. Seriously, I am going to devote an entire gallery to the cats and chickens of this island. We walked around and saw the sights. The coolest part for me was the power station. None of my photos came out but it was 3 HUGE diesel engines powering the entire island. They were not clean burning either. Another odd thing was they would just pile garbage seemingly anywhere. Especially near their temples.
After Penyengat we went to the island of Sengarang to see more temples. At this point myself and a couple of the other guys that were staying the night in Indonesia were starting to grumble and just wanted to head to the beach but there were also people from our group who just came out for the day and wanted to see more sights. The day trippers packed lighter and were not having to carry around as heavy or large bags as those of us staying over night. This second (or third depending on how you look at it) island was much more touristy as far as the temples went. The were newer and brighter and most were apparently put there by corporate sponsors but it was cool enough any way. We went to one temple where a tree had grown around it and the roots now made up much of the temple walls. It had started to rain so I had already put my camera away and am hoping to get pictures of this from someone else. We also tried fresh Mangostien before we left. It was great.
After returning to Bintan we said farewell to the day trippers and headed to the other side of the island, to Lobo’s place – Shady Shack. So, Lonely Planet and several websites all recommended Shady Shack as a great place for back packers to stay for a night or two. Accommodations were meager consisting of thatch roofed huts with beds and mosquito netting but they were located directly on the beach. The guide books and websites did not do it justice. The place was great and Lobo, the owner, and his family we gracious and very accommodating. When we finally made it to Shady Shack Ryan and Kyle were already there. They had taken a much later ferry from Singapore and had been at Lobo’s for a couple of hours. They came out of the surf to great us. We all dropped our stuff off at the huts and hit the beach. I got out of the water and walked up to the main hut and one of Lobo’s staff (family?) said beer honey? I said 6 please and the rest of the night went swell.
So Lobo came out wearing a Lebron jersey which I found to be GREAT. He was a rather small man but was always smiling and very accomodating. The first night we were there was the night of the Germany vs Argintina semi final match. Lobo arranged for us, and an italian family staying with him, to watch the game at one of his neighbor’s house that had a TV. So about 14 of us crammed into this tiny little 7′ x7′ room to watch the match on a 20″ TV. It was great!!!
Enjoy the pictures below of my first day in Indonesia. I will be adding another post soon of my second day there. Since this trip I have also had a CRAZY night out in Singapore, gone to Perth, Australia for a conference, and will have gone to Malaysia by the time I get more pictures up. So I am way behind but hope to start cranking out more posts early next week.
