Last week was a week like any other. There were ques, burocratic hassles, hanging out with other exchange students, drinking, and excessive expensive clubbing. While some of this might be of interest, as it happened last week, it is in the past and I will focus on more recent and interesting events.
On friday I went to Indonesia. I went with Willi (short for Wilhelm, sort of), a German and Bertrand, a Frenchman. We were to join a large group of other NUS students who had already left for Bintan Island, Indonesia earlier in the day and week.
We left PGP at mid day looking to catch a taxi to the ferry terminal across the island. We tried all the usual taxi catching spots on south buona vista road but all the cabs were already full. Eager to get on our way we walked to the taxi stand at the National University Hospital. True to Singapore style, there was a long que there. We passed the time by learning vulgarities in German and conversing about those around us in French.
Eventually our turn was up and we took a cab ride across to Tana Merah ferry terminal. We bought our tickets and proceded to the duty free shop. After a month of expensive singaporian alcohol, we jumped at the chance to by duty free booze. I got a litre of rum (sadly, there was no Cuban rum on sale), Willy got vodka and a carton of cigarettes , Bertrand got Gin. We then got onto the boat.
As we were leaving the dock we made our way to the deck out back to get a view of the skyline as we sailed away. On the deck I met a middle aged Singaporian man with yellow, decaying teeth who told me openly that he was going to Indonesia for sex. He told me and the others about a good hotel to go to that had a disco in it, but we declined the invitation and returned to our seats.
As we were sitting and passing the time, Bertrand remarked to me in French that there was an attractive girl sitting behind me. Before long we were talking to her and it turned out that despite being ethnicly Chinese she was actualy Indonesian and just in Singapore on a shopping trip. Between her and her friend they had filled three large bags full of new clothes and things. We made a bit of small talk and at the end of the ferry ride we all exchanged hand phone numbers.
As we were getting off the dock, we ran into an Indonesian man who claimed to know our friends. Having a healthy skepticism of unwanted solicitation in third world countries we ignored him until we ran into Steve, one of the exchange students who had come before us. Steve and the Indonesian man lead us up to the hotel where everyone was staying.
We had barely checked in when Bertrand received an SMS from Meliani asking us if we had found our friends and hotel ok. Seeing this as our chance, over the course of a brief SMS interchange, we arranged to have her come and pick us up and go out for dinner. We cracked open our bottles and passed the hour until she was to show up.
So Meliani pulls up in her brand new BMW. If this were Singapore, it would not be such a big deal, but in a country where the GDP/person is less than C$1000/year such a car turns heads. We get in and she drives us around the town to an outdoor food court/karaoke bar.
As soon as we sat down two women in competing tight short beer brand dresses came up and asked us what kind of beer we wanted. After short persuation on the part of one of the women, we got the local brew, Bintan Pilsner. While she was getting us our beer, Meliani ordered the food.
This place was unlike anything I had seen. It was similar to the hawker centres in Singapore but it had a bit more of an old person bar kind of atmosphere. It was filled with middle aged and older chinese people taking turns going up and singing old Chinese songs on the far too loud Karaoke system. Meliani seemed to know the owner, the staff and a good deal of the patrons despite her being at least 20 years younger than anyone else there.
When the food arrived after much anticipation we were not let down. We had a full scale feast of two kinds of snails, prawns, calimari, vegitables cooked in peanut sauce, chicken, and an outstandingly tasty omlet in sauce thing. As we sat there and ate and drank Meliani talked to us about her time studying fahion in LA and how there was nothing to do in Bintan. Apparantly most of the young people just play computer games on a friday night. She said that most of her friends had gone to a neghiboring Indonesian island to go out that weekend. We sat and talked and went up do to karaoke until the place closed around 2:30 at which time she drove us home and arranged to meet again the next day in the afternoon.
We got back to the hotel around 3 and looked around for the other exchange students. After an exaustive search we found that they had all gone to sleep so we hung out and talked about German cars for a while before going to sleep.
The next day we got up, had our Indonesian breakfast of spicy fried rice and told the other exchange students about our night. The others were all leaving that morning for the beach resort area of Trikora and we promised to meet them there later that day.
After breakfast we checked out and walked around the market area. Indonesia is a much less developed country than Malaysia. The streets were dirtier and more filled with small stands and sidewalk vendors selling counterfiet everything from shoes to DVDs to clothing. Even though the island is considered a resort island for Singaporians, we were the only foreigners that we saw that entire morning and all the goods in the shops were clearly aimed towards locals. As happens in such places, we were somewhat of an oddity and people were staring at us, talking with us and trying to sell us cab rides and their cheap wares. At around 1 in the afternoon we got an SMS from Meliani and we went back to the hotel to meet up with her.
As we were waiting on the steps of the hotel, a man pulls up in a car and sais he knows our friends and offers to take us to the hotel where they are staying. We pay little attention to him except to tell him to reserve us a room and that we will find our own way. When we say we are waiting for a friend he is confused as he was told that there were only three of us. Then when Meliani pulls up in the BMW, he gives and impressed and understanding look and we go off.
We go for lunch at Meliani's cousin's restaurant. We get similar food to the night before but in an airconditioned environment with foreign tourists. Meliani tells us that while she can't come out to the beach with us that day, she could have her driver take us out and join us the next day.
After lunch Meliani took us to her friend's shop that sells the counterfiet DVDs that Bertrand and Willi were looking for. I bought the Matrix Reloded while Bertrand and Willi bought 6 DVDs each. From there she took us to another one of her friend's shops where we got bubble tea and snacks after which she took us to her house.
Meliani lives with her parents in a big (even by Canadian standards) house in the only gated community on the island. There is a large fish pool in the back which impressed us, but paled when she took us to see her unkle's fish tank at his house across the street. He had 1m long goldfish (what ever thier real name is...) and had won several prizes for them. Then she called her driver and while we waited for him to show up we watched Pirates of the Caribean in a purpose built TV room complete with a cieling mounted projector and 13 bottles of unopened premium cognac.
The movie turned out to be quite good, but our viewing was cut short when Meliani's driver showed up. He was given instructions to drop us off at the hotel at Trikora beach and we were on our way. As the driver did not speak any English, Bertrand, Willi and I were able to discuss the events of the last 24 hours as we drove through the insane roads of Indonesia.
About an hour later we were at the Trikora beach area. We had all been under the impression that this was one large beach with several hotels on it, we were mistaken. In fact, the area was rather large and undeveloped save a few houses and hotels that appeared by the road at sizable intervals. The driver stoped at the first hotel where Willi went in and talked to the manager. The manager said that the PGP people were not there but there were several europeans staying in the hotel. Wanting to find our friends we pushed on. We passed several shoddy hotels as we drove, but as we had not really paid any attention to the man who had talked to us earlier, we did not know which hotel our friends were staying at. Eventually we reached the end of the road. There was another hotel there, but our friends were not so we decided to go back and have the taxi drop us back at the first hotel, which was the only establishment in the area worthy of the name.
We went into the lobby and talked to the manager who had a good command of english. He said that two of the exchange students had been by earlier but did not stay and that he did not know where they went. he said he could call the other hotels or call us a taxi but did not seem eager, or even willing to actually preform these tasks. After consulting in French we decided that Willi should learn better french and that we should procede on foot to check out the other hotels in the area.
As I had earlier described, this area was not densely populated at all. There was just one road and few houses and even fewer hotels. We walked down the road (away from town) for about 20 minutes and reached the second hotel (and I use the word very loosely). It was built in the style of the Vietnam war movie town built on stilts in the water. We walked out to where the lights were and enquired about are friends. No one there had seen them, so as this place was not acceptable for staying, we walked back to the road and moved on. After about 10 more minutes of walking, a mini bus showed up. We got in and instructed him to drop us at the next hotel, the travel lodge (not affiliated with the american chain of similar name). When we got there we saw a very happy hotel manager and his friends sitting around. To our relief, the whole group was here sitting by a fire (as by now it had been night for some time) having a good time.
When we talked to the manager, he told us that all the rooms were taken and that he could offer us accomidation, but it would be in the dorm with them. As we were tired from our journey and happy to see our friends, we accepted this (after all he was only asking for 20 000 rupias - C$4 each). We dropped our stuff off in the unpowered unwatered shack and joined the others by the fire.
Once there we had good fun telling our story to the others while breaking into the duty free booze we had bought the day before. There was much rejoycing and merry making ending (for me at least) with me falling asleep on the beach about 10m away from the fire. I awoke some time later and walked back to the remaining people at the fire, mumbled some obscenites and went off to bed, covered in sand.
The next day we were awoken bright and early by the hotel (if you can call it that) staff talking loudly in front of the shack. Annoyed and still not recovered from the night before, I made my way over to where the other early risers (Bertrand and Wili for the same reason and a German guy who was freaked out by the bugs) were hanging out. After a futile attempt to kill the large bee-looking insects plaguing the area we decided that we needed a real shower and a real bathroom (as this "hotel" had none). Feeling empowered by the knowledge that everyone else had paid 30 sing for their package and the nice hotel (the first one) down the street was only charging 25 sing per person, we got in a mini bus, that is much easier to find in the day, and went back. We checked in and were shown the way to our air conditoined rooms complete with real shower (hot water included) and real toilet (as opposed to a squat toilet). We took turns showering and went down for breakfast.
At breakfast, we discovered that the other guests at this now somewhat run down hotel/resort were european and Canadian expats living in Singapore out for a weekend of kyte boarding. They were rather friendly and the food was passable and cheap so we decided that should we ever go back to Bintan again, we should stay at this place.
It was some point after I called Meliani that I realised that I shuold really be going back that day and not on monday as I had originally planned. It was certainly best that I didn't miss my lecture and I had an important email to send, which certainly could not be done from Trikora. I briefly went down to the beach and saw how beautiful it was before tearing my self away to go back to the travel lodge to join the group going back that afternoon.
Apon arriving in Tanjong Pangar (I think that was the name of the town with the ferry terminal where I spent my first 24 hours) I went to a ferry ticket seller. I told him that I wanted to change my ticket to the earlier sailing which I had been told over the phone had space available. To my dismay there was no space reserved for me, despite my explicit request over the phone to have this done. Then the ticket seller offered me something unexpected. A ticket on another ferry for only 20k rupiah, a mere $4, a fraction of what I paid for the round trip ticket. I took this and returned to Singapore.
Today I went to the centre for language studies to sort out my Chinese class' tutorial group. I was greatly dissapointed to hear that the only spaces left for exchange students are on fridays. I saw my weekend travels melt before my eyes... I thought I might have better luck some other time. I do hope I can make it into another group, otherwise these posts may become less frequent or less interesting.
Marc
On friday I went to Indonesia. I went with Willi (short for Wilhelm, sort of), a German and Bertrand, a Frenchman. We were to join a large group of other NUS students who had already left for Bintan Island, Indonesia earlier in the day and week.
We left PGP at mid day looking to catch a taxi to the ferry terminal across the island. We tried all the usual taxi catching spots on south buona vista road but all the cabs were already full. Eager to get on our way we walked to the taxi stand at the National University Hospital. True to Singapore style, there was a long que there. We passed the time by learning vulgarities in German and conversing about those around us in French.
Eventually our turn was up and we took a cab ride across to Tana Merah ferry terminal. We bought our tickets and proceded to the duty free shop. After a month of expensive singaporian alcohol, we jumped at the chance to by duty free booze. I got a litre of rum (sadly, there was no Cuban rum on sale), Willy got vodka and a carton of cigarettes , Bertrand got Gin. We then got onto the boat.
As we were leaving the dock we made our way to the deck out back to get a view of the skyline as we sailed away. On the deck I met a middle aged Singaporian man with yellow, decaying teeth who told me openly that he was going to Indonesia for sex. He told me and the others about a good hotel to go to that had a disco in it, but we declined the invitation and returned to our seats.
As we were sitting and passing the time, Bertrand remarked to me in French that there was an attractive girl sitting behind me. Before long we were talking to her and it turned out that despite being ethnicly Chinese she was actualy Indonesian and just in Singapore on a shopping trip. Between her and her friend they had filled three large bags full of new clothes and things. We made a bit of small talk and at the end of the ferry ride we all exchanged hand phone numbers.
As we were getting off the dock, we ran into an Indonesian man who claimed to know our friends. Having a healthy skepticism of unwanted solicitation in third world countries we ignored him until we ran into Steve, one of the exchange students who had come before us. Steve and the Indonesian man lead us up to the hotel where everyone was staying.
We had barely checked in when Bertrand received an SMS from Meliani asking us if we had found our friends and hotel ok. Seeing this as our chance, over the course of a brief SMS interchange, we arranged to have her come and pick us up and go out for dinner. We cracked open our bottles and passed the hour until she was to show up.
So Meliani pulls up in her brand new BMW. If this were Singapore, it would not be such a big deal, but in a country where the GDP/person is less than C$1000/year such a car turns heads. We get in and she drives us around the town to an outdoor food court/karaoke bar.
As soon as we sat down two women in competing tight short beer brand dresses came up and asked us what kind of beer we wanted. After short persuation on the part of one of the women, we got the local brew, Bintan Pilsner. While she was getting us our beer, Meliani ordered the food.
This place was unlike anything I had seen. It was similar to the hawker centres in Singapore but it had a bit more of an old person bar kind of atmosphere. It was filled with middle aged and older chinese people taking turns going up and singing old Chinese songs on the far too loud Karaoke system. Meliani seemed to know the owner, the staff and a good deal of the patrons despite her being at least 20 years younger than anyone else there.
When the food arrived after much anticipation we were not let down. We had a full scale feast of two kinds of snails, prawns, calimari, vegitables cooked in peanut sauce, chicken, and an outstandingly tasty omlet in sauce thing. As we sat there and ate and drank Meliani talked to us about her time studying fahion in LA and how there was nothing to do in Bintan. Apparantly most of the young people just play computer games on a friday night. She said that most of her friends had gone to a neghiboring Indonesian island to go out that weekend. We sat and talked and went up do to karaoke until the place closed around 2:30 at which time she drove us home and arranged to meet again the next day in the afternoon.
We got back to the hotel around 3 and looked around for the other exchange students. After an exaustive search we found that they had all gone to sleep so we hung out and talked about German cars for a while before going to sleep.
The next day we got up, had our Indonesian breakfast of spicy fried rice and told the other exchange students about our night. The others were all leaving that morning for the beach resort area of Trikora and we promised to meet them there later that day.
After breakfast we checked out and walked around the market area. Indonesia is a much less developed country than Malaysia. The streets were dirtier and more filled with small stands and sidewalk vendors selling counterfiet everything from shoes to DVDs to clothing. Even though the island is considered a resort island for Singaporians, we were the only foreigners that we saw that entire morning and all the goods in the shops were clearly aimed towards locals. As happens in such places, we were somewhat of an oddity and people were staring at us, talking with us and trying to sell us cab rides and their cheap wares. At around 1 in the afternoon we got an SMS from Meliani and we went back to the hotel to meet up with her.
As we were waiting on the steps of the hotel, a man pulls up in a car and sais he knows our friends and offers to take us to the hotel where they are staying. We pay little attention to him except to tell him to reserve us a room and that we will find our own way. When we say we are waiting for a friend he is confused as he was told that there were only three of us. Then when Meliani pulls up in the BMW, he gives and impressed and understanding look and we go off.
We go for lunch at Meliani's cousin's restaurant. We get similar food to the night before but in an airconditioned environment with foreign tourists. Meliani tells us that while she can't come out to the beach with us that day, she could have her driver take us out and join us the next day.
After lunch Meliani took us to her friend's shop that sells the counterfiet DVDs that Bertrand and Willi were looking for. I bought the Matrix Reloded while Bertrand and Willi bought 6 DVDs each. From there she took us to another one of her friend's shops where we got bubble tea and snacks after which she took us to her house.
Meliani lives with her parents in a big (even by Canadian standards) house in the only gated community on the island. There is a large fish pool in the back which impressed us, but paled when she took us to see her unkle's fish tank at his house across the street. He had 1m long goldfish (what ever thier real name is...) and had won several prizes for them. Then she called her driver and while we waited for him to show up we watched Pirates of the Caribean in a purpose built TV room complete with a cieling mounted projector and 13 bottles of unopened premium cognac.
The movie turned out to be quite good, but our viewing was cut short when Meliani's driver showed up. He was given instructions to drop us off at the hotel at Trikora beach and we were on our way. As the driver did not speak any English, Bertrand, Willi and I were able to discuss the events of the last 24 hours as we drove through the insane roads of Indonesia.
About an hour later we were at the Trikora beach area. We had all been under the impression that this was one large beach with several hotels on it, we were mistaken. In fact, the area was rather large and undeveloped save a few houses and hotels that appeared by the road at sizable intervals. The driver stoped at the first hotel where Willi went in and talked to the manager. The manager said that the PGP people were not there but there were several europeans staying in the hotel. Wanting to find our friends we pushed on. We passed several shoddy hotels as we drove, but as we had not really paid any attention to the man who had talked to us earlier, we did not know which hotel our friends were staying at. Eventually we reached the end of the road. There was another hotel there, but our friends were not so we decided to go back and have the taxi drop us back at the first hotel, which was the only establishment in the area worthy of the name.
We went into the lobby and talked to the manager who had a good command of english. He said that two of the exchange students had been by earlier but did not stay and that he did not know where they went. he said he could call the other hotels or call us a taxi but did not seem eager, or even willing to actually preform these tasks. After consulting in French we decided that Willi should learn better french and that we should procede on foot to check out the other hotels in the area.
As I had earlier described, this area was not densely populated at all. There was just one road and few houses and even fewer hotels. We walked down the road (away from town) for about 20 minutes and reached the second hotel (and I use the word very loosely). It was built in the style of the Vietnam war movie town built on stilts in the water. We walked out to where the lights were and enquired about are friends. No one there had seen them, so as this place was not acceptable for staying, we walked back to the road and moved on. After about 10 more minutes of walking, a mini bus showed up. We got in and instructed him to drop us at the next hotel, the travel lodge (not affiliated with the american chain of similar name). When we got there we saw a very happy hotel manager and his friends sitting around. To our relief, the whole group was here sitting by a fire (as by now it had been night for some time) having a good time.
When we talked to the manager, he told us that all the rooms were taken and that he could offer us accomidation, but it would be in the dorm with them. As we were tired from our journey and happy to see our friends, we accepted this (after all he was only asking for 20 000 rupias - C$4 each). We dropped our stuff off in the unpowered unwatered shack and joined the others by the fire.
Once there we had good fun telling our story to the others while breaking into the duty free booze we had bought the day before. There was much rejoycing and merry making ending (for me at least) with me falling asleep on the beach about 10m away from the fire. I awoke some time later and walked back to the remaining people at the fire, mumbled some obscenites and went off to bed, covered in sand.
The next day we were awoken bright and early by the hotel (if you can call it that) staff talking loudly in front of the shack. Annoyed and still not recovered from the night before, I made my way over to where the other early risers (Bertrand and Wili for the same reason and a German guy who was freaked out by the bugs) were hanging out. After a futile attempt to kill the large bee-looking insects plaguing the area we decided that we needed a real shower and a real bathroom (as this "hotel" had none). Feeling empowered by the knowledge that everyone else had paid 30 sing for their package and the nice hotel (the first one) down the street was only charging 25 sing per person, we got in a mini bus, that is much easier to find in the day, and went back. We checked in and were shown the way to our air conditoined rooms complete with real shower (hot water included) and real toilet (as opposed to a squat toilet). We took turns showering and went down for breakfast.
At breakfast, we discovered that the other guests at this now somewhat run down hotel/resort were european and Canadian expats living in Singapore out for a weekend of kyte boarding. They were rather friendly and the food was passable and cheap so we decided that should we ever go back to Bintan again, we should stay at this place.
It was some point after I called Meliani that I realised that I shuold really be going back that day and not on monday as I had originally planned. It was certainly best that I didn't miss my lecture and I had an important email to send, which certainly could not be done from Trikora. I briefly went down to the beach and saw how beautiful it was before tearing my self away to go back to the travel lodge to join the group going back that afternoon.
Apon arriving in Tanjong Pangar (I think that was the name of the town with the ferry terminal where I spent my first 24 hours) I went to a ferry ticket seller. I told him that I wanted to change my ticket to the earlier sailing which I had been told over the phone had space available. To my dismay there was no space reserved for me, despite my explicit request over the phone to have this done. Then the ticket seller offered me something unexpected. A ticket on another ferry for only 20k rupiah, a mere $4, a fraction of what I paid for the round trip ticket. I took this and returned to Singapore.
Today I went to the centre for language studies to sort out my Chinese class' tutorial group. I was greatly dissapointed to hear that the only spaces left for exchange students are on fridays. I saw my weekend travels melt before my eyes... I thought I might have better luck some other time. I do hope I can make it into another group, otherwise these posts may become less frequent or less interesting.
Marc
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