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Saturday, February 06, 2016

Telunas - day 3

We didn't have much of a plan for Day 3. It was a lazy, lazy morning. Viv had woken up to intense pain in his arms, diagnosed by me as too-much-kayaking-itis. So he wanted to take it easy too.

Xena doing some early morning bedtime reading on the kindle (the preloaded books included children's books too)

I suggested to Viv that we could take the morning shuttle boat to Telunas beach and see how the 'other side' was. In fact, we could see Telunas beach from our balcony and Xena would often point to it and say, "Look, Mama, Dada, THE WORLD!" So we thought we should really go out there and see what THE WORLD had to offer.


Taking the shuttle boat to Telunas beach

The accommodation was set on stilts too, but unlike the private island, these offered more options for different groups -- from private chalets to family rooms and dormitories. 

Our guide roughly showed us the place and told us that since we were the only people on the shuttle boat, we didn't need to follow the boat schedule and could go back whenever we wanted to. 

We decided to start with a stroll at the beach. 

It was quite cloudy, but whenever the sun came out, it got quite hot. 

Do you see these tiny little dots on the sand? 

Xena was intrigued by them. Can you guess what they are?


That's right... thousands of tiny crabs scurrying away from us, some heading towards the water, and others disappearing into tiny holes in the sand.


Check out these amazing rosette-like patterns created by the crabs that were digging their way into the sand. I watched some of them in action and they actually use their legs to push some sand back up to close the hole after they're entered it!

The activities and facilities at Telunas resort for free for the Telunas private island people, but not the other way round. 

We found a little hammock in one of the beach huts...

...and Xena immediately popped inside!

There was a bridge with a small stream underneath. 

Xena checking out some fallen jackfruits

Mommy and baby taking a walk

After a while, it got too hot to be out, so we sat in one of the beach huts. Viv had taken the kindle along, and was in the middle of an Agatha Christie potboiler. There was no way he could finish it during the trip, but he wanted to read as much as he could. (He read the rest of it in Singapore on an e-book borrowed from the library.)

Soon, we were done exploring Telunas beach, so we summoned our boat and made our way back to our island. 

There were still several unexplored areas in Telunas private island, and some activities too (like jumping off the jetty into the water, which is very popular, but something we had no plans to do!). We decided to walk around and check out the areas we had not seen before.

We discovered this indoor sand play area! Xena was thrilled!

It was perfect for a hot afternoon when you wanted to play on the sand, but not at the beach. 

Xena playing a game called 'Look Mama, I'm covering my feet in sand!'

And she wins the game!

They even had rocking horses in the play area. The resort manager walked by and told us that they were going to build more things in the play area, such as a swing! How cool! 

Even the bar was set on sand!

Cosy seating near the bar. The boat seat reminded me of Chandler Bing!

After a while, we got back to our villa, and Xena spent some time blowing bubbles at the balcony. 

Our boat back was in the afternoon, right after lunch. Soon, it was time to leave and with broken hearts, we said goodbye to our villa. 

Parting shot next to our villa

Lunch was yummy as usual!

They had a separate kids' menu too, with items such as fish and chips and pasta. 

We ordered the fish and chips for Xena, and it came with a side of... broccoli!

But that was not the strange part. The strange part was the the broccoli was the first thing Xena picked off her plate! I thought she was going to plonk it in my plate or something...

...but then she started to eat it! Oh dead lord. Could we possibly live in Telunas forever, I wondered.

As we waited for our boat, Xena took a twig and started writing our names on the sand. 

Finally, after saying our goodbyes to all the amazing staff at Telunas, we boarded our boat. 

Xena wanted to sit in front, and since she had a life jacket on, I encouraged her, though Viv was a bit jittery. She sat there, enjoying the strong wind....

...until, all of a sudden, the weather turned stormy. 

It started to rain rather heavily, and the boatman had to pull down the curtains on all sides to protect us from getting wet. However, the boatman's assistant stayed out in front, and I was wondering how he was doing. 

In a while, the rain subsided, and the curtains went up. There he was, faithfully sticking to his position. He didn't seem very wet though, so we figured he might have sought refuge in the little space you can see at the bottom of the photo. 

This is the parting shot I took, just before we approached Sekupang. Looks like a movie poster about something ominous, doesn't it?

At Sekupang terminal, we met Mada, the lady who had assisted Viv in setting up the surprise for me. We had actually taken a box of chocolates for her because Viv had told me she'd been very helpful, without giving away the secret plans to me, of course. We thanked her and she was delighted to receive the chocolates. She even helped us change our tickets to an earlier ferry so we didn't have to wait too long at the terminal. 

Overall, it was one of the most wonderful vacations I've had. Normally, I protest strongly at the idea of repeating a holiday destination, so Viv was really surprised when I told him I really didn't mind going back to Telunas at some point. 

It was indeed a piece of paradise. 


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3 Comments:

  • All the 3 post were wonderful. Beautiful write-up which only you can manage.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 5:16 PM  

  • Hi Sayesha,

    We just came back from this amazing place.
    Though we have been living in Singapore from the past 11 years, I have never heard about this island.
    I cant thank you enough for blogging about Telunas. My kids had a lovely time and my husband simply loved this place. It was simply heaven on earth.
    Btw, our villa was 06. What was yours? :-)

    By Blogger Preethi, at 10:19 PM  

  • Unknown,
    Thank you. :)

    Preethi,
    Glad you had a great time. We were in 07. :)

    By Blogger Sayesha, at 12:07 PM  

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