Canopi in Bintan - day 3

Viv and I had decided to wake up at 6 am and go for a walk around the lagoon. Xena had heard our plans and immediately instructed us to wake her up and take her along. We were planning to do at least two rounds of the lagoon, and taking her along would have seriously compromised it, so we let her sleep while we set off. 

A good 3-km walk later, we returned to find her awake and slightly cross at not being taken along. So Viv humoured her by taking her for a short walk around our tent. 

Father and daughter set off on their morning walk. 

Our ferry was in the late afternoon, so we had decided to spend the morning at the activity area, trying our hand at things we had never done before. Mom decided to skip that portion, so we dropped her back at the tent after breakfast.

The monkey doing her usual monkey antics

We took random photos while waiting for our buggy. 

Yes, I can pick her up with one hand. No credit to my muscles, of course.  

At last, our buggy arrived and in a few minutes, we were in the activity area, picking out what we wanted to do.

Ford Model T buggy ride

Viv wanted to do the motocross but it wasn't available. I was dying to get on a Segway because I'd never done it before and had always wanted to. 

Xena and I pose near the Segways. 

Xena helped me with my Segway gear. 

All set! Nervous but excited!

The guide asked me if I'd ever seen on a Segway and confidently said, "NEVER." He smiled and taught me the basics. 

And off I go!

The guide led the way on an electric scooter. I just had to follow and make sure I wasn't too fast or too slow. 

The weather was really nice. Not too sunny and perfect for a Segway ride. I was a bit wobbly at first, but I got the hang of it soon and was able to keep up with the guide quite easily. At one point, I went a little ahead of him and he panicked. "Too fast! If you go over 20, the Segway will be unstable."

"Erm, I'm going at 14." I told him. He smiled and stopped panicking thereafter.

Viv tries to capture us from the other side of the lagoon. 

The end of the ride! I was sad, but exhilarated at the same time. 

Next up - a ride on the mini electric ATV for Xena. 

She got on the bike, but the guide took one look at her and said she was too tiny to ride it by herself. "She can go with another child, an older one," he said. Unfortunately, we had not catered to this requirement and were unable to produce an older sibling on the spot. 

"Can you go with her?" I asked Viv. 

"Can I go with her?" Viv asked the guide.

The guide looked Viv up and down and asked, "You how many kilo?"

"70."

"OH! Cannot!"

"What's the maximum weight?" I asked. I thought he would say 20 or 30. 

"60 can." He said. 

What?! Phew!

"I'm 56." I told him. 

"Ok can."

So Xena and I got on the ATV, Xena looking thrilled and me looking like a complete idiot on that tiny vehicle. 

Off we go! "You can go faster on this than the Segway," my guide said. Gee, thanks. :/

And once again, Viv takes a picture from the other side of the lagoon. 

And back we are, after a full round of the lagoon. Xena was thrilled, and secretly, so was I. Under normal circumstances. I'd have never gotten to ride one of these things. 

A buggy was there to take us back, and Viv captured this shot of a yawning Xena in the rear view mirror. 

We still had over two hours to kill before heading for lunch and then our ferry, so we decided to play... Uno, of course! Many, many rounds later, we packed up and checked out of our tent. "I will miss our tent," Xena was almost in tears.

But she cheered up soon after. 

The weather had gotten even cooler and soon we saw clouds approaching. The walk from our tent to the restaurant was less than 5 minutes so we thought we'd easily make it, but all of a sudden, the rain poured down hard. Viv and Xena dashed off, while I fumbled in my bag for my umbrella (trust a Singaporean to always have an umbrella in her bag!) because I knew Mom wouldn't be able to walk that fast. The rain was now lashing down, but thanks to the umbrella, we were dry when we reached.

Xena looked like a poor little wet kitten though!

The rain and the lagoon

The restaurant staff immediately pulled down the screens to prevent the rain from getting in, but it still did. We loved it though. 

Soon, we were done with lunch, and waited at the reception area for the bus to take us to the ferry terminal. 

Daddy velociraptor and baby velociraptor try to scare the paparazzi away. 

Awwww... safe in daddy's arms

Not so much in mommy's arms maybe? 

Parting shot just outside the BBT ferry terminal

What a fab vacation! Short, but sweet, and incredibly refreshing. Till we meet again, ciao! Until then, I'll look at Xena's drawings and repeat with her, "I miss the ferry... and the tent... and the lagoon!"

This is apparently her taking the ferry ride.

The four of us and our tent

Canopi in Bintan - day 2

10 August 2016

Everyone followed my strict instructions from the previous night, so I didn't wake up until it was almost 8 am. Gosh, that meant 9 am Singapore time! Mom was in the tent, but Xena and Viv were nowhere to be found. 

I stepped outside and saw this heart-warming sight -- daddy and daughter having an early morning chat

We had bought a few packs of strawberry milk for Xena as there isn't even a minimart at the Canopi resort. At home, she drinks regular milk with a bit of Milo, so she was quite thrilled at this very sweet change.

"Look, Mama! I'm a bunny in the garden!" 

I was now fully awake, so instantly turned on my Hitler mode and asked everyone to get ready for breakfast. 

Mommy and baby are ready to go have breakfast!

The buffet breakfast was hearty -- they had all kinds of local and western breakfast items, and there was a live omelette station. The food included soup, rice, noodles, toast, croissants, veggies, salad, a few types of meat, juices, milk, cereal, yoghurt, fruits and what not.

Viv's loaded plate

I took this shot just to annoy him because that morning, he was on his phone... a lot. It was work stuff though, so I forgave him. 

We had booked a massage that morning. At 10 am sharp, a car came to pick us up and take us to the D'Bintan spa. Mom and I went first, arming Viv and Xena with snacks, water, and two games -- Uno and snakes and ladders. Mom and I were getting our massage in the same room, and at some point, we heard loud snoring sounds from the next room. Our masseuses were giggling. That must have been one hell of a relaxing massage, huh? I was reminded of a massage that I too, had fallen asleep in the middle of. It was Macapagal Spa in Manila, and thought it was more than 10 years ago, it remains the best massage I've ever got in my life.

A car dropped Mom, Xena and me back to Canopi as Viv went for his massage. We chilled in the room for a while, and Xena came up with all sorts of role-play games. One moment, Diny was her baby and the next, he was her patient. Mom and I didn't have to do much to entertain her.

After Viv returned, we went for lunch to... where else but the Bora Bora bar and restaurant again. Xena was refusing to eat, and we were both on the verge of losing it, when Viv came up with a hilarious eating game. He told Xena she was a velociraptor and she had to eat all the animals around her. He pointed at the different food items and told her they were all sorts of animals -- some were snakes, some eels and some sea cucumbers. Strangely enough, Xena gobbled them all, making ferocious faces.

"Velociraptor needs to drink some seawater now!" She exclaimed and proceeded to dunk her face directly into the glass of water. It was hilarious. 

After lunch, Xena took a nap, while the rest of us played Uno like there was no tomorrow. After she woke up, we went to the reception area, where they arranged for a buggy to take us to the activity area which was on the other side of the lagoon from where we stayed. 

Xena was super thrilled with the buggy ride. Our driver offered to take this picture for us. It's probably the only photo with all of us in it!

This is the floating watersport park, comprising floating obstacles and a climbing wall float (the mountain-like white structure on the left). The water here is more than 2 metres deep and life jackets are compulsory for everyone. It didn't seem very suitable for Xena, so we skipped it. 

We had booked a boat ride on the Crystal Lagoon, and we had to walk over this very wobbly 'jetty' to get to our boat. 

At all points, I was worried that someone would fall in the water. That 'someone' was most likely to be me, considering my Bintan misadventures from 9 years ago. 

Thankfully, no one fell, and we were all safe in the boat. It was a solar electric boat, so it was no wonder that it hardly made any sound at all, even though we were going pretty fast. 

And off we go! The lagoon turned out to be even more massive than I'd imagined. 

This guy was in a boat being dragged around by the cable ski mechanism. He looked like he was having a lot of fun... until he fell! Ouch. 

This guy was just randomly swimming in the deep water. 

The activity area had many many things you could do in the water - aquaglide, bumper boat, jetovator, kayak, sea scooter, stand-up paddle, water tricycle and water zovb. In addition, there were the land activities, such as segway, ATV quad bike, Ford model T buggy ride, mini motorcross, 2-seater UTV, mini electric ATV, and electric scooter (which you could rent for the whole day and zip around). We decided to come back the next morning to try some of the other things out because Xena was getting restless -- she couldn't wait to jump back into the lagoon!

So we went back to our tent, and she changed into her swimsuit in no time at all!

I put on my shoes because I was not getting into the water today -- I had better plans. All the eating and not working for it was getting to me, and I decided to walk the perimeter of the lagoon, while Viv and Xena were in the water. Mom couldn't join me on such a long walk, so I went by myself. 

But before I headed out, I did take some photos of them in the water. 

She's still so light that he can easily do this!

My walk was fantastic -- relaxing and invigorating and guilt-melting. The perimeter was about 1.5 km, so I was quite happy with only one round of it, though I did plan to do two the next day. There was so much empty space around the lagoon, and I wondered what they were going to do with it. A nice go-kart track would be a great idea. Viv would surely be thrilled. 

By the time I got back to where the rest were, it was evening...

...and everything looked doubly beautiful!

We made our way back to our tents for a shower. 

But not before we'd played a few rounds of Uno again! Gosh, we were all obsessed! Xena kept snapping up the 'spent' cards and making what she called 'the ferry that brought us here'. At last, hunger got the better of us and we decided to head for dinner. 

Xena insisted on taking her snakes and ladders game to the dinner table. She's sulking here because she got a snake.

Whenever I dine in Indonesia, I'm so amused at the prices and the bills. 100,000 rupiah for a drink! 

I stayed far away from alcohol this time and settled for a fresh pineapple juice instead. 

Viv was getting a bit sick of the food, not only because we knew the menu like the back of our hands, but also because there were very few vegetarian options for him. They really should have a few more restaurants -- they certainly have the space for it!

By the time we were done with dinner, Xena was exhausted and insisted that Viv give her a ride home. 

This was our last night in Bintan as we were scheduled to get back by the next afternoon's ferry. Xena was already feeling sad and saying stuff like, "I want us to live here in this tent forever!" and "I'm going to miss my tent sooooo much!" 

Click here for Canopi in Bintan - day 3.