club med day one

Feeling very holiday-ey after checking out Air Asia's Merdeka Specials. Flights to Phuket is so cheap! But nobody wants to go with me! Not even my mum ("haaar, whole day just sit at the beach, nothing to see ar?"), not even Eryn ("haaar, you sure that time weather is good ar?")... and Bear-Bear just got back from Phuket so no point asking.

I WANT A BEACHY HOLIDAY!

Since cannot go forward, I go backwards. Introducing pictures of victim #8763 from extreme procrastination: Club Med Bintan! Yaya I know it was 2 months ago. But it still brings a swooning sigh from me everytime I look at the greens and blues.

DAY ONE

I'd be lying if I say the gloomy weather didn't affect my mood. Holidaying at the beach means red and hot-to-the-touch skin, sand between toes and ass-cheeks, and plentiful sun! Sun so hot you can hear droplets of seawater sizzling on your skin. Sun so glaring that the sea becomes one huge reflective blue-green foil.

Walking towards the ferry at Singapore's jetty, I miss my sun.

The clouds parted slightly when we reached the Bintan jetty, but it was still drizzling. I haven't done any research about Bintan, and I certainly didn't expect the jetty to be superb, but it was nice. Better than the Pangkor Island ones. But now that Bintan has many other golf resorts, maybe it's wise for the immigration department to have more than ONE counter?

The room is to die for. HUGE king-size bed with a day bed by the window! The bellboy said to not leave windows unlocked or monkeys will have a party. What, they know how to get the beer from the fridge and peanuts from the cabinet? The lanai overlooks a neat little cove. I must've stood (stoned) there for quite some time, because when I regained my bearings it was already dark. And that could mean only one thing.

Feeding time! I squeaked with joy at the entrance to the main dining area. I didn't know where to start picking up chow! One thing I noticed though, there're special sections for Japanese and Korean food every day. And yeah, most of the patrons were them. Food's great with an abundance of selection!

I didn't appreciate Club Med's practice of forcing their employees to dine with patrons though. The reason I say force is because it was damn obvious the 2 guys who sat with me didn't give a hoot about the conversation they're supposed to create. I got halfhearted "where're you from"s (the fact that they were attacking their food and only glanced at me in between mouthfuls made me feel quite B-class) and I gave the expected "which activity/department are you in charge of"s, cooed appropriately and then we exchanged lukewarm "see you around"s and they're off, stuffing handfuls of grapes/lychees/whatever snacks small enough to fit into their pockets.

And does anyone know what's that fruit with snakeskin-skin in the middle? The insides look like garlic. And taste weird. Nicely weird but lacking juice.

They have a few other themed restaurants like this one in the vicinity as well. But those had zero patrons. And the fresh orchid on a ribbon tied to the nicely-folded napkin whispered to me that I wasn't gonna be able to afford it.

The first night's show was a fusion of different dances. All the performers were employees in charge of day activities or some other stuff. I wonder how they manage to find time to practise. They're up when I was up, and they're still up when I've gone to bed. Hmmm. Maybe Club Med closes on a certain weekday? They do need their off-days, right?

(when I posted this picture, the first thing that came to my mind was: wow if only we get this kind of response at church)

DAY TWO and DAY THREE coming up next day. I'm mighty sleepy.