Day 1 (Monday, 24th Dec 2001)

We left home at 3.20pm and headed for Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal. There, we met our other extended family members. Four families went and there were 15 of us. The weather was only a little cloudy.

The ferry, Indera Bupala, left the terminal at 5.30pm. On board the ferry, the steward handed us sea-sick bags and jokingly told us that we were headed for Hawaii, not Bintan. I didn’t pay much attention to him. Halfway through the journey, only then did I realise how true his words were. It started to rain heavily and it was like one roller-coaster ride. People in front, behind and at the side of us started throwing up. The smell and sound were sickening. It took 45mins to reach our destination. The three of us survived the trip without throwing up. Yeah!

When we reached the Bintan Resorts Ferry Terminal, the bus was already waiting for us. We reached Bintan Lagoon Resort at nearly 7pm (Singapore time). The time at Bintan was one hour early. It was a superb resort. We stayed at a villa. It was a nice bungalow with four bedrooms. As there were 15 of us (8 adults, 3 teenagers and 4 kids), we volunteered to sleep at the living room. The living room was rather huge. There was also a buggy for each villa as it was a golf resort. We had dinner in our villa as we brought food from home. There was lontong, rendang, sambal kacang, nasi ayam….YUM! I think I ate too much that’s why I couldn’t sleep well that night.

After dinner, me, bapak, Lin and Izah went to the Club House, which was also the hotel lobby cos we were bored staying in the villa. The mothers started making noise cos it was raining heavily and cold and we had to take the buggy to the club house and it’s soo dark, blah..blah…blah…but we went anyway. Lin, Izah and I also wanted to run away from the irritating kids who were playing on our nicely made bed and destroying it and none of the adults cared abt us. The kids kept playing on it and dirtying it. Yaya even had the cheek to tell the other kids to ‘pijak our beds, biarkan diorang gatal2’. AAARGH!!!! But you can’t do anything with them cos they’re only preschoolers and toddlers. Even the usually well-behaved Afiqah joined her little sister in jumping up and down on our bed.

Oh! I should tell you abt our ‘bed’. We made the bed ourselves, using cushions from the sofa and quilts from the four bedrooms. I liked our bed cos it’s very comfortable and our ‘room’ too cos there’s so much space. The only thing is, we don’t have privacy.