Worlds apart

By JEANETTE PETHERICK

Bintan Island's bare, sometimes bush-covered land is the first thing you notice after arriving from the urban jungle of Singapore.

Part of Indonesia, three times larger than Singapore Island, Bintan is sparsely populated and is divided into two states, with a customs post between the two. The northern and smaller state has several resorts, while the southern state contains Bintan's only city, Tanjung Pinang.

The modern ferry to Bintan leaves from the Tanah Merah terminal just out of Singapore. Bus fare from the city to the terminal is just S$1.80 ($2.20), while the 45-minute ferry ride costs about S$40 ($49).

Nirwana Garden Resort - just 10 minutes from Bintan's ferry - has open areas of green for playing games, a beautiful swimming pool with bar, the beach just beyond, and plenty of palm trees dotted around. There are shops, a gym, restaurants, a bar and a huge lobby with table tennis and pool tables. There is also a giant chessboard.

The outside restaurant at Nirwana Gardens Resort offers a different style of meal each night. If you're there on stir-fry night, you can choose the ingredients then watch as the chefs cook it.

Quite an atmosphere is created with a local band playing, colourful lights and the chefs tossing the contents of their woks into the warm night air.

The inside dining room is huge and the menu vast, with choices from several cultures. As I eat I hear the band which enjoys the challenge of playing almost anything on request - Ten Guitars was the New Zealand song performed in our honour.

Later, after the dining room started to empty, the band moved to the open-air bar upstairs for guests to dance the night away.

One of the star attractions is an elephant, brought in by truck each day for rides. He is quite small so only two people ride him at a time. Other attractions include volleyball, snorkelling, windsurfing and pedal boats, while golf is available nearby.

While the hotel account (in Indonesian rupiah) can be paid by credit card, local cash is required for everything else.

If you want to see other parts of Bintan, there are several tours. An all-day tour costs about S$45 ($55) a person in a group - the smaller the group, the more expensive.

Once away from the tourist area of Bintan, it soon becomes apparent this is Third World.

Roads are narrow, often with no room to pass even a motor-bike. The area is sparsely populated, with bamboo houses among the bush. While many don't look substantial, others are made of concrete blocks and have corrugated iron roofs.

A single shop will often appear to be in the middle of nowhere, selling everything, from fish and petrol to vegetables, coke, baskets and mops.

Tanjung Pinang is on the island's south coast. Our group was so large we needed a full-sized bus and, as this was only the second time a vehicle this size had been into the city, we had a police escort (complete with flashing lights) to take us through the red traffic lights. We had more drama when the roof of our bus brought down overhead wires.

Stalls on the footpaths of the main shopping streets sell almost everything, including wallets, watches, bags, sandals, jewellery and sunglasses. But in sharp contrast, around the corner is a large, modern, European-style mall.

There are numerous islands off the coast. Penyengat, close to the city, is serviced by sampans, which carry 10-12 passengers. This island is occupied solely by Muslims and is home to the Royal Mosque, which can be seen from some distance away.

Many men on the coast make their living by fishing for herrings. Houses (kelongs) are built on stilts just offshore for the fishermen and their families to live in while the men are night-fishing.

The beach is covered in fine, white sand and the water is crystal clear. We found a river mouth packed with much larger fishing boats which doubled as homes.

Most families in country areas grow rice, the main crop, and keep chickens. Coconut and breadfruit are widely grown, along with rubber, sugar cane, watermelon, corn and beans.

Inland are huge plantations of palms (grown for their oil) and pineapple.

Other industries include boatbuilding, timber-milling, stone-carving and artificial flower-making.

In the north, tourist resorts offer employment but pay is low and only the top jobs come with accommodation.

Bintan has just two seasons, rainy and dry. Even in the rainy season, because it is close to the tropics, it is always warm and humid.

Bintan has not yet been hit by the hawkers that plague other Indonesian tourists areas, such as Bali. But don't just go to the resort - there is so much more to this island, with a different culture to experience.

Bintan Resorts

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