The Adventure Continues
In terms of transportation, this weekend has definitely been the craziest thus far in my life.
Over the course of 3 days and 2 nights, I have utilized the following modes of transport:
- Regular passenger ferry (owned by Penguin Ferry Services)
- Teksi ( generally sold by the words "Hello friend! How ah you? Wheh you goin? Teksi?")
- Minivan w/ benches and 15 other passengers
- "Bus"
- Scooters* rented from a group of random guys in Tanjung Uban
- On the back of an old lady's truck
and
- Speedboat. Allow me to elaborate: in Indonesia, speedboat means a low, low boat. Soo low. The picture speaks for itself. Interesting fact - we were more than 50 people, not including the 7 year old ticket collector.
*These were some high quality bikes, by the way: halfway through the second day, the gear shifter simply broke straight off.
On the first night, Dan, Christine and I stayed in a worndown beach resort (I love how even beach resorts has chickens running around! On Saturday morning, Dan ordered an omelette, but they told us there were no more eggs left. 10 minutes later, though, eggs were available again, and the omelette emerged.), and had dinner at a restaurant on big poles out on the water. We also befriended some french exchange students that were at NUS, but despite beer for 8000 Rupiah, it was an early night... Saturday was awesome though, after obtaining scooters and some cheapo dvds, we made it to Bintan Resorts, and got a place to stay. Strangely enough, the receptionist was the same guy we had talked to on the bus from Gelak to Tanjung Uban. We got some food and cheap beer, then hit up the beach party at Mana Mana. Had a great time, that became even greater when they only charged my credit card with one of the 3 rounds of drinks we had. High point was definitely when they played Cheeky Girls - I honestly don't think I've ever seen Dan as happy as I did right then.
The next day we mooched the beach off of the resort, and it was beautiful - much better than the slimy beach at the place we stayed the first night. Dan sported an amazing farmers tan - that must have been what prompted some local Indonesians to ask if they could take our picture. We agreed, thinking they would take a photo and be off, but rather they now have a collection of close to 20 photographs and video footage of the entire family posing with us. It's been a while since I've laughed that hard!
All in all a great trip.
Hehe, it was even an interesting return voyage to Singapore - we ran out of money and struggled to get through 2 ferrys and one taxi ride for 3 people for 10 Sing Dollars. Well, I'm back at least - I was pleasantly surprised to see that we actually made it.
Over the course of 3 days and 2 nights, I have utilized the following modes of transport:
- Regular passenger ferry (owned by Penguin Ferry Services)
- Teksi ( generally sold by the words "Hello friend! How ah you? Wheh you goin? Teksi?")
- Minivan w/ benches and 15 other passengers
- "Bus"
- Scooters* rented from a group of random guys in Tanjung Uban
- On the back of an old lady's truck
and
- Speedboat. Allow me to elaborate: in Indonesia, speedboat means a low, low boat. Soo low. The picture speaks for itself. Interesting fact - we were more than 50 people, not including the 7 year old ticket collector.
*These were some high quality bikes, by the way: halfway through the second day, the gear shifter simply broke straight off.
On the first night, Dan, Christine and I stayed in a worndown beach resort (I love how even beach resorts has chickens running around! On Saturday morning, Dan ordered an omelette, but they told us there were no more eggs left. 10 minutes later, though, eggs were available again, and the omelette emerged.), and had dinner at a restaurant on big poles out on the water. We also befriended some french exchange students that were at NUS, but despite beer for 8000 Rupiah, it was an early night... Saturday was awesome though, after obtaining scooters and some cheapo dvds, we made it to Bintan Resorts, and got a place to stay. Strangely enough, the receptionist was the same guy we had talked to on the bus from Gelak to Tanjung Uban. We got some food and cheap beer, then hit up the beach party at Mana Mana. Had a great time, that became even greater when they only charged my credit card with one of the 3 rounds of drinks we had. High point was definitely when they played Cheeky Girls - I honestly don't think I've ever seen Dan as happy as I did right then.
The next day we mooched the beach off of the resort, and it was beautiful - much better than the slimy beach at the place we stayed the first night. Dan sported an amazing farmers tan - that must have been what prompted some local Indonesians to ask if they could take our picture. We agreed, thinking they would take a photo and be off, but rather they now have a collection of close to 20 photographs and video footage of the entire family posing with us. It's been a while since I've laughed that hard!
All in all a great trip.
Hehe, it was even an interesting return voyage to Singapore - we ran out of money and struggled to get through 2 ferrys and one taxi ride for 3 people for 10 Sing Dollars. Well, I'm back at least - I was pleasantly surprised to see that we actually made it.
posted by Marianne at
1:50 am
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