Rain in Bintan

Where we were in Bintan is about 125km above the equator, so officially the furthest south I have ever been, also the furthest I have ever been away from home at 12,750km from Calgary (as the crow flies). We woke up Monday to a thunderstorm. We were originally trying to find a tour to go on to see a rubber plantation and pineapple plantation, but it wasn’t being offered, so we were going to go on a mangrove tour. However the rain scrubbed that too. It made it much easier to roll over and sleep in, knowing I wasn’t missing any sun or beach time.

Breakfast was included, so we headed down to the buffet. The pineapple (not pictured) was the best I’ve ever had; I guess it helps when they can pick it, and you’re eating it the next day.

Again we got up to more fooseball, but it was tough with the insane amounts of humidity.

Our tour was supposed to start around noon, but by 1:00 the rain had stopped. So we went back down and sat on the beach for a while.

We grabbed lunch before getting the coach back to the ferry terminal. I had won ton soup, and while the vegetables and won tons were not necessarily the best, the broth was fabulous.

     

The ferry ride was even less eventful on the way back to Singapore, it was dark and there was some chop (creating much more spray) so you really couldn’t see anything at all. After getting a cab back to Andrew’s and dropping our bags, we headed to Newton to the more famous Newton Food Centre (hawker stand). It is in an area that has a lot of expats and is fairly well known, so the vendors are a little more pushy there.

We split a beef noodles dry, and carrot cake.

 

As you can see, carrot cake isn’t quite what we think of it back home. It gets its name because it is made of a carrot-like vegetable. It was so tasty, I was asking Andrew to FedEx me some once I’m back home.

On the way back home I finally got to take a picture I had been wanting to for a while. It was on the hospital premises that I had to walk through to get to the MRT station, and there were signs all over the hospital saying that photography was not allowed. Singaporians are quite British influenced; they queue up when they’re forming lines. The funny thing I though, was the shortening of it to put on signs.

We got back to Andrew’s and spent the rest of the night chatting while I packed up.