Bintan Trip Part 1

Bintan trip

It was a 4 days trip, great instructors, awesome teachers and tpjcians (:
(Photos here credits to the main photographers of the trip Hanis and Geraldine.)

Day One

Reached school around 7 and set off to the ferry terminal around 730 :D



Settled all the admin stufff, passports scanning and we were off!
The ferry ride was quite a smooth one (as compared to our ferry ride home) and it was an hour till we reached Bintan.

When we reached there, we met our instructors Afiq and Bai :D



Soon after, we were off to the first school for local school interaction. It was a long bumpy ride in a squeezy bus. The seats were half a normal SBS seat for two people. Cosy though. Haha.

We were welcomed by the Principal (see below), teachers and kids when we reached there (: The teachers all wore the same uniform and the kids were so orderly and neatly aligned. They even did some drills.

After opening speech by the Principal and Mr Samad, it was time to play games!

Don't have pictures of the game my group was playing ): We were playing with them this balloon game, where the all had to line up in a straight line balancing a balloon in between each of them, while picking up small cones. We had to speak Malay to the kids cos they don't really speak English. Thank god for Fuad in my group whose Malay is powerrrr. Haha. When it was time to leave, Hanis (the overall-in-charge for that day) gave a closing speech and we donated the games to them.

We gave some biscuits and sweets to the kids before we left. Kids were all so eager to get them. It got some of us thinking that the kids there rarely eat that kind of stuff. I guess we don’t realise exactly how lucky we really are.

Group photo before we left.


Before we boarded on the bus for our next destination, we were told to collect coconut husks. Apparently by burning it later, we could drive away sandflies and mosquitoes later on the island. So we grabbed more, after finding out why. Haha.





We had packed lunch at a sheltered area with chairs, and some people thought that was where we were going to sleep at for the next few days -_-" Turns out that it was just a resting area. Some couldn't finish their food, and Ms Tay laid it out for the stray dogs to eat, so as not to waste food. I think from this trip, I got rid of my phobia of dogs. There was practically dogs everywhere in Bintan. Thankfully there were no fierce attacking kind of dogs.

We then proceeded to some team building games. For god knows why my group was called Imba.

We were doing the Bai Clap. What a racist clap though.

Then we packed our day packs for our island stay and put on life vests for our long walk to the island.

There were some fallen mangroves, so Mr Law (camp facilitator)was teaching us how to plant them back in to ensure that they won't be swept away when it's high tide.





That's how its like during low tide. The next day was a totally different story. The water was no longer knee length but chest high, during high tide.

Mr Fizz was forever fiddling with his waterproof camera. Haha.





Then Mr Law said that he'd give the first person to find a starfish a can of Coke. Some got really excited and were looking frantically.

But Mr Law himself found the first one -_-" So no coke. Happy seh. It got me reminded of the starfish story, Ms Siti and I were talking about after seeing tons and tons of starfishes. Hopefully we didn't step on any. According to Ms Tay, starfishes are now renamed to sea stars by scientists. And many were amazed to see THIS.

Sea stars mating.



A random crab.



Finally we reached the island!



The coconut husks being burnt.



We started to set up our tents.





And, YAY.


And soon, it was time to cook dinner. Collected wood, leaves and stuff, and it was hard to set up a fire cos it started to rain. How timely.

We finally did, ate and cleaned up using water from the well. That's our well.

And anyway, here's our toilet :D

Then we had a talk by Mr Law. His lifestory was really sad, but what was admirable of him was that he never let anyone put him down. And wah, now he's the CEO of Singapore Inline and I just saw him in the newspaper twice a week ago.

Did reflections on highest and lowest point of the day and things to be thankful for. Soon, it was time to sleeep. I kept waking up, thinking it was already time to wake up.


Day 2

Woke up to this (: It was high tide already. And it was raining too. The rain caused lots of our activities to be cancelled ): Like jungle trekking. Gahh.



Haha, the teachers and instructors during breakfast.
We made Milo and had local biscuits :D



But we managed to do something else which wasn't planned. We learnt to row a sampan :D
Using the locals' sampans.



It looked easy but it wasn't. It was pretty tiring and wasn't like kayaking or canoeing.
Seeing the local kids do it so easily made us feel so ... Haha, go figure. But it was really funnn, tring to balance and row at the same time.


Someone was teaching me how to make ripples, or so called 'skips'. Hahaha ((:

So after learning how to sampan, it was time to clean up the campsite and get ready to go to a village. We had to clear the toilet as well. We had to cover the hole with a soil and dumped our rubbish deep inside so animals won't eat any. And apparently, each time campers go there, they use a different location for the toilet. I was just thinking that maybe the area my tent was at might have been the toilet :S Haha. But anyway, we were the last people to camp there.

The sole of Ms Tay's shoes came off. They were helping her to tape it together. Haa, Kung Fu fighting!



So we took a boat (also known as pom-pom due to the sound the engine makes) to the fishing village.



There was a charcoal factory in the village. Mrs Law told us it was the largest one in Bintan but has stop operating as the government has banned the production of charcoal from Mangrove trees. It will start operation soon using other types of trees.



People there were really friendly. Some even played badminton with the kids. We saw many animals roaming around, like chicken, dogs and we even saw a pet monkey. We were all really excited to see the monkey. We saw a dog which was limping ): And Ms Tay, who has been obsessed with dogs throughout the whole trip, fed it some biscuits (: After resting and loading our daypacks, we went to a nearby provision shop to buy rice. Each group was given 4 packets of rice and were to make our way to the houses and give away rice to them as a token of our appreciation of letting us in.

Almost every household Mangrove (name of my group) went had many dogs and cats, and they were fishermen. They were really friendly, telling us about their lifestyle. they told us how they celeberated Christmas, how they built their house and what they use to catch fish/crabs.

Some even showed us their catch. They told us that they would sell the big ones and eat the small ones. Their catch were mainly crabs, stingrays and lobsters!











We later found out during interaction with the villagers why that family kept a monkey. The monkey's job as to find HEAD LICE O_O and also that the island we stayed in last night was haunted.

Group Kingfisher's visit.



Saw this enormous turtle at one of the houses. Apparently, the fishermen were going to eat it and use the shell to make furniture/acessories. We were really shocked when we heard that. But Mr Law bought it from them and we were going to release it somewhere far. Poor turtle, the kids kept knocking its shell.



After all that, we had lunch. Seeing the kids there, we gave some of our food away to them. Like our bananas and chicken. It was really great to see them happy and so thankful for the food :D We ate under this shelter.



After lunch, it was time for Mangrove Reforestation!
We walked and took a boat there.



We were all wet and muddy, planting the seeds and replanting the saplings. So much for the chest high mud Ms Tay was talking about -_-" It was only ankle to knee high. We had to hurry plant and leave cos the tide was going to downn and that might cause the boat to be stuck in the mud.

Mr Samad (:







We went to a place where the water was so clean, to relax awhile after that.
We dunked ourselves in the water :D



We went back to the Charcoal Factory and Mrs Law gave us a tour of the place.

How the whole process was like and how long it took. Mangroves were best used cos it burns slowly yet the heat it gives out is intense. It was really hard work.



Transporting the turtle into a van to be brought to the hotel, and to be released near there.



And finally after that, the time everyone has been waiting for has finally come: we were going to the hotel! We went to Bintan Agro Resort, a bumpy ride (: Loads of entertainment from Instructor Bai on the way!

We washed up, all the sand which were in our hair and our feet which were muddy and go ready for dinner. We were all excited cos we heard we were going to eat at a Kelong. Apparently there was an event there so we ate at the hotel. The food was awesome.

After that we made our way to a shelter area in the hotel for another talk by Mr Law. We watched a video on his lifestory in Mandarin dubbed by Mrs Law. Lots of discrimination. What he said during that talk was really thought-provoking. Made me think hard and reflect on my life. He has never let anyone bring him down, and that was really admirable. Plus the charity work he does. Wow, he's amazing. But somehow this camp was more about him than us. Haa.

After that came the most random thing. We had a karaoke session. o_O But it was really fun singing all those old school music. Wah, turns out some had hidden talents! Hanis and Ms Siti especially, who did a duet of the song Zombie by the Cranberries. They were really good (: Fuad and some of the guys were singing in a low and deep voice. Amusing really.

A really entertaining night, with the instructors telling us really jokes and stories.

The guys were supposed to perform something... but it got cancelled cos we had reflections to do.

Had reflections after that, everyone was tired by then. Went back to our rooms to sleeeep (:

Set alarm, cos my roomates said that they were heavy sleepers. (And they really were. Didn't wake up even after all the 5 alarms rang!) Slept on a single bed with Yen Lin. It gt feeezing cold at night!

So, that's the end of part ONE. Didn't want the entry to lag, so yeah.

Shall blog about part TWO some other time when I'm free (: