My Trip to Bintan Lagoon Resort

My Trip to Bintan Lagoon Resort

It has been a crazy recent weekend for me. So crazy that this write-up deserves to be decent. I had actually received a phone call from Nuffnang (check out the icon on the top left of my blog) on Thursday 4 Oct asking if I was interested to go for a 2 day 1 night trip to Bintan. I would be departing on Friday 5 Oct. It did take me some time to sort out my schedule. The trip would be fully sponsored but I would have to write a review of the resort (which was Bintan Lagoon Resort) in return for this free trip. The food and drinks were sponsored and participants could also take part in some of the activities free of charge on the morning of the second day. All in all it was a fantastic experience. I can only say that I will write an unbiased review of the resort but also do some advertising for the companies that have come up with this program.

The main players of the trip include Journeyful, Mozaic Hotels & Resorts and Bintan Lagoon Resort. Journeyful is actually a integrator and they have put together a social networking platform together with the resort booking system, ferry booking system as well as travel agencies contact. Then there is Mozaic Hotels & Resorts which is a hospitality management company that does all the sales and marketing for Bintan Lagoon Resort. Other than Bintan Lagoon Resort, MHR also manages Bann Yin Dee Boutique Resort in Phuket, Thailand. In addition, they have also launched its own ferry service; Mozaic Ferry Lines. Not only does the ferry get to dock at the door step of the resort, guests are given private access to the resort’s dedicated immigration counter, cutting down on a lot of waiting time.

Now on to my review proper. First of all, I decided to break my review into a few posts. That way, I can pen my thoughts into smaller chunks and into separate posts:

Day One: Arrival and Tour of Resort

Dinner on Golf Course and Sky Lantern Release

Free and Easy Day 2 and End of Trip

It has been a fantastic trip. The bonuses that came with the trip made it even sweeter. Of course once again I have to thank Nuffnang as well as Journeyful and Mozaic Hotels & Resorts for this excellent organised trip. Till next time!

Day One: Arrival and Tour of Resort

Day One: Arrival and Tour of Resort

Arrival at the resort

The good thing about going to Bintan Lagoon Resort was that the ferry really brought us to the doorstep of the resort. This really saved us some travelling time. Our passports were taken away from us in advance for immigration clearance, which was pretty impressive. But an area for improvement would be for departure immigration clearance. One thing was that we had to get our passports back from the concierge and if there were other people queuing up then you would probably have to wait a long time to get it back. And who knows if they will make a mistake and your passport ends up with someone else? If you ask me, if you want to give special treatment you give it all the way. Oh and another thing, the electricity got cut off at immigration when we arrived. Pretty interesting; wonder why they even have this immigration counter!

Nevertheless enough about my grouses with immigration. Time for some happy pics. Guess who received upon arrival? No other than Sponge bob and (is that) Donald Duck?

After clearing immigration, we were whisked to the resort. While most of the participants took a shuttle bus, I had the chance to be whisked in a golf buggy. You have to pay rental to actually take a ride in one of these. Then we came to the Resort lobby and we were given a warm towel together with a welcome drink: a glass of refreshing home made lemonade...

My Room at Bintan Lagoon Resort

We then proceeded to our rooms. It sure wasn’t too shabby. The room was big enough for more than 2 persons and there was a balcony too. A pity this would only be a one night stay. While the room was facing the sea, from our room we couldn’t really see the ocean. Anyways I still think the room was pretty good enough for me.

Press Conference

After resting in the room for a while, we then made our way to the press conference by bus. This is actually the first time I am attending such a press conference. It was difficult hearing the boss speak and I did not really catch his words. I did enjoy the food though.

Tour of Resort

After the press conference we had a tour of the Resort and visited several areas. Did you also know that there are landed houses in the Resort itself that is open for sale? They are not cheap though. I guess if you really have no better thing to do with your money and you are crazy about golf and maybe Bintan, you can buy one of the houses there. Also take note of the Leisure Centre here as well as the Sports Activity centre. At Bintan Lagoon Resort, some of the things you can indulge in includes biking (they have single bikes, tandem bikes and even electric bikes – works somewhat like an electric scooter), ATVs or All Terrain Vehicles, then there is also archery, laser quest, video games like Wii, PS3 and XBOX360, waterball (you get to run around in a giant ball which floats on the water), bungee bounce, paint ball (I did not get to see the bungee bounce or paintball war zone though). Then there were the more popular water sports like the banana boat ride, flying fish ride as well as snorkelling. For those who prefer to relax, you can always get a beach massage.

Dinner on Golf Course and Sky Lantern Release

Dinner on Golf Course and Sky Lantern Release

Dinner

After the tour of the resort, we were once again whisked away and this time to a golf course whereby pretty tables have been set up. It so so looks like an outdoor wedding if you ask me. And i quite like the blue colour. We waited a long time for dinner to start. Apparently the food was not ready. On the other hand, some food which was already ready was just sitting there and the flies were tackling them with glee. Fortunately, some folks started sitting down at the tables and very soon after that dinner started.

Sky Lantern Release

I would say that the highlight for today was what came next. This was the release of sky lanterns at the beach. Sky lanterns come from a popular Thai festivity and are an emblem of blessing and hope. Releasing them is akin to bringing forth good luck. I sure hope that is true because I got to release a few (shhh dont tell anyone about this because I burnt up one or two lanterns too!) Jokes aside it really does take some skill to release one of these lanterns. First of all you have got to make sure that the lantern does not have any existing holes. Because how it works is that there is a piece of solid fuel, yes those kind which you use for camping, hexamine if I am not wrong, which you attach to the base of the lantern by inserting it through a metal wire. You then have to set this piece of hexamine on fire, being very careful not to burn any part of the lantern (which I have failed to do so for some lanterns) and then hold on to the lantern for a while so that the hexamine can really start to combust. And once it combusts, a whole lot of hot air is released and that is when the lantern would start to fly!

It actually costs $10++ per lantern so I think I was burning more money than lanterns but of course it was free of charge for the participants. Anyways this was a pretty simple activity yet to me it is quite a unique experience so I thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you thought the night ended there and then, you are wrong. There was even a post dinner party and drinks at Silk (the name of the bar at Bintan Lagoon Resort). I did pay a visit to the bar, just to have a look see, but I didn’t stay for the party. Hope those who went had a good time!

Second Morning Breakfast

After a good night’s rest, it was time for the second day’s activity of the trip. This is when you get to enjoy any of the free listed activities (I have highlighted these activities earlier in my other post). Before embarking on this fantastic quest, I had a buffet breakfast at the restaurant called Kopi-O. Nothing special there though. Just your normal breakfast and I was also saving some space for lunch, because surprise surprise lunch is going to be free too and you get to check out any of the F&B establishments in Bintan Lagoon Resort. The suspense was killing me because at that point of time I still did not know which restaurant to go to.

Free and Easy Day 2 and End of Trip

Free and Easy Day 2 and End of Trip

Well anyways, it was time for the free and easy leg of my trip I scouted out the Resort and made a note of the things I wanted to try out. Getting a massage was top of my list. It was quite a worthwhile massage as it lasted for quite a bit and my body did get a relaxing fix. I do not remember ever having a massage before, and the part when the masseur tugs and pulls on your fingers and toes is pretty scary if you ask me. Well I did survive the massage in the end. Other than the massage, I also had some time to go on the ATV ride. It was really fun and you get to splash in the mud (not myself but the ATV does gets splashed in the mud a bit and your legs will usually end up a little dirty). I also wanted to try out the banana boat ride and the flying fish. Unfortunately I was not able to find enough people to perform the deed (a minimum of 2 persons are required for the flying fish and a minimum of 3 persons for the banana boat ride) before the weather turned a little bit bad.

Anyways, I still had a great time nonetheless. Next was lunch. Because of the weather, my lunch options were narrowed. Of course you can always choose to venture some place far, but then the obvious choice was to have lunch at the resort itself. There were a few options, one of which was Kopi-O where I had my breakfast. Then there was also this Japanese restaurant. The choice was obvious. And I got a bigger (or should I say biggest) shock in my wife when we could order anything in the menu and it would be on the house...that is absolutely crazy and till today I still cant really believe it. Well needless to say I ate like a king. It was a very sinful meal. I would say that the actual prices were exaggerated a bit and on the high side, the food was slightly above average but could be better. But given that the food was free I am not complaining!

After lunch guess we had to leave the island. So sad! Wish the programme was much much longer like maybe a week haha so everyone can just laze and eat at Bintan! Well at least we had a late check out. There was a short kershuffle when the Bintan Lagoon Resort staff asked me to pay for the ATV saying that it was not included as a complimentary activity. I brought it across to them that their staff had actually said that it was complimentary. He left to do some checks, and later returned to inform that I was free to go.

With that I left Bintan with a smile and happy heart :)