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.