Melbourne ... in a hurry

After your arrival at Melbourne (Tullamarine) airport, if the chauffeured limousine is not available today to collect you, catch a red Skybus Super Shuttle which operates a 24 hour, 7 days a week express service between the airport and the Melbourne CBD at Southern Cross Station near the corner of Little Bourke and Spencer Street. From the CBD terminal mini-buses operate between the there and over 120 hotels throughout central Melbourne.

If you just have a short time to visit, or need to park some luggage for a while, there are reasonably priced and sized luggage lockers available at Southern Cross Station, right where you get off the Skybus, or further up in the main railway concourse.

There are several ticket options available, including options with a 2 hour or daily Metcard ticket included, which you can use for public transport in the city. Check with the ticket booth for the option that suits you best. Old Fartz, check your entitlements too – ask and you may receive; don’t ask and no-one will tell you.

It is a fast and affordable transfer option, taking just 20 minutes for the journey. Buses depart every 10 - 15 minutes between 6am and 9.30pm and at 30 minute and 60 minute intervals at other times.

Melbourne is an easy city to explore. It has an excellent network of trams, buses and trains that cover the whole metropolitan area and beyond. Timetables, route maps and fares are available via the Metlink website.

http://www.metlinkmelbourne.com.au/

The Melbourne trams are a much loved part of the city landscape. For a very modest fare visitors can spend the entire day on the trams exploring the city and inner suburbs.

National Geographic lists the 96 tram from East Brunswick to St Kilda as one of their recommended journeys; so if you have the time, travel at least some of the journey. You can join the tram just across the road from Southern Cross Station, in Bourke Street, up the hill for East Brunswick or down the hill for St Kilda is the easiest description, but ask someone to direct you if needed.

The 96 starts its travels in the northern suburb of East Brunswick, currently just about the most fashionable hipster area in the city. Stroll over to parallel Lygon Street if you want to indulge in some culinary indulgences.

On its trip southward, the 96 skims the edge of Fitzroy – previous contender for most fashionable hipster area – and if you hop off at Johnston Street you can wander through the Spanish district to its heart, Brunswick Street. Otherwise, take a look out to the right as the tram passes the Carlton Gardens, home to the disconcertingly opulent Victorian-era Exhibition Building or its contrastingly modern neighbour, the Melbourne Museum. It then travels sedately past the steps of Parliament House, and along Bourke Street, downtown’s main artery and shopping strip. I got off here for a coffee at Café Felice at 461 Bourke (nice Queensland Di Bella coffee) and a look at the Mall.

At the south end of the city centre, the 96 turns east (at Southern Cross Station) over the river and past Crown Casino, where some of your fellow passengers will alight, tempted by poker machines and cheap booze. Don’t be tempted! Stay on board and you’ll leave the city streets, past the old brick tea house and turn on to a disused rail line, a treat for public transport followers.

South Melbourne station is the stop for the South Melbourne Markets, where you can while away an hour or two tasting produce and buying ridiculously cute cupcakes.

You will rejoin street traffic at St Kilda, where you can enjoy the slightly shabby art deco buildings, take a ride on a 1912 rollercoaster at Luna Park

or have a paddle at St Kilda beach, and terminates at Acland Street, home to some of the city’s cafe and cake establishments.

Do NOT Despair

The new buzz term for old fartz goes something like this:


Fabulous, fit and fifty.


But under no circumstances forget the next one - svelte, sexy and sixty

Joys of Local Language Skills

Having skills in another language is both good and not so good.

I have vivid memories of screwing up over over the words for “wind” and “dog” in bahasa indonesian while still a beginner in the language .......it translated as “the dog coming through the window” when it should have been “the wind” an anjing [ dog] rather than “angin” [wind].

But being back on Bintan Island where Indonesian is widely spoken by the staff at the hotels, and with my now reasonably competent Indonesian language skills has great opportunities for rapport with the staff. That sort of rapport does help.

Indonesians generally seem to mix and enjoy interacting with Australians at the direct personal level. They enjoy a laugh and a joke, as well as a bit of repartee, even taking the mickey out of one another. That was quite a common theme when working in the country with my direct work contact staff.

But even at the hotel, a smile, local language exchange and they accept you more readily.

I guess the theme applies more widely, across many countries.

But Indonesia and Australia have definitely not always been such great buddies historically over the past 50 years. Yet in a wider historical context, there has been contact between Makassan traders and north Australia for about 400 plus years. The aboriginal word for white man is mostly “balanda”, a term thought to have come from the Makassans, who used it to refer to the white skinned Dutch.

But for travel around the region, Indonesian language which can substitue mostly for Malay as well, covers maybe 300 million people. A lot more than Australia.

It has been a useful skill to have acquired.......and getting a chance to practice is a lot of fun too, especially with the travel.

Out and about in the Lion City

The street furniture is really going up for the Formula 1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix. I am sure that somewhere there will be records of the amount of concrete and steel; but let me tell you, it’s lots! There is also a new permanent pit building, 1.2 kilometres of new road, a large amount of spectator seating and the lights are on, big time - turning night into day along the route.

The photo is looking down Bras Basah Road towards Marina Square, with the lights from the corner near the War Memorial . They are very bright!

Viet Nam! – Myth to Modernity

I am sorry to say that I felt that the exhibition was very disappointing, no even more so……a tad underdone. Yes, there was quite a lot of artifacts, from earlier eras, but little to tie them together and cover the ebb and flow of the great dynasties, rulers, regality and the reach of kingdoms across what is now Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia even into Thailand and southern China in the period 1200- 1600, before the arrival of Christian missionaries. After all, one of the ancient rulers of Vietnam beat the great conquering mongol, Genghis Khan. Some of the artifacts are quite stunning, especially the bronze and porcelain, and the statuary.

There was little on the modern period, even the 19th and 20th centuries – little on the French period in the late 18th and 19th centuries, little on the nationalist era of the early 20th century and the removal of the French colonialists, little on the American war [the Vietnam War of the 1960s- 1970s] except for a small photo of the Ho Chi Minh trail, nothing on the heroin trade of the 1970s and 1980s [see the book - The Politics of Heroin in SE Asia by Alfred McCoy] and really nothing on the period since 1980, when most of the current citizens of Vietnam arrived in the world.

All of a sudden the exhibition just stopped, with nothing but a few propaganda posters of the 20th century and a picture of Ho Chi Minh made of postage stamps. Not a lot that extended the exhibition in name ie the modernity, and the rapid industrialization of the past 30 years was also conspicuous by its absence.

Even the Ho Chi Minh trail, a key element of the so called American war…….if you have seen it, you marvel at the effort to move goods and munitions along the trail. It is tough going in monsoonal weather, of the character of the WWII Kokoda trail in Papua New Guinea, and a powerful tool that boosted nationalism and effectively operated through, and survived the US bombing. Where is all this stuff???? You can learn more of the pre 2nd world war period [1930-1940] by reading The Quiet American by Grahame Greene, or seeing the movie. What an opportunity squandered!

On the road again … oops, that’s in the air again, first.

We are on our way to Asia; first stop Singapore, and lucky for us, or our bank balance anyway; we will be there just over a week before the vroom, vroom of very expensive, very loud and very fast machinery hits the city streets of Singapore for the first ever night Grand Prix. Who would have thought that Singapore would close down its streets for a loud crowd of expensive, fast, Formula 1 racing cars. This is the city that had “encouraged” travel by (admittedly a very good) public transport system, by making ownership of cars out of the financial limits of most of the population, by its pricing of the cars themselves and the “on road costs”, plus city road congestion charges. I guess money talks as loudly there as it does anywhere else. If pricing of hotel rooms during the event is anything to go by, the hoteliers are definitely not missing out on the starting gun. $160 per night to $900 per night in just one day; and that’s not even at a front row seat establishment – you will need a lot more shekels for that type of genteel place to rest your head before and after the roar of the Ferrari’s and McLarens flexing their muscles. With three day passes ranging in price from $168 to $1388 there will be plenty of cash changing hands as there are expected to be 90 000 spectators attending. At least some would appear to be going Aussie way as Melbourne architect/engineer firm Kellogg, Brown & Root have been involved with construction.

So we plan to have a look at the Vietnam! From Myth to Modernity exhibition at the Ancient Civilizations Museum, do some street wandering with camera’s again and enjoy the beautiful street food of the place. And, I guess we will wander through Sim Lim Square and the Funan Centre, just to see what the latest and greatest electronic must haves are for the whiz kids.

Then we might go for a boat ride, not a slow one; but rather, a fairly fast one to Bintan.

But more about that later.

One of things that rather annoys me about travelling is the excessive cost which hotels charge for internet connection. One day charge can be as much as a two to three month charge for the average provider. Is it that they don’t want too many people using it – must be I think. Oh one of the joys – take up thy laptop and walk … to the nearest reasonable priced internet cafe or wifi powered venue, have a couple of coffees and upload and download. Wouldn’t it be nice to just sit at the desk in your room, which one has paid a reasonable amount for, and do it from there. But I refuse to “waste” that amount of money, so it won’t happen. I will just have to look a bit harder and move a bit further out of my comfort zone … again … and find a place which has the lot.

Christmas Dinner at Le Meridien Kuala Lumpur

Just as we were arriving at the restaurant for our Christmas Eve Dinner, the carollers arrived at the entrance, providing the right ambiance for the evening. They sang quite a few traditional carols and then moved on to entertain other guests in other venues. We were settled at our beautifully decorated table, which was placed right beside a window so that we could enjoy the night lights of the city. We were brought a very nice glass of wine and invited to help ourselves to the buffet. Well, it was more like buffets; as there were several “live kitchens” set up around the edge of the restaurant with chefs to prepare your requests. Separate areas for Malay, Japanese, Chinese, Indian and European foods were set up plus seafood, salads and the largest dessert buffet I have seen in a long while. Death by chocolate is a phrase which flows to mind.

All the while we were entertained by a wandering minstrel group singing carols and other music from around the world. They were ably assisted by a small group of children who were delighted to be asked to be part of the entertainment.

The presentation was magnificent and the food tasted excellent too. Any apprehension we may have had about celebrating Christmas in a non Christian country was definitely dispelled.

For some photos of the dinner at the Le Meridien Hotel click on the thumbnail photo below.


by oldfartz99

Train to Kuala Lumpur

Next step in the journey … after the diversions of Christmas lights and food in Singapore … was on the afternoon train from Johor Bahru to travel to Kuala Lumpur. I have looked at some quite amazingly naïve accounts on the internet of train travel in Malaysia and I really wonder what people expect in regards to value for money. If you want true first class luxury service then I suggest you try the Eastern & Orient Express, and pay the appropriate prices! However, if you want to travel in reasonably civilized, admittedly perhaps slightly tired, comfort, then Malaysian Railways will fill the bill for a reasonable price. You might wonder why we appeared to start our journey from Johor Bahru when we have been in Singapore. Firstly I will say if you are planning your first trip by train from Singapore to KL then I really feel you should consider departing from Singapore. This is so that you can see the Singapore Railway Station while it still exists. I think Singapore would be quite happy to demolish the beautiful old Moorish style building and use the site for something else! The building, owned by Malaysian Railways, is looking quite tired, like the train itself really, and always seems to have some sort of excavation happening around or in it, making getting into (and definitely out of it by taxi) the station quite difficult, especially at night. However, if you are leaving from Singapore, a taxi will get you there quite easily and give yourself a few spare minutes to look around to actually see the building and imagine its grandeur when new. When leaving from Singapore, you had to need to arrive at the station about an hour before departure time to collect your ticket if you have booked on the internet (this is in the process of changing as you will be able to print a copy of ticket booking and use that for travel, so check). You still need (at this time) to arrive half an hour before departure to allow for clearance of Malaysian customs, which takes place at Singapore station before you board the train. Singaporean customs formalities take place during the journey, as the train will stop at the modern frontier terminal at Woodlands, just before the causeway linking Singapore island to mainland Malaysia about half an hour after leaving Singapore station. At Woodlands, you need to leave the train with your luggage, enter the building, pass through the Singaporean passport/immigration control, then re-board the train.
That said; we travel by public transport to Johor Bahru, sometimes a journey in itself, and collect our tickets from there. Why? Basically, because it is quite a lot cheaper. A first class ticket will cost 64 Ringgit. Because of pricing rules, if you book and buy your ticket from Singapore, you pay in Singapore dollars and from Johor Bahru you pay in Malaysian Ringgit (about a third the amount at the moment). The bus to Johor Bahru costs S$2.40.
Food on the train can be a bit hit and miss, so if you have particular requirements, bring it with you. Once on the train, settle back in the comfortable seat and enjoy the ride and the passing countryside. After about six hours you will pull sedately into KL Sentrel (the central railway station in KL). Be aware, that if you are travelling at peak travel times (eg holidays) the travel time can become a little "flexible". Taxis can be found at the level above where you arrive (you will need to buy a voucher at the taxi counter).
We stayed in the Le Meridien Hotel which is (along with the Hilton) virtually beside the railway station. Five stars for convenience and quality, but definitely not the cheapest in KL, its location makes it quite easy to get around by train as the light rail lines run through KL Sentrel and the Monorail is about 250 metres away, under a partially covered walkway. It is now possible to buy a multi ride "Touch N' Go" ticket to easily access all trains.
Very quickly we were checked into the hotel and in our room;
where we were presented with some very tantalizing offers for Christmas celebrations. After looking at all the options we decided on the “Christmas Eve Buffet Dinner with free flowing wine” which sounded quite interesting.

For some photos of the train trip and the Le Meridien Hotel click on the thumbnail photo below.

by oldfartz99

Singapore Food

Singapore is a truly international food city. In the shopping centres, you could think you were anywhere in the world, as you look around and see well known brand names from just about every nation, and you will pay accordingly. Then you can go to the food centres and you will see perhaps the true Singapore food variety. The cuisine of Singapore is often viewed by her population as a prime example of the ethnic diversity of the culture of Singapore. It is heavily influenced by Malaysian, Chinese, Indian (specifically southern Indian styles), Indonesian, and even Western traditions since its founding by the British in the 1800s. It is said to be similar to the diverse cuisine of Penang at North Malaysia as most of the foods in Singapore can also be found in the state of Penang. In Singaporean hawker stores, for example, chefs of a Chinese ethnic background might experiment with Indian influences such as tamarind, turmeric and ghee, while an Indian chef could serve a greater amount of coconut products.
This phenomenon makes the cuisine of Singapore significantly rich and a cultural attraction. Most of the prepared food bought outside home is eaten at hawker centres or food courts, examples of which include Lau Pa Sat, Newton Food Centre and the Tekka Centre and even in the basement of many shopping centres rather than at actual restaurants. These hawker centres are relatively abundant which leads to low prices and encourages a large consumer base. I think I enjoyed the best murtabak I have ever eaten at the Tekka Centre nearly 3 years ago, but have been unable to have any success in finding the same cook there on subsequent visits. I continue to return, in the hope that one time he will be there, even though I have recently discovered that the Tekka Centre is to be renovated and will be closed for around 16 months from this February. It is not the most salubrious surroundings to dine in as the fruit and vegetable market is in the same building and by evening the resulting fragrances are quite strong! It is, however, easy to access, with Little India MRT right next door.
You can also find cheap restaurants within their own ethnic areas, which do a roaring trade, with people often queuing on the street during peak times. Because it is often viewed by her population as central to Singapore's national identity and a unifying cultural thread, Singaporean literature often declares eating as a national pastime and food a national obsession. Food is a constant topic of conversation among Singaporeans who like to comment on the food they have eaten and the eateries around the country. There are some religious dietary strictures as Muslims do not eat pork and Hindus do not eat beef; there is also a significant group of vegetarians. Nonetheless, people from different communities often eat together while being mindful of each other's culture and choose food that is acceptable to all. There are also some halal Chinese restaurants that prepare Chinese food in a way that conform to Muslim dietary preference.
Food in itself has been heavily promoted as an attraction for tourists. It is usually promoted by various initiatives undertaken by the Singapore Tourism Board or the associations it deals with as one of Singapore's best attractions alongside its shopping. The government organises the Singapore Food Festival in July annually to celebrate Singapore's cuisine. The multiculturalism of local food, the ready availability of international cuisine, and their wide range in prices to fit all budgets at all times of the day and year helps create a "food paradise" to rival other contenders claiming the same moniker. The availability of a variety of food is often aided by the fact that Singapore's port lies along strategic routes.
The cuisine bears some resemblance to the cuisine of Malaysia due to the close historical cultural and geographic ties between the two countries. However, there are also significant differences. While a number of dishes are common to both countries, the way the dishes are prepared is often different. This is due to numerous evolutionary forks in their development, which gave rise to unique tastes pertaining to each country's cuisine.
As Singapore is a small country with high population density, land is scarce and is mainly devoted to industry and housing. Most of the agricultural produce and food ingredients are now imported from other countries, although there is a small group of local farmers who produce some leafy vegetables, fruit, poultry, and fish.

For more photos please click on the thumbnail photo link below.


by oldfartz99
(partially sourced from Wikapedia)

Singapore Lights up for Christmas

Our return to Singapore is in time to see the Christmas in the Tropics lights of Singapore.

“Christmas in the Tropics is one of the key tourism drivers for Singapore, being a season that our overseas visitors look forward to,” said Ms Joycelyn Ng, Deputy Director of Leisure Marketing and Events Management, Singapore Tourism Board. “With a programme packed full of shopping, dining and entertainment options, it’s little wonder that one in five visitors surveyed last year planned their trips to coincide with Singapore’s Christmas celebration. We hope that this year will be no different as we create for visitors their most memorable Christmas experience yet.”

A key favourite of the annual Christmas in the Tropics celebration is the Christmas Light-up, themed “A Fairytale Christmas” this year. Scotts Road and the Orchard Road stretch from Tanglin Road to Plaza Singapura and the Marina Bay area from Hotel Rendezvous to Raffles Avenue will be transformed into a bewitching Crystal Forest decked with magnificent chandeliers, magic harps, glittering jewels, dazzling lights in red, gold and white, and even a magical carousel. Conceptualised by Mr Dick Lee who is the Creative Director for the second consecutive year, this fantasy land is the setting for the unfolding of a fairytale inspired by the Nutcracker Suite, which tells the story of handsome Prince Noel who goes in search of his missing true love, Princess Ballerina, through the Crystal Forest.

For the 17th year running, Hitachi is the sponsor of the Christmas Light-Up along Orchard Road. “The Hitachi Group is delighted to support the Christmas Light-up for the 17th year, raising funds for those in need of help with the hope of lighting up their lives as well. Our commitment to the community demonstrates our corporate philosophy to contribute to society through technology wherever Hitachi is located.” said Mr Shunsuke Ohtsu, Hitachi Ltd’s Chief Executive for Asia.

We take a trip by MRT to Orchard (at the intersection of Scotts and Orchard Rds) and as we exit the underground station the lights are really in your face. Immediately you see the display up high right across the road. Wooden soldiers in their turrets high above the road, beautifully lit and turning slowly on a turntable so that everyone can see them. Yes, the advertiser does have his name prominently displayed but we will disregard that little bit of commercialism for the moment and enjoy the display.

Walking down Orchard Rd there are beautiful displays on just about every shop. What appears to be a waterfall of lights down the full height of Tangs, discreet, classy displays in front of Prada and Yves Saint Laurent (the real bling is inside), huge white candle castles complete with Princess, large white moving doves at Robinsons and lights as far as you can see the full length of Orchard Rd and down Bras Basar Rd to Raffles Hotel. Christmas sentiments other than commercialism along with the lights are evident in many of the displays. Outside Raffles City shopping centre there is a huge tree, which continually has people being photographed in front of it. I stop to join the photographers and notice, right on the edge of the footpath, with the traffic whizzing past within centimetres, a couple of rickshaw drivers, would you believe, catnapping in their machines, resting between customers! They must have nerves of steel to even consider stopping there, let along sleeping!
For more photos click on thumbnail below


by oldfartz99

Bintan is Bliss

Travelling from Darwin to Singapore with Jetstar is a new experience for us; previously we have travelled Qantas or even Tiger Airlines, but as Qantas has seen fit to take Darwin [in the NT] out of its international flights schedule, the “cheap seats” of Jetstar have now replaced most Qantas services, with some people even saying that Qantas needs to take “NT’” out of its name!

I guess there was a bit of apprehension – maybe expecting the worst, but overall, fears were groundless. There were, however, some passengers who thought they were getting a Qantas service (there is a codeshare flight number) and were a little agitated when they boarded and found that there were no movies or other in-flight entertainment available, and they had paid more too. To add to the anxiety; Jetstar hire DVD players to passengers, but they only had 4 machines available! Not good Mr Jetstar.

The meal served was adequate, and unexpected as most budget airlines charge for meals. Presentation was quite picnicky – it came in a little cardboard lunchbox – but the content was fine. It did appear, however, a little hard to get water; handed out in tiny disposable cups. Very person and time intensive, rather than the bottle you usually get from Qantas. There were pillows and blankets (PS they even had Qantas names on them) and the seats did recline a few centimeters; both of these features were absent from Tiger. Watches back an hour and a half; the time flew by and we arrived into Singapore close to time.

We proceeded through the formalities, collected bags and into a taxi and on to our hotel.

Back to an old favourite in Little India, refurbished and a new name, now the Parkroyal on Kitchener Road, so we decided to try it again. After we had checked in, eaten a murtaback at a small Indian eatery behind the hotel [the McDonalds of Indian food], we then had to go and check that Mustafa Department store was still the same.

It was marginally not as chaotic as it can be on a Sunday, but I guess it was a bit late, 11pm by the time we got there, and many of the workers would have headed home to bed to prepare for their early starts on the construction sites the next morning. Usually on a Sunday, if you are on the Serangoon Road side of the hotel and look out your window, you will see a sea of humanity meeting in the streets and parks as the (mainly) “tourist worker” construction workers have their one day off, do their shopping, and meet their friends.

Mustafa is open 24 hours, so is quite a handy spot if you arrive in late or only have a short stopover, as you can buy most things there. It has changed over the last few years as it has “modernized” and the spaces between the shelves have increased; it used to be quite an effort to move about through the place! We also notice that the new shopping centre / residential high rise across the road has got quite a move on since we last saw it in August. We have been watching the project since it was an empty block, through the last two and a half years as it has progressed. The taxi driver (always the local expert of most things) told us that if we had purchased an apartment ”off the plan” when we first saw construction start, we would have doubled our money by now. Haven’t dabbled in that sort of thing for a while now … hmmm ... reminds me of the Gold Coast in the 80’s.

We had a reasonably early start the next morning to get to Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal to catch the mid morning ferry to Bintan. The terminal has had an upgrade since last visit and after we checked in there is time for a coffee before we are allowed into the boarding area. The crossing was quite rough on a choppy sea and cloudy, rainy conditions, with a few course corrections to miss the odd floating log or three, and it takes about 45 minutes on a wave piecing high speed catamaran. We passed by a large number of ships anchored; it is a very busy shipping lane for tankers, container ships and cruise ships as well as the many inter island ferries and shipping boats. We put our watches back another hour and we are soon slowing down and pulling into the ferry terminal at Bintan. Through the formalities, visa on arrival for Australian passport holders [$10US for 7 days single entry], collect bags and the resort provides a bus for transport.

Check in at Bintan Lagoon Resort is quick and pleasant and we decide to have a walk around to orient ourselves. Bintan Resorts is a popular escape island for Singaporeans, with several resort options available, depending on what you want. Golf or no golf, with courses designed by Jack Nicklaus, Ian Baker-Finch, Greg Norman and Gary Player that I am aware of. And pretty fancy they are too, with some lovely beachside greens and tees; complete with the odd strolling monkey I also noticed; I am not sure what his handicap is, apart from the obvious one, height. I must state here that I am not a golfer; sad way to spoil a nice walk I think, but there are a lot that don’t share my view on that topic.

Sadly, some of the fairways desperately need a major herbicide spray workover to clean up weeds [professional opinion of one of us – it can be done], greens were good, the courses appear challenging, and quite a few balls disappeared [mostly into water] from a steady stream of players while we were strolling among the fairways.

Bintan is a bit like Nusa Dua on Bali in some ways – an artificial westernized resort in Indonesia. All prices in Singapore $, and matching high prices too, yet the bill must be in Indonesian Rupiah. And you tend to be captive to the resort, so have little opportunity to lower costs, buying a few drinks outside in local shops. Many Singaporeans carry a lot of food and drink across with them, and it is a good idea, especially if with family or staying a few days.

In general Bintan Lagoon Resort – as any of the resorts on Bintan Island – is an opportunity to turn off, laze and relax. As such, a perfect location to do just that. Do as little as needed, although there is a wide range of the usual extra curricula options, at a fee – go here or there, ride ATV bikes, shoot arrows etc, but there are many activities that are free, the swimming pools are good and so are the beaches. Bintan Lagoon Resort beach may even have real surf, as it has done in late December, due to the NE monsoon.

Food in the restaurants is good; starting with breakfast in the Kopi-O. And I quote from the advertising: “Feast on authentic Asian and Western specialties created with the freshest seasonal ingredients. Overlooking a cascading pool and waterfall, the restaurant offers buffet and a la carte dining breakfast, lunch and dinner. Our sumptuous evening buffet presents a new theme each day; from Malay to Middle-Eastern; Chinese to Steam Boat and Grill and more. Boasting 12 restaurants, bars and cafe as well as function rooms, guests can enjoy culinary delights from around the world using market-fresh imported and local ingredients prepared by our brigade of international chefs. Choose to enjoy casual al fresco dining, sumptuous buffets, cocktails by the pool, ‘surf and turf’ beach BBQ, Mediterranean cuisine or authentic Japanese, or make it memorable and intimate under the stars with a candlelight dinner at the water's edge or go deep into the jungle for a rousing rendezvous to the beat of the drums.” Just about whatever your stomach desires is available.

Weather remains overcast and rainy for our stay but there is plenty of time to get out on walks, even if they had to be kept short a couple of times to avoid a drowning. But even that in the tropics is not too traumatising, as the rain is not cold and you can usually find shelter and dry off fairly easily after the storm passes.

Out time on Bintan is too quickly over and we are on the ferry on our way back to Singapore.
For more photos please click on one of the thumbnails below.



by oldfartz99

by oldfartz99

Watch This Space

We're on the move..........AGAIN! Although stopping to inspect the street art in Singapore is an interesting option too. A lot to see, but few stop to look.

So watch this space.......Asia again, or is it still, complete with RAIN and lots of it.

And remember, monkeys are two footed with two hands or is that four footed with no hands......until you lose it. A useful warning on a very upmarket golf course in Asia. How many Louis Vuitton golf club covers were stolen?

For no answer to this and other entrancing problems, read on.