4th of July.....Indonesian Style

We spent our 4th of July weekend in Bintan, Indonesia with the Long family (friends and co-worker from Chicago). They have a girl who is 9 months older than Paige and an 8 month old little boy. We figured since Binton is a 50 minute ferry ride from Singapore that it would be a good introduction to traveling Asia (with kids that is :) We left Singapore at 5pm and arrived in Bintan around the same time (Indonesia is an hour behind Singapore). As we disembarked the ferry, we proceeded to the line at immigration. When approached by an immigration officer asking us if we were going to pay for our visitor visa inUSD or Singapore dollars our response was whichever would get us through the line the quickest (mistake on our part). We then proceeded to the front of the line, where Mark began his currency calculations. Turns out, we paid 20% more for this expedited service. Oh well, looks like the immigration officers took home a little extra that night, thanks to the Americans :)

From the ferry terminal, we took a bus to Nirwana Gardens, the resort where we were staying. We stayed in a 3 bedroom villa in a section of the resort called Banyu Biru Villas. The villa was a bit more rustic than we had anticipated, but it was fine for two nights. Paige and Kaya shared a room which worked out well, once everyone was asleep.

Despite being right on the beach, we spent most of Saturday by the pool. There was a jelly fish warning posted by the shore, plus we had seen several people being treated for stings. We did stick our feet in the ocean just to say that we had been in the South China Sea, but other than that we opted for the chlorine.

Before catching the ferry back on Sunday, we wandered around the resort. We saw large lizards roaming the grounds (which made me a bit nervous), caged crocodiles and Paige's favorite an elephant. Paige and Mark had the opportunity to sit on the elephants knee, which she really enjoyed despite what the picture shows. Besides hanging out with Kaya all weekend, I think that was the highlight of her trip.

Overall we had a nice weekend. It was good to get away and experience a new place.