OFF TO LAKE EYRE

A bit of Sightseeing................

Little shelters line Trikora Beach which you can hire for about $7/day

Fish Farm

Beach Shelter....saves taking a beach umbrella

Day 162

We have the day off golf today and have arranged with Romi to take us to do some sightseeing around the Island. We are picked up at 9am and our driver is Dilva. First stop is Trikora Beach on the east side of the island. It is not as developed as the area on the west coast where we are staying but there are several resorts in various stages of planning and development and probably the economic situation has slowed things a little but in 5 years time there will be resorts and golf courses galore. At present though the local beaches are still very natural with fishing vessels, Kalongs, and local fisherman’s villages, Kampongs, and as it is a Sunday there are lots of locals swimming. We have a swim in the lovely clear warm water but our visit is cut short a bit with another little downpour. We head off to the largest city on the Island, Tanjung Pinang where we have some very fresh seafood for lunch at a cafe followed by a bit of shopping. We are supposed to go over by boat to a little island close by, Pulau Penyengat, (Wasp Island), once the heart of the Riau sultanate and the cultural hub of the Malay empire. The island is just 15 minutes by motorboat but you have to either wait for a boat load of people and costs is 5000 RP (60 cents) or pay a private taxi boat 150000 rp ($18) pp each way! We decide to give that a miss as we would have only had a short time there anyway. Will have to read all about it in the lonely planet...... Next stop is Gunung Bintan (Mt. Bintan) where we have planned to climb and apparently takes 1 hour return. There are a few light showers on our way there so not sure if we will be able to climb and when we get there our driver tells us it is actually a 3 and half to 4 hour return climb and it is now 4pm!!! There has been some communication error with our Mr Romi it seems which we will have to sort out tomorrow........All in all a lovely day and drive but a little disappointing missing 2 of the places of interest.....so back to the resort and dinner again at the local village.

Jack Nicklaus Course

Day 161

Again we are picked up at the resort and this time playing at Bintan Lagoon on the other 18 holes designed by Jack Nicklaus. We enjoy this course better than yesterday...... until the rain storm stops us in our tracks on our 12th hole. It is half an hour before we get going again but doesn’t take long to dry everything out and the sun to shine through. Afternoon spent catching up on the blog and dinner at the local village called Pasar Oley Oley.

156 new Hawksbill turtles released

Al at the Ian Baker Finch Course

Hawksbill Turtles being released on the beach in front of the resort

Day 160

Romi picks us up at 7:45 and we go to Bintan Lagoon, another golf course resort about 15 minutes away. Today we will play the Ian Baker Finch designed course here. We notice lots of armed policemen milling around and Romi tells us that the Indonesian Police Chief is playing golf here today which makes us feel very safe with all this security around. Not sure if that will help our game but we play the course and while not as spectacular as yesterday was still very interesting and challenging and we finish early enough to stop by the local village for lunch. Back at the resort we find out they have a Hawksbill Turtle Hatchery here and they will be releasing approx. 156 newly hatched turtles at 5pm on the beach in front of our resort. They collected the eggs nearby in June and will let them go here in the hope that the females will survive and return in 20 to 30 years time to lay their own eggs. We have watched turtles in Mon Repos, QLD lay their eggs but this is the first time we have witnessed the release and along with many other guests watch this wonderful act of nature.

Ria Bintan Golf

Al and I with our caddy Rebekah

Tiger Woods look out

Al with the golf buggy he wants to upgrade to........

Day 159

We have a golf package arranged where we will be picked up each morning and taken to the golf course we are to play that day. Mr Romi is a friendly Sumatran guy who is to look after us during our stay here and picks us up at the arranged time of 9:30. Day 1 golf is at Ria Bintan about 10 minutes drive away and on arrival our clubs are taken to our buggy and we meet our caddy, Rebekah. All runs so smoothly and nothing is too much trouble both here and in the resort. The course, designed by Gary Player is one of the most spectacular courses we have played on rivalling Pebble Beach, actually much better with many holes hugging the coastline and with greens jutting out into expanses of water. We play ok and enjoy the day and the scenery so much that Alan losing 3 balls and me losing 1 doesn’t really matter........

Welcome to Indonesia

Robinson Cruso??

Pristine Bintan Beach

Day 158

We get a taxi to the Tanah Merah ferry terminal for our trip to Bintan Island. A lovely smooth ride and we arrive and go through immigration and customs. We are led to fast track as we are paying our Visa in Singapore dollars ($10) The “Official” handed us back our passports and took our $10 and then asked for a tip for him getting us through quickly!!! I was stunned and not knowing what would happen if we didn’t pay I gave him $2. I found out a short time later another man had paid him $20, so thought I had actually done well. Welcome to Indonesia!! A bus takes us to our hotel “Nirwana Resort Hotel” We take a taxi to a nearby village and have another massage........not another massage I hear you all say but for less than $30AUD it’s really hard to resist. We enjoy an afternoon relaxing and enjoying the resort which is on the most beautiful clean and uncrowded beach.

"Handsome Boy"........how am I going to live with him??

One of the cheaper beers in Singapore

At Fort Silosa on Sentosa Island

Day 157

After a very delicious brekkie (they really know how to do buffet brekkies in Asia) we arrange to meet the others for a trip over to Sentosa Island. After a short taxi ride up to Mt. Faber we get the cable car over to the island and decide to look around just one small area, Fort Silosa, which was established to defend Singapore from enemy attacks by sea. We spent a couple of hours here taking in the history in excellent displays before grabbing a bite to eat and heading back to the city and our hotel. Singapore appears to be still booming and showing no outward signs of the global economic downturn. Dinner is back at our little cafe, they call Al “Handsome Boy” (I’ll never get him out of this place!!) another massage (I’ll definitely never get him out of here!!!) and a farewell beer at Clarke Quay with Carole and Les which cost us $52 Singapore dollars (that brought Al back to earth!!)