Bintan, Indonesia

Eva Raye
3 days ago
2 min read

Singapore is conveniently just a ferry ride away from Indonesia, so one weekend in April, one of my roommates and I decided to take a little getaway to Bintan, Indonesia!

After our Entrepreneurial Marketing class, we headed to the ferry terminal and took the hour and a half ferry over to Bintan. We stayed at this little beachfront resort called Ten Rooms (which literally has ten rooms, five upstairs and five downstairs that are all facing the beach). There was a little seating area with couches, hammocks, tables, etc overlooking the beach where we ate all of our meals, and the views were absolutely beautiful. The local staff was so sweet. It was run by a mother and her children, who prepared all of the meals. We got settled in that evening and had one of the best nights of sleep.

The next morning, we woke up feeling so rested and enjoyed the best breakfast. We had fried eggs, sourdough with avocado, salad, fresh fruit, coffee, and mango juice. After breakfast, we hopped on the backs of motorcycles for about a 10 minute ride to a nearby dock, where the people from the resort took us out on a boat to Bintan Nemo Island for snorkeling time relaxing in the sun.

By that point in the semester, this was my third time snorkeling, but it ended up being my favorite. The boat captain took us about 30 minutes offshore and the coral was the most vibrant I had seen all semester. That is saying something because I had already snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia! He even brought a GoPro and took a bunch of photos and videos of us underwater at no extra charge, which was such a fun surprise.

After snorkeling, we headed back to Ten Rooms and spent the rest of the afternoon reading, journaling, and relaxing by the ocean. That evening, we got showered, took some pictures, and enjoyed a very authentic Indonesian dinner of broth, chicken, rice, and fried calamari.

It was one of the most peaceful evenings of the entire semester. My friend and I just sat there looking out at the ocean, listening to the relaxing music they had playing, and enjoying our food. I think it took me almost an hour to finish dinner because I wanted to savor every single bite.

The next morning, we had another delicious breakfast, soaked in the scenery for a little while longer, and then made our way back to Singapore. It was the perfect weekend to slow down, reflect, and spend quality time with one of my sweet friends.

One of my favorite things I picked up this semester was journaling in a whole new way. My roommates really inspired me to move beyond just writing long pages in black ink and instead create visual journals filled with stickers, receipts, tickets, photos, and little keepsakes from our travels. We spent a lot of time working on our journals that weekend, and I absolutely loved it. Looking back through those pages now brings back so many little memories that I probably would have forgotten otherwise.