Birthday Trip 2011: Bintan [Day 2 & 3: Review]

Original post HERE: 
Discrepancy due to failure to export/import blog

Onwards to Day 2 of our Bintan Trip, where we had buffet style breakfast, take a stroll along the beautiful beach and every other little thing. The breakfast as mentioned, is served between 6am to 10:30am at Kopi-O, the resident lobby cafe.

aA photo of us to begin the day. Actually we woke up late and you notice that Roseate actually didn't have time to do her makeup too. Hehe. And our breakfast kind of become brunch.

Off to Kopi-O for our meals anyway. Traditionally, it always seems that when breakfast is included in the package, it's always buffet styled, which both of us love. There's always a variety of food to choose from and we could eat to our heart's content. In fact, we would literally fill our tummies up as much as we could to the verge of puking so we would feel sick of food for the rest of the day until it is really neecessary for our next meal. Talk about a hearty breakfast, Haha!

Pancakes with Maple syrup.

Fried Bee Hoon [rice vermicelli]  tastes, pretty decent but I would prefer what we easily find back in Singapore. The Potato wedges are crap, total waste of time and stomach space. It is difficult to imagine that anyone can screw up on potatoes. The sliced ham is pretty disappointing as it was dry and the texture was weird. In this plate, I enjoyed the cheese most. Well, it's just cheese, but I love cheese and it went well with some other stuff like toast.

Indonesian Style Nasi Lemak. Unlike SIngaporean style Nasi Lemak whereby the rice is cooked in coconut milk, this Nasi Lemak seems to get its flavor from grated coconut stir fried together with the rice. The texture is interesting as you can chew on the bits of coconut, however it is a little too dry. The Ayam Goreng or fried chicken, is a let down for me, as it tasted so normal and was fried for way too long till the meat is tough and difficult to chew on. The only thing I enjoyed was the sambal chilli, which is rich and flavorful, yet not unbearably spicy. It is however, hidden from the camera, behind the rice. In all, I would prefer having the famous Golden Shoe Nasi Lemak with the big juicy fried chicken drumstick.

The Western Platter. Beef sausages usually give me the idea that is is not as tender and tasty then chicken weiners. I was totally wrong. The Beef sausages were tender and lovely, so I helped myself. The chicken weiners on the other hand were tough to chew and tasted anything but chicken sausages. Weird chicken. The bcaon, is obviously not pork as Bintan is part of the Indonesian country, which serves Halal food. In other words, strictly no pork. The bacon is probably turkey bacon which is another disappointment, tough to chew, not crispy and so on. I know it is not easy to make the perfect bacon, but personally, I think bacon that is not pork is always next to crap. Next, the toast is pretty much just toast. I had it with butter and cheese and sausages. The scrambled eggs is another total epic fail. It is way overcooked, not soft nor fluffy, all stuck together in one big piece and it's severly watering up in the serving pan that it is actually swimming in its own excretions. It is cold and tasteless but I had to cram it down my throat as I didn't wish to waste any food. It is undisputely the worst food item in the whole Kopi-O.

This omelette on the other hand is probably the best thing served in the whole Kopi-O. Mainly because it is cooked by a chef right in front of your eyes upon your order. You can choose your fillings from diced tomatoes, onions, ham, mushrooms and grated cheese, or all of the above! I requested for cheese to be sprinkled on mine and also added a generous serving of ketchup to complete it. Trust me, if you eat there make sure you get more of this dish. On a strong contrast to the other food, It is served warm and it makes you feel really good when it slides down your throat.

Just when you though you are done, there's dessert, pastries and other sweet treats. We didn't have time to ge the other stuff and take pictures as it was already past 10:30am and we aren't supposed to "help ourselves" anymore.

Anyway for yor information, Kopi-O serves lunch and dinner as well, all as a buffet, Breakfast is S$24, Lunch is S$32 and dinner is $39, if I remember all of the prices correctly. Although the price is a little steep for food that is really mediorce, it is still cheaper and better then getting ripped of at the other restaurants and still be able to stuff your face till you barf it out.

Back to Main Lobby to chill out and rest our loaded stomach.

Back into our room. Roseate puts on her makeup and I'm just stuck on the bed watching TV and too lazy to move after the super filling brunch.

Then we walked around the check out anything interesting. This keychain craftsman shows off his dexterous work out of plain bamboo pieces.

The craftsman's display of art works. Some of them looks odd, but his skills are really good and he's only trying to eke a living. Defitnitely better than those guys at pasar malam's.

The Keychain craftsman uses a weird thick pen like tool to char the surface of the bamboo pieces to create images. If you ask me, it looks like a modified iron, stripped of its plate and chasis, only retaining the heating element and using other materials and rounds and rounds of masking tape to wrap around it as insulation. No, it is not a soldering iron or soldering pen, Look closely.

You may have the man custom make one for you at S$5. Of course, Roseate and I decided to get ourselves a little momento.

Flip them over and Ta da! Our names!

We got other little souvenirs too!

Cute little slipper...

We then went to the beach to have a walk since it was so near to our balcony. My camera doesn't have panoramic capabilities [or maybe i didn't know if it does] so I took several pictures as follows all from left angle slowly moving towards the right.

Although it doesn't really look bad, but trust me, it is actually very hot. The scorching sand underneath our feet would give you blisters so please do not be tempted to take off your footwear.

A pitch for Beach Volleyball!

Some little shelters if you find yourself burning to a crisp and sun loungers for those who want to get the super dark, brown bronzy look.

More Sun loungers for the tanners. On the rightmost is the deck of the beach bar, attached to the 3degrees Signature Restaruant. Although the beach doesn't face the east, it is no doubt a very lovely place to chill out when the sun sets and you can have a sip of champagne, savour a glass of  wine or "turbo" on some ice cold beer with your loved one. Remember to keep this on your itinerary.

The two of us at the beach!

As the clouds move over to block out intense sun rays and make it more bearable, the crowd comes in to play on the beach.

The beautiful sky and beach invites more crowd.

The direct view from the Beach Bar. Looks like they are starting a weekend party for the night.

As for the both of us, we are going back to our room for our special dinner.

Ok, I know my expression is a little dramatic, but the jar cap was really stuck big time. The contents were hot when I sealed the jar so when it cooled down, it locked the cap even harder. Eventually, I only managed to get it open by immersing the cap upside down in some boiling water.

Roseate missed my cooking very much, especially my pasta, so I made some pasta sauce from home and brought it over. Lucky that this jar and the bottle of red wine managed to pass through the customs. Anyway, the sauce is tomato based sauce mixed with white cream sauce, with minced beef and portobello mushrooms sautéed in garlic butter. Yum yum!

Next I emptied the sauce into a clean ziplock bag and immersed it into the wash basin flooded with hot water.

While the sauce is taking a hot water bath, I was getting pasta ready. Hereby, it is simply plain fettucine pasta pre-cooked, drained and stored in clear plastic wrap, into a food container.

Now, the bowls from last night's cup noodles comes in really useful here. Empty the pre-cooked pasta into the bowls and fill with hot water for a couple of minutes to rejuvenate the texture and softness of the pasta.

Lastly, drain the water from the pasta.

The pasta sauce should be ready by now, nice and warm. Simply pour the sauce in generously onto your pasta and enjoy! Bon Appetit! [I know it doesn't look good in the photo, but it is the taste that matters]

I nearly forgot to mention that you could call the room service for ice cubes. Very thankfully, this service is not chargeable! Wow! something that's finally free in this island. It comes looking like this.

Although it doesn't look like much, this thermal ice tumbler disguised as a wooden ware, can keep the ice for hours. We did request for another one near the end of the night when we ordered for supper and it actually kept one third of the ice overnight till the next morning!

After our dinner, we hung out by the balcony. Here's Roseate sipping on a glass of ice cold coke. Ahhhhh! Before we knew it, the sun has set and the sky is filled with darkenss. We simply snuggled up on the day-bed after that and watched movies on Roseate's netbook, while she sips on red wine and I settle for some beer.

Until it was getting late, and our 2nd day was coming to an end, Roseate got hungry again and convinced me to order via room service as most places out there has already closed. Please take note that the last order for room service is 11:30pm.

The food was delivered to us some 30 minutes later. Fortunately, the food is still nice and hot.

Roseate ordered Fish & Chips which came with a portion of coleslaw. The battered fish is not the usual tender, white fish that melts in your mouth but some kind of other fish with a firmer flesh that you can feel when you chew. Surprisingly, it wasn't bad at all. I don't know why, but as I savour the fish meat, it seems to speak to me that it is a Yellowtail. Strange.

Mine's a half spring chicken, served with chips and seasoned greens. As usual, the chicken here are always overcooked and dry. I spent a long time chewing on the breast meat as though I was chewing gum. Good thing is the food is still nice and warm, so I did fairly enjoy my heavy supper.

However, it is best to avoid room service if possible as these 2 courses costed S$45 or S$47, I can't recall exactly. I simply paid S$50 and told the staff to keep the change as his tips.

The second day of our trip hence comes to an end. We were thinking, the good times always passes so fast. Before I knew it, Roseate already fell asleep. The supper must have sedated her. Zzzz...

Good Morning!

Rise and shine. Oh dear, it's already the third day and we will be departing from this paradise shortly. No time to waste, we went for our buffet breakfast at Kopi-O again. Haha! Like the morning of the second day, the food are pretty much the same, with some slightly variance. But still all the same, we filled out tummies to the max without hesistation till we almost couldn't walk.

Back at the room after breakfast, we made some coffee, as usual, those that I brought from home. We slacked our time away, watching TV and packing our bags with a heavy heart.

Roseate, all dolled up!

Before checking out, we took a few more photos to commerate our birthday and our trip to his beautiful but expensive island. Haha!

We had to check out at 12 noon, however, our ferry timing is only like 3pm or something, so we hung around the main lobby and enjoyed the last views of this place.

That is Roseate's bag of course. Goodbye Bintan! We will surely be back again someday though!