June 30, 2026

Bintan Island is our last stop in Indonesia. We have seen alot of this vast country, spread across soo many islands. Again our greetings in the port are so nice and friendly! The stand out of Indonesia is truly the people.

We are here for 4 days and each day the locals have been here at our tender port handing out flowers, dancing and playing music and offering all kinds of tourism help. They don't get cruises here often but they do get a lot of visitors from Singapore to their beach resorts as it is just over an hour via ferry. Singapore just finished their school holidays for 1 month before we got here and this month the Indonesia Children are home on holidays for 1 month. Their next break for 2 weeks is at Christmas. Then they get 1 week around our Easter time. That's it for school holidays. Here the top 3 religions are Muslim, Catholic/ Christian and Buddhist.

Our first day being Sunday a lot of things were closed, so we just went into the Resort area, about a 10 minute taxi drive from Port, called Lagoi Bay, walked around, shopped a little and got some lunch and relaxed along public beach area with lots of locals.

We found an interesting grocery that had an amazing selection of snack foods and sample to try, before buying - so I decided to up my repitore. Generally all natural ingredients, high protein and low, natural sugars, but taste good is my profile.

TAREMPA, INDONESIA - EMBRACING LIFE!

By Pat Patrick • June 26, 2026
I am generally a cautious traveler. I don't want an accident or fall to take me out of this adventure, I am enjoying so much! On the Island of Siantan , motorbikes are primarily the mode of transport, it is rare to see a car or truck. All ages, males and females motor around the roads at such a civilized pace, I decided if ever a place was safe to try, it was here! My buddy Terri agreed and we decided to start simple and hire rides for each of us, to go up the hilltop, to a restaurant called Bayview . We saw others get drivers at end of dock and we found a local merchant who spoke english, and she went across the street to a group of men playing dominoes and found 2 who agreed to drive us, after they finished their game. The merchant helped us explain where we wanted to go and we agreed on 50,000 IDR each for the rides, or $2.78 USD !

PENYALI RESORT, ANAMBAS ISLANDS, INDONESIA

By Pat Patrick • June 25, 2026
Today was just pure relaxation! We arranged with Tourism lady from yesterday, to have Penyali Resort send a boat to Tarempa port to pick 10 of us up and take us to the Resort, for the day. The speed boat ride took about an hour. Some of us just floated about with cocktails, others snorkled but all had a great time. They prepared a yummy lunch for us, with a fresh grouper fish, we literally picked up, on our way there.

SIANTAN ISLAND BOAT TOUR of COAST

By Pat Patrick • June 24, 2026
Today we arranged to see Siantan Island by hiring a local Captain & boat owner to take us, along with 2 lovely young ladies, we met at the Tourism office, who spoke great English. The ladies found the Captain and we negotiated a price of 1,200,000 IDR or $67 USD to take four of us out and about, for 2 hours. Since the forestry on the island and the soil is gigantic hard boulders, almost all the villages are on the water on stilts or the edge of the coast. Excavation cost would be a huge premium and best done with equipment, they don't possess.