Back From Bintan

Yes, we're back from our short break in Bintan, complete with suntans and dirty laundry. As before we had a fabulous time, and this time around got to share it with my Mum who is visiting us and returns to New Zealand today. It's been a hectic time, hence the lack of posts, but here are a couple of photos to show what we got up to.

A highlight was riding along the beach on an elephant, the friendly Bani, an 18 year old male elephant who seemed only too happy to wander like a four-legged steam roller flattening a track in the sand in exchange for a large bunch of bananas afterwards. What a life. Actually he reminded me of a few guys I used to know at university.

The weather was gorgeous as always, so we were busy applying sun block and keeping our hats on. The kids and I were fascinated to watch one of the staff catching a long, thin bright green snake which was in one of the tres by the pool, but Mum disappeared in a cloud of smoke as soon as she heard the word snake.

Bintan is only a one-hour ferry ride from Singapore so it's easy and cheap to get to, making it more like an extension of Singapore than a piece of 'real' Indonesia. It's quite expensive if you compare the prices there - all in Sing$ - to Indonesian prices but for an easy, hassle-free break it's hard to beat.