An Indonesian passport stamp or two

Time for another retrospective post. I’ve visited Indonesia three times over the years. Twice on business and once for pleasure. Both business trips were made to the island of Bintan, while my leisure trip took me to Bali in October 2017.

Bintan was a classic tourist destination. The island is located less than 130km north of the equator. As a result, dozens of tropical retreats and resorts are scattered along its coastline. Thanks to a 45-minute transfer by high-speed ferry from Singapore, it's also easy to reach.

My first visit occurred in May 2000. At the time, I was the Managing Director of Text 100’s Australian office. Every year country managers from across Asia Pacific (APAC) came together for an annual offsite. Bintan was selected for our first gathering of the new millennium.

On 24 May we caught an afternoon ferry from Tanah Merah wharf in Singapore. I vividly recall its location as it's less than 500 metres from the southern threshold of Changi Airport’s eastern runway. To reach it, you take a road that skirts around the airport’s perimeter fence. It’s one of those "behind the scenes" routes only the locals use, rather than the arterial roads visitors take from the airport into town.

My passport reveals that we docked at Bandar Bentan Telani on the northern coast of Bintan. A random travel document confirmed that I’d flown in from Sydney on Singapore Airlines the night before. We spent four days on the island before returning to Singapore on 27 May. I then flew home the following day.

I honestly recall very little of my first time in Indonesia beyond a round of golf we played on the final day. We stayed at Angsana Bintan, on the island’s north coast. It features an 18-hole golf course, designed by Greg Norman, that’s popular with day-tripping golfers from Singapore, as well as those seeking a semi-luxurious golf break. 

I returned to Bintan in 2004 for another APAC Country Manager’s offsite. However, this time I was returning as Regional Director for the region. My new HR director, Steven, decided an offsite in Bintan was an ideal way to curry favour with the troops following my promotion.

This time we stayed at Club Med, located on northeast coast of Bintan. The resort is located next to another of the island’s renowned golf courses, this time designed by Jack Nicholas. Once again, we caught a ferry from Singapore and stayed three nights from 21-24 March 2004. I recall several memorable moments during this second trip to Indonesia. 

For example, I’d recently returned from overseas and found myself battling some kind of bug soon after arriving. Or at least I thought it was a bug. Years later I discovered that I was chronically lactose intolerant. As a result, in hindsight, it was highly likely I was simply suffering from a lactose overload.

On our first day, we gave everyone the afternoon off to rest and recover before we kicked off the event with an evening welcome. I spent much of the afternoon in and out of the resort’s pool. Foolishly I neglected the sunscreen and managed to give myself an appalling dose of sunburn. I spent the next three days sore to touch, looking as red as a beetroot.

I also recall wandering down to the beach several times. On my first visit, I was shocked to find the sand stained by tar-like blobs of heavy oil. These sticky blobs were everywhere and quickly made a mess of anything that came into contact with them. I later discovered that resort staff came down before dawn each day to rake them off the beach before the guests awoke. Of course, the surf soon dumped a fresh load along the shore.

Swimming in the sea inevitably resulted in you exiting the water covered in black streaks. Sadly, the resort was prepared for this. It had chemical wipes in little mini-packs sitting in buckets along the beach ready for guests to de-grease themselves. Needless to say, I only swam in the sea once. 

I never discovered the oil’s origin. However, I suspect that ships purging their ballast tanks before entering Singapore harbour were the likely culprit. Alternatively, the area may have experienced a minor oil spill shortly before our arrival.

My final memory of this trip to Bintan was the team-building activity we enjoyed one afternoon. Club Med offers guests an in-house circus experience. This included an outdoor flying trapeze where you can practice swinging from one trapeze rung to another. Your safety was always assured thanks to training staff, a body harness and an enormous net strung several metres above the ground.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take any photos during either offsite. As a result, I’ve illustrated my Bintan adventures using images ripped from the web.