The Canopi, Bintan, Indonesia

Started off the year 2016 with a getaway to nearby Bintan!

It's about a 50-55 minute ride via the only ferry operator that goes there, called Bintan Resort Ferries (BRF). Strangely, I suffered a pretty bad case of motion sickness on the ferry to-and-fro this time. I've been on ferries a few times (to Tanjong Pinang, Batam several times and this time Bintan) but I've never felt this queasy. Fortunately I didn't throw up (i.e. give everyone else a hard time lol) so, phew.

Check-in reception looks very much like Montigo Resorts (Batam)! There are plenty of sofas around to lounge on, however, their ceiling is like a translucent sheet, which magnifies the sunlight and basically makes the lush fabric sofas cooking pans. It was just too hot to sit there any longer than five minutes. So when we experienced a delayed check-out (because there were too many people), it was pretty unbearable to sit around that we had to move to the restaurant behind (which was fully sheltered).

We read on TripAdvisor that the ferry operator and/or Indonesian authorities actually keep your passports for a streamlined, direct check-in into the resort without passing through customs. That was a bit of a deterrent for us before I decided to book the resort, since we both felt that we did not trust the foreign customs to return our passports (hey, you never know!) Fortunately on the date of travel, we got to queue and pass through customs and hold on to our own passports the whole time. A relief, we would say!

Tip: Request for a tent that is further away from the reception! 

The noise from the restaurant/reception area can get quite loud (from humans or from their awesome sound system). With that said, they have a great playlist! In the day, they play 90% English Top 40 hits all-day and the playlists don't repeat. Then they move toward more chill Evergreen and classic hits in the evenings. They do play an occasional Bahasa song or two, but the music choices always have a good groove going, so it's never anti-climatic even though you don't understand the songs.

Home for 3 days and 2 nights!

Walls are about 3 thick fabrics worth of thickness. So be prepared to always hear the staff members outside, either talking or repairing such-and-such item or delivering food on their buggies! It can be a bit disconcerting at some points (even creepy, at night) but you get used to it.

The room you pay for is basically a giant tent (one room), with a double bed, sofa, desk, a few cabinets, a bench, a cool vintage standing fan... and an outdoor toilet. The air-conditioning is powerful (yay). But, there is no fridge in the room, so do ask for ice box(es) if you want your drinks cold.

On to my favourite section of the giant tent - the outdoor toilet!

Spacious and really unique, with bronze toilet fittings, a rain shower and real plants!

We were two paranoid Singaporeans who kept checking for spiders in the toilet bowl before using it hahaha (more on the story later).

You can't get away with terrible shower singing here because the 4 tents around you can probably hear you, and you can hear them walking about (outside) too. Even though it's kinda open and exposed, you do feel pretty safe to bathe without some creep climbing in or peeping at you.

But I'd say if someone wanted to do that, they could. The wall is really not that high. Lol.

Four-poster bed!

So... the spider story. We killed two rather big spiders on the floor of our tent (the floor is a very rough rope-like material, which will probably give you abrasions if you rub your feet hard on it)... and I killed (i.e. stomped like mad) a millipede as well.

A word of advice is just to wear slippers around the tent, to protect yourself from bug bites or abrasions. I don't think anyone wants to ruin an R&R holiday with a painful bug bite right?

If you're wondering why we have two different chandeliers/feature lamps, we requested for a change of room because our first one (LV04) was near to the restaurant and they were doing some repair work nearby. It was noisy and there were a lot of maintenance workers walking around, so you feel odd walking about in your swimwear etc.

The furniture and fittings were all very matchy and nice, either way! 

Lagoon view!

Us relishing one of the many different types of lazy reclining beach sofas!

We decided to do an "in-room" barbecue! Every thing's served right to your tent but the barbecue is DIY. It was quite lovely to watch the sunset while we were barbecuing!

Twilight.

Their chicken wings & fried rice were quite amazing!

Remnant Christmas Tree made of lights (it's actually some telecom pole of sorts).

Stars! Not something you get to see much of in Singapore.

Area near the restaurant in the evening.

This made me laugh more than it should. There are so many rules that you want to ignore them as soon as you see this board. But hey, safety first ah.

Lunch right at our doorstep. We had S$80 credit to use for room service or certain activities, so we decided to have all our food covered by the credits we had (it's part of our booking package). We had originally planned to go for some ATV racing of some sort, but it was under maintenance on the dates that we were there :(

Restaurant-worthy beer batter fish and chips!

Carbonara was goopy and too cheesy (rather than milky). A whole plate of nope.

Salmon Aglio Olio was just not... right. It was not spicy at all, was 100% dry, and the giant chilli slices were an immediate red flag. This one was quite terrible, so to anyone who intends to order this - this is a flat no.

The finger food and snacks were good! The chilli sauce provided was awesome too.

Just a note of caution, there is only one restaurant/bar serving the entire resort, so do order earlier during meal times because the orders may not come very timely during lunch/dinner time. Also, that means you don't have a choice if the food is not to your liking. We were prepared and we brought instant noodles and stuff we love to eat/drink, so we had some degree of choice there.

Alcohol is not cheap here (compared to Batam). A can of Sapporo beer for SGD$10? I'd say bring your own.

It rained on our 2nd day there.

All in all, it was a really good rest-and-relax getaway. We hardly have such relaxing holidays since we enjoy visiting bustling cities. When travelling, we are also always on the go and attempting to cover as many landmarks as our legs can carry us to... So, this was different and that much more relaxing for us.

A unique glamping (i.e. glamorous camping) experience.