Scoop from Singapore

Last weekend I traveled to Tanjung Pinang, the capital of the Bintan Islands in Indonesia. We took a 2 hour ferry from Singapore, and stayed in a cute hotel just steps away from the dock. Michele and I had our own room with AC, cable, and a non-western bathroom (read squatting to go to the bathroom and "flushing" by filling a bucket with water and pouring it down a hole.)

Indonesia uses Rupiah for currency, where 1 American dollar equals 9,075 Rupiah. So, pretty much, I was nearly a millionare for the weekend. I am not sure what the logic in using such a system was, since I had 100 Rupiah coins, but, that's how hit worked. Everything was very inexpensive, with liter bottles of water costing 33 cents and bags of candy at about 60.

On the trip was Michele and me, Jen, Alicia, Jeremy, Sascha, and our our friend Galen. Because Tanjung Pinang is less developed and we were unsure of American sentiments, we stayed close for dinner. Although things were very inexpensive, choosing what to eat was hard since no one there spoke English and last I checked my Indonesian isn't too great. I honestly just picked a random number off the menu and hoped it would be edible, and to my great surprise it was. I ended up getting rice which was very spicy, but also good. It must be a staple in Indonesian food, because it was served many times throughout the weekend. I also had a really nice glass of mango juice, freshly squeezed. Mmm. After dinner we just stayed in our hotel for the night, playing cards and chatting. It was really nice to just have an in night with everyone curled up on the boys bed.

The next morning we got up for breakfast, which was more rice, and a NEW food and possible staple in my diet. We had toast with kaya, a green jam made from coconut milk, pandan leaves, and sugar. I don't really know what to compare it to, but its sweet and very good. During breakfast we talked to Bobby, our tour guide facilitator, who informed us that we forgot to change our watches when arriving and it was actually an hour later than what we thought. Oops.

We took a boat out on the Snake River and visited a bunch of islands and temples all day on Saturday. It was really hot with very little shade, but thankfully we were all dressed pretty conservatively so avoided bad sunburns. After the tour we all got massages and then went shopping. Even the boys! We were all very happy!

We stayed around our hotel again Saturday night, and left Indonesia around 1 the next afternoon. It was a short, but really nice weekend for our group!