Bintan Day 2-3: Lagoi Bay, SpaLab & My Reflections

DAY 2

I didn't sleep well the night before as the pillows were really flat! I woke up at around 6am and decided to spend some quiet time alone, praying at the balcony.

Beautiful view of the pool and hotel from our room

It started to rain!

When the rest of the family were awake, we headed to Rempah Kitchen at 8am for breakfast.

Christmas decorations

Different food counters

Love the variety of sambal, sauces and crackers!

Donuts and pancakes

Cotton candy for the kids!

The skies finally cleared after our breakfast so we headed to the pool for our first swim!

Super excited to check out the pool!

Lagoon-style pool with the usual pool-side bar

View of our room from the pool

Mum decided to chill on the pool chair

Enjoying quality time in the water

Cool water feature

Huge shallow pool for little kids

Water fountains!

The beach was right in front of the hotel

After washing up, we walked for about 5 minutes to Plaza Lagoi, the only place for shopping in the area.

At the entrance of our hotel

Walking to Plaza Lagoi

It's resort-style shopping, similar to Bali Collection in Nusa Dua

You can buy souvenirs and other necessities at Mustafa Centre

Found a nice shop selling handmade Indonesian jewellery!
Bought these earrings for the BFFs and myself because I love the colours!

Mum bought kueh lapis from Mama B

Took a break and had ice cream at Gelatologi!

Flavours to choose from

As the Littlest didn't eat much during breakfast (she's extremely picky), I bought ramen for her from Ramen Sanpachi 38. It tasted average but was one of the cheapest ramen I've bought and thankfully the Littlest finished it! 😃

We walked back to the hotel via the beach.

Welcome to Lagoi Bay!

Mandatory group selfie!

Popped by Yeah Mart for some essentials

Exploring the beach

After we returned to our hotel, the Mum and Littlest stayed in the room while the Sister, Eldest and I headed to our hotel lobby. We were waiting for our complimentary transport to SpaLab for our pre-booked massages.

We received complimentary fish food from the hotel staff and fed the koi in the pond while waiting!

Our transport has arrived!

SpaLab was actually located at Plaza Lagoi, where we were earlier! 😅

SpaLab

Enjoying our welcome drinks

We did our massages in a room together 😊

Our massages were good but definitely not worth the Rp650k (approximately S$52) price tag! The massages that we had in Batam were almost 3 times cheaper and just as good!

Lounge for guests to relax and try their kueh lapis after our massages

The spa provided complimentary transport back to our hotel and we joined the Mum and Littlest in the room. We spent quality time just chatting until it was time for dinner.

We decided to have our dinner at Rempah Kitchen again because we loved it so much the day before!

We sat at the outdoor section of the restaurant this time

The 5 of us have the same face because we all got it from my Mum! 😁

Seafood soup and kang kong in spicy sauce

Fried rice

Fish soup (I think!)

Had to order my favourite beef soup again!

After a good dinner, we ended the night taking photos of the lighted up hotel.

The El Lagoi sign at night

The last night of our very short trip

Goodnight! 🌃

DAY 3

The moment we woke up that morning, we called the Front Desk to request for late check out. They were able to allow us to check out at 4.30pm for one room! That meant that we could spend more time at the pool! 🥳

With our check out secured, we had breakfast at Rempah Kitchen.

My breakfast - gotta love me a good teh tarik!

We headed to the pool immediately after breakfast but just as we were about to get in, it started raining heavily! When the rain did not let up, we returned to our rooms and spent the time moving our belongings to the Mum & Sister's room instead.

It was almost noon when the rain finally stopped! The Littlest was super excited to jump into the pool!

The Mum joined us this time!

Since we wanted to continue swimming, we popped by El Lagoi for lunch as the restaurant allowed us to dine in our swimming attire.

El Lagoi in the day

We got an indoor table instead of our preferred one outdoors next to the pool as the latter was too wet

Drinks, spinach and mushroom soups and chicken wings
(Nothing memorable)

Tomato pasta and fries for the Littlest
(Pasta was quite bland)

Roasted chicken was ok

Crème brûlée and complimentary fruits on the house

The meal was nothing special for the price. The convenience and ease of accessing the pool was the restaurant's only plus point for me! 😅

Littlest couldn't wait to jump into the pool once she had finished her food!

Loving the pool

While we were dining, the Sister and Eldest went to get something from the room and happened to bump into housekeeping staff, who returned them our valuables that I had left in the safe when we checked out of my room! 😬 So grateful to the staff for keeping them safe! Of course, I wrote a stellar commendation to the hotel to thank them! 😁

We were really sad when it came time for us to leave! After we washed up and checked out of our room, we boarded the complimentary shuttle service at 4.30pm to the ferry terminal.

Comfortable shuttle bus

We arrived at the Bandar Bentan Telani Ferry Terminal at 4.45pm and joined the queue to clear customs after I collected our boarding tickets from the Bintan Resort Ferries counter.

We started the queue at Gate 1 since we had the Littlest with us

Our ferry departed punctually at 5.45pm

The journey was 1 hour 10 minutes and we arrived at Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal and cleared customs by 8pm. All in all, a very good trip! 😀

My Reflections

I've heard from friends about how boring Bintan is and have to say that I've personally experienced it as a first time visitor! If not for our amazing hotel, where we spent most of our time relaxing and enjoying each other's company, there was nothing much to do! Everything was also more expensive than Batam, though the service was better (you get what you pay for I guess)! It was a great getaway while we were there but I don't think we would make it a regular visit like we do for Batam! 😅

Can't wait for our next Heng Girls' trip!

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Past Heng Girls Vacations: