Friday, 12 December 2025

Bintan Day 1: Four Points by Sheraton, Lagoi Bay

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We try to plan a Heng Girls' Trip annually and were super happy that we organised one at the last minute this year! 🥳 We booked our ferry tickets via Bintan Resort Ferries, the only ferry service to Lagoi Bay. Our two-way tickets cost S$98 per adult and $86 per child (12 years old and under), which was more expensive than our ferry tickets to Batam! 

We agreed to meet at Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal at 3pm, however, the girls and I arrived at 3.20pm due to the heavy rain.

It was our first time at Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal!
Ferry counters

After we had checked in and collected our boarding tickets, we had tea and coffee at Woon's Kopi while we completed our Indonesia Arrival Card online. It was quite a long form so it's best to do it before your arrival in Indonesia! We had plenty of time to submit ours before we cleared customs. 

At the waiting area after clearing customs
Excited to start our Girls' Trip!

Our ferry ended being delayed and instead of departing at 5pm as scheduled, we departed at 5.25pm.

Boarding our ferry
Our Bintan Resorts Ferry
Comfortable seats and a table for using my tablet 

The journey to Bintan was only 1 hour and we arrived at Bandar Bentan Telani Ferry Terminal at 5.30pm Bintan time (Bintan is 1 hour behind Singapore).

Welcome to Bintan!

Clearing customs was easy as there were few ferries. Once we were done with security checks, we met up with a staff from Four Points by Sheraton Bintan, Lagoi Bay, who ushered us to special waiting area for hotel guests. Once all the guests were present, we were guided to the FREE shuttle service that would take us from the ferry terminal to the hotel (you'd need to inform the hotel prior to your visit).

Waiting area for guests of Four Points By Sheraton
On the shuttle bus!
Arrival at the hotel, just 10 minutes away from the ferry terminal

It was 6.30pm by the time we arrived at the hotel. We were more than excited to check in and hunt for dinner! 😵

Our hotel at night
Walking along the corridors to our room at the end of the building

We had booked two Deluxe Pool Twin Rooms at S$262 per room per night, inclusive of breakfast (details in next post).

The twin beds were larger than super single!
My two girls could squeeze in one while I had my own bed! 🥳
Kitchenette, luggage rack and dining areas
Wardrobe with bathrobes, safe and slippers
Bathroom with no bathtub
Toiletries and other amenities
Love the huge balcony, which faces the pool and sea!

I had informed the hotel in advance that it was my mum's birthday and they kindly prepared something special for her in her room! She was so surprised when we sang "happy birthday" as she entered her room! 😁

A complimentary cake and beautiful decorations on her bed!
She was super happy! 

They even designed the mirror! So cool!

Other than the huge pool (details in the next post), there was also a spa, Fitness Center and Kids Club on premise.

24 hours Fitness Center

After we celebrated the Mum's birthday, we hurried to El Lagoi for dinner as we were starving! 

El Lagoi

However, we discovered that the restaurant only served BBQ buffet every Friday and Saturday night. Since the buffet was not worth it for a group of girls with small appetites, we headed to Rempah Kitchen where they served ala carte menu items instead.

Rempah Kitchen
We enjoyed the live singing! 🎵
Couldn't wait for our food as we were famished! 😖
Clockwise from left: Mango smoothie;
Broccoli and mushroom;
Pasta the Smurf (spaghetti with tomato sauce) from the Kids Menu.
Clockwise from left: Rice is served with every dish!;
Soto Betawi, an authentic beef soup with tribe and lung;
Some rice and sausage dish that my mum ordered.
Sate Padang, which is spicy beef satay served with yellow Indonesian curry, rice flour ball, rice cake and fried shallots
Can't remember what this soup was called but it had fish
Clockwise from left: Pisang Goreng served with honey, chocolate sauce and ice cream;
Complimentary cakes and fruits from the buffet as the staff was very apologetic about making us wait so long for our food!

My favourite dish was the beef soup! It was so incredible and the best I've had so far! It was a super good meal and we paid Rp1,157k (about S$90) after 10% discount for hotel guests! 😊

We headed back to our room after dinner as I was still recovering from a migraine while the Sister started feeling "flu-ish". We decided to sleep early so that we would have enough rest for the next day! 😊


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P.S: Read about our experiences with Marriott Bonvoy around the world:

Continue to >> Bintan Day 2-3: Swimming & Massages

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Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on Bintan, Indonesia 
as well as other travel itineraries!


Please also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels!
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Saturday, 29 November 2025

Busan-Seoul Day 11-12: Seongsu, Dongdaemun & Flight Home

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DAY 11

It was our last breakfast at Cafe Stanford as we wouldn't have time to eat it the next day.

Final breakfast at Cafe Stanford for this trip

After breakfast, the Hubby suggested that we visit Seongsu, also known as the 'Brooklyn of Seoul'. We took Line 2 (green) to Seongsu Station.

Seongsu street

While we were exploring the neighbourhood, we randomly discovered Cafe Be Art and decided to check it out.

Climbing the stairs to Cafe Be Art
Cozy dining environment
We needed two tables for our big family
Food at the counter
The Eldest and I were the ones who love cafe food!
The drinks were good!
Super yummy waffles and cake
Balcony area

We really love the food but it was not substantial enough for the rest of the family. The Hubby spotted Mealbon Korean Restaurant for lunch.

Mealbon Korean Restaurant
They were known for their noodle soup sets;
Soup was full of flavour though slightly spicy due to the pepper.
Pork rice set

The Eldest and I ended up being too full to walk! 🤣 Before we left, we popped by Artbox Seongsu as it was so interestingly decorated!

Google Translate the Korean words:
"Caution. When an alien invasion occurs, cute people are taken first!" 😂

We decided to visit Dongdaemun next, as the last time we had visited was 12 years ago! We took Line 2 (green) to Dongdaemun History & Culture Park Station (Exit 1). 

Discovered an interesting 'heart' installation at the stairs
Beautiful architecture

Dongdaemun was also full of shops but much less crowded than Myeongdong. Some malls we passed by/visited include Dongdaemun Design Plaza, HelloAPM and Doota Mall. Perhaps it was an ordinary Friday afternoon, hence it was super quiet.

Clothes here looked nice but was pricey compared to Myeongdong
Doota Mall
Doota Knight Garden

With nothing much to buy except for some clothes the Hubby managed to get from Northface at Doota Mall, we headed to Cheonggyecheon Stream to take some photos.

Dongdaemun's famous urban canal
Locals love to take walks along the scenic canal
Having fun on the stepping stones
(While being constantly warned by this mama not to fall into the water or else!)
An oasis in the middle of the city
Enjoying the sound of water flowing
The kids had fun crossing the stream again and again!

We spotted the actual Dongdaemun (Great East Gate), officially known as Heunginjimun, and walked over to take photos! It looked very similar to Sungnyemun aka Namdaemun (Great South Gate) that we had visited two years ago!

Heunginjimun
Heunginjimun Park
Starting point for the hike up to Seoul City Wall
Part of Seoul City Wall
You can even see N Seoul Tower from the top!
(We were there 5 days ago)
Peaking through the wall
It was a fun and easy climb and worth it for the view of the city!
Love the beautiful trees in the park!
We also found a good spot to take pictures with Heunginjimun! 😁

We walked to Dongdaemun Station (located very close by) and took Line 4 (light blue) back to Myeongdong for dinner. Since it was our last dinner in Seoul before we flew back, we decided to splurge on Korean BBQ at Woo Bros restaurant (we really enjoyed the food here during our previous trip)!

Gotta have all of our favourite Korean dishes!
The beef was expensive but so very good! 👍
Pork belly was good too!
Last dinner of this trip! How fast time flies!

After a very satisfying dinner, the kids wanted desserts at SulBing Cafe again. We indulged them since it was our last chance to eat them before we returned to Singapore!

Chocolate waffles and bingsu!

We had to sleep early so that we could get up at 4am the next morning. Can't believe that our trip was coming to an end! 😭


DAY 12

We had to give our usual hotel buffet breakfast a miss as we had to leave the hotel at 5am. I guess it was just as well since we had already eaten it for 6 days in a row! 😅

We had booked a Jumbo taxi via our hotel the day before and met our driver at the lobby at our agreed time. The journey to Incheon International Airport was about 45 minutes and we arrived at Terminal 1 at 5.45am.

After checking in our luggage and clearing customs, I collected our tax refunds and my purchase from the Duty Free stores.

Don't forget to get your receipts verified before clearing customs so that you can get your tax refunds easily at the Tax Refund counters
Collecting my purchase from the Duty Free counters

The Littlest finally had some time to play at Pororo playground, which she didn't have time to do so in the last trip.

Pororo Playground
Super excited to play!

Our Singapore Airlines plane departed on time at 8.50am.

Boarding our plane
Goodbye Seoul!
Kid's meal
Rice and beef for the adults

Our flight was 6 hours 35 minutes and we arrived in Singapore at 2.25pm.

The familiar control tower at Changi Airport 😁

It's good to be home! 🥰


My Reflections

As a first time visitor to Busan, we enjoyed the food and affordable prices as compared to Seoul. There's also a variety of different sightseeing attractions; whatever Seoul has, it seems that Busan also has, maybe a bit smaller. A Busan taxi driver shared that Busan has the best weather in all of South Korea and he's not wrong 😃

Pins and other souvenirs to add to my collection! 😁

We may not return to Seoul (we've already visited 3 times!) but we'll definitely visit Busan again! Until then... annyeong! 

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P.S: Attractions we have previous visited in Seoul:


<< Back to Busan-Seoul Day 10: Starfield COEX Mall & Lotte Mart Jamsil

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Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on 
Busan and Seoul, South Korea as well as other travel itineraries!


Please also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels!
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