Wonderful Nikoi Island

Date:  June 6, 2014

This June holiday, we decided to do something that we have not done for many many years since the Indian Ocean Tsunami 2004.  

Yeah we are going for a holiday at a beach resort.

This blog entry is VERY LONG because there are so much to talk about Nikoi Island.  Enjoy the photos and videos.

[Sorry LWPS folks, when we booked the stay on Nikoi Island, there is only very few units left, so, we asked Jay Jay to choose who he wants to go to Nikoi Island with, Jay said Isabelle because he wants to play Monopoly Deal with Isabelle.  So, we only asked Anna & Isabelle familial to come along.  HaHaHa… but I overhead that Boon Ching is trying to organising a grand Nikoi Island excursion next year or this coming September and we will try to booked most of the 15 bungalows and make a lot of noise on Nikoi Island… stay tune… Wahahahahahahaha]

Nikoi Island

After taking 1 hour ferry ride form Singapore Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal (TMFT) to BBT Bintan, another 1 hour comfortable car ride from BBT to Kawal, and lastly a 20min speed boat ride from Kawal to our destination, Nikoi Island, a private island. 

To book the hotel, please go to their website:  http://www.nikoi.com

And it really looks like what it advertised on the website.

It is a good place for couple.  But you have been warned, during school holidays, they might be a lot of kids running around.  And you may not like it if you are looking at honey moon style of resort.

If you bring your family, it is a great place to go.  A lot of fun things to do for the kids.  Adult can enjoy the swim, the massage, the quiet time reading books.  Just leave the kids at the Kids Club, and uncle Thomas and Yogi Bear will keep them entertained.

Go there with another friend and family, it will create more fun for the kids.

Look at the beach!  Look at the sea water!  I got a feeling that I am going to felt in love with this place.

The Beach Bungalow

We stay Bungalow #7.  It is just beside the Jetty.  Very convenient to walk to the eating place, and drinking place.  

There are 15 of them.  Yup!  Only 15 bungalows in total.  That explained why it can be fully booked.  It is a fun place and there are a lot of returning customers.

The check in time is 1pm.  So, if you take a ferry at around 9 o’clock, you reach there about 11 plus.  So, you can’t check in yet, but you can do a lot of things. 

This is our bungalow.  Play at below, sleep on 2nd floor.

This is our bed.  

There are two day bed available if needed.  I let my wife sleep with the kids at the centre bed, and I took the day bed.  It is quite comfortable for me as I can stretch my legs fully on the day bed.

You can sit at the balcony chair all the time.

The sea view is great!

You do not need to bring any CASH to Nikoi Island.  They accept credit cards.  If you do bring a lot of precious staff (not sure why) you can keep it here.

The toilet looks very decent.  With the Buddha statue “guarding” the toilet all the time.

Let’s take another photo of the Toilet.  Yes, high ceiling toilet.  The water are sea water recycle from the sea, so you can still taste a bit of salty taste there.  

The soup, shampoo are excellent.  It is smell of lemon grass, and that will scare the mosquitos away.

If you pay a little bit more, you can ask them to setup the bunk bed for you.  It is a room downstairs.  But in my opinion, it is quite small the room and you probably will feel hot inside this smaller room.

The kids loves it!

There is also a massage place in front of your bungalow.  This is where you do your massage.

You can just lie down on the swinging bed there.  Or you can spent your time playing card games with your kids at that table on the right.

The two chair is excellent for you to lie down there and look at the stars at night.

Daddy, where is the air-con?

Daddy, where is the TV?

Daddy: “There is none.”  COOL!

We got to let the kids experience living in a almost jungle style house with no electronics.  The kids were amaze. 

What Can You Do?

You can take a walk.

It takes about 25-30 minutes to walk one round of Nikoi Island.

The mangrove area looks very nice!

Int he morning, the view is different.

You can throw rocks into the mangrove area.

When it is high tide, you walk up here.

When it is low tide, you can simply walk on the Mangrove area.

You can spot the strange mushroom.

Strange rocks formation at the sea.

Are you sure Sofia can climb so steep rocky hill?

There are a lot of Kelong out there too.

On the other side of the island, there are two small swimming pool.  But hey, we are on a private island with white sands, why bother go to these small pools?  There are so many things to play and we did not even got a chance to dip in these pools too.  HaHaHa

The Food

Let’s Talk about the food first before we dip into the activities you can do on the island.

Rojak.

 

Kids fish sandwich.

Margarita.

Veggies curry.

Nice roasted chicken with long grain rice.  All the food on first lunch are very healthy.

There are two restaurant place for our meal.  This one is for family, where kids can run around.

There is another one which is on the other side of the sunset bar, and it is for couple only.  Where there is no kid running there.

For all 4 days, the kids are playing sand, under the dining table.

Salad with lots of leaves and some spicy chilli.

Jay having his beef steaks.

Medium rare lamb steak.

The kids having steam broccoli and fish & chips.

I ordered this wine on the first dinner and it goes very well with the steak.  Well done Borolo.

Oh did I mentioned that at 7:15pm, you can always go down to the born fire place to BBQ your mush mellow  on a very long bamboo stick.  Each kids will get 3 mush mellows.

Breakfast are full range of American breakfast.  You can other any kind of eggs with bacon and sausages.  There are all kind of cereal, honey star, musli, coco crunch, milo balls, corn flakes. Every morning, there will be a slight variations on the juice, the pancakes or banana cake, and so on.  Lots of fruits.

Every day, we eat different local dishes which is fantastic.  Gado gado, squid, fish steak, satay, rice, and so on.

I ordered this Rose from Cotes Du Rhone, and it goes so well with my Risotto.

The wine selection is great!

I love my Risotto.  Very tasty.  The chef here is good.  

 

(OK.  Some how my iPhoto crashed.  So, all the rest of the food photos taken using my iPhones goes along with it, disappeared).

Early in the morning, taking picture is breathtaking.

About 3G

In general the mobile phone coverage is great.  However the 3G data coverage is kind of limited.  I found that sitting at the edge of the jetty has the best 3G - 4-5 bars of connection.  You can still get it at my beach bungalow there, but sometimes can be erratic.  Most of the time, you can drop down to “E” (Edge, which is GPRS).

The dinning area and the sunset bar has Wifi connection, where they have a microwave to connect to the main bintan island.  The speed is good, but you can only use 30 minutes or 200Mbps things like that.  Use more than that, then, it will be chargeable.

But I have no complaint doing work early in the morning at this jetty seating there.

This is where I work in the morning, replying emails, updating facebook and so on.  It is kind of simple, but I LIKE IT!

 BBQ Marshmellow & Bonfire

Every day, and when the wind is not too strong blowing inwards… The kids get to BBQ their own marshmallow on the beach beside a huge bonfire.

Anna is not fishing.  She is BBQing her marshmallow.

Kay Kay felt so happy as he gets to eat marshmallow in a very fun way.

The first night, we burned a lot of marshmallow.  But we learned and don’t put the marshmallow directly in the fire.  It will burnt.

Hi Kay Kay, are you happy?

Kay: “Yes!"

How many marshmallow you have eaten?

The Movie

After that.  Around 8pm, there will be movie showing at the kids club.

 There are comfortable bean chairs.

The last night we saw the movie that has the “Let it Go” song.  F-R-O-Z-E-N.

 Our Bed

OK.  You can choose not to shut the door.  So, we open the door wide.  The sea breeze blow from the sea very strongly.  

And we also tie the mosquito net eventually.

There is no mosquito when the sea breeze blowing.  So, it is pretty safe.

It feels so good with the sea breeze.

They even provide fans if you feel the breeze is not strong enough.

The Creatures

We brought the kids here to make them aware of nature.

These bees, I am not sure if it is a bee or not, but they do fly here and there and people here does not seem to care.

We found one of these in our bed room.  But we does not seems to be stung by it.

Hermit crab.  Hiding.  We even brought two back accidentally.  So, Kay Kay decided to keep them.

 I don’t like these bugs.  It feels like cockroaches.

Monitor lizards are their friends.  The people on the island name them too. 

I think this is Johnny.

Mother crickets carrying the baby cricket.  

 This is the mangrove area.  There should be a lot of life here.

 A snail.  Sea snail.

 Sea Cucumber.

Slime-my sea star.

A real coral reef.

And Nemo...

This shell seems to be trapped inside the hole it rigged. 

 The Beach

I love the beach.

We all love it.  

I love the sea.

I makes me feel good.

Here we are on the hot smooth sands.  Even my younger son Kay Kay loves it.  He dislike the sand in his pre-school.  But here, he loves it.

 Anna and her daddy.

They love being washed by the waves.

Auntie Sofia and Kay Kay.

 Let’s bury Mr. Jay.

 The Guan’s family busy burying Anna with sands.

So that they can take such a nice photo.

 The Kids Club

This is where all the kids will be hanging around.

Meet uncle Thomas who is good in handy crafts.  He made sword, he made cross bow, he made arrows and bow, and he made jewelries too.

Look at our arrows.  Let’s play Hunger Game.

This chicken like native (Boon Ching) is trying very hard to shoot the arrow.

You can also lie down comfortably.

Kay Kay learning how to shoot his arrow.

Let Auntie Sofia teach you how.

Tennis - Grass Court

This is the first time Jay Jay play tennis on a grass court.

It feels good to play tennis bare foot.

Let’s give uncle Eric a giant serve.

The Fire Dragon (Not Fire Fox)

Why?  because uncle Thomas sticked a dragon photo there.  

Weeeeeee!

Kay Kay at first is like crying.  Don’t want to do it.  But then, later, he ask to do fire fox all the time.

Anna and Jay playing and walking on the bamboo.

 Sea Activities

There are a lot of things you can do here.

The beach view is nice.

The morning view is nice too.

You can see lots of variations of the sun and clouds.

It is simply lovely.

Look at the water.  Clear.

Jetty Jump

Oh ya.  I was afraid at first.

But soon after I created that ring of splashes, I jumped a few more times.

Go Go!  Jay Jay! 

JUMP!

Once you jump into the sea, this is what you see.  WOW… lots of fishes.

Jay and I quickly grab our snorkelling gear and jump down.

Whereas Kay Kay is learning how to use his fins to swim.

 The Trampolline

The only different is it is in donut shape and it is on the sea.  Wahahaha 

We love it!

Jump! 

 This is the donut trampoline.

Kay jump.

Eric unique jump.  He did the same jump in Taiwan when we travel together last time.

My Bruce Lee kick.

Auntie Sofia’s hair flying...

Anna jump.

Mommy “show undie” jump.

 Kay Kay big red ear jump.

Surfboard Paddling

Go Jay.  You have done it!  Congrats!

He started by sitting on it.  

Later when he gets the hang of it, he paddle.

No joke, tired.  I could not get up due to my heavy weight.

Mommy yoga style on the surfboard.

 

Look at how mommy stand up on the surfboard. 

I looked cool ya! 

Eric trying to balance.

Anna is the first one who tries it.  So, the life guard is standing up there to help.

Eric finally done it.

So as Anna.  Cool!  I like it.

Yoga on the Beach

Mommy do a selfie on her yoga pose.

I think mommy did it wrong.  Let the boys show her how.

 The lady have done it too.  Synchronised yoga. 

I can yoga too.  Who say fat boy can’t do it.

 But the best pose is Eric ya!

 Star Jump

You have to take as many photos to remember this trip.  Let’s take some star jump.

It is almost dinner time.  Jay’s Michael Jordan jump.

Anna’s parachute jump.

Treasure Hunt

 Every day at 5pm, there is a treasure hunt.

Trying to figure out where is the next clues.

And after 30 minutes, they found it.  They found the chest.

Open the chest, goodies are awaiting.

The Stars

Night time coming soon.  Prepare your camera.

Eh, why so blurry one?  Boon Ching, your skills koyak!

So, she quickly download the settings guide and read it.

f4.5, 30” second exposure, ISO5000.  

Much better.

WOW!  The kids had never seen so many stars before.

The sky is full of stars.

But what are they?

So, go download Startracker, and you should be able to see it.

The Scorpion consolation.

This is why Kay Kay can sing Twinkle Twinkle little Stars.

It looks fabulous.

Good Morning

The clouds start to form.

Good morning Nikoi Island.

Morning lights from the East.

The beach is smiling at you.

Let’s Go Fishing

Ya, the kids love it.  This is the first time they fish.

You got to be patient to fish.

Slowly.  See how can fish first.

 Daddy, I think I got one.

Yes!  You got one alright.

Look at my fish.

A small fish.

Anna say, so small.

Let’s return it back to the sea.

Kayaking

Jay Jay tried out his first ever kayaking.

Anna. 

Kay Kay.

Kay Kay loves it.

Mommy.

Auntie Sofia.

And me.  OK.  Fat boy cannot kayak.  Because both legs and tights very pain.

But I enjoyed it regardless of the pain.

 Body Surrfing

Kay Kay likes this surf board. 

He tries very hard to balance.

 He wants to race every one.

He also wants to ride on Jay Jay like a dolphin.

Jay Jay can swim very fast.

Anna too.

But all of them can’t do this.

 Kay Kay learn how to use his life jacket and swim.

 Wow… after the fun, I felt so exhausted. 

Playing sands.

Building Castle.

Let the wave hit your butt.

The mangrove area

Last day of the trip.

When it is low tide, we walk on the mangrove area.

Lots of creatures we see.

We had a great time!

Searching for life.

 See the sea snail climbing on Jay Jay hand.

 OK.  It’s time to go home. 

Let’s take some more photos.

 And That concludes our trip.

A wonderful getaway trip at Nikoi Island.

 WE WILL BE BACK SOON.