Sungai Sebungkecil

New-to-us port #46.

After a number of hot and humid sightseeing days that saw temps reaching into the high-90F range (with feels like temps in the three-digits), we weren’t in the mood to do much today. Since Bintan Island, which is part of Indonesia’s Riau Archipelago, promotes itself as the “next best tourist destination after Bali,” we decided some R&R was in order.

Tendering ashore to Bandar Bentan Telani was like taking a slow boat to China, but we finally got to the tender pier a little after 8:30a. The island has some nice beaches, but they require transportation. Yes, there was a shuttle we could have taken, but we decided to stay close instead.

Once we got our bearings, we set off with Sonia & Boris and Younga & David on a 10-minute walk to Treasure Bay, which is home to Crystal Lagoon … billed as Southeast Asia’s first man-made seawater lagoon. From what I have since read, the place is going to be a “resort city” when it is all said and done.

Paying the admission, we made our way down to the lagoon where we found a number of palapas and lounge chairs at the edge of the water. The far end of the lagoon had a bunch of water toys, but all was quiet today. In fact, we were the only ones there for almost the entire time.

Treasure Bay is proud of its specially-filtered saltwater lagoon, which is said to be delicate on the skin. I think they got it right as I didn’t feel the tightness one usually feels when saltwater dries on the skin. We all enjoyed our swim.

After about an hour, Mui and I left the group and went to get massages. Turns out that the day spa was not on the resort grounds. No problem … we were driven the two-minutes it took us to get to the spa … and the driver waited until our treatments were over to take us back. Another excellent massage for a fraction of what the Aquamar Spa charges on the ship.

A quiet stroll from Treasure Bay returned us to the tender pier for the next boat back to Insignia. We were back on the ship well ahead of the 1:30p all aboard.

This short segment of RTW2023 has a number of sea days between port calls, the first of which is tomorrow. We are looking forward to more R&R.Read more