April 1st, 2024
This weekend, I went to Bintan, Indonesia! It was my first official, planned trip to another country rather than my impromptu day trip to Malaysia. The resort at Bintan was just so beautiful, that is what I imagined for my spring break. If you have ever watched White Lotus, I felt like I was in White Lotus Lite version, just overall very tropical. The weather was also a lot more tolerable than Singapore since it was less humid. The beach’s sand felt like flour, but the water was like bathwater. But at least now I can say I swam in the South China Sea! There was also a free breakfast buffet which really made it feel like vacation. And everybody was so nice, like extremely nice. I would make eye contact with an employee and they would say “Thank you so much”. For what? But overall, I was definitely in vacation mode this weekend.
All I essentially did at Bintan was lounge at the pool and sunbathe. There wasn’t much to do at Bintan besides spend time at the resort. The most enjoyable thing I did besides enjoying doing absolutely nothing was getting my first ever massage! I typically don’t like people touching me, but the massage was so relaxing, I actually did start falling asleep. It is my new mission to get a massage in every new country I visit.
As for Singapore, like always, I spent the week basically eating. I have a lot of other things I want to do in Singapore that I will have to do during the week, but they just didn’t happen this week. Here are some of the food highlights of my week: popiah, salted egg bun, pan fried dumplings, satay, kimchi fried rice, sesame bingsu, you tiao, curry noodles, and more boba. I went to a street festival near a mosque and waited 90 minutes for birria tacos, but it was worth every minute. I have been craving Mexican food so bad.
Bonus, I tried durian! Me and my roommate have been researching what the flavor of durian actually is, and all we concluded was that it was sweet, creamy, onion. We kept telling ourselves we just need to try it. After eating it, I can confirm, it tastes exactly like sweet, creamy, onion! Not in a good way, at least for me. The smell is so strong, it isn’t as foul smelling as others say but the scent is very strong. But I was not prepared for the texture, it was literally like warm onion custard. I could not get the taste out of my mouth for so long. I do not think I will be consuming any more durian.
