Our Indonesian Weekend

Since it was Ben's birthday last week and our Anniversary we decided we needed a weekend away to celebrate! We went to a little resort island that is part of Indonesia called Bintan Island. So we headed off Friday afternoon and took the Ferry to Bintan, about 55 minutes away. It was a LONG 55 minutes! About halfway through the trip I saw Ben get up and run down the aisle to the back, apparantly he was feeling queasy and was about to lose it. It's not as quite of a bumpy ride in the back. I would have joined him if I hadn't been holding a sleeping Grace. I just kept praying over and over that I would make it and I did. Once we got there a bus from the hotel picked us up at took us to the Bintan Lagoon Resort. It was a beautiful place. They greet every new arrival with a song and dance. Literally...here they are, the drummers are hiding against the wall. They also gave us a refreshing drink while we checked in.

After we made it to our room and fully recovered from the ferry ride we explored the resort. Here is a view from the beach. It really was a beautiful place. It had two golf courses and 11 restaurant/bars on the property. We even saw monkeys playing golf! (there really were a bunch of monkeys hanging out on the green as we drove by one time)
We ate at two of the yummy restaurants. They were so good! Saturday we were walking to the restuarant when a huge storm came in. We ran, but here we are soaked.
Saturday we went on a Mangrove Tour. Here is Ben in his manly life jacket ready to board the little boat.
We took a boat ride down the river. This is a fishing hut that the local fisherman still use. They only use it as shelter during the day because it doesn't have electricity. We even passed a tiny (only 3 families live there) fishing village and saw one of the men rowing a boat down the river with his little son to check on some traps. Such simple lives these people lead! I was amazed.
We saw a few snakes and lizard above our heads in the trees. Here's a Mangrove snake. They sleep during the day and swim and hunt at night.
Here is my cute husband with a good example of some Mangrove trees beside him. They grow in the water and protect the land from erosion by the river. It was pretty interesting to learn about the river and the trees and how they work together. Another cool thing we saw was an apple tree with real poisonous apples on it. Snow White wasn't making things up. These apples can cause blindness and even death if eaten. I feel bad for the poor soul who figured that out.
Grace enjoyed the boatride for the most part. She kept looking for fishies, but the river was to dark to see any. She stole this hat from the tour director. She thought she was pretty funny.
Peekaboo!
Wouldn't it be great to have a real body like this? Ben and I couldn't help ourselves and just had to take this picture.
Then of course Grace had to join in the fun.
I'm just relaxing a bit here.
We played at the beach on Saturday morning, but Grace was scared of the water this trip, so the beach play didn't last long. We did go exploring on Sunday before the ferry left though. It was so beautiful, they had these white sandy beaches and then this rock outcropping. We hiked to the end of it.
I love this picture of Ben.
What a cheeser!
Our favorite part of the resort, besides the yummy food was the kids pool! It was perfect for Grace, she could walk around at least 1/4 of it without any floaties. They also had two fun little water slides. Grace loved these and we did them again and again. She got brave enough that she didn't want any help going down at the end, but we did have to catch her.
I mostly love to sit in the sun and watch Ben and Grace play. Grace loves to swim with her Daddy and is fearless with him.
And one of the most excited parts of our swimming trip.....
On Sunday we were about ready to leave the pool so I was sunbathing on the edge of the pool while Grace and Ben played for a few more minutes. I was trying to sunburn the white lines on my back left from my swimsuit the day before. So there I am minding my own business when I look in the water and see a baby alligator swimming toward me! It climbed out of the water about two feet away from my feet and walked into the vegetation next to the pool. Well, by that time I realized it wasn't really an alligator, but a huge lizard. Another lady that saw it said it was a Goanna Lizard. It was big, about 2&1/2 feet long. I called for Ben and Grace to come over. This is what it looked like...
It didn't even care that we were around so it walked through the bushes onto the sidewalk and up the pathway. Ben and Grace followed it for a little while and I just sat in shock at this huge reptile that swam in the pool right next to me. I'm glad I didn't have my toes in the water, they might have got eaten!
So we had a wonderful weekend. We survived the ferry ride home and I am happy to say that I have three countries stamped in my passport now! Next up... Malaysia.