As far as things to do in Bintan, there’s not a whole so you’ve got to make sure you choose a hotel that has some activities. The Banyan Tree Bintan has an excellent swimming pool (actually two) and Grobbler and I spent most of our time in that. The majority of the day was spend jumping in, diving down and doing our best impressions of the Man From Atlantis. The beach at the Banyan Tree is excellent, there’s a bunch of rocks and boulders where you go hunting for crabs, fish and other sea creatures. The Angsana hotel next door has a kids club and water sports facility that Banyan Tree guests can use. Check out Toucan’s Tips For Kids for more info on that.
Banyan Tree Bintan Island Pool
One thing that will always come up when you search for things to do in Bintan is the mangrove Tour, which I thought was rather rank, but Grobbler thought was pretty good. We arranged to be picked up at 230p.m to be taken on the tour. You arrange it with the hotel but they just call a company who runs it. We waited and waited, until finally at 2:50, this absolutely clueless looking couple showed up, stood around looking dumb for a further 5 minutes, before deciding to get in the car.
We said G’Day but they just ignored us and looked like language and opening their mouths other than to look gormless was difficult for them. Finally we left. You will then stop to buy tickets after about 15 minutes. It’s a pretty simple process, go in, pay your money, get tickets. Not for this family. Dad in particular looked about as clueless as Carl Pilkington and was obviously overwhelmed by the difficult task of buying tickets. Once he did manage to buy the tickets he thought it would be best to wait around a further 10 minutes while Grobbler and I sat in the car sweltering in the heat.
Another 10 minutes drive and you get to the actual start of the tour, where the jetty was cram packed full of mainland Chinese tourists in an absolute frenzy about what life jackets to wear and what boat to go in. Grobbler and I got in a boat with the Chinese version of Carl Pilkington, his wife and their daughter. Takes about 5-10 minutes to get into the mangroves where we saw 2 snakes sleeping in a tree, a monitor lizard and bugger all else. You spend about what I guess is 15-20 minutes going through the mangroves. That part of the mangrove tour is actually ok, nothing great, but an ok way to waste an hour or so. It’s popular because it’s one of the few things to do in Bintan outside hotel and beach activities.
Mangrove Tour Bintan Island
Once back, we had to fuck around on the jetty for 10 more minutes while clueless Carl and the guide had a smoke, with no consideration to getting smoke in Grobblers eyes or mouth. I wasn’t impressed by that and was about to blow my top. When we got to the car, we waited a further 10 minutes for clueless Carl to decide what the fuck he was actually doing, had he forgotten what very little brain he had left on the boat, or for him to decide if he was actually going back to hotel or going to stay the night on the side of the road. By this stage I had had enough and just told the guide either we go back now, or we’ll get a taxi. He made some attempt to communicate with clueless Carl and after 5 more minutes of what can only be described as two monkeys trying to communicate with each other, the guide, to his credit, just got in the car and left clueless Carl and his family on the side of the road.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a half-witted, clueless human being in my entire life. I have no idea how they got back, nor do I care. Perhaps he ventured into the forest to try and find his mother and father, who were clearly primates of days gone past. Anyway, give the Mangrove Tour a miss, unless your kids are really into seeing a couple of sleeping snakes (which mine was).
Poorly run and not worth the money. Having said that, Grobbler was most impressed, probably because he’s currently obsessed with reptiles and found the sleeping snake as pleasing as a 57-0 All Blacks drubbing off South Africa. I’m pretty sure the mangrove tour is run by one company, so doesn’t matter what hotel you book it through, one company will operate it. I think that company is here.
Other than that, we didn’t leave the Banyan Tree. We asked the hotel what were the other things to do in Bintan and they only came up with the Bintan Eco Farm, which looked about as exciting as Michael Bolten’s memoir. No cover from the sun and I think that would have been melting hot.