This item was written during my trip to Tanjung Pinang, from 6 to 8th September 2004.
Holiday in Tanjung Pinang, And Certain Quirky Things Seen
Have any of you gone to Tanjung Pinang? It is a small town on the island of Bintan, in the Indonesian islands. It’s quite a popular tourist destination; only 2 hours by ferry from Singapore.
I went there with my family, who in turn decided to go there because a good friend of my father, Mr Halim (I call him Uncle Halim), invited us to join him.
We stayed at the Bintan Beach Resort. Uncle Halim usually frequents this resort, for business matters and other things which need not concern us. . He seemed to be well-known among the hoteliers. Well, let’s begin with the sights I saw upon reaching the port.
 |
The sign on the terminal says, “Welcome to Tanjung Pinang, Port of Sri Bintan Pura!”
|
 |
Later on, I see lots of spelling mistakes (what do you expect?), among them “Poto Copy” and “Enterance”. |
The Bintan Beach Resort has its own discrepancies. I was shocked to hear that their café was called “Café Le Terrace”. Their first mistake was: Terrace is spelled Terrasse in French. Second mistake: it’s feminine, not masculine (La not Le.)
Imagine my reaction when I looked at the menu and saw “Café *La* Terrace”! Terrible! And to think that the sign is in big gold-plated words, “*Le* Terrace”! *Such* a discrepancy! Even the crossbar from the T was missing! I sighted it being carried into the Housekeeping office as I was entering my abode.
Interestingly, the crossbar had just been fixed as I came back from swimming in the pool, at about 3pm. The worker had finished, and was gathering his tools, along with a tin of glue. It has currently dried.
More spelling mistakes abound. The port of Sri Bintan Pura, as stated on a tourist bulletin board in the lobby, is also a “domestic and interatinal” port. (Actually supposed to be “domestic and international”. The Café Le (or La) Terrace has a “Vietnamesse” dish on its menu. Also available are some “Chinesse” dishes, for several thousand rupiahs (5000 rupiahs is roughly equivalent to S$1.)
For dinner, we went to a nearby eatery famous among our company for its Mee Bakso, which is Mee with the gravy already dissolved in it, and includes some delicious meat balls as well. (Very nice.) As I went in, I heard a violin. There was a group playing! Two songs were played as we ate. My sister noticed that the woman who was singing had a Very Loud Voice. I suspected that she had a microphone hidden within the folds of her clothes. Then again, she *could* have a very well-trained diaphragm.
It is now 10.40 am on the 7th of September, and I have just finished a breakfast of Toast, Hard-Boiled Eggs, and Fried Rice,followed by Orange Juice. The agenda for the day is simple. We will visit the Ramayana, a popular shopping bazaar (which has nothing to do with the Mahabharata), purchase some clothes and accessories, have lunch at the Mee Bakso eatery, then back to the hotel, to rest, swim, and do things of the kind.
 |
I don’t know why the shopping complex was named after a Hindu epic. |
Now I am in the van, waiting for my father and Uncle Halim (and the van driver) to buy us a takeaway meal of Mee Baksit (not Bakso) and some chicken. Roast Chicken.
Mee Baksit is the opposite of Bakso. It’s Mee with the gravy separate from it. Help yourself to the gravy. Meatballs included.
At 3.50pm, I had finished eating what I mentioned earlier. A most savoury dish!
Strange news! The public toilets here are singular in that they all have no flush. Well, *some* of them. At the Ramayana (which has nothing to do with the Mahabharata), I noticed this very curious fact. You flush them by pouring water (a whole slosh) into them. Due to the special construction of the toilet (the type which is embedded into the floor), the waste easily disappears from view. Good riddance!
The method of driving here is also interesting (and singular) in that the horn is not used during periods of annoyance; rather, it is used as a signal that you would like to pass a pedestrian walking close to the side of the road, or overtake another vehicle. I was wondering why there were so many horns sounding, until my mother enlightened me with this fact. The horn here is used in a courteous manner, unlike Singapore, where the horn is usually used when a vehicle blocks your path or fails to move at a green light (quite annoying, really).
 |
Near the counter of the Café there is a “Souvenier” counter which sells “Handy Crafts”. There’s supposed to be an R there, but I think it suffered the same fate as the crossbar of the T. |
I noticed that most of the vehicles there have tinted windows, a purple tint. In Singapore, tinting is not allowed (I don’t know why). Thus you can see outside but those outside cannot see you.
It is now Wednesday, and we are preparing to depart. We hurriedly pack our things; squeeze them into bags, etc. Then I noticed a receipt that my sister is holding. Its title is “La Terrace”. Remarkable!
What more could you expect from a three-star hotel? We have transport ready to convey us to the port of Sri Bintan Pura.
I have found out why the toilets here have no flush. The answer is: Water Conservation. They do not want to use gallons of water just to flush someone else’s waste down the drain. It’s strictly self-service. You pour water accordingly, whether it’s big business or small business (sorry for the euphemisms). Thus Water is Conserved. This is also why the Bintan Beach Resort has no bathtubs, only showers (though I don’t know whether their suites do). All countries should adopt this scheme of installing self-service flush toilets. It’s mighty good. Singapore could try this. Besides, without ungainly pipes or flush cisterns to contend with, visual aesthetics is improved. If it is easy to teach children to pull a cord, depress a button, or turn a handle, then it is equally as easy to pour water down the toilet.