Thursday, December 27, 2012

Hours to Taiwan

Hey little space. I've once again neglected you again.

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I had a good Christmas, I hope you did too.

In a few hours' time, I'd be leaving Singapore for Taiwan. I'd see you when it hits 2013.

Ciao!

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Travelogue: Bintan Agro Resort & Spa with Bonvo Travel

Have been wanting to blog about my Bintan trip but was so tied up at work after I came back. So finally, here I am! 

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24 & 25 November 2012, 2D1N stay with Agro Resort & Spa, Bintan. 

It was my first time to Bintan and I had no choice over my resort because I used this 'Family Recognition Voucher' that was given to my brother by army. Since the voucher was transferable  he transferred to my name and let me use the $100 cash voucher.  

So for the purpose of sharing, the entire voucher includes the following:

Original and more other vouchers here, http://www.bonvo.com/frv/micro-1006-frv-pg/php-73658/rewards-catalogue/
The voucher excludes the ferry and Bonvo travel doesn't book the ferry for you. It's my first time dealing with Bonvo Travel and unfortunately it will be the last time. 

Initially when I try to log in the websites, the links didn't worked. I had to email them for a separate link. When I had the separate link and I wanted to make my purchase, the online 'registration' didn't work. So I had to email yet again to ask about it and they sent me a 'soft copy' to fill up. So when I did and send back, they took a while to reply. The funny thing is, when I try to call their office, it takes more than 7 rings before they pick up or sometimes even they don't put up. Their working hours are normal working hours but ironically, most of the times my emails are replied at night like 10pm, or past midnight. I mean... why you don't work in the day? Nevermind bout that though. So eventually, I managed to book my tickets and guess what? They got the name wrong. The voucher was awarded to my brother's name despite having me to emphasis that the voucher has been transferred to my name. 

Oh and speaking about which, when I submitted the form for the first time, I wrote my own name, my NRIC. And guess what the lady over the phone rudely told me? "You are not the one awarded the voucher, so why did you put your name?" I told her, I didn't know I had to put my brother's name because the form didn't specifically state and neither did the person over the phone who sent me the form reminded or told me about it. And guess what she rudely replied? "Of course she didn't mention, how would she know you're not the one who got the voucher?" 

I mean, look, you as a service provider aren't doing your job, and your online registration form is completely different from your soft copy form you sent me. Online registration had a column stating if the voucher has been transferred whereas your soft copy offline form didn't had it. Was it my fault that you didn't include and you expect me to know what information to give your company? C'mon, it's just ridiculous. 

And after that episode, I at least reminded and emphasised twice that the name should be awarded to me and not my brother. I don't want to be refused entry for the stay at the resort because of the wrong voucher name. But as expected, when I went over to resort, it was still my brother's name. It was lucky that they didn't pursue further. 

The fortunate thing is that I booked my own ferry tickets. I can't imagine if they book with the wrong name and make a mess out of it. Initially I was quite pissed that they don't help me to book, but I guess it was a blessing in disguise for me.

Enough of this Bonvo Travel. Even though the pre-trip was unpleasant, the overall stay was still alright. 

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I must say that the seats were pretty comfy and better then the ones we took to Batam. 

The only entrance and exiting for the entire terminal
Pick up was provided by Agro Resort.


It's a little blur but it's the only one I took.
The ride was slightly about 1 hour. Nothing much along the way except for half dead plants.

It's pretty crowded as you can see

Cabana was another resort about 15 minutes drive away from us. Free wifi @ Lobby!

This is how the lobby looks like.

Seems like alot of place, but actually it's very small.


This is the one and only store around in the resort. Everything you need is here. (They sell firecrackers too)

Well, you can see the door is alittle spoilt. The toilet is super smelly because of the bad drainage system. Everytime we bath we can smell the drainage foul smell. Luckily I brought an awesome toilet spray that Allynn got for me. It really made a huge and instant difference.

This wasn't too bad though everything worked well except the hot water wasn't really hot.

As you can see the room is pretty big to the extend that we didn't even sat on the chairs.

So this is how the room looks. Everything's good just that the towels are not clean. There are stains on the towel so I wouldn't recommend you to use them. TV channels are limited too but there was soccer so Mic was pretty satisfied with that.
A welcome drink found in their fridge. Both of us refuse to drink it cause it was weird.

We had a personal balcony and I must say we're pretty lucky to get this room because it's just right beside the beach and when we open our room main door, it faces the swimming pool.


This is actually the view taken from our room window.



View from our window beside our bed

So if you want our view, take Seahorse 3111, Jacuzzi Suite.
You open the door and this is the pool




This is the only place for you to eat lunch, dinner, dessert, supper or even breakfast. 


It was pretty low tide when we arrived. Gloomy clouds too but we're lucky it didn't rain.


Bridge to the SunMoon Restaurant


This is how the restaurant looks like.


This is a corn soup which I must say, it's pretty good. Oh, and this is SMALL size (We each had like 2.5 bowls)

Very dry looking fries which is also in small
Fish & Chips also small (Mic says it's pretty good, fish was very fresh)

This is a green apple juice that taste super sweet because they added some sugar syrup. So if you're looking for pure fruits, don't bother. They'd probably add sugar syrup inside because I had Watermelon Juice at night, it was the same taste of syrup.


So here's the total bill!


Some folks having fun with tug-o-war


The abandoned gym with spider webs all over the equipments
The voucher was inclusive of dinner, so here's our dinner provided!

This is super awesome and I ate 3/4 of it cause Mic wasn't a big fan of fish other then fried ones.




It was a pretty good dinner.

Took a good shot of the lightning by the sea before we headed back to our resort *taken by iPhone 5*
The best thing happened after dinner. While Mic was watching his soccer, I dozed off. And suddenly...... the entire resort blackout.

I'm freaking sure if I was bathing or shitting halfway, I'd scream the shit out of myself. But thankfully, I fell asleep and by the time Mic woke me up, he already had his torchlight on. *phew*

It wasn't long though till the lights and aircon came back about 2-3 minutes later.

See, proof it was still my brother's name. So Mic had to pretend he was my brother hahahahaaa.





Breakfast is disappointing because the variety was really little but I was happy because I had blueberry toasted bread. Hahhahahaha.

Finally there was sun, so we quickly headed out to the sea.





The only food that appealed to me at the only convenience store inside the resort
Initially we thought of going but the schedule is just ridiculous so we dropped the idea.

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The overall trip was fine. However, nothing fantastic nor extremely pleasing except that their service is pretty good. But if you ask if I'd go back to the same resort again.... I'd say no.

Total spend: $200 ish (after $100 discount) the ferry was $70 per person

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As promised this is the awesome toilet spray that Allynn discovered it at Daiso! It's only $2! Grab yours today!

*Credits to Allynn Teo for the amazing discovery. Please thank her if it has been useful for you.