Bintan, Indonesia

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend. I had a relaxing weekend trip to Bintan. Made a few more new friends and yet another Finn. After I found out where she was from, I said "hello" in Finnish ( the roomies taught me), which made her smile. I'm going to try to introduce her to the them soon. What can I say, I am a Finnish magnet.

We left Friday night around 8pm on my first ferry ride ever. Worst experience to date. The waters were really choppy, so half of the boat was throwing up. I had to put my iPod in to drown out the sound of retching, but nothing helped to drown out the smell. I heard this poor little girl in the row behind us throw up as soon as we took off, and she dry heaved and sobbed quietly for the rest of the ride. I didn't throw up, but I came really close. I have never been so happy to be on dry land.

On Saturday, we went to the beach. We rode banana boats which are CRAZY FUN. Basically, you straddle a giant inflatable banana which is being tugged by a small boat. You try to hold on while the driver tries to flip you off. And he wins everytime. We took a boat to a smaller island and hung out there for an hour. Rest of the day was spent just chilling.

The ferry ride back to Singapore was much smoother. In fact, I slept almost the whole way, which is good because I think we're going to Bali for our Norwegian friend's birthday. I'm not sure if it's by plane or ferry, but I am hoping for plane.

When Candy visited, she bought me a cute coconut piggy bank for Christmas. I'm using to hold all my foreign currency. When I got home, I filled my piggy bank with 120,000 rupiah. It was ridiculous, because that's roughly USD 10. I changed SGD50 at the ferry terminal and got Rp 360,000. The whole weekend, I had no idea how much my meals really cost, so I ordered whatever I wanted. I don't even know what is considered expensive, is 70,000 too much for curry chicken? can that buy me a lobster? I was guessing my budget based on how much I still had in my purse. Rp 40,000 for chicken, rice, soup, and tea; ok, sure! I just looked it up on xe.com. Rp 40,000 = USD 3.

My Tuesday classes were cancelled because of the Chinese new year holiday, so I'm not traveling this weekend because I have 2 make-up classes on Saturday. It's probably better for me anyway because right now, I need less sun and more aloe. I'm pretty burnt, but not completely swollen like Spring Break - Savannah. Still haven't overcome the stupid heat rash. I've been inside all day, except for a quick run to the grocery store.

All my photos are up on Facebook, so go check it out.

By the way, Congrats to all the Steeler's fans!