A well deserved 5 day getaway

I'm lucky to be able to go for a short 5 day getaway to Tanjung Pinang last week. I've not had a getaway in such a long time, in years in fact so I was rather happy when my mum told me we're going for a short getaway to Tanjung Pinang during the Chinese New Year holiday. It was my first holiday without my dad, he couldn't tag along because he had work!

DAY 1

We were waiting for a cab which only appeared 15/20 mins later, oh it started pouring heavily too before we even got cab. I was already having a bad day even though I thought nothing could dampen my mood since I was heading for a getaway.

So this my cousin, Ayesha and we were waiting to board our ferry! There was so many people boarding the same ferry as us heading to Tanjung Pinang too. Unfortunately, we actually experienced some bad moments. There was so many pushy and rude people pushing and arguing just to get on the ferry first, to rush for the best seats. It was really immature especially since the adults were the one who behaved like this. It definitely angered me a lot but I just kept my mouth shut.

Some shots taken when we were on the ferry. It was so lovely, enjoying the breeze while looking at nothing else but the gorgeous blue sea. I was slightly seasick though but I survived the 2 hours trip!

AND WE ARRIVED AT TANJUNG PINANG! It was already late evening so we took this sampan which is actually known as pom-pom and headed to Pulau Penyegat where we will be staying for the 5 days! That cute green house which above water is a close family friend, Cik Tina's place. It wasn't my first time staying over though, the last time I went there was 5 years ago. Crazy how time flies!

Cik Tina welcomed us by cooking up a huge feast! Nothing beats kampung food. Cik Tina is an A+ cook, I'm not even kidding. Since it was already late, we had tea while watching Maha Raja Lawak and then retired to bed.

DAY 2

Imagine waking to that magnificent view everyday! Funny how I can wake up super early without an alarm clock in Indonesia but it's impossible for me if I'm in Singapore. We caught some little crabs too! Nah we didn't eat those, they were too tiny to be eaten.

We then headed to Pinang to do some street shopping! The adults were the ones who did most of the shopping. I only had a set of telekung, a black handbag and Magnum Gold! The weather was so hot and it was crowded so basically I couldn't wait to head back and shower.

Our lunch for day 2! It was the most spiciest black squid I've ever had in my entire life, I was literally in tears. We had gong-gong too! I only have gong-gong when I'm in Tanjung Pinang so it was almost 5 years since I last had gong-gong.

After lunch, the boys played soccer while the girls basically just hanged around. Later in the evening, it was low tide so Fredy asked us if we wanted to collect gong-gong and starfishes, we obviously said yes! It was super muddy and wet, it was a challenge to walk around with Fredy's huge slippers that I wore because my foot got stuck in the mud like a gazillion times. It was tough searching for gong-gong since there were so many other villagers doing the same thing. We got like around 20 which is so little. On a brighter side, we got a total of 27 starfishes! No starfishes were harmed though, we made sure we placed the starfishes back in sea.

Later at night, we headed to Pinang to grab some ayam bakar for dinner and went karaoke! It was the best ayam bakar I've ever tasted, it was so good. Oh and 10 people squeezed in a van which is actually a cab in Indonesia and went to Joy Family Karaoke. We met the cutest Indonesian baby ever there named Aska which is actually Cik Tina's grandson. We fell in love with him! Just look at that face! And yes I was so excited when they had The Wanted's songs there. It was a huge mistake to karaoke to The Wanted though because the screen showed their MVs and The Wanted's MVs are basically them kissing ladies and I was in a room filled with my mum, my grandparents and the other elders. I wanted to die. 

DAY 3

It was raining heavily on the morning of day 3! So we just laze around at Cik Tina's place and I had a lot of fun changing my cousin's lock screen when she wasn't looking.

Eventually it stopped raining so we decided to tour around Pulau Penyegat! Fredy was our tour guide. He brought us to some of the significant places at Pulau Penyegat. We took a motor beca to travel around because it would be tiring to walk around as Pulau Penyegat is quite huge. We brought baby Aska along with us, that baby doesn't cry even though his mum didn't tag along unlike most babies who will already cry for their mums. Ayesha and I got a ride home from Fredy, yup 3 people on a motorbike, how wicked is that? It was actually the first time I've ever ride a bike. Not only that Fredy actually taught each of us how to ride a bike with 2 people behind us. I was so afraid but I slowly got the hang of it and Fredy thought I was a fast learner and apparently the best rider among the rest! I was so happy to be able to ride a bike, it was actually very easy surprisingly.

 Anyway here are 2 types of houses that can be found around Pulau Penyegat. You can easily tell who are the rich ones and who are the less unfortunate ones.

Later that night, we did some fishing and caught 10 catfishes! My 9 year old cousin, Ismail was actually the best fisherman among us, he caught 3 of them and the sizes of the catfishes he caught were huge! I was so impressed, he is 9, mind you.

DAY 4

On day 5, we headed to Pinang's famous shopping mall, Ramayana. I wanted a high cut shoe but my mum said no, sadly. We had brunch at Charlie's Chicken. It tasted nothing like KFC, I was disappointed. Avoid eating here if you're at Ramayana! It's not worth it really. The chicken there were tasteless. The clothes and stuff sold at Ramayana are actually so much more expensive than those street shops so I didn't get anything there. Oh I saw a baby shoe brand called Ardiles and it reminded me of my friend, Ardilla. I had avocado juice mixed with a little chocolate there at the fruit juice shop. The best thing ever. It really taste so good.

We then headed back to Pulau Penyegat. Spent the rest of the day relaxing by the sea, eating some 'buah salak' Ayesha got me addicted to, basically hunt for little crabs again and I also had crabs for my late lunch! Crabs are actually one of favourite seafood so I had a great time enjoying my crabs there.

DAY 5

So it was the last time I would wake up to an amazing view by the sea. I had my breakfast at a warong nearby, you gotta visit Warong Kak Noi if you're here in Pulau Penyegat, they got good stuff there. We were all bummed that it was our last day there. We had a ferry to catch at 11am so we woke up really early and spent our last hours as kampung kids. I carried a little crab too, took me 4 days to build up the courage to do so.

It was then time to say goodbye to Pulau Penyegat. We took a pom-pom to Pinang since we had a ferry to catch at 11am! I left Pulau Penyegat with a heavy heart. It was the best 5 days of my life. I didn't have internet for 5 days but I had such a great time. My mind was so relaxed here. I didn't think about anything in Singapore, other than missing my dad and friends. I wished I could stay here till April since my school only starts in April but nah I had to return to Singapore.

And we were on board! Making our way back to Singapore. Again, I was seasick, but I survived the 2 hours trip. Anyway check out my cousin's silly banana slippers, she got teased about her slippers. I hope some monkeys would steal the bananas one day.

AND WE REACHED SINGAPORE! Back to reality once again. I wanted to cry.

So yes that was what happened during my 5 days getaway! I think it actually took me an hour or maybe two to blog about it. Whoa insane! My longest post ever from my 5 years of blogging. 

Thanks for reading! I love your face.