Aldo The Lone Wanderer

Again, another friend of ours from Jakarta came to visit us in Bintan. And it was Aldo time to explore this island. By the way, this was his first time being on plane, so here’s you can see his awkward relieved face when he finally arrived, lol!

We went to Mama Beach in Trikora (our personal fave spot in Trikora!), and Aldo the city guy was too excited as he ran around everywhere like a four years old never seen a beach.

1-5. The gray cloudy sky didn’t stop him! | 6. Dinner after exploring Mama Beach the whole day

As a coffee addict, it was such a joy for Aldo that he could find coffeeshop nearly everywhere, yeah EVERYWHERE, here in Bintan island. One famous must-try coffeeshop is Kedai Kopi Kawan Lama (if you ever heard about Kopi Hawaii, this actually similiar), located in Kijang, half hour from Tanjungpinang city. Unfortunately, when we came there, the shop was closed, too bad! Then we decided to tried out another coffeeshop randomly near there.

1. Give it up to Mr.Arnold! | 2. The server girl whom Aldo had a crushed on| 3. Caffeine time!

The place is old and rusty, there were plenty of old men sitting there with a cup of coffee and starring blankly at the TV. There was some kind of awkward dark vibes goin on, but surprisingly the coffee was good, not much different than the Kawan Lama. The coffee was strong and thick almost chocolatey in its texture, and the smell was…greattt! If you like strong coffee, you might love the coffee here!

After beach, coffee, and some lazy days at our home, last but not least we went to Dompak for sunset. Sat on the side of the bridge, took some photos, and enjoyed the beautiful evening breeze and sunset.

1,2. Just another scene of  Wong Kar Wai “Takeshi”| 3. One of must do things in Dompak bridge| 4. We both managed some say cheeze smile | 5,6. Enjoy the sunset brah

So after many “Takeshi” moment, FYI Aldo often feel himself transcent into some “Chungking Express” scene as Takeshi Kaneshiro, one of his alpha male role model. that was how we explored the island with Aldo. From 2 nights plan to another extra 3 nights. Finally time to get back to work Aldo! Bye to lazy island life!

Warmest Place / Pizza Casa Italia

Italian pizza restaurant runs by an Italian family in Bintan. It does sound weird yet perfect for me tho, in this tiny far away island. No wonder, all the pizzas here are super yummy. The place is so nice and homey, with raw wooden table and seater in a middle of big trees, and the area is surrounded by beach with a little island not far from there. In the hours around low tide, the beach gets dry and you can walk to the little island.

To do list : Eat pizza – since there is no other option for other food, lol! Taste is awesome, the dough is so thin and crispy, and the topping is always fresh. The perfect humble homemade italian pizza! Our fave is the mushroom & tuna!

Left to right : Ivan baba, Signori Armando, Aronio

The owner Mr Armando is a serious – funny type of guy, he loves Indonesia so much. He’s been living in Indonesia since 1980s, no wonder his Bahasa Indonesia is excellent. “In Italy you must go through winter around half year, such a waste of time you can’t feel the sun! I like being here coz it’s summer  around the yearl, the weather is so great!” he said.

In memoriam : our friend Signori Armando -2017.

photo courtesy : my partner in crime Aronio Tobiaso

Max and The Sand Dunes

Our close friend, Max, is a photographer from J town ( read: it’s a slank word for Jakarta ) who recently came to Bintan coz his client want to do photo session here. As many of our J town friends are clueless about this island, so we cant believe, it’s such a miracle! So when we asked him why his client interested to have photo session here in Bintan, he answered, “It’s bcoz Patricia’s photo on instagram you fool!”. It was a big lol, and then i asked which photo is it, he answered again, “This fuckin sand dunes picture get me ticket to your island man”. So here’s the picture that Patricia posted on IG.

                   

So, the photo session became reality, and of course we became their happy guide to bring them stroll around the island, started out with picked them up at the airport. They all came as a group of six happy people: Max as the photographer, the bride and groom to be Inez and Kevin, their closest friends Flo and Melissa (Max’s wife) as stylist, the eccentric videographer Jay, and the makeup artist Melia who is Patricia’s besties back in college.

1. Welcome to the island! left-right : Pat, Ines, Kevin, Flo| 2. Max the hornet | 3. Flo, Melisa, Inez | 4. Melia & Pat| 5. Dr. Jay

We went to Trikora beach (we have our fave spot called Mama Beach, coz it has no name yet, and the local who lived there is a nice friendly woman whom we call Mama), then through to a rubber forest plantation, and last but not least the not-so-famous-yet Busung sand dunes. Everybody was quite happy and amazed by Bintan Power!!            so…cheers for all of us!

You should check out their work here ( hyperlink ) :

Max / NOT YOUR MOM PHOTOGRAPHER 

Melissa, Ines & Flo / PEA AND PIE & they other project KALA WEDDINGS

The Doctor Jay Nelson / KING MAKER OF CONTENT

Melia / MELIYABI MAKEUP ARTIST

with love, baba

The Temporary House

After long searching for a place to stay, finally we decided to rent a small nice house in Tanjung Pinang, the capital city of Bintan Island. It’s just about 8 x 8 meters house with a garden in front of it and a small backyard, enough to fit the two of us comfortably. We got 1 small bathroom and 2 bedroom (it was really a mess at the first day so we decided to make 1 bedroom into a storage room).

Why we called it a temporary house? Because our plan hasn’t settled yet, we got so much to do and think about our future in this island, and we’re still looking for the beach house, so we decided to rent a house. And because it is a rented house, we use really simple furnitures, we even build some of them ourselves,  like the DIY wardrobe, kitchen storage and many more. The bad thing is we don’t have much place to hide our things, so it may look a bit messy sometimes, but since it’s a cheap renovation, can’t complain! 

1. Kicthen set & sink  | 2. Hanging shelf | 3. Curtain hanger| 4. Its a gold painted barrel!| 5. The bedroom|                           6. Our wardrobe

And our favourite spot in the house is the living room, cause it’s more like living-dining-working room! We have our TV and comfy sofa there, together with our big workstation table (a.k.a dining table). Our friends and family massively hang around there (cause there’s no other room, lol), plus it has a bright vibe comes from the windows around there, so during the day it has the best light. Anyway, did we mention our comfy sofa? Yeah, it’s the besttt cause it’s super comfy, makes you just wanna jump into it, and never get up for the rest of the day!

with love, baba