Greg & Veronica's Singapore Update

Volume 14

Monday, November 16, 1998

For our second wedding anniversary, we spent the weekend at the Banyan Tree Resort, on the nearby island of Bintan, Indonesia. Bintan is a quick 45-minute ferry ride from Singapore and part of its coast has been turned into a resort area catering to the folks living in Singapore. In fact, at our resort, all of the prices, for rooms, food, items in the gift shop, etc. were actually quoted in Singapore dollars. Bintan and its neighbor, Batam, are economically more tied to Singapore than to Indonesia. The Singaporeans, realizing that they were losing manufacturing and other businesses to their less expensive neighbors (Malaysia and Indonesia), got clever and came up with a scheme were by the multinationals set-up their factories on these nearby islands (and in southern Malaysia), employing local workers but keep their corporate headquarters in Singapore. Singapore provides a much more comfortable and developed base for the expatriates and other management staff and is equipped with better transportation and communications infrastructure than either of its neighbors. It's a good example of how a little island, 26 miles by 14 miles, with absolutely no natural resources is able to develop the second highest standard of living in Asia and move from less-developed nation to something considered nearly fully-developed. It's capitalized on its location and focused on becoming an oasis of orderliness and gateway to the rest of (chaotic) South East Asia.

Anyway, the Banyan Tree Resort, is a five-star resort that houses its guests in individual "villas" spread over a tropical little peninsula pointing into the Straits of Singapore. We stayed in one of the "low-end", valley-view villas. Our villa was at the end of jungle path and actually provided a bit of ocean view if you looked through the trees. The door opened into a little courtyard, equipped with two lounge-chairs, a picnic table and Jacuzzi; walled in on three sides with the fourth open to the sea (and jungle). Very beautiful. The villa proper was to the left through a set of sliding glass doors. It was a large thatched roof bungalow made up of a single large room. In addition to the glass doors, the entire wall facing the sea was made up of very large windows with a little daybed/sofa and low table. The room also had a king-sized canopy bed draped in mosquito netting. It all looked like something out of a travel magazine. Really great.

Unfortunately, we discovered that the mosquito netting was not only for ambiance. In spite of the air-conditioning and twice a week pesticide "fogging", the villa and surrounding jungle was still home to a sizable population of mosquitoes. While we killed many over the weekend, we were not completely successful in killing them and, in addition to our memories, have brought back an impressive collection of bites and welts.

The resort had two incredible pools overlooking the water. Both were deep blue and designed so that the water disappeared over the far end. One was right on the beach, nestled in a group of very large rocks. The other was higher up on the rocks, overlooking a particularly scenic series of rocks, and had a long wooden staircase leading down to a jetty. While we walked, most of the guests and staff traveled all over the resort by high-speed golf-cart. We felt it was safer dodging them on the narrow winding paths than riding them. The most expensive villas, hidden by high-walls and built on stilts jutting out towards the water, feature two bedrooms with a large courtyard separating them. In addition to or instead of the Jacuzzi they are equipped with narrow swimming pools that seem to run over the edge of the balconies into the ocean, many feet below. Dinner is served on a raised covered platform form between the bedrooms and overlooking the pool and the sea. Very, very nice (from what we could see from outside). It just reconfirms that while money doesn't bring happiness, it does provide a more comfortable hotel room.

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend and a much-needed escape from work and the frantic pace of city life. Even with the mosquitoes (although as Greg types this, his itching back is trying to argue that point).

(By the way, the 2.8 million in the title refers to the approximate cost in Indonesian Rupiah. In spite of everything being priced in Singapore dollars, the amount on the credit card receipt is in Rupiah; it's a bit of a shock to sign a six or seven digit credit card receipt.)