A Weekend Away - Scuba Diving in Bintan
Being a qualified diver for more than 10 years, I have only just hit 70 dives, with almost 50 of those being done in the past year, since Cannelle joined the ranks as an Open Water Diver. I was keen to rack up some experience and make up for lost time and Cannelle was keen to keep her new found qualification fresh in her mind. With that mindset we organised a weekend package with Dive In Bintan, including land transfers, accommodation and 2 days scuba diving. The only exclusion was the ferry, which I booked with Klook.
After extensive research across blogs, Facebook and Google Maps, it was impossible to find quality information on a) whether it really was possible to dive in Bintan and b) what the dives would be like. Most of the un-constructive comments out there end up a little like this; yes, you can dive, but why would you, you should go to <insert exotic South Eastern Asia diving destination here>. As it turns out, we were pleasantly surprised with the level of organisation and the quality of the diving.
Day 0 - Friday Night - Ferry to Tanjung Pinang Ferry Terminal on Bintan
We have now made the trip from Singapore to Bintan 8 times, however it was our first time to Tanjung Pinang, which can be thought of as the main city on the island. It's a fairly painless journey, aside from a bit of jostling with the crowds that you can expect on any method of transportation in Asia. As we had booked a package deal, we were warmly greeted on arrival by a driver to take us our short 15min journey to the Aston Tanjung Pinang Hotel. As we stepped into the lobby a staff member from Dive in Bintan greeted us, he was to be our driver for the weekend. He let us check in and get our key and then we had a quick chat about the movements for the weekend and what time he would be collecting us in the morning.
The hotel is a typical business hotel anywhere in the world, clean, friendly staff and all the modern amenities you could come to expect, rates are around S$70 a night for 2 people including breakfast. We had a view from the pool which satisfied me. Hot water and a comfortable bed are really all I need these days, everything else I am prepared for.
Day 1 - Saturday Diving
Breakfast was buffet style, but not so Western, there were a couple of other local expats obviously living out of the hotel (I think working at the local Airport) and we enjoyed our mixed noodles and coffees in peace and then were whisked away with our driver to the east of the island, about a 1.5 hour drive. The drive itself is pleasant enough, you aren't sitting in traffic and the scenery of Bintan, while not exciting is certainly different to Singapore.
The dive shop is located on the main road running around the island, so you can't miss it and it has a rustic atmosphere that makes you connect with nature. Our first impression was off the gear on the racks, which looked immaculate and therefore brand new, as it turns out, it was 5 years old, but they really took great care of it.
Literally across the road and down 200m is the jetty where their boat is. It's a speedboat that could seat 8-10 divers. Today was just the 2 of us, plus our dive master, the owner, her son and 2 other staff, so 7 in total. As is usual in Asia, we didn't have to do much and we made it out to our dive sites to do 2 before lunch, then lunch on the boat at the jetty (we went back to the jetty as a storm was approaching and we had to get ready to hide), then we headed back out to a similar area to do our final afternoon dive. The dives were all quite similar, so I won't comment too much. Overall, we had super low expectations, but were surprised and impressed. I'd say the majority of the diving was 7-10m visibility and a couple of areas dropped to 3m, but only for a few minutes, until we were out of that particular area. In terms of what we saw, well it was enough to keep us satisfied, lots of fish and a few other creepy crawlies.
After all was said and done, we walked back to the dive shop, had a shower and drove back to the hotel, for a well earned rest. We had grand plans of visiting the town and eating somewhere special, but as is to be expected we were exhausted. We did manage a bit of a wander, but settled for dinner in the hotel and an early night with a bit of Netflix.
Day 2 - Sunday Diving and back to Singapore
Eat. Sleep. Dive. Repeat. Breakfast, drive back to the shop, suit up, boat. 2 dives, lunch and then back to base to get the afternoon ferry home. For our surface interval we were dropped off on a little uninhabited island took some time exploring and making friends with the crabs. As we weren't in a mad rush to get the ferry our driver took us to one of the many blue lakes on Bintan, these aren't super exciting, but they are the remnants of various mining operations in Bintan the minerals left over cause the water to turn a bright blue colour, you can't swim and are advised to avoid touching it, but it is a pleasant diversion for 15 minutes on the way to and from somewhere else.
The ferry back, by now is routine and a quick flash of a passport is about as complicated as it gets, one little trick to note, is there is a terminal fee payable as you leave, it isn't much, but it is annoying. I would think this is always payable regardless of how you bought the ticket, but do check, just in case.