One of the places we have hardly explored is our neighboring country of Indonesia, which makes sense since Indonesia is made up of 11,000 different little islands. We've been to Bali and the island of Bintan but this past weekend we were lucky enough to visit the remote tropical paradise of PILAU PANGKIL.
Last week JOHN & LISA tied the knot in Singapore, but when they were planning their wedding they wanted to get married on the beach somewhere. So following the civil service and celebratory drinks in town they "rented" this tiny little island in the middle of Indonesia to gather their families and a few close friends to help them celebrate. We at Corsiworld were invited along and, boy are we happy we were!
On Sunday morning the entire crew met at the ferry terminal, and after some initial confusion with incomplete names on each ticket we headed off on the first of 3 boat rides to the island. We took a ferry from Singapore to Bintan (90 minutes), a bus to the other side of the island (45 minutes), then another boat ride to the actual island (25 minutes) and finally a quick dingy ride to the beach as there is no dock and voila, you are seriously in paradise!!!
As we arrived the lovely staff handed us welcoming lime drinks and we were set to explore. The accommodations were reclaimed driftwood huts on stilts with roll away walls that provided unobstructed amazing views of the ocean. Each hut had soft beds with mosquito netting (for a touch of romance and safety of course), small decks and hammocks perfect for lazy days of reading and listening to the waves. There are no televisions, no internet, no computers, only sun, sea, beaches and cords to plug in your ipod into the stereo system, it truly is Rancho Relaxo. The other cool thing is that "the Main House" (the main hub of activity on the island) is where the 24-hour constantly stocked bar and the two big tables for meals are located. The food over the entire weekend was amazing and the staff was totally invisible. Setting up, clearing and helping out without no one noticing, pure professionalism.
Anyhoo, we arrived and as soon as people dropped their bags off in their huts, the ocean became the order of the day, swimming, snorkeling, seashell investigations and ofcourse Gin & Tonics on the beach. After dinner we were treated to a bonfire on the sand and a cool little fireworks display to cap of the night.
The next day however was not all sunshine and lollipops as a tropical wind storm came rolling in around 9am. This did nothing to dampen the mood however as people still did some swimming and island exploration as well as starting up a Bocci Tournament that took up a lot of the afternoon. Oh, the island staff were also offering one-hour massages for $20 a pop which most folks took advantage of. Then despite the light rain and the wind, at 5pm we all changed and came back to the main house for the wedding ceremony. A beach alter was set up despite the wetness and all of us were handed big umbrellas to keep us dry. I gotta admit, the weather added to the tropical nature of our surroundings and actually helped to make it more intimate. Lisa looks gorgeous, John looked great, the families were all ready and the friends were armed with cameras, it was a great little ceremony. Afterwards was party time as the good mood of the day carried on into the night as more food, drink and fireworks took us into the wee hours of the morning.
Our final day on the island was a short one as the weather was still lousy and the hangovers were more abundant. After lunch we packed our bags and about half of the guests including us, headed back to Singapore. The rest stayed for one more day and on the last day they were rewarded with clear skies and abundant sunshine.
We both really loved Pilau Pangkil and we were so happy to be included in John & Lisa's wedding weekend. We would love to go back to this little tropical paradise and if we can round up 10-15 people, I am sure we will.
Pics from the weekend can be seen HERE!
