Bintan Triathlon 2009 - the race

It was a bright and shining morning. From eight o'clock many participants alrady assembled in Nirwana Beach Club, either warming up in the water or attending their gears, giving a final check before the race began. These are participants for the Sprint Distance (750m Swim, 20km Bike, 5km Run).

The beach was full with blue and yellow caps. Officials kept on reminding participants to have at least two bottle of water throughout the race due to the hot weather.

It started a little bit after nine. Riau Archipelago Vice Governor opened the man race, and they all jumped into the water.

The women waited eagerly. Theirs were started 15 minutes later.

That is when the men started emerging from the water to their bikes.

Nirwana Gardens joined in the race, with their General Manager, Abdul Wahab, in the running leg.

Slightly after one hour the first sprint winner started to enter the finish line, followed by others.

While some seemed to be OK, a few needed a good rest.

But not to worry, even if they don't need to go to the recovery tent, the message girls were waiting for them with big smiles.

Now that the Sprint Distance is over, everybody is preparing the Olympic Distance (1.5km Swim, 40km Bike, 10km Run) for this afternoon. But I guess I'll skip it and just have myself a good message.

Bintan Triathlon 2009

It's less than 24 hours before the start of the reknown Bintan Triathlon, which will be held here in Bintan Resorts for the 5th year tomorrow. More than 1,200 will take part in this annual event. The staff of Nirwana Gardens are up to their necks with the preparation. Here's a glance of the setup.

The first race is swimming in the nice warm waters in front of Nirwana Beach Club. in fact, the main event is set to start and finish here.

Guiding and safety ropes are ready for lay-out tomorrow morning.

When they come out of  the water, they will run throught these yellow and blue flags....

through the nice shower to clean-up any sand, before start cycling around Lagoi.

The finish line, almost ready to receive the participants. Still need to setup a huge clock, though.

More info from the bintan triathlon official site.

Life in a Mangrove

Next time, coming your way.

Mangrove for kids - the story

It was a fine morning, as most mornings we have on the mangrove during this time of the year. In recent years, the award winning mangrove tour of Bintan Resorts (it won the 2003 PATA gold award) has attracted even more with the extended theme of restoration. Numerous schools from Singapore (Crescent Girls and Northbrook students to name a few), Batam and Bintan have visited this tour and joined Bintan Resorts' effort in mangrove restoration.

For most of them, being big city boys and girls, it was a totally new experience, even from the time they feel the wilderness of the thick forest before entering the jetty.

There is always an option for a quick nasi lemak and a sip of the fragrance local teh-o before a short briefing by either the mangrove tour-guide or one of the Environmental and Health Division's staff on the mangrove and its role in the ecosystem.

One good thing about this tour is that safety is totally taken care of. As such children-size life jackets are always available in different sizes, and is a must before stepping down the stair to the boats. Oh, and by the way, that is Mara, my daughter, that you see in front of the pack!

And we all know how kids behave: they scream, they laugh, they shout at each other! Neither us nor the teachers have control over them; even the citizens of the mangrove have no say.

And if you, tour-guides, think that you are prepared, think again, for these little demons have tonnes of questions undeniably valid, undeniably difficult to answer.

Between Angels and Demons though, they would eventually prefer being the angels. Boats will stop at designated areas where mangrove replantation is prepared. 

And if you are in the not so lucky batch, you may need to dwell in the mud instead of walking on sand.

Well, let's not worry too much about that. For the time being, just pass on those saplings, and continue the work with the hoe!

And here's one thing we can all learn from their energy and passion for a greener earth, for they work and work and work untill all saplings are in place.

And when all is done, there is plenty of water to clean the messy foot and shoes and sandals.

And of course, there is always time to play with water before moving on to the next program for the day.

Mangrove for kids

What do we expect when kids started to take interest in the mangrove, en masse? A hell of a lot of questions, that's for sure. But wait, a lot of interest, and fun, and not to dismiss some hard works by them, for a greener earth.

More later when my headache is gone, hahaha!

Pasir Panjang Trail

It was 30 minutes past 5 o'clock in the morning. The villagers were already in BLR-A17 border as scheduled. Bus departed from Bintan Lodge on time, and the moment they came down from the bus they started taking pictures of the dawn. The 6 wooden boats with their small blinking red lights reminded me of Normandy (well.., OK, I was exaggerating). The waves forced them to move to BLR area (with permission from BLR) for loading passengers. Most were a bit shocked. The boats were so small and so low to the water. They didn't seem to be stable at all.

It was a wet start for group B who departed by boat. They needed to go into the water knee-deep past the breaking waves and board the boats. But all were brave. Slowly the horrific faces turned into enjoyment as they moved calmly toward the east.

As for Catharine, Siswo and I, we just laughted our arses looking at them (after helping each of them boarding the boats, that is).

As soon as the boats came to shore, approximately 20 minutes later, all started the action. Snap-snap-snap, click-click-clik. The sound of their gorgeous digital DSLRs made Catharine, Felix, and myself had to slick back our saliva.

They were crazy. They looked at things differently through their lenses. All the trash along the way were objects of desire. They took pictures of almost everything. The fact that they didn't encounter any turtle nest didn't seem to bother them.

"Look! Reflection!", said uncle.

And everbody started to work on the reflection, including Catharine and myself. As the tide was low, we also had the chance to work on a ship wreck.

 

After more than 2 hours of walking, we reached a rock formation at the end of the small bay. Felix and group A has been waiting there, finishing all the otak-otak the villagers had prepared.

The villagers made a long table overlooking their bay specially for this occasion. Nasi kuning (not nasi lemak) was served. it was a big package, but most gone into the bellies of the starved. All were eating happily, chatting and smiling and joking and laughing. I heard someone commented that the tea had a nice fragrance. Others suggested that Seetoh from MakanSutra be invited to saviour the delicious food.



Then came the coconuts. All were surprised, "wow, look..., freshly picked ones!". Another snap-snap-snap. Whoa, is this the first time they see people cutting and opening coconuts with parangs? Almost all took coconuts. Then another comments on the different taste lah, comparison with Thai coconut lah, big furits lah. Then another group photo. All smiling faces. All were happy. Then exchange of emails. And before all realized, we have gotten ourselves new friends!

The end of the trail is near. Everybody packed their belongings, wrapping all cameras in plastic bags just "in case", and walk to the wooden boats that awaited us.

It was a long six happy and adventourous hours. Sandflies bites started to show their marks on our skin. But nobody regretted it. Personally I would come again and explore more.