The Canopi, Bintan

It's been a little over a year since I've been on on a trip somewhere. Work and school commitments in the past year took up the bulk of my time and the grind is making me so pissy that it'd be good to have a short break to unwind a little.

Came across this 'Canopi' place through a couple of friends' reccomendations. Proceeded on the check the place out via online sources and felt that it was quite decent. It kinda had the 'Maldives' feel to me where there was clear water right outside your accommodation, but more budget lol.

The Canopi is located in Bintan and is approximately a 10min drive from the Teluk Sebong Ferry Terminal.

I was actually quite amazed the second I entered the main lobby with how picturesque the place really was. The water was vast and crystal clear. On top of that, the place was also not swarmed with people, which made it less touristy and made the experience felt more like a real 'get-away'.

View from the Main Lobby

See the those pointy huts over there? Those are actually the guest accommodations. It really made the experience feel really different from your typical hotel room stay by having more of an 'adventure' vibe.

Our Tent

You'd think that a tent like that may have the interior of some make-shift beds and furniture, however it really still looks like a hotel room inside.

 Interior

I swear, the whole interior looks like some couple oriented place. The initial idea of a bunch of guys hanging out inside was quite funny.

Shower Point

The shower was really amusing. The entrance to it was behind our tent and was essentially an 'outdoor' area where you could literally hear people passing by outside. There were also live plants being grown from the soil right in front of the showering point! 'Nature calls' huh.

We had lunch at a restaurant bar in the vicinity. Price-wise, it was quite expensive, given that I'd expect things in Indonesia to be cheaper. But then again, it's still in the lagoon area, so probably no surprise.

The Patio

Nasi Goreng

The food was acceptable I guess, given it's price (12,000 Rupiah). Had to order something though as we were really hungry after arriving and it was the closest thing we could find.

Mangrove Kayaking

After the meal, we headed out to the activity center to see what was available. I've already seen some of their activities available on their website and thiswas something that I really wanted to try.

The cost for the trip was around 45,000 Rupiah per pax. It is inclusive of a guide, but we were lucky as on the way, a local that was familiar with the mangroves tagged along with our guide as well.

Transport (UTV) to the Mangrove

Mangrove Entrance

Bridge leading to the Kayaks

Ready to go!

I must say, I was pretty thrilled when I arrived. I've never Kayak-ed in a swampy area before and first time experiences are always the most exciting. Also, seeing that noone else was around, we had the whole area to ourselves which made it even better.

Me and my bro were supposed to share 1 Kayak, but we somehow managed to convince the guide to let each of us have our own for the activity.

After being briefed on the route, techniques and some of the safety guidelines that we should follow, we got on our kayaks and headed off!

 Starting Area

Smile!

 Paddling down the Mangrove

During the paddling phase, I had some problems at first going straight at first, but eventually got used to it. We were initially paddling upstream as well, so it was quite shack on the shoulders. Still, glancing around once in awhile and seeing no one but us in the whole river stretch feels really good man.

Within the Mangrove

Guide brought us off the main wide river stream and into one of those small passageways at the side. When we paddled in, the trees were all closer and there was a lot less space to maneuver around. This was the time where there was some feeling of uncertainty and danger.

In this area, the guide and the local also pointed out a snake to us which was literally just above my head at one point in time. Seriously, those things are really damn camouflaged and it's super hard to see. Good thing that none of them dropped on me.

Continued to make our way to the end-point, before taking a short break.

Victory Pose!

Spent a good couple of minutes trying to get the balance right lol.

The way back was actually a lot easier for us. Remember I said that we were paddling against the current before? Well, now it's just pulling us back. At times, you didn't even need to paddle, but only adjust at certain points.

This made the return trip quite relaxing, we could literally lie down in the kayak and chill while the current pulled us back.

And... We're back!

Gave our guide a good tip as he was super helpful and accommodating (gave us water, told us about the history of the place, helped us take photo & all that). 

Jetovator

Well since I was already wet and dirty from the kayaking trip and was too lazy to change my clothes, I figured that I'd go ahead and do the Jetovator straight away after.

This was one of the activities that I've been eye-ing to do even before the trip. However, it is fucking expensive (189,000 Rupiah for 30mins incl. coaching). That's approximately 195 SGD. Ouch, but meh, I just paid.

Had to sign the usual indemnity forms again before the crew proceeded to get the whole thing set up.

Jetovator

The Jetovator is essentially a water powered flying bike that is powered by a Jet Ski via some kind of hose. 

Received a briefing from the crew regarding the Jetovator.

Basically, there are 3 nozzles that the water shoots/gushes out from. One in the middle, which is at a fixed angle and the other 2 which can be controlled via the 2 handlebars at the front. The advise given was to always pull or push both handle bars at the same time and not to pull/push 1 more than the other. Also, don't over pull or you'll flip backwards and crash into the water.

Body positioning is very important throughout it's whole usage. The whole machine is seriously super sensitive to any slight shift in weight. Sometimes even when I thought that my body was straight, it was actually tilting slightly to the left, causing me to flip even before I start to move.

Had to wear a motorbike helmet as well for safety purposes.

First Few Tries (Falling)

Initially, even before flying, I kept flipping around in the water and fell a few times at the start which was slightly depressing.

However, after a few tries, I started to get the hang of it.

Getting Better

After a while, I realised that the trick (for me at least) was to ascend slowly. I initially focused on going straight and tried to prevent myself from flipping around in the water. Once I could do that, I'd slowly pull the lever towards myself and straighten my body to a standing position, without tilting as much as possible. 

It's seriously all about feeling and managing the handlebars properly and getting your weight distribution correct.

Once I was slightly up, I experimented turning and it was seriously quite delicate business.

Couple of tries in, I was finally 'flying' and it felt DAAAAMNNN SHIOK MAN!! I actually shouted 'WOOOO!!' the first time I flew up.

Felt so boss riding this thing. The sound of the water jet propulsion is really quite loud, so all the aunties, uncles and kids passing by or are in the area will keep looking at you LOL.

Happy Man

Would totally do this again some other time. If only it weren't so pricey, I'd be all over this shit.

The Kelong Seafood Restaurant

Had to book a car to fetch us to this place as there were people that wanted to try the food here due to certain good reviews that they had online.

Restaurant Sign Board

Kelong Dining Scenery

Even though it is called 'The Kelong', the whole place is quite modernised and is nicely built over the sea. It is essentially a chinese restaurant serving all kinds of related cuisines.

Broccoli with Mushrooms & Salted Egg

Scallops

Fried Chicken

Dessert - Mango Pudding

The food was really tasty and the view of the sea made the whole dining experience a lot more flavorful.

Bill added up to be approximately 90SGD for 4 people, which is quite similar to a typical restaurant back in Sg.

On our way back, we made a stop at Pujasera Village to stock up on supplies (water, snacks, cup noodles, etc). Some of the locals couldn't really understand english and we had to use hand signs to communicate which was quite fun. Also, the stuff was really cheap - 1x 1.5l bottle of water cost only 5000 Rupiahs (0.50SGD).

Sunset @ The Canopi

Headed back to our hotel to rest and retire for the night.

The next day was a pretty chill day and we were mostly just walking around/sunbathing/swimming/lazing around on the beach chairs or in our room.

In the morning, we had our breakfast at the resort, which was those typical international buffet. Me being me, I just took 1 of everything that didn't look disgusting.

Day 2 Breakfast

Gobbled that up quickly and headed over to the activity center to get my hands on a scooter as I've always been wanting to try one. (Ever since my mom told me to f-off when I asked about getting a motorbike license >.<)

Scooter Rental

Me and my Scooter!

Rider's View

The scooter is actually electric powered and has no gears. Basically, just the throttle, the front break and the rear break. Balancing on it is somewhat like a bicycle, you have to accelerate to help keep your balance.

Oh ya, the throttle is quite sensitive, twisting a little already pushes you forward by a considerable amount.

Vroom Vroom

Wish that this thing could go faster though, they probably mod it to be super slow. Then again, it is probably the reason why they let you rent one of these without a motorcycle license.

Indoor Air-soft Range

Passed by a shop letting you shoot some BB guns. 30 bullets for 60,000 Rupiahs, why not?

 Air Rifle

Air Pistol

The stuff really felt like the real thing. I asked the guy about it and he said that the weight and make is quite similar to the real thing, the only difference was that it was shooting BB pallets instead of real bullets. 

The pistol is actually harder to aim as there is less support and is more prone to shaking + my shooting skills is quite cui already.

Ended up shooting 90 bullets, before walking to some neardy make-shift road side stores to get lunch. Ate satay, 2 ramly burgers and 1 beef noodle soup (with the excuse of bulking of course).

Day 2 Lunch

Lazed around the beach seats after and watched some Harry Potter back in our room (they were playing every single movie consecutively, without commercials).

Almost ate (but didn't) our 2nd dinner at the resort, which was super boring. 

Went to the counter and asked if there was anywhere outside to go. The staff recommended me a Kampong restaurant where you had to take a boat ride to get there. Seeing as we had no other plans for the evening, it'd be a good way to go out and kill some time.

Mangrove River Kampong Restaurant

This dinner trip was quite interesting as we had to first take a car to a jetty area, where we then had to get onto a boat which then sent us to some ulu restaurant in the middle of nowhere AT NIGHT.

Boat Bringing us to the Restaurant

The journey was actually quite an eye opener. The boat was literally travelling in pitch black darkness. I couldn't see anything at all aside from some outlines, highlighting the semblance of a couple of small islands around us. 

The boat trip took around 5-10mins before we finally reached the restaurant.

Outside View

It was another chinese restaurant, but this time, the prices were more reasonable than the one we ate yesterday. There were also performances of the locals doing some traditional dance/martial arts as you ate.

 Day 2 Dinner

We ordered Salted Egg Calamari Rings, Mussels, Kai Lan, Hotplate Tofu & a Black Grouper.

I must say, the food is seriously damn good. I'd even rate it higher than some of the higher end chinese restaurants back in Sg.

After the meal, it was around 8-9pm and we headed back to The Canopi. Apparently, the Harry Potter marathon was still going on. Watched finished the 'Goblet of Fire', before packing up my stuff to get ready to check out the next morning.

The following day, we packed our bags, checked out, took the ferry back to Tanah Merah ferry terminal, before making our way back to home sweet home.

Special shout-out to all the staff there as well. They were all super helpful and really did go the extra mile to provide good service. Kudos!

Even  though the trip was short, I felt that it was a nice break to have.

Also managed to get a nice tan. :D

Night Bike Ride

Remember the mountain bike that I had restored 2 years ago? Click here to read about it.

All along, I've mostly been using it to get to hawker centers and marketplaces nearby to get food or drinks. Haven't actually ventured into the long distance/mountain biking thing yet.

So I've always known that cousin JJ liked cycling and we had talks at times about going on some kind of cycling trip together. I asked him if he wanted to do some cycling together (longer distance) and he was up for it.

He suggested that we did it at night though, which seemed a little scary at first, but it ended up being quite fun.

Thought it was just gonna be some chill casual night-ride but the crazy thing is that we somehow ended up at Marina Bay Sands (from the west) & the whole journey to and fro took around 8hours! Saw lots of cool and interesting sights that I might've lost touch with here in Sg. The view at night is really different.


The Trip

Packed a bag with stuff including bike locks, some food & water and other stuff that may be needed for the whole night journey.

Heading Out!

Met JJ at Pheonix LRT station abit after 9am. I arrived early and was waiting for him to reach. Was still kinda thinking of where to go, so I just tried to think of a couple of places at a reasonable distance, but it all seem kinda underwhelming. I could only think of shopping centers, which was quite lame as a final destination.

I remembered JJ mentioning something about how cycling to MBS (from the west) was actually not as hard as it sounds. So I checked google maps on my phone to see how do-able it is. Surprisingly enough, it looked ok.

Map from Pheonix LRT to MBS

When JJ arrived, he was quite stunned that I suggested going to MBS. He was like 'Ok, we go to Botanic Gardens first, then see how'. Somehow, we ended up going the distance and made it to MBS in the end.

Picture for good luck

And off we went!

Started off cycling through Upper Bukit Timah road and down the whole stretch of Bukit Timah road.

Cycling at night is really quite therapeutic, it's cool and relatively quiet. You can go relatively fast and the wind blowing on your face feels really nice.

Reached Adam Road food center and we decided to take a quick break there.

 Adam Road Food Center

Ordered a nice bowl of ice kachang to cool off. Surprised that there were still quite a number of people there at around 10.30-11pm.

Our next stop was the Botanic Gardens. We made several intermittent stops in between to catch up on things and had some talks about random shit.

Reached the Botanic Gardens at around 12am. Haven't been there in a looong time and the scenery there was quite good actually and the fact that we were virtually the only ones there since it was late added to the feeling.

Our Bikes at the Botanic Gardens

Night view of the Botanic Gardens

Excuse the hand phone quality photo at night.

We cut through the park and exited out at the other end, where we tried to look for Gleneagle's hospital as it would put us to the path on Orchard Road.

Navigated around a little and finally made it to Orchard at around 12-1am. The place is still surprisingly busy still, but certain areas looked sleazy as fuark with so many chicks in tight dresses and ang mohs in their suits hanging around drinking on the street

Orchard Road

What was really annoying about cycling along Orchard was the crazy amount of Traffic lights and how we needed to make detours to cross the street. Really burned quite some time and at this point, I was somehow super awake, despite the conditions, but JJ seemed sleepy already - probably slightly bored of already having done this a few times.

Cycled all the way down and we finally made it to our destination - the Marina Bay Sands! Mission Accomplished! Ha.

Marina Bay Sands end-point

Feels good man, it was my first time making it all the way here on a bicycle. (and probably the furthest I've been on a bike iirc)

We then headed to the Marina Barrage to rest for a while before heading back. Snapped a couple of photos of the CBD scenery at night.

Night View of CBD & Flyer

The picture really doesn't do the photo justice. It's hard to take the same pic as what our eyes were seeing with a hand phone camera in an area with no surrounding light.

The trip there, including all our rest stops and slow-ish chill cycling took around 4-5 hours.

Re-stocked at a 7 eleven along the way back, 1 bottle of 500ml water cost $3?! Fucking Orchard, oh well, got no choice anyway.


Something interesting happened on our way back. We actually tried to pump my bike tyre at some petrol kiosk using the air pump there, but it was an epic fail as the valve on my bike was different from the 'standard' schrader types. Mine was a presto valve, which needed some kind of a suction attachment between it and the pump for it to work.

End up, I had a deflated front tyre (really long story) and we were stuck at the station for around 30mins. I had to literally use my finger to squeeze and redirect the air from the pump to that small hole in my valve, it was such a chore.

Even after that, I could only inflate my tyre enough for it to be barely rideable, but - desperate times, so oh well lol. This actually made it really difficult to pedal and I needed a freaking whole lot of strength to cycle forward.

Really just rushed back afterwards with whatever energy I had and a shitty back tyre.

Made a last food stop at Al-Azhar opposite beauty world at around 3-4am to eat and rest for a little while, as the both of us were quite hungry.

 Chicken Murtabak

Milo Godzilla

Started to make the final stretch home at ~4am.

Surprisingly, the trip back took only about 1/2 the time we took to travel to MBS. We were probably just rushing to get home and weren't exactly admiring any scenery on the way back.

Finally reached home at around 5am. Took a shower and crashed for the night (day).

 Had a couple of blisters on my food and abrasions, but it's nothing too uncomfortable to deal with.


Just happy that I did the night bike trip and it will yet be another mini milestone for me, making the whole 7-8hour journey worth it!

Who knows whats next for my bike? Maybe the mountain bike trail at Bkt Timah Hill or something? We'll see.

Spartan Race (15/11/15)

So my life's been pretty hectic recently due to work and school, hence I've never had the initial intentions to do any special activities these couple of months.

My bro sprung this one on me though, saying that he had free tickets for a 'Spartan Race' that was going to be held here in Sg. I've heard several things about this spartan race, such as it was a long muddy dirty obstacle race course which sounds pretty interesting and fun. I could use some outdoor time.

Arrived at the 'Spartan Race Village'. Went ahead to collect our race packs which had our time chips and the relevant wrist bands needed to run the race and claim a couple of free stuff at the end.

Big Crowd

Made the bag drop, luckily a new line opened up and it got settled pretty quickly. Otherwise it'd have been a long wait.


Spartan Race

Our heat was scheduled to start at 1:45pm. Headed down to the start line and was greeted by the lively and friendly staff there.

1 of the guys gave us a pretty energetic pep-talk which was quite fun. He told all of us to go down on a knee and started getting us to chant 'I AM A SPARTAN, AROO ARRO ROO AROO. WE ARE SPARTANS!!!'.

'NOW GO!!!' was the queue he gave as the line was drawn and everyone just started to chiong, just like the start of any other race.

1st few obstacles just required you to crawl under some nettings and scale a few low wall which was still pretty manageable. After which, you had to run for ~2km before needing to climb up and down this triangular rope ladder above people.

Think the first leopard crawl through barb wires station came up next. It's been awhile since my army days that I've leopard crawled. I totally forgot how tiring it actually was if you were trying to do it fast. What's nice about it was that they hung lots of flags on some of the barb wires with a lot of different 'motivational quotes' - it was literally in your face. Felt that gave more spunk to the whole atmosphere and event.

Had to run another few kilometres before we reached a sand bag station. This was was still manageable (the real shit is yet to come), they packed it in some soft material which you could carry on your shoulder. It wasn't exactly light though. You had to carry it for maybe about 100-200metres? Kept changing shoulders, then gave 0 fucks and just put it on my head. =/

Reached this 'memory' station where you were given some sort of random fact to memorise based on the last digit of your head-band number. Thought that you had to recite it for someone else somewhere later on, apparently I didn't get to do so, or missed it somewhat lol.

Monkey bar station was next. This one looks and sounds deceptively easy but it's where 60-70% of the people drop and have to do the 30 burpees. Basically, the bars were all connected to the whole line of people trying to go across and everyone was shaking it like crazy. The vertical ropes that you need to grab onto to traverse across required some grip strength lol. Fell twice, but just kept trying until I finally managed to clear it on the 3rd try (not supposed to do it >1 time but fk it lol), used 2 lanes though (grabbed the other lane's stuff).

Bag pull was next. Oh my, this was actually quite heavy and I had to haul ass with my full bodyweight lol. I was pulling and my back literally came very close to touching the floor while I was pulling. The staff said that you can't let it drop, or you do the 30 burpees. You had to slowly let it down. This one really sucked, gave my hand a couple of rope burns.

A long boring run followed till the next couple of obstacles.

The first was to fill this bucket with gravel till almost the brim. Holy fuck this thing was quite fucking heavy. On top of this, the grip was super bad - the bottom was not flat, it had like this round protrusion along the circumference around the base and it keeps sinking deep into your fingers. Damn pain. Got to carry that bucket and walk through this 'relatively long' route.

A series of higher looking walls came. It looked intimidating at first, but just ran, kicked up it, pulled myself over and managed to clear.

There was also this 45degree wall where you had to climb on the underside of it and go over. Looked scary too, but was surprisingly manageable.

A mini 'Rock wall', just that its small wooden grips. Cheated abit on this one lol, grabbed the scaffolding instead of strictly the small grips at some parts.

Javelin throw. You had 1 try to hit the red area or you gotta do burpees. I psyched myself up and act like some olympic thrower, doing a 'set-up' run and tossed it. Tyco that it hit. :D

Huge tire flips before another long boring run back with another concrete carrying station in between.


When I got back to the race village area and saw that there were more barb wired leopard crawls, I was damn sian. 1 of the barbwire sections was actually quite low and this shit actually hurt a little cause the floor isn't too muddy, so your skin keep scratching on the ground, giving me alot of scars, bruises and abrasions all over my body. Fuck (Partly my fault still for wearing shorts)

1 part had to jump into a muddy water area, which soaked the shit out of my shoes. Quite funny though.

There was also a 'low rope'. It's pretty high though, did it army style by making the knots, wasn't exactly easy then though. (Shacked from the run and leopard crawls)

Slippery slope rope climb. There was some girl was stuck on it in the middle with her body flat on the tile and her hand on the rope. I tried to climb and push her up but was already having problems hanging in there myself, so I just let her drop and went to the top when she seemed like she wasn't trying anymore. =/

 Fire-pit Jump

Final station before the finish line required us to jump over a pit of fire!! (Looked underwhelming though - expected a bigger blaze, but then again it's Singapore)

Finished! Got the medal, finisher's tee and a pack of 'goodies'.

Post-Race

Went ahead to get our free beer and took as much free stuff as we could from all the random sponsor companies around (cheapskate).

There was a queue to this guy spraying a jet stream of water on you to wash you up. The jet was fucking strong, no wonder fireman/police could use 'hosing' to control riots. Learnt that one then.

Took a couple of photos:

Me & Bro

Overall, the race was rather fun. With regards to the obstacles (may have forgotten to mention  a few), it really ranged from ridiculously easy to quite challenging. I'd give the monkey bars the hardest rating, you really need momentum for that one.

Got bruises, abrasions and cuts all over my body, but I feel so manly right now, just like A FUCKIN SPARTAN :D