Pasar Oleh Oleh, Bintan, Indonesia

Half day trip to Pasar Oleh Oleh with Rafaela and Scott.
After our usual big breakfast we headed down the beach for a lovely refreshing swim in the


ocean. Followed by a lesurely cocktail enjoyed under the shade of the trees, we made our way back for lunch.
After lunch we decided to take our books to the Panarama bar and sit in the sun while sipping on a cool fruit juice. When we got there we found Scott and Rafaela were also doing the same thing, so we settled down together for a quiet read and a bit of a chat. Scott said they had a taxi booked to go into the village of Pasar Oleh Oleh would we like to come along too, would we ever!
So it was a race back to our room to collect sun glasses and hats and money which we had not had to think about at all before on this holiday at Club Med as everything is already paid for.
The taxi was a nice big comfortable car with plenty of room for us all. Funny thing here in Bintan, you can not hire a car, there are no rentals to be had, sure you can get a hire car but it comes with a driver, tourists are not allowed to drive at all. So it is cheaper to just get a cab.
The cab driver didn't speak a lot of English and besides we had been told he was just a driver NOT a tour guide, he would take us where we asked but would not explain anything or offer advice. No problem to us, we were having such a great time together it was very noisy with laughter and chatter in that taxi, pretty soon the driver couldn't resist talking to us and explaining what we could about the countryside. It was only about a 20 minute drive to Pasar Oleh Oleh though a lot of mangrove swampy land with dense forest and some small cleared places, not many houses and only a few tiny village shops here and there. What we noticed was the enormous number of motor bikes and scooters everywhere hardly any cars, but I think every man and his dog must own a motor bike!
We got to the small town and the driver said he would be back to get us in an hour for the homeward journey.



Rafaela and I went straight into a souvenir shop to buy up lots of gifts for family, I liked all the colourful puppets in there for sale, many different types, but we didn't buy any of them. Scott and Erle wondered around looking at various machinery things outside amusing themselves while we ladies shopped.


Then we crossed over the road and wandered around in the pretty courtyard areas for a while.
.



We noticed this strange building and wondered whether it was a water tower or whether it was sentry box type of thing, it was the feature at the end of the short main street and sort of on guard.



Rafaela decided she just must buy a native dress as there were some lovely ones in the shops and I thought I would have a foot massage, nothing much I like better that a good foot massage. It was a young man who did the massaging, or rather he did lots of flourishing with hot towels and purfumes and lots of gentle rubs and strokes but it was not quite what I had been expecting, however it was still lovely and relaxing. He spoke quite good English so we were able to have a chat.


It is Ramadan time in Muslim places and Indonesia is very much a Muslim country so i asked him if he was observing Ramadan and he told me to my surprise that he was a Christian, and all the workers in his shop were. How nice as we also are Christian, Erle and I had a nice chat about that too. More lovely perfumes were poured upon my feet, so when I left I smelled very oriental.



Met up again with Rafaela and Scott and we all headed back in the taxi, on the way we passed a big statue to the Javanese Rhino and the driver stopped for us to take photos.
Rafaela and Scott then headed off to have a game of badminton while we went for a nice lie down with our books before dinner and another great show in the evening, Club Med is a great place.