...lonelyplanet...lonelyisland

greetings from bintan / indonesia

while writing im waiting for my cab which should be here in around 15 min to bring me to the ferry station at bintan ressorts. bintan is an island of indonesia. honestly I didn't like it here that much more i would say it was/is a waste of money. nothing to do at all. the sea is not beautiful. for me it was a we off to prepare for the smu/week. and to get a teint but i wouldn't pay that much money once again for just this kind of trip. if u are alone here u can't move to the other islands that easy cuz its a) too expensive to so and b) i didn't feel very safe alone. I was in the city on my own...and i didn't feel that comfortable with that. the majority of the people out there were men and all of them kept on starring at me and talking to me in bahasa. maybe it was because I looked lost or something and they just tried to help me..haha thats the optimistic view to things ;) anyway let me tell u something about bintan. bintan is a very close island (1 hour from tanah merah ferry station singapore) to singapore and is probably the favorite destination for all singaporeans who are sick of the big city life and who wanna enjoy sun, great beaches and the high value service. So u might guess right...the majority is rich and business people..the stereotyp of a real singaporean :) people use to ask me if Im rich when they see my singaporean student pass :)) anyway...I didn't enjoyed all this things..cuz after kho phiphi the beach was not beautiful, the water to shallow..so no way to swim! U could walk at least 1 km without ur knees getting wet!!

So most of the time I spent at the pool doing nothing than reading, doing some prepare work for mondays classes and having small talks with the people around.
The other half of the day I spent with thinking about a handful girls who were covered with hajibs. I don't know why but I felt angry with their dad and mums. I mean...what could justify this hajib for children who not older than 5 years? I tried really hard to think as an strong muslim but no way out. There is no reasonable sense in doing that. I mean...this kids should be kids in a very neutral way...by imposing them wheels you make them aware that they are more than children...that they are women! So that all they are burden with this huge responsibility of being a women in such a patriarchic society. They are not discriminated because of their ha-jib by other children or people..but I'll lay odds on them throwing it away if they could and just keep on playing with their brothers like normal kids do. I don't get the point of this urgency for making from children little women! Wtf?...Let them enjoy their anyway limited freedom of being nothing more than a child without any obligations set from the society. I would love to ask this women who btw was also covered from head to toe why in hell she is doing that with the kids. I would go for it when it comes to a women - I can understand and tolerate but in case of children all my logical sense for this ideology is out of order.

I can't get it! And I definitely know that this is not that kind of Islam I believe in!! If someone should proof me that "THIS" is the right one - I rather would convert to another timbuktulululu religion than accepting this as the most adorable way of living - not when it comes to the point of children!

So to sum up Bintan-Islands was boring, teaching, relaxing in all! I liked the kidness of the people around but all in all not the best trip ever!

take care