Another sunset to share

So I had posted the sunset of our time in Montigo Resortand shared with some friends and another good friend came back with this...

He had gone to Maldives for his vacation. Take a look at this…

Another beach shot.

He had looked at my sunset photos and told me that it brought back memories of his own vacation recently. He shared these with me.

And one of him in snorkeling gear…

And with wife by the sandies…

And another shot of the sunset.

And it is getting dark with the sun going down.

Sunsets are always beautiful. No matter where you take the sunset, it will always turn out beautiful. In this case, I spent a whole heck less than he did.

Beautiful Sunset in Batam

A good friend ones told me this - you cannot screw up a shot of the sunset. No matter how you take it, sunsets will always look good. So just remember this - not my skill but the beautiful sunset...

I was at the gym in Montigo on the treadmill when I witnessed the sun setting and the beautiful hue of the sea. So I had to cut short my run and went in search of a couple of nice shots. Pictures taken with my iPhone 5S. First up, view from just outside the gym - above Tiigo Bar.

The sky was clear and almost no clouds in sight further enhancing the sunset hue.

As I walked down to the beach, I could not resist this shot. Taken just before I reached Tiigo Bar.

As I stood that the platform leading to the beach, I took this picture of the bar area.

Then it was more sunset pictures. First up, the picture taken from Tiigo Bar showing the gazebo by the pool.

Another view just in front of the gazebo.

Taken by the beach - another gazebo set up by the beach for the BBQ dinner if one chooses to.

And finally the view by the jetty.

Gina by the jetty soaking in the sunset.

So we were lucky to catch such a beautiful sunset as the next day was all gloomy. So my advice is this - carpe diem. You never know what tomorrow brings. Next up, our culinary experience in Montigo Resort. Check out my earlier post on the resort.

Short ride to a getaway - Batam

It is touted as a 5-star resort close to Singapore, so I guess we were intrigued into booking a few days stay at the Montigo Resort and Spa in Batam, Indonesia.

Batam is an island in Indonesia 40 minutes by ferry from Singapore. Two terminals gets you there - Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal (TMFT) and Harbourfront Ferry Terminal. Because we were going to Montigo, we were advised to but the ferry tickets from BatamFast and they only operate from TMFT to Nongsapura Ferry Terminal in Batam. The resort is 5 minutes from the ferry terminal.

The resort bus gets you to the resort and the view from the check-in is quite refreshing. Haze aside, you can see MBS from the resort.

The all-villa resort is built on a slope and has three types of villas - hill top, hill side and sea front. For this trip, we stayed at the Hill Side villa.

Warm was the day when we checked in but all was forgotten when we walked into the living room - air-conditioned comfort and a view too. Walk out of the living room and you get to the balcony with an attached dipping pool.

The villa is three stories - two bedrooms on the second level and the top is the room garden. The master bedroom is well decorated.

And with an "open" concept bath area.

The second bedroom has two single beds and with their own attached bathroom too.

My only gripe about the villa is the hot corridor way - when you walk between living room and bedroom, the staircase is not air-conditioned. So you walk from the cool comfort to the hot and humid corridor and then back into the cool comfort of the room again. But from the balcony, one gets a rather nice view out to sea. And on a clear day, you get to see the skyline of Singapore CBD especially that of MBS.

As the day got cooler, we walked around the resort to explore a little. First, the walk down to the dining room of Tadd's brought us to the edge of the resort overlooking the jetty. An amazing view from up here looking down there...

The pool by Tadd's is also well designed for comfort. But bring your sun block lotion. No way one can sit in the pool before 5pm.

Walk past Tadd's which is an all-day dining venue, you will be able to see the bar area. Called Tiigo, the bar is only open on the weekend.

And from Tadd's you can also get another view of the property and the jetty down below.

The beach is nothing to crow about. The jetty is still uncompleted but we managed to steal a walk along the jetty.

Here is Gina by the jetty. They were still laying lighting along the jetty and work was still on-going.

Brings back the days of kelong and we love the stroll out to the end of the jetty.

And this is the view of the resort from the jetty.

All too soon it was coming to the end of the day. As we walked back, we couldn't help but enjoy the sun setting.

And the view from our villa.

We took a whole bunch of photos of the sun setting on day 1. And what a great decision it was - second day was all cloudy and no sun set at all! More of that to come in my next post.