postcard from Singapore: Spa trip to Indonesia

My apologies (mainly to my father) for not taking my real camera, only my iphone 3, hence the not so great or many photos.

An early morning start.  I left home before the kids left for school (not Kit who had swimming) and set off in the taxi watching a beautiful sunrise.  The ferry to Batam Island left at 8:20, pulling away from the fancy new area of "Harbour Front" out around Sentosa Island which is where a lot of Singaporeans now have their weekender homes and east past all the ships for the very short trip to Indonesia.

This is looking back towards Singapore's CBD...on the far right you can just make out the boat on top of the buildings that I took lots of photos of from the Marina Bay gardens last week.

 Growing up in Australia, it still always amazes me when you can go from one country to another in such a short space of time.  The "Batam Fast" ferry was not really that fast, but ess than an hour later and we were going through immigration...

As we approached Indonesia, we started to see these little fishing boats on the water.

 Matt asked me when I got home if I felt like I'd been in another country, and I had to say yes, for 2 reasons.  Firstly it was so quite there.  Here there is that constant background city hum.  And secondly, the ride from the ferry terminal to the hotel where our driver was dodging motor cycles, chickens and cats just laying in the middle of the road.

The spa is at the Tempat Senang resort hotel.  I think they only have 12 suites.  We weren't staying over night this time, but I'd love to.  I was particularly taken with the Javanese Joglo suite (which is a traditional Javanese hut that they had moved there) made entirely of teak.

 When we arrived we picked our various spa treatments and what we were having for lunch, then the owner showed us around while the girls prepared everything for us.  All six of us were lined up on massage tables on the terrace balcony with fans going overhead.  We had 3 different treatments in the morning, all roughly an hour long.  I had a Balinese massage, a body scrub and a hair treatment.  Then we stopped and had lunch on the balcony in the restaurant, all in our brown batik robes with wet hair (one of the girls took a photo of us and I am waiting for someone to send it to me....hint hint).

Then it was back for another round of bliss.  This time I had an Indonesian massage, a facial and a mudwrap.  You'd think after 6 hours we'd be done with people touching us, but I would quite happily have lain there for another 3 treatments.  We all had different things, and I'd quite happily go back to try some of the others.

Then we showered and dressed and went and had dinner on the balcony again before being driven back to the ferry terminal for the ride home.

 It was a fantastic day.  Really lovely environment to be in, and such a great group of women who I love spending time with.  Definitely a place I would recommend.