Chinese New Year

The Chinese or Lunar New Year is the largest of the Chinese holidays. We learned from friends and colleagues that Singapore would become a ghost down during this festival season, as shops and restaurants closed while people visited with friends and family. We thus decided to make a last-minute trip out of town. Unfortunately, flights to most of our preferred destinations, such as Phuket, Bali, Tioman, or Danang, were full, so we had limited options for getting off of the island. We opted to take the ferry back to Bintan, so that we could finish exploring the island that we had enjoyed so much on our prior trip. We did manage to enjoy an evening boat ride through a mangrove forest to see the indigenous fireflies, a unique ride on an elephant, and a traditional lion dance. Our pictures from these events are posted below.

Unfortunately, the events of Saturday, January 25th would leave a pall over most of our trip. While eating dinner at a restaurant on the beach, we noticed a commotion on the shore, as some individuals were dragged out of the water. Erin helped perform CPR on two different individuals, but it was too late. Ultimately three people died, all having drowned. We didn’t ever find out many of the details, and remain unclear as to how and why they got into a trouble. A sketchy article describing the event did eventually appear on the internet (http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2009/1/25/three-state-owned-bank-officials-drown-at-bintan-beach/), but lots of questions remain. Memories of the horrible events of the night plagued us throughout the vacation.