Club Med Bintan

We went to Club Med Bintan over the Hari Raya Puasa long weekend, with our usual travel khakis - the Gans. We've heard so much about Club Med, and so, were really looking forward to this holiday.

The 2 older Gan boys were old enough to join the Kids Club, and so they willingly and happily joined the club. Ethan, while sending off his brothers, was inspired to join the Petite Club. So his parents happily signed him up for it, and had a whole lot of wonderful couple time during this holiday.

Not so easy for us. Aaron was definitely too young for any clubs. And Nadine was super sticky to Mummy. They're also too young for any snorkelling, kayaking, windsurfing, etc, etc. But not too young for the beach. They loved the beach. It was Aaron's first time on the beach, first time touching sand, and first time eating sand. He loved it!

Aaron had a great time crawling all over.

Nadine had a lot of fun burying Aunty Wendy. Aaron was just amused by Aunty Wendy's wriggly toes.

2nd day, we decided to try putting Nadine in the Petite Club, since Ethan seemed to have enjoyed himself so much the previous day. The main attraction for Nadine was the play doh session. After dropping her off, we were finally able to sit down for a good breakfast and chit-chat session with Uncle Mel and Aunty Wendy.

But, we made the mistake of checking on the kids. The moment Nadine saw Mummy, she burst into tears. As if she was having such a terrible time, which Mummy was sure wasn't the case. So we walked back to the Petite Club pool with them.

The kids were totally engrossed in the water games after a while, so we quickly sneaked off. But 1 minute after we left the pool, we could hear Nadine crying. We ran off, anyway, believing, out of sight, out of mind. Apparently she did enjoy herself the rest of the afternoon. But that night, lying next to Mummy, she said, "I don't want to go to Petite Club," and started sobbing. And for the next 2 weeks after the holiday, she'd say that again and again. Why? Did she have some traumatic experience? Hmm .....

As for Aaron, we engaged a babysitter for an afternoon so that we could go for a massage! He seemed pretty ok too, when we went back to pick him, crawling around, and playing with the toys. But the moment he saw Daddy, he burst into tears too, and hugged Daddy very tightly when Daddy carried him. Separation anxiety?

To make up, we brought them to the beach again.

During this trip, we discovered that Nadine really likes Marcus! A few times, she'd walk up to Marcus and hold his hand! Poor Marcus was so shy, and didn't help that his Mum and big brother laughed at him. He actually became really furious with them!

Wonder how long this puppy love will last!

Overall, it was an ok holiday. Slow and relaxed, as we'd wanted it. But Club Med was quite a disappointment. The housekeeping and restaurant service were really shoddy. Food was not great too. Maybe if we'd participated in a lot of the activities, we wouldn't had cared so much about the services. Ah well. Now we know.