Nikoi Island – P A R A D I S E

 

I have never been to a private island before this. Thanks to Yifon Mushrooms, I got the chance to spend 2 nights in Nikoi Island – a private island off Bintan.

 

The boat journey from Singapore to Bintan is approximately 1 hour. Upon arriving, we were greeted by one of the staff and was brought to a VIP Lounge to take a seat while they clear our immigration for us.

 

Shortly after, a car fetched us to another jetty which was specially catered for Nikoi Island. The car journey was about 1 hour. Then, we hopped on a speedboat and reached Nikoi Island within 10 minutes! I felt like a superstar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everywhere in Nikoi Island is all sand. So you just have to dump your slippers in the room and walk barefooted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is only 15 beach houses in Nikoi, and less than 50 guests on the island each time! This is our 2-storey beach house, the smallest beach house in Nikoi with only one bedroom. But it is soooo BIG!

 

 

We arrived on Sunday late morning. After checking into our rooms, we headed for lunch! Everyday, they will place the menu chart in the dining area and when we are there for lunch, the staff will ask us if dinner is okay for us and if there is anything we don’t eat. How meticulous!

 

 

There are 2 dining areas in Nikoi, one for couple and another one for family. I like this arrangement because we won’t be disturbed by kids running around.

Most of the meals are 3 course meal with appetizer, main course and dessert. But lunch that day was a very very delicious Nasi Kuning set, which consists of vegetable urab, beef rendang, fried chicken, sambal curry prawns and curry fish, topped with ikan bilis and fried egg strips. THIS IS THE BEST MEAL I HAD IN NIKOI!

 

The fish was so fresh and soft, the fried chicken was so tasty, the beef rendang was very tender, everything in the set tasted so good! And guess what, it was so good that the boy decided to eat 3 SETS OF NASI KUNING! -_-

 

 

Dessert was sticky rice with mangoes and strawberries.

 

 

Mind you, not everything you eat is free here.We paid $90 per day for 3 meals. You can eat as many plates of food as you want and they charge extra (they will probably only remember your face). But if you want something extra such as orange juice or cuppuccino or coconut or beer, you have to pay additional.

 

 

 

 

Because the boy had soooooo much food during lunch, we took a long stroll around Nikoi. The sun was scorching hot, if you are planning to go there, please apply sunscreen every hour.

 

 

 

Took a nap soon after and jumped out of bed when it was 5.30pm. Because the sun sets at 6.08pm! Very flustered, I took out my camera and tripod, headed back to the beach to shoot the sunset.

 

 

The sky grew dark very quickly, so we went for dinner after my sunset shoot. Appetizer was Spicy Squid Salad which was very refreshing.

 

 

The waiters and waitress were all very friendly to us and they remembered my boy ate 3 plates of Nasi Kuning in the afternoon. So they gave us the biggest and fattest Sweet & Sour Fish for dinner that night!

 

 

Together with rice and some steamed Kai Lan cooked in black pepper sauce.

 

 

Dessert was fruit tart.

 

After our dinner, we mingled with some friends whom we met at Bintan and caught “Alvin & the Chipmunks” movie before heading to bed.

 

 

 

I have never slept so early for the past few months and my body alarm clock woke me up at 7.30am in the morning.

 

 

Breakfast started with cereals.

 

 

As you can see from the breakfast menu, the eggs can be done in many different ways! You can have boiled egg, omelete, poached egg, scrambled, sunny side up, turn over and over easy!

 

 

Breakfast comes with toasted bread, bacon and sausages!

 

I initially wanted to hire a photographer friend to help us with some couple photoshoot. But it didn’t materialise in the end. So I brought my own tripod to do our own photoshoot. Here are some of the pictures we took!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NIKOI IS SERIOUSLY BEAUTIFUL! So beautiful until I anyhow click also nice!

 

 

 

Immediately after, we changed to swimwear and went snorkelling!

 

 

 

The most adverturous thing I did in Nikoi was to go sailing ($20 for an hour). As you can see from the photos, I was screaming. -_-!!

 

Thanks to Hardi for being so patient and tolerating my screams throughout that hour!

 

 

We went for a late lunch. Appetizer was fried bean cake.

 

 

Black pepper prawns with rice. Oh I nearly forgot to explain. Nikoi doesn’t have supermarket or whatsoever. The kitchen here orders ingredients from Bintan and shipped it over.

 

 

Because they knew the boy ate alot, the waiter Nawi offered to prepare additional dish for us. Deep fried calamari!

 

 

We can’t really appreciate Vegetable Curry though.

 

 

Dessert was fresh fruits with yoghurt.

 

 

Come island holiday, of course must drink coconut. The workers pluck coconut from the trees here.

 

 

We rested a while, showered and packed our things and did massage outside our beach house!

 

 

 

The I went to take sunset again! I must capture this moment because I don’t think I can see such a beautiful sunset on such a beautiful island so soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beauty beyond words!

 

 

Dinner was vegetable spring rolls.

 

 

And steak!

 

 

 

 

Our last day in Nikoi, we just spent our time lazing around and waiting for check out.

 

 

Waiter Nawi knew it was our last day, asked us if we want to have Nasi Goreng for breakfast, on top of the usual bread, cereals and eggs.

 

 

Well, that concludes my short vacation in Nikoi. Very short vacation but it was really a relaxing one. I forget about the world for 3 days, just spend my time sleep, eating, strolling by the beach, watching sunset…

 

Thank you Yogi, Nawi, Hardi and many many other Nikoi staffs for your warm hospitality! I hope to be back soon!