My legs has been feeling restless for quite awhile. My legs must be bored.. yes.. my dear legs need some mountain therapy! So where? One that is relatively easy (like the one in Hong Kong), don’t need Bukit Timah training (since it’s closed now), can be done within a day and near Singapore?

Let’s go to Bintan and hike up their highest – Gunung Bintan at 370 metre above sea level and after the climb we can relax at a nice beach resort and get a cheap and good massage! Best still, it’s just 45 minutes ferry ride from Singapore! Sounds real good ya!

Too lazy to do research, we decided to just book the trek through www.welcomtobintan.com with a guide and transfer to and back to resort. S$40 per pax which is actually quite expensive!

We went Bintan during the Hari Raya Haji long weekend. To save time, we decided to do the trek in the afternoon right after we arrived in Bintan. On that Saturday morning at Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal, the weather started to turn bad. Overcast sky and as we board the 9+am ferry, it started to pour.. very very heavy rain.

Luckily for us, when we reached our resort, the rain stopped and we were able to proceed with the trek. The car came to pick us at 130 pm and after a brief stop for lunch at a roadside stall for nasi padang, we reached the starting point of the trek.

Trekking map on Gunung Bintan

Although just 370 metre high, it is not really that easy to trek especially after the heavy rain. The estimated trekking time for round trip is about 2 hours, as such to cover 370 metre in less than an hour, the terrain must be quite steep.

We started from the Hunting area (stated on the map above) and ended at the waterfall side. Some people start from the waterfall side too.

Tropical rainforest. Muddy terrain after the rain

Steep and muddy terrain. As the trail gets steeper, you will see ropes along the way to aid people in hiking up. Really thanks to the ropes, otherwise I really don’t know how to climb up the slippery trail especially I don’t have trekking poles with me.

Our guide looking ahead. Still some way to go!

After about 45 minutes of trekking, we reached the summit! There’s a little hut and a tower at the summit. No views here. You will have to climb up the tower in order to get a nice view of the sea.

Finally! The summit!

Think the tower can’t take the weight of too many people, so better go up one at a time. Some of the planks on top were already loose and may break any time!

Looking down from the tower.
View from the tower. Not bad lah.

After staying at the summit for about 15 minutes, we trekked down from the other side towards the waterfall. More ropes and rocks awaited us. We had to trek down slowly, get our feet steady. The rocks and trails were so slippery that some of us slipped and fall, but luckily nothing serious.

More ropes and rocks on the way down
Waterfall

30 minutes later, we reached the waterfall and that’s the end of the trek.

Time to head back to the resort, wash up and relax for the next 2 days!

Photo credits: Kenneth Boey

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