21
Sep
2006
The Irish lass,
Okay, if you've read my second book you'd know that If I accepted Phuket instead, none of that crap would have happened to me in Bintan! Although, I knew my goose was cooked when I found out who the CDV was. Anyway, Kiki is right. But seeing as how you were reception (is it Head of Reception, or just reception?) If you have
NO designs on being CDV, I say
TAKE IT! Few North AMericans GO's get to travel that far and you'll be missing out on a unique experience.
Hell, you're only a 45 min ferry ride, (which you have to pay for..) from Singapore, one of, if not
THE most, beautiful cities around. There is not much to do on the island of Bintan itself. If you play golf then you are in heaven. If you don't, well you can go to Singapore on your day off and catch a movie, eat and go to "Takishimaya", my favorite store/mall in Singapore. You can stroll down Orchard Rd and
try and look for any piece of scrap paper on the streets there..(good luck!)
You get may different Asian nationalities there. Scads of Korean honeymooners, Japanese, Taiwanese, Chinese (yes, there is a difference!), Malaysian and Singaporean. You then have the ex-pats living in Singapore, French, English, American and very few Canadians. The village is beautiful, but since you have arrivals by ferry, there are arrivals and departures everyday! Not
all are big, but working at the recep. you are on the frontline so to speak.
And if you don't mind very long-haul flights (probably where you're from to NYC, NYC to Japan (that's a 14 hour leg!) and then Japan to Singapore 7-8 hours more) You will probably arrive very late at night and then you'll have to go to the CM office early in Singapore. There they will hand you a huge enveloppe for
YOu to get started on your work visa. It's all laid out for you, but
you have to do the legwork.
Finally, you'll catch the last ferry to Bintan at 8:00pm or so and then take a 20 min bus ride from the ferry terminal to the village. Then you'll arrive and not know what day,month or year it is and you'll find out it's the CDV's bday and you...no wait..that was my experience...
Anyway, I say go! What else are they offering you? If you want to know more, you can send me a personal mail to my box.
Greg
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