GLADIS — SERIES 1
The Sea Was the Reason She Came
Gladis had always been drawn to the ocean.
Perhaps it was because she grew up in Melaka, a city where old streets, history, and the sea seemed to quietly tell stories of their own. Or perhaps it was simply something in her nature.
A Melaka girl of Chinese heritage, Gladis had always been curious about places surrounded by water. She liked the feeling of standing near a coastline and knowing that somewhere beyond the horizon, there was another place waiting to be discovered.
So when someone told her about Bintan Island, she didn't ask about the resorts.
She asked about the sea.
“How do I get there?”
The answer was simpler than she expected.
Cross the sea from Singapore.
And that was how her little journey to Bintan began.
The journey started in Melaka.
By the time Gladis reached Singapore, the familiar streets of her hometown already felt far away. Singapore was different—faster, taller, and much more crowded. But she wasn't staying long.
There was still one more part of the journey ahead of her.
The sea.
From Singapore, travelers heading to Bintan commonly begin their ferry journey at Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal. For Gladis, reaching the terminal felt strangely exciting. She wasn't simply waiting for transportation.
She was waiting to leave one country behind and cross toward an island she had never seen.
Inside the terminal, there were the usual things to take care of—check-in, immigration, boarding, and the quiet wait before departure.
Then, finally, the ferry began to move.
Gladis found a seat near the window.
Singapore slowly slipped away behind her.
The buildings became smaller.
The shoreline faded.
And eventually, there was nothing left to watch except the open sea.
For a while, Gladis said nothing.
She simply watched the water.
This was the part she had been looking forward to.
Not the terminal.
Not the ferry itself.
But the feeling of actually crossing the sea.
The ferry ride from Singapore to Bintan is relatively short, but Gladis didn't feel the need to hurry through it.
The journey gave her something she rarely found in the city—a little time with nothing demanding her attention.
Outside the window, the horizon stretched in every direction. The water changed color as the sunlight moved across it, and the sound of the ferry became almost comforting after a while.
She began to wonder what Bintan would look like.
Would it feel like Singapore?
Would it feel like Melaka?
Or would it have a character entirely of its own?
She didn't know yet.
And perhaps that was what made the journey interesting.
When the ferry finally approached Bandar Bentan Telani, the island slowly appeared ahead of her.
Bintan.
After the usual arrival procedures, Gladis stepped outside the terminal.
The first thing she noticed was not a famous attraction.
It was the space.
The roads seemed quieter. Greenery appeared between destinations, and the landscape felt much more open than the city she had just left behind.
She took a slow breath.
She had arrived.
But arriving in Bintan was only the beginning.
For first-time visitors, there is something worth understanding about Bintan.
It isn't an island where every interesting place sits conveniently next to the ferry terminal.
The beaches, resorts, restaurants, villages, attractions, and other experiences are spread across different parts of the island.
That means the journey doesn't really end when the ferry arrives.
In many ways, it starts there.
Gladis had arranged transportation for the next part of her trip, so she didn't have to worry about finding her way around. As the car left the terminal, she watched the scenery change outside the window.
There were stretches of green.
Small settlements.
Palm trees moving gently in the breeze.
Occasional glimpses of the coast.
The island seemed to unfold slowly, one scene after another.
And Gladis liked that.
She hadn't come to Bintan simply to move from one attraction to another.
She wanted to see what existed between them.
The road itself had become part of the experience.
Eventually, the conversation returned to the reason she had come.
Snorkeling.
She started asking questions.
Where was the clearest water?
Where could she see fish?
Were there coral reefs around Bintan?
What did a snorkeling trip actually look like?
Her curiosity grew with every answer.
And suddenly, the ferry ride from Singapore seemed less important.
It had brought her to Bintan, yes.
But it had also brought her closer to the thing she had really been looking for.
The sea.
Gladis had always believed that the most interesting places were the ones that made you curious about what was beyond what you could see.
Bintan seemed to be one of them.
That evening, after settling in, she thought about the journey she had just made.
Melaka.
Singapore.
The ferry.
Bintan.
A simple route, perhaps.
But somehow, it already felt like an adventure.
She looked toward the sea one more time before calling it a night.
Tomorrow would be different.
Tomorrow, she would leave the road behind.
She would leave the shore behind.
And finally, she would find out what was waiting beneath Bintan's blue water.
Gladis had crossed from Singapore to Bintan.
But her real journey had not yet begun.
Tomorrow, she was going snorkeling.
And that was where the story would truly begin.
To Be Continued
Series 2 — Beneath Bintan's Blue
Sometimes, the most beautiful part of an island isn't the part you can see.