1. A Turn She Never Expected
Gladis was beginning to think she had seen everything Bintan had to offer: The turquoise sea. The white sandy beaches. The beautiful resorts where the days seemed to drift by without a care.
But that morning, her driver asked a strange question:
“Miss Gladis, would you like to see the Bintan most tourists never see?”
She looked up from her phone. “What’s that?” He smiled but said nothing.
The car turned away from the familiar tourist roads, passing through a stretch of tropical forest. Soon, the resorts disappeared behind them.
In their place stood wooden houses, coconut trees, and narrow roads that seemed to lead nowhere. Gladis pressed her face against the window. Something about this place felt different. And she couldn’t explain why.
2. The Man by the Water
They stopped at a quiet fishing village.
Wooden houses stood above the water on tall stilts. A few fishing boats rocked gently beneath the morning sun. An elderly fisherman sat beside his boat, repairing a net.
Gladis approached him: “Selamat pagi!” The man looked up and smiled. For a while, they talked through her driver. He told her about the sea, his family, and how generations of fishermen had lived along this coast. Gladis listened, fascinated.
Then she noticed something strange. An old wooden house stood farther down the shore, separated from the others.
Its windows were closed. Its walls were weathered and dark.
“Who lives there?” she asked.
The fisherman’s smile slowly disappeared. For a moment, he said nothing. Then he looked towards the house: “Nobody,” he replied quietly.
Gladis felt a chill despite the warm morning air. Before she could ask another question, her driver called her back to the car.
3. A Story Beneath the Sunset
Later that afternoon, Gladis stopped at a small roadside stall to enjoy some local Malay food. The flavours reminded her of home in Melaka. The people were warm, the food was delicious, and for a moment, everything felt perfectly ordinary.
But she couldn’t stop thinking about the old house. As the sun began to set, she asked her driver one last question: “Why did that fisherman look so frightened when I asked about the house?”
Her driver glanced at her through the rear-view mirror. Then he said something that made her sit up straight: “Miss Gladis, that house has been empty for many years. But some villagers say they still see a light inside it at night.”
Gladis turned towards the window. Far in the distance, beyond the palm trees, the sea shimmered beneath the fading light. And suddenly, she knew one thing: She wasn’t finished exploring Bintan. Not even close.
Series 4 — When the Island Turns Gold
"Some places are beautiful in the morning. Others reveal their magic just before the sun goes down."