The Banyan Tree - Bintan Indonesia

High on a hill in a rainforest overlooking the Singapore Strait, 

we stayed in a magical treehouse.

The Banyan Tree resort is on the Indonesian Island of Bintan, 

an hour's ferry ride from Singapore.

The island is 80 per cent rainforest, with some of the remaining 

20 per cent host to beautiful golf courses.

I was lucky enough to spend a few days on this enchanting island a 

couple of months ago.

Under a full moon, we boated out to a traditional fishing hut, 

where we gorged on an Indonesian feast. 

The huts had there own balconies, spa pool and lounges.

Inside was a haven of air-conditioned tranquility 

 However, I enjoyed the steamy warmth and the natural breezes.

Breakfast at the restaurant, under the shade of rainforest trees.

A blue themed dinner on our balcony.  Unusually, there isn't one of 

the 800 a day freighters passing by on the horizon when I took this shot.

Dinner under a full moon. It was practically daylight.

 A touching birthday greeting surprised me on my return home that night. 

Amazing towel art, don't you think? I wonder if there is a course

you can do?

A rainforest view outside our villa window.

Can you imagine the nerves teeing off on this par 3? 

Beachside sand bunkers everywhere. 

You don't want to overshoot this green.

I actually hit the huge boulder on the left and my ball ricocheted onto the green. :)

I highly recommend the Banyan Tree.  

It was a gorgeous place and the people are beautiful.

I was very lucky.

the Banyan Tree, Bintan

Golf and sunsets at Lady Bay #LinksLadyBay #Golf #Sunsets #LadyBay

Our view of a spectacular sunset at Lady Bay

A magic part of South Australia is the Fleurieu Peninsula and in particular the beaches at Normanville, Carrickalinga, Second Valley and Lady Bay.  Every year we try to spend the week between Christmas and New Year at Links Lady Bay, golfing, swimming, barbecuing and sipping great South Australian wine. Indeed there are a few good wineries in the area, expanding the reach beyond the McLaren Vale winery region just up the road.  In a future post I'll show you around Allusion Winery.  They make a great shiraz.

Wide sandy beaches, parts of which you are permitted to drive your car on, park and camp out on the beach to fish, swim, snorkel, scuber-dive or canoe... without having to cart everything from a car park.  How good is that?

The golf course is a traditional links course designed by Jack Newton, Graeme Grant and John Spence and loosely modelled on St Andrews in Scotland.  According to the Links Lady Bay golf website it is currently ranked 52 in the top 100 golf courses in Australia.  It is easily the best regional course in South Australia.

The driving range overlooks farm land and ocean.

Between some of the fairways are large tracks of land, home-base to many dozens of kangaroos.

Just over a year ago the golf course was bought by Chinese businessman Feng Di, Chairman of Golden Horse Nine Dragon Lake Holdings, the owners of Links Hope Island and Noosa Springs Golf Courses in Queensland and 54 hole Dragon Lake Golf Resort in Guangzhou, China.

The course has improved dramatically under Chinese ownership.  The company has already spent over $1 million upgrading the course, especially its irrigation systems and water regime.  This part of the Fleurieu Peninsula has enormous potential but it is significantly under-developed and in desperate need of investment.  I hope they buy the resort, hotel and land - it would be great for the local economy, employment and the amenities in the area.  Let's hope! (no pun intended)

The fairways have never looked better.

And of course the sunsets in this part of the world are always magnificent.

The sky changes every few minutes and no two nights are the same.

How lucky are we to have this magnificent strip of coast on our doorstep.

Kangaroos at Links Lady Bay #kangaroos #LinksLadyBay #Normanville #Beach #Golf

We spent the weekend at our place at Links Lady Bay where we were visited by a mob of Western Grey Kangaroos.

Our place overlooks the 9th fairway and green.

The mob congregated only a couple of metres from our balcony.

At this time of the year there is an abundance of feed.  I saw a few mums with joeys in their pouches. Joeys can spend up to 45 weeks in the pouch - a good place to be during the cold weather.

A couple of the big boys. The Western Grey male kangaroo can grow to about 54kg and stand up to 1.3 metres tall.

Every mob has a few sentinels on the look out for danger.

Although they weren't worried by the golfers passing through.  I guess they get used to us.