Just across the Selat Dampak from Batam, the island of Bintan is twice as large and a mirror opposite. Where Batam is a creation of imported workers, Bintan has a local community of ethnic Hakka and Indo-Malays.
Category: Sumatra
Pulau Batam Sumatra Indonesia Travel
Nowhere in Sumatra is the pace of development more rapid than on Batam. With the island’s proximity to Singapore, Batam is the labour-intensive production leg of the Singapore–Johor Baru industrial triangle. Land and labour are cheaper here than in Singapore and many electronics companies have established production plants in the industrial park of Mukakuning. Much like the factory towns outside of Hong Kong, Mukakuning employs and houses mainly young women from impoverished areas of Indonesia. Hardly anyone living in Batam is a native and half the population is under 30 years old.
Pekanbaru Sumatra Indonesia Travel
Before the Americans struck oil, Pekanbaru was little more than a sleepy river port on Sungai Siak. Today it is Indonesia’s oil capital, with all the hustle and bustle of modern cities.
Parapat Sumatra Indonesia Travel
The mainland departure point for Danau Toba, Parapat has everything a transiting tourist needs: transport, lodging and supplies.
Padang Sumatra Indonesia Travel
Padang is typical of Sumatra’s modern landscape: a sprawling noisy place circumnavigated by tripped-out opelet blasting squeaks-and-beeps techno music. As the capital of West Sumatra province, Padang might have once been a showpiece, but the economic depression that has followed the 1997 currency crash means that the city’s infrastructure gets used but never renewed. Capital, more so than capability, feeds the modern machine.
Mentawai Islands Sumatra Indonesia Travel
Although the distance between the mainland and the Mentawai Islands is not great, nature contrived to keep this island chain isolated. Strong winds, unpredictable currents and razor-sharp corals thwarted navigation and trade with the mainland.
Medan Sumatra Indonesia Travel
Medan is the capital of North Sumatra and is the third-largest city in Indonesia. Depending on your perspective, you’ll either love it or hate it. If you’re coming from saner parts of mainland Southeast Asia, Medan will be everything that’s wrong with an Asian city: choked with traffic, pollution and poverty. If you’ve worked your way north through Sumatra, Medan is thankfully modern, with air-con, internet and a middle class.
Danau Toba Sumatra Indonesia Travel
Toba gets touted as Sumatra’s prettiest volcanic lake, a claim that detracts from its real appeal: the Batak people. Sure there is a backdrop of mountains and a cool, clear lake, but Toba’s relaxed atmosphere remains intact even when the day is hazy or the shorefront overgrown with weeds. And the Batak culture has modernised with grace despite tinkering from missionaries and tourists.
Danau Maninjau Sumatra Indonesia Travel
When viewed from the mountains above, Danau Maninjau looks as if a piece of the sky had grown weary with its eternal floating and crawled to earth for an afternoon nap. And the pace is just as sleepy: no jarring call to prayers, no overload of ‘Hello mister’ calls. Just the basic elements: land, sky and water.
Bukittinggi Sumatra Indonesia Travel
Welcome to a cool, lush landscape where fertility comes from volcanic destruction. Off in the distance are the blue circumcised mountains – the Merapi, Singgalang and the more distant Sago – that periodically belch out the earth’s interior fury. A crown of puffy white clouds hides their naked tips, and at their feet unfold terraced rice fields made so fertile by the once toxic emissions that seasons don’t matter. Sitting at 930m above sea level, Bukittinggi is a busy market town halfway between the heavens and the rice paddies, with spectacular views of both. The town’s alternate name, Tri Arga, refers to the three majestic mountains that dictate the region’s fortunes.