Sumatra – World Travel

Pulau Bintan Sumatra Indonesia Travel

WorldTravelDB.com — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 06:01:35 +0000

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.

On the west coast, Tanjung Pinang is a busy provincial city, while the high-end resorts in the north of the island around Lagoi do beach escapes right. For the working stiffs from Singapore, there are the more rustic beaches on the eastern end of the island around Pantai Trikora for affordable weekend escapes.

View related Indonesian travel video clips below
We uses YouTube API Services. https://www.worldtraveldb.com/youtubes-terms-of-service/

[tubepress mode=’tag’, tagValue=’Pulau Bintan Indonesia’]

Pulau Batam Sumatra Indonesia Travel

WorldTravelDB.com — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 06:01:36 +0000

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.

Higher up the economic food chain are the Western managers and executives who oversee the factories, as well as engineers employed by one of the island’s largest multinationals, J Ray McDermott, which makes offshore oil rigs and pipelines.

View related Indonesian travel video clips below
We uses YouTube API Services. https://www.worldtraveldb.com/youtubes-terms-of-service/

[tubepress mode=’tag’, tagValue=’Pulau Batam Indonesia’]

Pekanbaru Sumatra Indonesia Travel

WorldTravelDB.com — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 06:01:39 +0000

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.

Pekanbaru’s primary purpose for tourists is as a transit point between ferries from Singapore, but the increased affordability of air travel has curtailed the sea passage. Now only Western oil executives on business trips find themselves in Pekanbaru.

View related Indonesian travel video clips below
We uses YouTube API Services. https://www.worldtraveldb.com/youtubes-terms-of-service/

[tubepress mode=’tag’, tagValue=’Pekanbaru Indonesia’]

Parapat Sumatra Indonesia Travel

WorldTravelDB.com — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 06:01:40 +0000

The mainland departure point for Danau Toba, Parapat has everything a transiting tourist needs: transport, lodging and supplies.

The commercial sector of the town clumps together along the Trans-Sumatran Hwy (Jl Sisingamangaraja, aka SM Raja). Branching southwest towards the pier, Jl Pulau Samosir passes most of Parapat’s hotels. After 1km, a right fork (Jl Haranggaol) leads to the pier, another kilometre southwest. The bus terminal is 2km east of town, but most buses pick up and drop off passengers from ticket agents along the highway or at the pier.

View related Indonesian travel video clips below
We uses YouTube API Services. https://www.worldtraveldb.com/youtubes-terms-of-service/

[tubepress mode=’tag’, tagValue=’Parapat Indonesia’]

Padang Sumatra Indonesia Travel

WorldTravelDB.com — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 06:01:45 +0000

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.

Padang is an entry point into Sumatra to/from Jakarta, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Arriving in Padang after the relative comfort of mainland Southeast Asia makes for a rough landing. Padang has few tourist amenities and limited English. Despite the urge to hide from the smell of kerosene and diesel exhaust, you’ll find that the locals are genuinely friendly and curious about the few foreigners who find their way into town.

View related Indonesian travel video clips below
We uses YouTube API Services. https://www.worldtraveldb.com/youtubes-terms-of-service/

[tubepress mode=’tag’, tagValue=’Padang Indonesia’]

Mentawai Islands Sumatra Indonesia Travel

WorldTravelDB.com — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 06:01:00 +0000

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.

As a result, the Mentawai people had very little contact with the outside world and remained one of the ‘purest’ indigenous societies in Indonesia until the 19th and 20th centuries.

View related Indonesian travel video clips below
We uses YouTube API Services. https://www.worldtraveldb.com/youtubes-terms-of-service/

[tubepress mode=’tag’, tagValue=’Mentawai Islands Indonesia’]

Medan Sumatra Indonesia Travel

WorldTravelDB.com — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 06:01:01 +0000

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.

Most people only stay a night and grab transport out the next day. The city’s major attraction is a graveyard of colonial buildings centred around Kesawan Square. For urban junkies, Medan has lots of confusing public transport to conquer.

View related Indonesian travel video clips below
We uses YouTube API Services. https://www.worldtraveldb.com/youtubes-terms-of-service/

[tubepress mode=’tag’, tagValue=’Medan Indonesia’]

Danau Toba Sumatra Indonesia Travel

WorldTravelDB.com — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 07:01:26 +0000

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.

A lot has changed in Toba since its heyday, when Bataks and backpackers found that their common interests of having a good time made a nice little cottage industry. The spring break–style partiers now howl at the moon in Thailand instead of Toba. On weekends money from Medan and Aceh comes to call and a few travellers still pop in with great expectations. But the numbers aren’t enough to hide the obvious: tourism in Toba is almost dead.

View related Indonesian travel video clips below
We uses YouTube API Services. https://www.worldtraveldb.com/youtubes-terms-of-service/

[tubepress mode=’tag’, tagValue=’Danau Toba Indonesia’]

Danau Maninjau Sumatra Indonesia Travel

WorldTravelDB.com — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 07:01:27 +0000

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.

This is a great place to evaporate a Sumatra session with early-morning swims or quiet afternoons watching the clouds wisp over the peaks and slither down the 600m crater walls. From the right vantage point you can outline Maninjau’s crater lip, engulfing a diminutive lake measuring 17km long and 8km wide.

View related Indonesian travel video clips below
We uses YouTube API Services. https://www.worldtraveldb.com/youtubes-terms-of-service/

[tubepress mode=’tag’, tagValue=’Danau Maninjau Indonesia’]

Bukittinggi Sumatra Indonesia Travel

WorldTravelDB.com — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 07:01:31 +0000

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.

Bukittinggi was once a well-carved niche in the Southeast Asia trail but now only sees a trickle of travellers headed for hikes to the nearby volcanoes, rafflesia sanctuary or for culture tours into the Minangkabau heartland.

View related Indonesian travel video clips below
We uses YouTube API Services. https://www.worldtraveldb.com/youtubes-terms-of-service/

[tubepress mode=’tag’, tagValue=’Bukittinggi Indonesia’]