Indonesia Travel

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.

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 [...]

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.

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

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, [...]

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 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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]