Destinations to Visit in Riau Islands Province

Riau Islands is a province of Indonesia. This province originally part of the Riau Province, the Riau Islands were split off as a separate province in July 2004 with Tanjung Pinang as its capital. Riau island province is located near Singapore (just 40 minutes from Singapore). This province has a good ferry links to nearby Singapore and Malaysia.

Riau islands has many fantastic beaches. There are many resort here. The most famous is Lagoi resort. Then, the next destination is Sultan Riau mosque at Penyengat island. Penyengat Island is located in Tanjung Pinang, capital city of Riau islands province. To go there, we must hire boats to Penyengat Island. The place to hire boats to Penyengat Island is just beside the main Tanjung Pinang ferry terminal (Sri Bintan Pura ferry terminal) where u arrived from Singapore. The trip is about 15 minutes from Sri Bintan Pura ferry terminal.The boat can only accomodate 13 passangers. Its cost is around 5000 IDR. In other ways, Penyengat Island is like a kampung-style town. There were gravels , unfinished road, rocky finishes and so on. There are many Malay traditional houses here.

Sultan Riau mosque was built when Engku Putri Hamidah (wife of Sultan Mahmudsyah) chose this island as her residence. This mosque uses egg white as one of the building construction materials. The Sultan Riau mosque's facade dominated by nice green and yellow color. These represent the colors of the royal house of the Malay world in the history. In its early years, the mosque was a simple building. Its minaret was only 6 metres in high. Then, in Idul Fitri (islamic holiday) of 1832, Sultan Abdurrahman renovated in full scale the mosque. The architect of this building was an Indian from Singapore. Thats why, this mosque mostly resembles Indian kingdoms architectures. Today, the main building is 29,3 x 19,5 meters wide. its roof is supported by four underpinnings inside. There are also 13 domes and four minarets (18,9 metres in high) in this building.

Another destination in Riau islands province is ex.Vietnam refugee camp in Galang island. This camp is famous because it was rated the best refugee camp by the UNHCR. This camp, approximately it covers 16 square kilometres. There are many facilities and offices like camp administration office, PMI (Indonesian Red Cross) Hospital, school, church, cemetery, Buddish temple, and Youth Center here. There are also exact replica of one of the boats used in 1975 by the Vietnamese people to cross the seas. The Camp was divided into three sites: Site IA, Site IB, and Site II. This camp accommodated about 250,000 boat people from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam from 1975 to 1996. Most of them were Vietnamese. Galang island are connected with Batam island and others islands by Barelang bridge. Best to travel here is by car.

At least, Don't say you've ever traveled to Riau island province if you did not visit Barelang bridge yet. It takes about 30 minutes from city center of Batam to Barelang bridge. Barelang bridge connects Batam island (BA), Rempang island (RE), Galang island (LANG), and others small islands in the path. Barelang bridge consist of 6 bridges to connect the Batam Island and the Tonton Island (Bridge 1), Tonton - Nipah (Bridge 2), Nipah -Setokok (Bridge 3), Setokok-Rempang (Bridge 4), Rempang-Galang (Bridge 5), and Galang - Galang Baru (Bridge 6). On a very clear day, it is possible to see Tanjung Pinang town on Bintan island on the far horizon. There are several beaches here, such as Sembulang beach at Rempang island, Melur beach at Galang island, and a beach at Galang Baru island.