Nagoya Entertainment District

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Overnight Trips from Batam:

Fitness Level: Optional: e.g. sit on a motorised trike (easy) or walk for 2 hours (harder).

TANJUNG (Tj) PINANG - BINTAN ISLAND
Tanjung Pinang (TPI) was the commercial centre of the Malacca Straits before Raffles founded Singapore. To this day, it is still the commercial center of the Riau Islands. Every morning, "pompongs" (diesel wooden boats) from dozens of neighbouring villages converge on Tj Pinang carry villagers and products to sell in Pinang's busy morning markets. If you ever spend the night in one of the town hotels, an early visit to the waterfront markets is worth the effort.

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TJ PINANG IN A DAY It is possible to visit Tj Pinang from Batam in a single day. Take the first (8am) ferry from Telagga Puggur Ferry Termanal (FT) in Batam, arrive TPI an hour later. Hop on a local pompong (small diesel powered wooden boat) and spend the rest of the morning wandering around historic Penyenget Island. Make sure you visit the old royal buildings and the fort on the hill. At the Penyenget jetty arrange to charter a pompong directly to the Wisma Senggarang Resort, where you can have lunch. In the early afternoon, take a walk around this shore and take a public boat over to Tj Pinang. If you want to return to Batam the same day, shoot for a 3pm ferry. Sometimes there are too many people for the capacity of the 4pm and 5pm ferries and some people have to miss the boat.

BINTAN - MULTIPLE DAYS If you want to get away from Tj Pinang town, go visit Trikora Beach. If you like it, there are several places to stay. See Jan Boostra's Bintan Cycling site for more info.

Batam-Bintan ferry. Penyenget island in the background.

To see an image full sized, click on it and press [F11].

The fort on Penyenget Island.	House of Tungku Bilik. Penyenget can be seen on foot in a couple of hours.
These photos were scanned from Gilles Massot's excellent book: "Bintan Phoenix".

BINTAN RESORTS Perceptually, there are two Bintans, one is TPI based and the other is on the island's north coast, far from TPI - the huge Bintan Resorts complex, owned by a consortium of Singapore government-linked companies. Although in Indonesia, Bintan Reports is like a slice of Singapore itself - expensive and sterile and therefore not a subject for this site.

Traditional Bugis "pinisi" schooner, often carrying sacks of cement from Java. There are still some 4,000 working "pinisi" in Indonesia making this the largest remaining commercial sailing fleet.

Seafaring orang laut people, often can still be seen in the islands between Batam and Bintan.

Sights in Tj Pinang Harbour. After you have finished seeing Penyenget Island, charter a "pompong" (wooden diesel boat) from there to bring you to see Sengarang in Tj Pinang Harbour. From Sengarang you can take a public boat back to Tj Pinang.
Looking from a hill in Tj Pinang town over the harbour to Sengarang / Kampung Bugis and Gunung Bintan.	Boats from dozens of neighbouring villages come to TPI's morning market.
Atek Seafood, in the market area, only opens at night.

Morning market scene.

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