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We said goodbye to Verdy and returned to Singapore but passed straight through this time, and caught the ferry south to the Indonesian island of Batam 45 minutes away.   We are so lucky, our friend Jon has lent us his house for the weekend while he lives it up in Singapore at the Grand Prix.  I say house, but it’s actually a palatial residence in a very fancy gated estate, overlooking a golf course and lake.  There is a glorious swimming pool for residents’ use 2 minutes’ walk away, we have never seen anyone in it but us!  The young lady who runs the bar, Titty, is lovely and has made us very welcome.  Today I wandered out of the compound to take a photo of the impressive gate and the fountains.  The 7 guards waved to me as I went out, then 30 seconds later as I re-entered, quizzed me about who I was and where I lived, and wanted to convey me home on a motorbike, which I declined.

 

Batam is one of 3000 odd islands in the Sumatran province of Riau.  Riau comprises a big chunk of central/eastern mainland Sumatra, and the group of islands scattered throughout the Straits of Malacca.  Riau was formed by rivers and narrow ocean passages rather than volcanoes.  The mainland part has dense jungle and some surviving pockets of nomadic peoples, plus Sumatran rhinos and tigers.  The Straits of Malacca were coveted throughout history as a trade route from India to China, and in 1745 the Dutch got control when the Sultan of Johor surrendered.  Pekanbaru in the middle of mainland Riau was a sleepy river port until oil was discovered before WW2, and is now Indonesia’s oil capital, and the whole of Riau province has been governed by Indonesia since the Dutch were thrown out.

 

Our island, Batam, and the nearby Bintam, are practically suburbs of Singapore, but very much owned by Indonesia.  Batam has developed at amazing speed.  When we lived in Singapore in the 1970’s there was nothing here but a jungly swamp and a few kampongs. Now Batam has an airport, ferry ports, cities and loads of industry centred around electronics, employing cheap young female labour from poorer parts of Indonesia, and construction for the oil industry.  Batam doesnt have a tourist industry to speak of, but attracts Singaporeans who want to play golf or go to spa hotels, rather than traipsing to Bali.  Batam is also developing itself as a retirement spot for east Asians.  The housing construction going on is massive, and great chunks of the island are being bulldozed from place to place to make it nice and flat for development.  There is still a lot of tropical forest left (at the moment) but it is largely fenced off, to prevent illegal settlers we are told.  There are still farming communities who grow, among other things, the amazing shocking pink spiky dragon fruit on ugly looking cactus plants, plus pineapples and bananas.  Batam Island has been joined by very impressive bridges to a string of smaller islands to the south, and today we hired a tour guide and island hopped all the way down.