Pulau Karimun - Another perspective

According to the driver, Pulau Karimun only has 40,000 population. Most of the arable lands are not cultivated. They are bushes everywhere and rarely jungle. The villagers plant their own vegetable on land surrounding their house.

Visitor may see the kampung (village) life. During my tour round the island, I witnessed the villagers having bird singing competition.

The Riau Administration is going to relocate the island administration from Tanjung Balai to inner land. To my surprise, they build a very big administration centre, headquarter of police, court in one big area.

On my way back from one of the granite quarries, I saw a very big mosque in green color.

It seems to me that the Riau governmnet obtained a big budget from the central government. Among the big island of Riau Archipelago like Batam, Bintan, Pulau Karimun, Lingga, Kundur, Karimun for the moment has no industrial development either locally or from foreign investment. It is an island ignored in this area.

Pulau Karimun survives on the granite and sand supply to mainly Singapore. There is no famous historical sites to visit. Some Singaporean come here to pay visits to Chinese temples to get the 4 digits. However, Tanjung Balai has about 50 hotels due to the flourishing of another industry.

This post is written by Chai Yong from http://www.temasekmap.com which is about an ebook "Travel Guide of Singapore Batam Bintan Johor" and related maps.