Batam

Right at the southernmost end of the Malaccan Strait, Pulau Batam and its booming eponymous city form one of the veritable engine rooms of the Indonesian nation as a whole. They play host to a sweeping range of industrial zones, where the endless click and clack of microchip machinery belies the region’s free trade designation and its central place right at the heart of the burgeoning SIJORI Growth Triangle. Consequently, what this city may lack in the way of rustic Indonesian character, it more than compensates for in infrastructure and ambitious, big money construction projects. To this end, visitors make their way to the strips of Waterfront City, where manmade beaches abut swish hotels and the town’s celebrated water ski facility, or the award-winning range of all-new golf courses, and the cosmopolitan diversity of classy eateries that pepper the centre. And having taken in spectacular visages from the Barelang Bridges that today symbolise Indonesia’s fastest growing metropolis, Batam tour guides also recommend a multicultural immersion, with a visit to the Maha Vihara Duta Maitreya Buddhist Temple, Masjid Jabal Arafah, and the Tua Pek Kong Temple alike.