Pulau Penuba (2)

Around the island

I managed to find two main roads in the island of Penuba (Pulau Selayar) . One goes along the south coast from Penuba to Tanjong Dua. The other is more intersting and it goes through the middle of the island from Penuba to a kampung on the shore of the beach on the north overlooking Pulau Lingga.
The road goes up and down the hilly interior of the island. There are a few weird places with strange earth formations and puddles that looked sulphuric but did not smell like it.

Steep!

This is really weird...

The beach in the north

This is a really beautiful beach in the north of Pulau Selayar facing Pulau Lingga and straight out of National Geographic...
As there is no road from the kampung to Tanjung Dua I walked over via the beach, courtesy of the low tide.

No shops in the kampung. Asked a guy to help me get a coconut from the tree as I was totally dehydrated. He gave me two: one to drink, one to eat. Look at the husk-spoon! Fucking clever.

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Pulau Penuba (1)

From Singkep to Penuba (Pulau Selayar)

Exhausted from those killer hills between Sungaibuluh and Jago in Pulau Singkep, I decided to call it a day and took a pompom to Penuba (Pulau Selayar).
Sadly the ride across the strait is only about 15 minutes. Laying down with tired muscles on the bottom of the pompom watching Penuba approaching against the backdrop of Gunung Daik bathed in late afternoon ligth was pure bliss and is now one of those memories I know I will never forget.

Pualu Selayar is a very relaxing small island sandwiched between Pulau Singkep and Pulau Lingga. There are no cars - and no paved roads - in the island. There also few ojeks. Everybody seems happy to just walk or take a boat to wherever they have to go, but most people seem to be happy to just sit and chat with friends and do nothing. Great Place!

I managed to find three main kampungs in the island: Penuba, Tanjung Dua and one more small kampung whose name I don' t remember.

The Jetty

A few pictures of the jetty in Pulau Penuba.

The two guys below asked me if I wanted to go back to Bintan in this boat with them. I would have been fine normally but that weekend I was on my second attempt to quit smoking and I knew I would not have lasted 1 hour without smoking in their company...and they told me the trip back to Bintan was 24 hours.

Pulau Singkep - Air Panas

Air Panas (Hot water spring)

While in Dabo Singkep somebody recommended me to go to Air Panas...the local hot water spring. The spring is in the middle of Pulau Singkep. I got lost a few times before managing to find the beginning of the mud road (must ask for the power station!). From the beginning of the side road it must be over 15Kms of dirts roads over wooden bridges and across forests and rubber tree plantations. Met a couple of the usual kids (13 years old?) carrying rifles on the way...always freaks me out a little bit...
The spring itself is not that nice. Just a 3 big concrete pools of very (burning) hot water, but the road to get there is a nice detour, with extra excitement if you are not really sure where you are going.

The best bridge in Pualu Singkep. Cross it at top spead to lighten the bike load!

Zooming down this fantastic dirt track...

Pulau Singkep

Jago to Dabo

After about 4 hours of boat from Tanjung Pinang in Bintan I finally arrived in Pulau Singkep.
The boat stops in Jago and as there seems to be really nothing there I decided to go straight to Dabo to try and find a place to stay.
After a few Kms of very steep up and down hills there are about 20Km of coastal road to go to the main town of Dabo. The coastal road sits on a 5/10 meter cliff and is very scenic and with very little traffic. This is probably the most enjoyable road I ever did in the Riau islands.

After a breakfast of Kopi-o, some sort of mee rebus and the obligatory chit chat with a coffeshop customer who didn' t let me pay for my breakfast and recommended a few sights, I headed off for Pantai Batu Berduan. The beach of Batu Berduan (rock tree) is nice and clean. There was none there when I visited.
The ride from Dabo passes by a few very nice kampungs. People are chatty, smiley, and very nice. What a great island!






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Pulau Balat

Pulau Balat

Pulau Balat is a small island just off the coast of Pulau Kundur that can easily be reached via pompom. There are a lot of shaded, hilly single tracks that are really nice for cycling. Even better, there is absolutely no car in the island. It is quite easy to get lost - which I did - but it doesn' t really matter since the island is probably about the same size of Pulau Ubin in Singapore. I didn' t really manage to explore the whole island as I was rushing to get the last ferry back to Singapore which I ended up missing anyway. Will just have to go back.


Just love taking pompoms with my bike. Sit back, have a smoke and enjoy the ride. Missing a nice beer though...

Saw quite a few young kids going around the island with rifles, very common in Riau. I guess they were after some nice meat for dinner like the goat below.

Pulau Kundur

Around the island

Pulau Kundur is one of the bigger islands south of Singapore. You can either reach Tanjung Batu straight from Singapore or the town (~40Km) in the north by taking a small boat from the rickety jetty (not the main jetty) near the mosque in Tanjung Balai in Pulau Karimun.

It is a great place for cycling with loads of single tracks in the center of the island.
The main town, Tanjung Batu, though a lot quieter than Tanjung Balai in Pulau Karimun, is also a weekend getaway for old uncles and other singaporeans who want to get some taste of cheap fresh meat. Found this uncle in the ferry telling me how in Singapore "even 300$ cannot enjoy" while in Tanjung Batu 60$ keeps him going for the whole weekend.

The town is a really sleepy place but lives up to its reputation.
I arrived in Tanjung Batu filthy and full of sweat after 40km cycling from the town in the north. While I was looking at my map to find a guesthouse, I was quickly approached by 2 young girls and their "mother" and, yeah, their "grandmother". Had a really hard time convincing the "mother" that I didn' t want to go to their home for a beer and to freshen up a bit. Even funnier, as I was having some satay in the market in the evening this guy comes over and asks me if I have a "reservation". When I point to the guesthouse at my back, the guys laughs and say "no, no, reservation for girl?".

Lovely bathroom! May not be as convenient as an ensuite bathroom but at least no need to clean it ever. Just pray you don' t mistake your bar of soap with the floater of your upstream neighbour.

Got to be one of the best kampong chickens in Riau. Didn' t dare to ask the owner to sell it to me to have ayam bakar. Pulau Kundur has the best chickens in Riau




The beach in the south-east of Pulau Kundur. About 5Kms from Tanjung Batu. As usual the beach is totally empty







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