Visiting Dumai, Riau, Indonesia

It was still holiday after coming from Kuala Lumpur, and I still wanted to spend the rest of it near the sea. So I visited Dumai from 9 to 11 February 2019.

Pekanbaru to Duri

Full of enthusiasm in anticipation for the sea/beach experience, I headed for Dumai from Pekanbaru from 12:30.

The trip from Pekanbaru to Dumai is around 7 hours with many stopovers of the oplet supposedly to collect passengers. The trip passes by kelapa sawit plantations of the entire Riau area including some parts of Bengkalis Regency. Different sizes of pipelines follow the road from Pekanbaru to the Port of Dumai. I have also seen two areas of oil wells along the way. Two distinct town centers were seen before approaching the Dumai, the second largest city in Riau province: these are Kandis and Duri.

In Duri, the oplet transferred us to another oplet.

Duri to Dumai

Duri to Dumai is approximately 60 kilometers more. That time the oplet was much faster than the previous one. It was already past 19:00 when I reached Dumai so I immediately looked for an ojek. the old man was kind enough to send me to a place they call penginapan. I understood that the first one was already full because the day is Malam Minggu - Saturday Night where many people would spend their nights in hotels relaxing.


Dumai 


Since it's already night, I just had a walking tour in the nearby places and also ate at a restaurant that served ayam penyet. That was already my dinner. I also passed by durian sellers so I bought one and ate there right away. It really relished my night to discover such similarity of Pekanbaru and Dumai.

After walking for around 40 minutes, I went back to my inn and slept after taking a bath. I slept so soundly that I did not notice the time of waking up early the following morning.

It was already 7:30 when I woke up. I packed my things and decided to find the nearest beach. First I walked around the city then decided to visit any beach nearby. But, instead of a beach, I saw a pier going to Malacca at the Port of Dumai. I then remembered that just beside my lodge is an office selling trip tickets for ferries going to Malacca, Port Klang, Batam, and Tanjung Pinang. The ferries are Indomal Express, Malaysia Express, and Dumai Express. In my next backpacking adventure, I will pass by this place going to Malaysia.

There is not much to see at the pier. Aside from the disappointment that the place is heavily guarded and one cannot just go inside the departure area of the port.

My internet search led me to Wisata Bahari Bandar Bakau. It is not actually a beach but a mangrove tree plantation with some eco-tourism facilities. Unfortunately, the facilities are already broken and many are malfunctioning. Nevertheless, I still stayed there because there are restaurants and places to sit and relax around. There is also a pier with a hut at the middle. It only opens from late afternoon to 9 in the evening.

I took the leisure to walk around the area, stop and did some musings, explored the docked ships nearby and watched some children swim nearby. The relatively small ships are called kapal, and I was able to have conversations with some of the men working there. Their kapal actually carry goods which they deliver form one city to another around Indonesia. A kapal delivers goods to as far as Batam, Jakarta, Papua, Manado, and even overseas Malaysia

I decided to stay there until the afternoon, and joined them in some kind of light drinking of tuak. In fact in Indonesia, I did not see wine drinkers. It was only at this time that I saw some groups who drink wine but this kind has a very low alcohol content and relatively cheap. There might be some people drinking alcohol but I saw some in Pekanbaru drinking only beer.


At the wisata, there were not many people coming from morning to early afternoon. But, starting late afternoon until the evening, many people would come and go and do some relaxation near the sea. Food vendors also flock the place. Some are sellers of sate, bakso bakar, kelapa muda, ice cream, and other local Indonesian street food.

I was able to gain the friendship of those workers with whom I had a conversation with. One of them even advised me to be careful and avoid people who have criminal minds. He warned me not to be too friendly with people as there are so many who are starving and poor and I might not know their state of mind if they saw me having even a small amount of money to share. One of them even decided to send me back to Penginapan Lenggogeni when I decided to depart for the afternoon. Initially, I wanted to go back to Pekanbaru that evening but there was no available oplet traveling. There are available cars but it is expensive around 130,000 rupiah so I decided to stay for a night and waited for the next morning to ride oplet. My friend Amirul was patient enough to send me to the inn where I stayed for a night.

Back to Pekanbaru

The following morning at 5:00, I checked out of my hotel and rode a bajaj going to the terminal near the simpangan where oplet would park waiting for passengers before going to Pekanbaru. Indeed, there were much oplet waiting so I rode one who was scheduled to go at that moment I arrived.

The fare is much more expensive as it is 80,000. The travel was about 6 hours; it was faster compared to the previous one. We were transferred to another oplet after Duri because the traffic was so heavy.

I also bought honey (madu) from an Ibu who rode the oplet along her way to Kandis. The size of the bottle of iced tea is worth 40,000 IDR. According to her, the honey she sold is real and to test it, just leave it open and the ants will not be attracted to it. Pure honey is called madu murni.

By the way, I remember, the oplet as ordinary transport has many smokers even inside it, and even the driver.

I reached Pekanbaru at 12:30 and alighted at Jln Riau Ujung where an oplet with placard "Tampan" is imprinted. It was timely because the oplet passed by my house.

I spent the whole afternoon taking a rest to be ready for the next day's classes.

Indonesian mode of transport:
oplet - a van-like vehicle that collects passengers going to a particular destination
ojek - a single motor that has a single passenger usually standing my a street or passing by to pick up passengers, this is developed to gojek - one that is tied either to Gojek or Grab for the online gathering of passenger
bajaj - a tricycle that has a sidecar and can accommodate at most 3 people

Visiting Dumai Expenses 9-11 February 2019
Date	Particulars	Price
9 Feb (Sat)	Gojek: (Single motor) Kantor Pos Jl. Sudirman to Terminal AKAP Pekanbaru	16,000
	Oplet: (van collecting passengers) Terminal AKAP Pekanbaru to Simpang in Dumai	70,000
	Ojek: (Private/ No gojek in Dumai)	20,000
	Penginapan: Lenggogeni	75,000
	Air	5,000
	Durian (Smallest)	10,000
	Kencing	2,000
10 Feb (Sun)	Nasi bubur (10,000) Sate (2x1000) Telur kecil (1x2000)	14,000
	Kopi dan roti (dekat jembatan)	7,000
	Tour Guide tip	20,000
	Tuak	77,000
	Kelapa	10,000
	Duku (2 kilos)	20,000
	Lunch-dinner	18,000
	Penginapan: Lenggogeni	90,000
	Tour Guide Tip	65,000
11 Feb (Mon)	Bajaj (single motor with sidecar) From Jl. Sudirman to Simpang jln ke Pekanbaru	20,000
	Snack	4,000
	Kencing	2,000
	Madu murni	40,000
	Lunch	19,000
TOTAL		604,000