Flying to Natuna (and about Natuna)

My destination today is Ranai on the island of Natuna Besar in the Natuna Archipelago, which is part of the Riau Islands of Indonesia. It is not well known so I guess I’d better give it an intro.

Background & History of Natuna

Natuna consists of 272 islands in the South China Sea that is home for about 70,000 people. It lies outside the “Nine Dash Line” which marks China’s claim to various South China Sea islands like the Spratly and Paracel Islands. For those of you who aren’t familiar, this line is notorious for being rather all-encompassing and extends all the way to include the waters off the coast of Sarawak!

The people of Natuna are 85% Malay and the remainder Javanese, Sumatrans and Chinese. They speak Terengganu Malay but Wikipedia also suggests an element of Sarawak Malay (as it is somewhat equidistant from Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo).

How the islands came to be part of Indonesia appears to be something that “fell between the cracks”. Historically it was governed by the Malay Sultanate of Pattani in today’s south Thailand but later the Johor Sultanate (which evolved from the royal house of Melaka after the Portuguese invasion of 1511).

The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 split the Johor Sultanate, creating a separate Riau-Lingga sultanate. The former now is in Malaysia while the latter is in Indonesia.

The terms of the Treaty suggest that Natuna should now be part of Malaysia. However, Indonesia officially included Natuna in its territory in 1956. No one protested and Malaysia has never made a claim subsequently. C’est la vie. Let’s just move on.

Fast forward to today … Natuna Besar (about 2.5x the size of Singapore) is stunningly beautiful but unspoilt in terms of tourism. It is also increasingly militarised due to the presence of Chinese navy ships and illegal foreign fishing vessels. I’ll get to see and know more next couple of days.

Getting Going

My taxi driver suggested 0700 pickup for 0845 flight departure from Batam to Natuna. The ride took around 25 mins and there was a short wait to get into the terminal. The queue for Wings and Lion Air just said “Surabaya”. Asking around, it was a common queue for all destinations including Natuna Ranai.

It took a while to get to the counter but thereafter it was swift and I went airside for a brief wait. We boarded early enough to allow a departure ahead of schedule but this wasn’t meant to be as some stragglers held us back until the scheduled time. The flight appeared full (or nearly so) and I had a window seat in the last row next to the engineer.

Arrival

It was just the blue sea for most of the flight until descending into Natuna. It was a largely flat island with one big mountain. Vegetation was a mix of coconut and jungle (but not as we know it in Borneo as it appeared dryer).

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Natuna airport appeared to be military-operated. We disembarked and walked a long way in the open to reach a shed which served as the arrival hall where we waited for a while. Eventually the baggage was delivered to an open sports court much further away. I wouldn’t have liked to walk the distance to the waiting area and then the baggage area in the rain. Anyway a flash new terminal appears to be ready but not quite.

Ibu Yuli and her cousin Theo (Meng) met me and shuttled me to Hotel Central which I had booked by Whatsapp. They are Chinese and can understand some Hokkien but hardly speak any so we conversed in Malay/Indo.

Settling In

I had a choice of rooms: IDR280K (A/C with cold water) or IDR380K (A/C with hot water). I chose the former as it was a little brighter. With the early wake up, it was time to feed my tummy and I opted for Nasi Padang a couple of doors away. It turned out to be a good choice with rendang, ikan teri accompanied by complimentary cabe ijo, sayur lodeh, tapioca leaves and cucumber slices.
Taking a quick look around, I noticed there were several ATMs and the hotel also took credit card. Damn! I need not have withdrawn so much money to bring along.

Initial Explorations

Yuli enquired with me about my plans and proposed that I get a car and driver for IDR600K per day which could take me to lots of places. It was a little more than I had wanted to pay as I’m often OK with a motorcycle driver.

I kept putting off the decision through the afternoon as we went out together by car. Yuli, Meng, Bey, Alice (Yuli’s daughter) and I went to the grand mosque, an area near the airport before going to Chinatown and Penagi port.

Chinatown consisted of stilted homes on both sides of a jetty. The jetty led to a very worn out ship. A Chinese temple and a mosque were right next to each other. If it hadn’t been for Chinese New Year decorations, I wouldn’t have guessed it was Chinatown. The residents are now a mix of Indonesians and Chinese.

At Penagi port, there was a collection of semi-submerged vessels. I was told that Vietnamese boats are confiscated from time to time. But the ones I could see all had local names.

Yuli and I had a yummy dinner of Javanese style fried fish and sambal terasi. I was worn out from two early mornings and retired at 20:30!