Fieldsite Recce: Pekanbaru 20-24Mar 2008

My second field site is in the capital of Riau province, Pekanbaru. Planning a Good Friday weekend trip to recce the place with a few friends.

Itinerary
20 March (Thursday) Depart Singapore-Batam-Pekanbaru by boat, check in to poppies homestay
21 March (Friday) Fieldwork
22 March (Saturday) Bukit Tinggi
23 March (Sunday) Boat back to Singapore

Alternate Itinerary
21 March (Friday) Depart Singapore-Batam-Pekanbaru by boat, check in to poppies homestay
22 March (Saturday) Fieldwork
23 March (Sunday) Bukit Tinggi; flight back to Singapore on Air Asia (PKU-JKT-JB-SIN)

Currently the "team" stands at:
1. Monkey
2. Duck
3. Fish [unconfirmed]
4. [unconfirmed]


A view of pekanbaru - where are the farms? Photo by adibs

"Pekanbaru is the capital of Riau, a province in Indonesia on the island of Sumatra. It has an area of 446.5 km² and population of over 793,000. Located on the Siak River, which drains to the Strait of Malacca, Pekanbaru has direct access to the busy strait and was long known as a trading port (the city name is derived from the Indonesia words of 'new market', "pekan" meaning market, and "baru" meaning new). It is the home of Element One team member Renaldo Rasfuldi.

A settlement has existed on the city site since the 17th century. In the late 19th century, the city developed to serve the coffee and coal industries, and the Dutch built roads to help ship goods to Singapore and Malacca (now Melaka). After oil was discovered in the region in the 1930s, Pekanbaru's economy has depended heavily on oil revenues and made the city with the highest per capita income in Indonesia.[citation needed] Most of Indonesia's petroleum is produced in Riau, and much of Pekanbaru's economy is based on the petroleum industry. International oil companies, such as Chevron from US, as well as other Indonesian companies, have established their offices in the region. This location for oil has proven to be one of the best money providers in the world. However, the local government being so currupt, the US company Chevron only receives 10% of all the money made at the camps. The The city is connected by road to an oil refining and exporting port at Dumai. Many facilities, including an airport, three stadiums (buildig a fourth), swimming pool, one of the two bridges that cross the Siak River near the city, the roads in Rumbai area, and also the road to Dumai, were partially or fully financed by oil companies working in the area." - source: wikipedia

The city also has a website but is not particularly informative.

There is also a Riau University in Pekanbaru, possible contact. A very good collection of photos by Pekanbaru Photo Collections and here's another person on Flickr who's apparently from Singapore but traveled at PB.