Provinsi Riau, Indonesia — Towns & Travel Guide

What is Provinsi Riau known for?

Riau is the Malay heartland of Sumatra, and oil built its modern wealth. Pekanbaru, the capital, sits inland on the Siak River. The province draws its identity from four rivers, the Rokan, Siak, Kampar and Indragiri, that rise in the Barisan Mountains and drain east into the Strait of Malacca.

On the Kampar River, a tidal bore called the Bono rolls upstream in a wave that surfers ride for miles. Petroleum fields at Minas and Duri made Riau one of Indonesia's great oil provinces. Malay is the language of home.

Where is Provinsi Riau?

Riau lies along the central eastern coast of Sumatra, second in size on the island only to South Sumatra. The land tilts from west to east. In the west it rises into the Barisan Mountains along the border with West Sumatra, and from there it slopes down through peat swamp and lowland forest to the shallow Strait of Malacca. North Sumatra borders it to the northwest and Jambi to the south.

Across the strait to the east lie the Riau Islands and, beyond them, the coast of Malaysia. Four rivers order the province. The Rokan, Siak, Kampar and Indragiri all rise in the Barisan Mountains and run eastward to the sea, and for centuries they were the only roads into the interior.

Pekanbaru, the capital, grew up on the Siak, one of the deepest rivers in Indonesia and navigable far inland by boat. The Kampar carries the Bono, a tidal bore that pushes upstream against the current. Offshore sit low, muddy islands, Bengkalis, Rupat and Padang among them, strung along the coast at the river mouths.

The equator crosses the province almost exactly.

What is Provinsi Riau like?

Riau calls itself a Malay homeland, and the claim runs deep. Malays form the largest single community, and Javanese, Batak, Minangkabau and Chinese families arrived over generations with the plantations, the ports and the oilfields. Islam anchors daily life.

In Pekanbaru the An-Nur mosque, nicknamed the Taj Mahal of Riau, gathers worshippers beneath ten green domes and four minarets. Craft and letters still matter here, the pantun verse recited at weddings, songket weaving shot with gold thread, and the tiered wooden houses that line the older river towns. Malay is the mother tongue here, close kin to the classical court Malay that Indonesian was later standardized from.

The province wears its past in layers. Long before the sultanates, builders of the Srivijaya world raised the brick stupas at Muara Takus beside the Kampar River. On the Indragiri at Teluk Kuantan, villages race long wooden canoes each year in the Pacu Jalur, dozens of paddlers pulling to one drum.

Oil and palm plantations pay the bills. That newer economy lies over an older Malay world of river towns, Friday mosques and boat races, and both are plainly in view.

What is the history of Provinsi Riau?

The rivers came first. In 1723 the Malay prince Raja Kecil set up the Sultanate of Siak Sri Indrapura on the Siak, and smaller courts ruled at Pelalawan and along the Indragiri. The Dutch made Siak a protectorate in 1858 and slowly pared its lands.

Its last sultan, Syarif Kasim II, threw the throne's weight behind the new Indonesian republic. Riau became a province in its own right in 1957, and Pekanbaru took over as capital in 1959. The rivers made the kingdoms; the state came later.

What is the climate of Provinsi Riau?

Riau sits astride the equator, so the heat barely shifts from month to month. Days are hot and sticky, with heavy afternoon downpours common the year round. Rain eases a little between April and September and returns in force from October, when the wet months set in.

There is no cool season. In the drier spell, fires lit to clear peat and plantation land can throw a smoky haze across Pekanbaru and the coast toward the Strait of Malacca.

How do you get to Provinsi Riau?

Most visitors land at Pekanbaru. Sultan Syarif Kasim II International Airport, named for the last sultan of Siak, links the capital with Jakarta, Batam, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. From the coast, ferries cross the Strait of Malacca between Dumai and Malacca in Malaysia, the old sea route Riau's ports have always worked.

Roads run inland from Pekanbaru, including the toll road out to Dumai. Long before any of that, the four rivers were the way in.