Batam's "Ex-Camp Vietnam" Get Back Crowded Travelers Again

Former "Camp" Vietnamese refugees on Galang Island, Batam, Riau Islands, now re-visited by tourists after the manager was doing some repairs on the location that used to be a shelter about 180 thousand boat people.

 "Now start again crowded. Especially on weekends or holidays," said a guard sights Camp Vietnam, Philip, on Sunday.

Refugee camps in the former there is a museum that contains images of the Vietnamese community when residents arrive in the Riau Islands since the war-torn country.

The facilities were built by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) with the government of Indonesia such as barracks, churches, offices, schools, public areas despite remaining largely been destroyed because it is not treated.

"Used to be solid. Yet now only a few buildings remaining. Some partially damaged from disuse," said Philip.

He said, some places of worship including Maria Immaculata Catholic Church which was also built at the Vietnamese inhabit the region (1979-1996) is still used for religious worship including the big days.

"Some of the places of worship that built when the Vietnamese were here still maintained their original shape. Many are still in use," he said.
Camp Vietnam is located approximately 70 kilometers from the center of Batam. From the city center, can be reached by road via the Trans Barelang were built during the Batam Authority led by BJ Habibie.

Head of Batam City Tourism Office, Hendri Yusfa previously said Vietnam's Camp is an alternative tourist spot after various modern places built.
"Camp Vietnam a historical tourist attractions as well as one of the prime tourist destinations Batam," he said.

He said, for tourists who want to visit there, should visit attractions such as the iconic bridge Barelang city, dragon fruit plantation and get to several private beaches.

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Gambling Probably Back in Indonesia's Batam to Lure Neighboring Vacationers

More Singaporeans and Malaysians have been spending their weekends in Batam, Riau Islands, Indonesia, over the last few months after the reemergence of gambling-related recreation and gaming centers on the island.

Native authorities have denied that they've revived gambling in Batam, though information show that officers have not too long ago issued 14 licenses for recreation and gaming services to revive tourism and to provide entertainment amenities for international investors on Batam.

"An increasing variety of overseas vacationers have been gradually reviving the island's service trade comparable to hotels, restaurants and transportation, and indirectly producing more job alternatives on the island," Yusfa Hendri, the head of the Batam municipal tourism office, stated here yesterday.

Hendri said that the workplace had acquired 30 applications for recreation and gaming center licenses and had issued 30 licenses.

The recreation and gaming centers, which give playing machines, have attracted Malaysians and Singaporeans, who're limited to playing at dwelling to the mountaintop casino in Tanah Genting, Malaysia, and to two not too long ago opened casinos, the Marina Bay Sands and the Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore.

The centers in Batam have additionally attracted overseas investors to different close by islands in Riau Islands, akin to Bintan and Tanjungpinang.

The police shut down gaming centers in Batam in November 2011, following protests from local Muslim clerics.

Gambling in Riau Islands was put to an ostensible end in July 2005, when the Nationwide Police was headed by Gen. (ret.) Sutanto.

Hendri denied that the recreation and gaming centers, that are situated in malls and purchasing centers, had become playing sites.

The arcades, some of which function state-of-the-artwork slot machines, are usually located in procuring malls and open before the vast majority of other retailers and shut late within the evening.

At one such gaming center, no kids could possibly be observed, solely adults who appeared to be foreigners who inserted forex instantly into the machines.

Critics say that the local police's apparent tolerance of gambling within the gaming areas was related to the alleged fee of bribes to government officers and law enforcement officers.

The gaming centers that function slot machines in Batam are apparently supposed to reap the benefits of vacationers from Singapore, which is nearer to Batam than Malaysia.

Hendri mentioned that the tourism workplace would continue its programmes to build recreation and gaming centers to entice foreigners to go to the island and to generate more job alternatives for native residents.

He stated that he hoped that the presence of extra vacationers would enhance the income and tax receipts of the municipal administration.

The arcades contribute up to 1 billion rupiah (US$107,000) to the municipality's coffers each month, in response to officials.

In the meantime, the top of the Riau Islands chapter of the Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI), Tengku Asyari Abbas, mentioned the obvious official encouragement of playing in Batam showed that hypocrisy had turn into a trait of the folks and the government.

Abbas also said that the indecisive nature of the federal government in upholding the law had allowed gambling to thrive.

"The MUI has urged Batam Mayor Ahmad Dahlan to revoke the permits of the gaming arenas as a result of destructive slightly than optimistic implications. The principles in Indonesia, especially non secular rules, prohibit all types of gambling actions," Abbas said.

Vacationer arrivals to Batam plummeted to beneath 1 million from a excessive of 1.5 million after Sutanto banned gambling in the area in 2005.

However, vacationer numbers have slowly rebounded after gambling was reintroduced to Batam on a small scale in 2008, when the Batam municipality issued permits to 27 arcades to operate 800 machines.

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Tourism Potential Batam,Should be an Uniquely Icon in Asian

Batam should called uniquely Asian icon because there are many tourist sites in the city of Batam, an interesting place to visit, with various tribes, peoples, and citizens from outside Indonesia especially from Asia contained in this batam city.

Parts of the continent of Asia, Batam name is well familiar to them, because of the brothers and their relatives ever set foot or even live in the city in the form of a scorpion, both to conduct their own business or become an employee at the company in Batam.

With the development of the Batam city in world travel has its own competitiveness in the field of tourism, which has many tourist attraction rich, Batam is become to none in parts of Asia such as:

Culinary tour

Various menu served in all restaurants and shops in corners of the city of Batam mostly mainstay menu is seafood.

Religious tourism

Completeness of places of worship in the Batam city ought to be the purpose of public religious traveled in Asian, such as Maitreya Buddha temple supposedly the biggest and grandest temples in Southeast Asia.

Historical and humanitarian

the historical and humanity in the city batam like Vietnam camps, so not only the Asian community who can learn the history of Vietnam's camp but people from across the globe can get information about the history of the Batam city.

And there are many others who have not been exposed in the eyes of Asia too. Completeness of various facilities and adequate infrastructure in Batam, Batam therefore as worthy of the uniquely Asian icon.

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