Thailand beyond solo backpacking: Bagansiapiapi,Indonesia's little MinNan Village

Bagansiapiapi is a small little town about 150km to the north of Dumai city in Central Sumatra under the administration of the Rokan Hilir Regency,Riau Province.

Located at the mouth of the Rokan River that flows into the Straits of Malacca,this town has its historical origin dated back to the Dutch East Indies colonial era during the early 18th century.

What drew my interest to visit this town is the annual Barge Burning festival(Hokkien:'sio-ong-chun') which usually falls on the Chinese calender month of May 16th(Hokkian dialect:GocapLak[五月十六])

The only mode of transportation to get here is the shared eight seater Toyota Kijang Innova taxi van which I booked direct from this PSM company at No:424,Jln Jend Sudirman in Dumai.Contact No:(0765)33492.
They do provide pickup as well and can book through the phone.Fare :70,000Rupiah.
Departure at about 10:30am and arrived in Bagansiapiapi at about 12:30noon.
Local mini buses only operate in the morning,non air-conditioned and expect to take three half hours with many stops along the route.

Old library archives photo of early Chinese immigrants to Bagansiapiapi taken in front of the oldest Ing Hok Kiong Chinese temple beside the Rokan River.

Such scene has its similarity to the riverside quay in old Malacca and the boat quay in Singapore.

The early Chinese immigrants were mostly coolies,rickshaw pullers,traders and rice dealers who brought along their cultures and Hokkien language when they emigrated from Amoy (now known as Xiamen.) during the Anglo-Chinese War (1839-42) and later the longest civil war to overthrow the Qing Dynasty.

The Anglo-Chinese war started at the Pearl River in Canton,followed by an attack on Amoy and then Dinghai port near Hangzhou.

Xiamen was the main port of China during the 18th century and was opened to foreign traders.
The weakening of the Qing government and a country torn into rebellious anarchy forced many mainland southern Chinese to migrate across other Southeast Asian port cities.

This is the reason for the first waves of China's southern emigrants set sailing in large wooden Chinese junks from their homeland as most were poor peasants compared to those of the northern Han Chinese.

Whereas in Thailand,Ayutthaya was the early focal point where many settlers were mainland Chinese from the Chaozhou prefecture of eastern Guangdong Province who spoke the Teochew dialect as till today.

Surprisingly,the three governing states of British Straits Settlements of Malaya have ethnic Chinese of whom majority of them spoke the Hokkien dialect tracing their roots to the Fujian Province of China.

Bagansiapiapi's close proximity to Malacca is midway between Penang Island and Singapore.
Having a physical landscape similar to that of Xiamen Island ,Gulangyu and Kinmen with many sheltered islets and rich marine resources,Bagansiapiapi seemed ideal to the early Chinese settlers due to her strategic advantage.

Initially there were three wooden sailing junks that set sail from Amoy and only one fleet managed to discover the shores of Bagansiapiapi.The sailors offered prayers to two deities namely Tai Sun and Kie Ong Ya throughout the difficult journey which provided them the perserverance.

Majority of the pioneers that landed in Bagansiapiapi had the surname 'Ang' and as today there are about twenty eight different clansmen ancestral temple spread across the new found homeland.
For the best seafood cuisines around town there were two of these Ang family restaurants that were operating for generations.

On this very day of the sixteenth Chinese lunar month of May back in 1826,a temple's thanksgiving celebration was held to pay tribute to the two deities and the wooden sailing junks(tongkang) was put on flames as a goodwill gesture of sending the spiritual King Ship(Hokkien:'Ong Cun') back to sea and the underworld.

This practice has now become an annual tradition with thousands of visitors and devotees congregating in Bagansiapiapi specially for this event.
It has now been declared a National Event of Indonesia known as Bakar Tongkang

Jalan Pahlawan,the narrow main road leading into town.
At the fourth kilometer is the minibus stand to Dumai leaves at 09:30 & 10:00am which is opposite a Malay owned guesthouse,Penginapan Ulung Ujang.Rates 100,000Rupiah.(fan shared bathroom).
Local outstation sales people normally use this as base.
Caution:owner tend to charge day and night occupancy instead of rates per night adding to confusion,advisable to pay day to day and get the receipt.

Due to hotels around town being fully booked,the 'supir'(van driver) dropped me here.Though it's a hot stuffy wooden shack,getting settled and scout around town for better accomodation is a priority.
Beside the minibus stand is a 'lotex' short name for lowongan taxi or taxi van booking outlet. Fares to Dumai is 70,000 Rupiah.There were many taxi van booking agents around town as well but some were unreliable.

Hotel Lion,Bagansiapiapi at the end of Jalan Pahlawan along Jalan Mawar.(less than a km from Klenteng Ing Hok Kiong)
A three star modern five storey hotel,opened in early 2008 with one level for vehicles parking.
Rates from 350,000 Rupiah.
Contact:(0767)25551/2/3
Email:info@lionhotel.co.id

SMP Bintang Laut near Hotel Lion along Jalan Mawar,a famous junior high school in town.
This school name 'Bintang Laut' is quite synonymous throughout Indonesia as it belongs to the Yayasan Prayoga or Catholic Foundation.
Students whom I met have interesting names such as Valentino Yoga,Gregorius Joso,Feby Cherolina,Gina Fabiola and Vanessa Huang.