Understand
Until around 2000, the only tourist activity along Bintan's east coast was at Trikora Beach, a popular hang-out for local visitors from Tanjung Pinang as well as foreign back-packers. Since then, the back-packer scene has largely given way to larger developments and other tourist destinations that have popped up along the east coast see below. For local day-trippers, Trikora remains a popular day trip though. Trikora is actually quite a long stretch of separate beaches, with beaches numbered from south to north as one to four satu, dua, tiga, empat in Indonesian. The best known is Trikora Beach Four Trikora Empat, which is the northernmost bit, right next to the "border" with Bintan Resorts. The beach is huge and all along the beach are basic shelters which you can rent from the close-by food sellers. If it is windy the waves can be right strong, swimming is prohibited during monsoon.
