Riau province is a safe place, with a very low crime rate. There is no terrorism in the province.
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Bahasa Indonesia is modeled on the version of Malay which originates from the Riau Islands. In fact, Riau Malay is regarded as the purest form of the Malay language and visitors from Malaysia will find the Malay spoken here very similar to Bahasa Malaysia, which is the version of Malay spoken back home.
Many of the islands, especially Batam, Bintan, Karimun and Kundur, have huge Chinese populations who speak Hokkien and Teochew as well as Mandarin.