Boat people's relics attract tourists

Boat people's relics attract tourists

BATAM, Riau: Four motorboats and various other relics left behind
by Vietnamese refugees who were stranded on Galang Island in
Batam, Riau, in 1980 have become a tourist attraction promoted by
the Batam administration.

The wooden boats, two of which have deteriorated due to
adverse weather and termites, refugee quarters now also under
repair and a well-maintained church are what tourists can find on
the 800-hectare former refugee camp.

"A farm where the boat people once grew crops for their
survival, now covered by bushes and shrubs, is a place frequented
by local and foreign tourists on the island", said a local
tourism official on Monday.

Hundreds of photographs of the refugees, their handicrafts,
ceramic statuettes and tofu-making equipment are now kept at the
inspection office of the refugee camp in Batam. --Antara