Indonesia days 25 to 30 - Raja Ampat, West Papua

Sunset from the rooftop bar with a GnT at the Aston hotel in Sorong. 

Another travel day, but we arrived safely in Sorong and went to the Aston Hotel, same chain as in Makassar. The WiFi connected automatically.

We came straight off the plane, as usual, as we don't have to wait for luggage, and found our driver. He was very keen so off we went, unaware that our guide had just arrived at the airport.

Arriving on the ferry in Waisai in the Raja Ampat reserve. It was chaos of course, 200 people all trying to exit, but Angelissa had a car waiting for us, the advantage of arranging everything before

We checked in, early, hurrah, at last and went and dropped our bags as Angelissa arrived to say hello. She seems nice, though slightly mad, but that's not necessarily a bad thing!

The Korpak resort entrance looks nice enough, there's a swimming pool through the back with little huts around it

We had a little lunch and actually used the swimming pool, though there was something strange about it being right outside the restaurant, and them apparently laying up some long tables for an event right behind us.

But we went past the swimming pool and along a walkway through mangrove trees...

A GnT at the rooftop bar watching the sun go down, very civilised. Hopefully my request not to be on this level when we return on Saturday, and they have live music will be noted. Today it was good though.

And out onto a walkway on the shallow sea to a lovely hut on stilts on the water

Day 26

We don't know what to do with ourselves, having asked a couple of days ago what time our ferry was, we were told 9.00 or 14.00. We asked for 09.00, but apparently it was sold out, so we have all morning to kill which was very relaxing.

Thats our home for three days. The boat leaves from the end of this walkway each day

13.00 the same driver appeared and put us in the car, apparently just as Angelissa was arriving, but again, he didn't wait.

And that's the restaurant over there a short walk away

We got to the ferry port and the car was descended upon by 'porters' lots of divers come here, with big bags. Unsurprisingly we said no! The driver, Tian, led us through the mass of people and took us to the VIP ferry cabin, all without tickets, they are with Angelissa, but it didn't seem to matter! She appeared shortly after, though after a quick chat she vanished off. Apparently it's too cold for her!

Sunset from our balcony

Only a couple of hours and we are in Waisai on West Papua in an area called Raja Ampat, highly recommended by J&M. The pictures of the accommodation, over the sea looked lovely, so we were very pleased to find we are actually in one of these little huts (with AC and fan), for three nights. Only downside, the WiFi is very intermittent, but it's enough to say we are alive I guess!

First day in Raja Ampat and we had an hour and a half fast boat across the Halmahera Sea to the island of Piaynemo

We watched the sunset and thought we'd go and have a beer. They don't sell beer, but the girl said she could go somewhere to fetch one. 15 minutes! You'd better get two then! Good as gold, she did. She also said they could get some from the town tomorrow, which would be cheaper! Wouldn't it just be easier to sell beer?

And up the first rough steps to the Star Lagoon viewpoint

Day 27

Breakfast at 07.30, Angel turned up a little later, but she'd already had breakfast at her hostel in the town. What a pain for her that she isn't staying here, but I guess that's not our problem. 

Theres the viewpoint, the star lagoon is on the left. A baby shark (don't sing the song!) swam into the lagoon...

Be ready for 09.00, and we go in the boat. A fast boat, just us, but it still took an hour and a half to get to the famous viewpoint. We know it's famous, it's on the 100,000 rupiah note. It was beautiful. We even went to the second viewpoint first and had it to ourselves, lovely, except the the Captain put some hideous loud music we could hear all the way up on for some reason!

Thats the best photo I got

We stopped at a little jetty on the way back to have our packed lunch from the hotel. I almost couldn't eat, because we are snorkeling here too, and I can see something breaking the surface. A manta ray she said. I was in as quickly as I could be, but she said we had to approach calmly and quietly, so we stopped to look at the school of big bumphead parrot fish as they came passed, and he did film them this time. I was heading to where the rough water had started, where the ray had been. This was about where the water got very shallow over the reef, but what I didn't realise was also where the current picked up. I beat a hasty retreat as it really was quite scary the amount of effort I had to put in to get back to Brian and Angel.

Angel our guide poses for a photo

I think this was probably better than the previous snorkels, but they do all blur together, it was beautiful though, until the thunder started get closer and we thought we'll better get out! Big clams and another eel were good though.

Onto the main viewpoint which was served by some wide wooden stairs to give easy access for the many people who come here for this view. The platform only holds 30 people and we had to wait for all the people who wanted to pose, including people with drones! It is a lovely view

There seemed to be a surprise stop on the way back, after we went through the rainstorm, a sandbank just there, in the middle of the sea, only at low tide. Captain reversed up to it and we could get out and stand on it, nearly an island, in the middle of nowhere, what a very odd feeling.

The 100,000 Rupiah note (their largest denomination note and worth about £4.70) has this view on the reverse. I did however note that there was a lady in a pose next to the view. Well, we need to try and create that....

Back to the hotel, and straight into the shower, fully clothed, again to rinse the salt through, though we are out snorkeling again tomorrow, it's nicer not to put on salty clothes.

Best effort!

Dinner was a much busier affair, we were almost on our own yesterday. Today there are two new, big groups of Indonesians, I just hope they are quiet.

Angelisa was intent on getting us to pose so we had to do many of these!

Day 28

Feels like a bit of a short one, but we've spent a lot of it snorkeling and my fingers are wrinkly. Our first site was beautiful, except for the huge amounts of trash floating around us which was really depressing. There were also a lot of small jellyfish around that stung us, not in a bad way but just felt a bit like being picked lightly with needles. We quickly moved on and found ourselves looking down on divers. I'm still not sure it's worth the bother, except you get to go to deeper places to see manta rays and whale sharks, which would be amazing. That would be a different trip though, so we'll stick with snorkeling. It was really quite noticeable, the difference in temperature, visibility and current, in a really small area, most peculiar.

Back in the fast boat we went to Airboroi island and pulled up to a jetty for lunch and our first snorkel. The jetty came out so far as the sea was shallow up to this point but then shelved down very deep

I think we did four snorkels in the end, though Angel was reluctant to do the last one. If she'd said the one before lunch was the last, before we went in I might have let it go, but with no warning that was it, it just didn't seem right. They were all beautiful, but the rubbish was horrible, particularly as everyone has paid 1,000,000 rupiah to enter the national park. What do we get for our money?

Amazingly clear sea and fabulous coral

Lunch was on a tiny beach, with very soft sand, quite unlike the sand bank yesterday, which I'm still emptying out of the cuffs on my trousers. How it got in there I really don't know.

These huge lump-head parrot fish swam by. They were big, they must have been 700 or 800mm long

Brian is now swearing at the underwater camera which went flat, mid transfer to his phone so he doesn't now know which videos have transferred and which haven't. He spent a long time being irritable by this yesterday too! Hopefully he'll get some pictures of the turtles, and huge moray eel and whatever else he filmed for the blog. Writing about snorkeling is very difficult.

I'm going to try to upload a short video of this turtle as it briefly came up for air before diving quickly to the bottom where it disappeared in amongst the rocks

Out of the hotel by car at 08.00 to the blue river. We didn't really know what this was all about, except that I knew it involved paddling. After an interesting drive and arriving at what looked like a lake but was salt water we got in a little boat. Taken across the lake we got out at a wide, slow, shallow river and paddled upstream.

I hope the video will appear here!

We finally arrived at a slightly blue coloured deep water hole in another stream. There had obviously been a breakdown in communication, I'd asked how deep the water was and she'd said below the knee, which it was till we got to the blue river which was deep, no standing up in that. I was wearing my bikini bottoms under my shorts, but not my top and Brian had just unzipped his trousers. He didn't go in at all and I managed to take my bra off under my top and go in like that. It was wonderfully cool and very pretty, but as that was the activity for the morning we weren't quite prepared for it!

Angelisa took this as we were selecting our dinner from the buffet. The BBQ fish in the nearest dish were fabulous!

Back to the jetty, quick shower, try to dry stuff before the ferry, which is why we hadn't wanted to swim in the first place, back in the car, still slightly damp, me and my clothes and off to the ferry, very early. At least in VIP it was cool, though sadly unlike on the way out we couldn't connect to the WiFi.

We gave her a £10 note to add to her collection of foreign currency which she seemed quite taken with

An uneventful journey fortunately and back to the same hotel we left from. Rudy the manager had been true to his word and we were on 5, two floors below the live music, which still hadn't even started by the time we left the rooftop after sunset, beer and dinner.

Next day, out on another, smaller boat. They had a ladder (you can see behind me) to allow us to get back in after snorkeling. See how we are fully covered? It's to stop us getting sunburnt as we snorkel

Day 30 

Started early and stressed. The flight today is two flights, though whether we get off the plane we are not sure. We are going to back to Surabaya, originally via Ambon. This flight was cancelled before we left the UK and we were told that instead of travelling with SuperAirJet (who incidentally use Airbus A320's) we would be travelling with Lion Air (Boeing 737's) via Makassar. No new tickets or anything. Looking on the Lion Air app yesterday had just brought up error messages about incorrect details. Hmmm. The check-in website did seem to recognise our booking number and happily told us we couldn't check-in till 04.30 (11 hours before the flight)!

More clear waters and lots of fish. These are batfish, probably Orbicular batfish. They were quite happy for me to follow them at a gentle speed

I woke at 03.30, Brian finally at 05.30, but on the check-in app it said there were no seats to allocate, a problem had arisen and please try later. We did, and tried contacting our agent (but they are 2 hours behind us, and it's a Sunday) and tried messaging the airline and on and on.

Jackie found this moray eel and motioned me to come quickly. Managed to get some video which I'll try and post below. If there's just a gap in the text you'll know it didn't work!

07.30 while in breakfast, planning to walk over to the airport we finally managed to check in, and have boarding passes. Hurrah 

I hope the video will appear here!

Not sure, a pikefish?

08.30, writing this in bed hoping I may doze off after!

Now in some ways I'm not bothered about getting to Surabaya to do mount Bromo as this involves leaving the hotel at midnight which is going to be fairly hideous. BUT Surabaya is on Java, as is Jakarta and our flight home. The flight there is on a Boeing, not an Airbus, unlike our next flight, to Komodo. Will that happen? Who knows, but at least we should be able to get home!

He just swam right past the camera, so I had to take a photo! Google lens suggests it's a Salema Porgy fish (it may have hallucinogenic effects if eaten)

Angelisa wanted to take a photo of us but we didn't feel like being sensible!

She made another attempt!

Next day we were off again. We weren't really sure what the day entailed and Angelissa's relative lack of English didn't really prepare us. We had a 40 or 50 minute road trip on fairly poor roads to a village called Warsamdin on an estuary, got in this boat (after the captain had finished his shower) and set off up river, turning into a much smaller river, my map says the Kalibiru

Into the smaller river, which was very shallow. He continued until it was too shallow, parked up and out we got

To paddle upstream

Along a boardwalk in need of major work. I asked where we were going and was told 'to the river'. Haven't we just come from a river?

We arrived here at a river, with benches, a deck area and lots of people swimming. It was too deep to paddle and I had nothing to swim in. If only I'd know, or understood.

Jackie decided she was going in anyway, along with Angelissa. Apparently it was quite cool and a welcome relief from the heat of the day

It was an idyllic spot

With a convenient fallen tree to rest on

And a platform from which I could take photos

Angelissa, being relatively young, decided we needed to pose, as all the others were doing for their Instagram feeds, so here we are doing just what she asked

I did quite like this one she took though

Well, that's about it from Raja Ampat, we had a 2 hour journey (plus an hour and a half waiting on board) back on the ferry to Sorong. We were in an air conditioned VIP area on the ferry (not all that VIP though), Angelissa was in cattle class. She had our ferry tickets and when the man came round for the tickets after we'd set off I told him our guide Angelissa had them and she was somewhere on board. After discussion with others who presumably had enough English to understand what we were saying they wandered off. She reappeared as we neared Sorong dripping in sweat and wanting any excuse to stand by our seats so she could cool off in the aircon. It was unpleasant and smelly in her cheap seats she said, lucky we had the VIP area! We've had a night back in the Aston hotel in Sorong, eventually managed to check in for our LionAir flight to Surabaya (Lion Air are the Indonesian equivalent to Ryan Air - even sounding the same over the airport speakers) and are waiting to be picked up at 1:00pm for our 15:30 flight to Surabaya via Makassar. Hopefully that goes well, now we're checked in. The hotel generously allowed us to stay in our room until 13:00 so we're relaxing in Aircon before heading out into the heat! See you in Surabaya!

Indonesia days 22 to 24 - Banda Neira & Ambon

We made it to Run and this was our first view of the island as we arrived

Day 22

Our last chance to get to Rhun, would we make it? Why is it important? I'll let Brian tell you that.

There were 5 of us today, J&M and a Romanian whose name escapes me. 09.00, no 10.00, knock at the door, make that 09.30. Not Ipin today but another snorkeling guide, Chai, and we are off. It's really quite rough, Julie isn't happy, Captain obviously is, as we bypass Ai and carry on to Rhun. It's a little calmer now we are in Ai's shadow, thank goodness. 

This is the view from Run (or Rhun) island looking back to Banda Neira and, the island closer, Ai. Banda Neira and eventually Ai we held by the Dutch, Captain Courthope held Run for Britain while the Dutch laid siege for 4 years

We stopped for our first snorkel on a very shallow reef, between Rhun and a tiny island, very pretty again, as they all have been. 5 or 6 black tipped reef sharks (5&6 may or may not have been the same one) Brian finally did see one, but unbelievably not the two that were swimming underneath a huge school of fish he was filming. Two turtles and a moray eel.

Our first snorkel spot. The island is Nailaka, an uninhabited island connected by a reef at low tide to Run island

Back onto the boat and to a deserted beach, it's obviously still a bit rough, Captain doesn't think he can moor at the town, at last, he's finally going to set foot on this bloody island. We all went ashore, still dripping, but that wasn't it. Half an hour, along that path, across the island is the town, apparently we are going there. I'm not sure my $5 flip flops from Ecuador were designed for jungle trekking, nor Brian's sliders from Matalan. We at least made it off the beach, which is more than can be said for Martin. His feet inside his thongs (he is a kiwi after all) were just so wet and slippery he was afraid of breaking his neck.

Getting ready on the boat for our first snorkel

Just over half an hour later, 4 of us, plus Chai wiggled through the town to a guesthouse, for cinnamon tea and fried banana. This is the guesthouse we would have stayed in. We asked to look at the rooms to discover, one with AC, one with a fan and yes, he did have 24 hour electricity. We didn't look inside the bathrooms but I think they were both en suite. We would probably have been ok, but I am still very happy to actually have had 6 nights at the Cilu Bintang estate, it's been lovely.

Fabulous, unspoiled coral and lots of tropical fish. Google lens says this is a Clown Trigger fish

It wasn't really that rough in the harbour, but with no cell coverage Chai couldn't get Captain to collect us, so another half hour slog back across the island. Unsurprisingly Martin was a bit miffed, nobody had realised we'd be gone just over two hours! Off to Ai for lunch, and I have to say, the most delicious crab spaghetti. I didn't even try anything else, just three portions of that!

A moray eel appears from beneath a rock

Snorkelling off the beach for our final dip. I was first in and it was definitely a bit murky. It did improve as we drifted along the beach, though Chai seemed to be on a mission. I kept pace with him and was rewarded by him spotting and pointing out some cuttlefish in the deep blue. Another first. And then, there's the boat to meet us, hurrah, swimming back would have been very difficult. 

I was quite mesmerised by this huge shoal of fish gently swimming by that I missed the two reef sharks passing underneath. I scoured the whole video I took and I didn't capture them. Google lens has struggled to identify them, offering several options, but Rainbow Runner looks the closest

The trip back was much quicker than out, but it was still gone 17.00 by the time, we walked dripping through the hotel and straight into the shower, for the last time.

Arriving on the east side of Run island. Plenty of fishing boats but a deserted beach. The village is on the west side of the island,  but the waves will be much bigger on that side, here we are sheltered by the island so we have a beach landing and have to walk across to the village, a round trip of 4.5km - in beach shoes!

So, a little bit of background from me on why I wanted to visit Run (or Rhun) island - no, don't stop reading now, you might enjoy it! I blame Jackie for buying me the book Nathaniel's Nutmeg by Giles Milton a few years back.

In 1616 Nathaniel Courthope was an officer in the British Royal Navy and, on 25th December of that year landed on Run island to secure the nutmeg trade for Britain. Remember that, in those days, nutmeg was an extremely valuable spice and control of its supply had, over many centuries, passed progressively between the Chinese, the Arabs, the Portuguese and finally the Dutch. The location of Banda Neira and the spice islands had been kept a closely guarded secret, but the British had learned of its location and were now locked in a struggle to control it. Captain Courthope had taunted the Dutch by occupying the surrounding islands of Hatta, Ai and Run erecting a fortress on Run, but the Dutch, in retaliation laid siege, forcing Captain Courthope and his men to seek refuge on Run.

Yes, I've finally set foot on Run!

With the help of the islanders, but still greatly outnumbered, he held off against the Dutch siege for four years, refusing even the most reasonable offers to leave. The islanders signed a contract to pledge allegiance to King James I and to give England a monopoly on their nutmeg harvest

Having left Martin behind as his sandals couldn't take the terrain, we set off up through the jungle

He was eventually killed in a skirmish in 1620, the English were forced to abandon the island and the Dutch occupied the island and destroyed all the nutmeg trees but, somehow, British sovereignty of the island remained.

Which did turn into a concrete path

The English sovereignty of the island was a thorn in the side of Dutch wishes to control the spice trade so, in 1667 Britain agreed to surrender their interests in Run in exchange for a Dutch asset in North America known as New Amsterdam, that we now know as Manhattan Island. The new territory granted to the English was renamed New York.

The British, at the time, were giving up the potential of making huge sums of money from nutmeg in return for an unpromising island on a different continent, but history proved otherwise.

Arriving at the village on the west coast of the island

Day23

The bad news? The 08.00 ferry is leaving at 07.00 so breakfast at 05.30, harbour at 06.00. Not sure why, most of the locals rocked up about 06.50! 5 hours and 15 minutes later, we are approaching the port. I hope our driver is there as I'm dying for a wee, but I'm not going on the boat. I'm choosing to believe it's seawater that has come up the hole that is flowing all down the aisle!

Walkkng past nutmeg and cinnamon drying in the sun outside someone's house

He was, 15 minutes to the hotel and over an hour waiting for the room. At least we are further away from 'sunset vibes' where we are and I think it's a nicer room.

Here's where we would have stayed had we made it as originally planned. It's a nice guesthouse and the owner was a delight and fully understood about us not arriving. Abba had kept him informed and he said we cannot help the weather. 'Next time you come and stay with us'

Day 24

A full day tour of Ambon, we should have been flying out today, but this flight was postponed till tomorrow, so a day here, rather than Sorong, which actually sounds like it might be an improvement.

Organised by Abba from Cilu Bintang, our usual driver and a guide we haven't met yet. He sent an itinerary through last night, sounded long, and messaged to say he's on his way. Then messaged to say he's got weather problems, but he's stopped his Moto taxi to buy a raincoat. It's not that big an island, but we didn't have rain, though we could see it and could hear the thunder.

Its small but very clean with nice bedrooms, one with AC

Imanuele arrived, just on original time, very flustered, driver was already here and disapproving but we calmed them both down and set off. It was a long drive (1hr) to the first stop, Fort Amsterdam, the Old Mosque, and the Old Church (which is being renovated). The Old Mosque was an interesting building, originally built in 1414 it has been moved twice to its current position. It has also moved with the times and has speakers, like every other mosque, so no one can ignore the call to prayer. Fort Amsterdam was also rebuilt, and is quite solid, there is a piece of the original wall inside, made of coral and all sorts. It was mainly built for storage of spices before shipping, but does have good look outs for protection.

There was, however, a very big spider outside. It's a Golden Orb. With access to both sides of his web I could take a photo of his underside...

It was then another hour back to Ambon city for lunch, during which time I couldn't help myself. I had to ask Imanuele if he was Gay, and whether it was a problem in Indonesia. He is (no surprise there) and yes, it is a problem. In most areas it is not illegal, BUT same sex marriage is not recognised, and, as of this year, sex outside of marriage IS illegal. His parents are understanding, but perhaps they have to be, his father is Christian and his mother Muslim, so they have had problems to deal with through their lives, and he obviously has good friends (and a long distance relationship in Holland) but he was quite guarded how he was talking Infront of our Muslim driver who he hasn't worked with before. He was however an absolute joy to be with, and our favourite guide to date.

It looks quite evil! Do you see the red dots forming an opening? Is that how it devours it's pretty? 

Lunch was also really good, a lovely looking restaurant, matched by it's food. We made imanuele order, so fish soup, some prawns, and two vegetable dishes for the 4 of us, though we couldn't do it justice.

After a pleasant 30-40 minutes taking tea, fried banana and another sweet treat we headed back across the island back to out boat

First afternoon stop was the museum, which was three different buildings spread out along a very steep hill, fortunately we didn't have to walk far. The first was a selection of wedding outfits, from different regions. A bit random but I liked it. The second was stone age to current fishing history in a snapshot, and the third a marine museum with some huge blue whale skeletons. He whistled us through, which was great, as I still struggle stopping Brian read everything!

Back on the boat we arrived at Ai island for lunch. Another beach landing with a bit of a paddle to get ashore

The World Peace Gong was our next stop. A very recent erection, only built in 2009 to celebrate the end of the Muslim and Christian war in the region that had been going on since 1999. It's interesting how every other guide has told us how accepting and inclusive Indonesia is, failing to mention a local war, that they feel was politically motivated, but seemed to be started by car bombs being blamed on Christians to Muslims, and on Muslims to Christians. Imanuele was a small boy at school when this started and remembers the teacher running the whole class into the jungle. There are bullet holes in the wall of his house, and his neighbours house was burned down.

Lunch was waiting for us at a beach side homestay. LtoR: Julie, Martin our Romanian friend who's name escapes us, the lady providing lunch and Jackie

I would happily have for gone the last stop at the WWII cemetery, but Brian wanted to stop, and it was a peaceful, well maintained space. Paid for by the Australian government as the majority of graves are Australian, along with Indian and the opposing Japanese.

Our Romanian friend asked if we could all have a coconut (whether or not we wanted one - we had one between us), so off went a man, climbed a tree, threw down a few and then, with his big knife, chopped the tops off to allow us to drink

We made it back just after 16.00, so a full day out. We've showered, had a drink and eaten, and it's now 20.00, but we've just heard from Imanuele that he has only just got home. Apparently he had to stop and do some tutoring on the way as he is paying for his sister to go the university. He had to drop out, as his father's business partner ran off with all the money, but has been paying for his sister to do the course he should be doing. She has an exam next week which he has had to pay for. He is such a nice man, he split his tip with the driver, who we didn't tip, because he is taking us to the airport tomorrow, so we would have tipped him tomorrow, we feel really bad. 

A dragon boat came past our beach hut and our boat. They were practicing for the boat race festival next week. They came past with lots of energy, very fast and with lots of noise 

After chatting with Imanuele, he is coming to the airport with us tomorrow, so we can replace his tip. This seems like a lot of faff for £4.58, but he was telling us about working for the water purifying company after he dropped out. They paid once a year, which sounds horrendous, but then it was a lot of money. 30,000,000 IDR, which does sound a lot, but in reality is £1375. 100,000(£4.58) is more than a days earnings, so I guess it was worth getting out of bed for 

Early evening pre-dinner drinks with Martin and Julie

This was our evening dinner (and breakfast) venue and, on our last night two musicians dropped by and played some very nice local music. Abba, the owner and fixer of everything is seated on the right and was clearly revelling in the songs, encouraging us to join in with the chorus which featured Banda and Banda Neira several times much to his delight

This is inside our ferry back to Ambon. 5 hours on this, fortunately it wasn't full so we had three seats for two of us, but it was a long journey!

This was the view from the restaurant at the Natsepa resort we stayed at on Ambon. Ambon is a strange shaped island and the hills you can see are still part of the island and contains the main town of Ambon from which our guide was coming. He messaged to say he was delayed due to bad weather. Doesn't look too bad here, the sun is shining, but there are clouds

A few minutes later this was the view. OK we can see the approaching storm now. However we only got the very edge of it, the forecast was right, it did move away and the day was good

Outside our hotel door were a number of these birds. They are quite small, a bit smaller than a sparrow, but lovely colouring. Google lens said it is a Chestnut Munia and I think they look fabulous!

First stop on our day tour with Imanuele and our driver Mr Ummar was the old mosque on the North coast of the island. Built, it is believed, in 1414 but moved twice to its present location under pressure from the Dutch

Second visit Amsterdam Fort. This was not the original and even this stone built one didn't originally have a roof on. The ground floor was used for nutmeg storage, the upper floor for guards

Imanuele explaining the use of the fort to Jackie

Lunch stop overlooking the bay. The town of Ambon is on the opposite side, our venue after lunch

The Siwalima museum. This is a Hindu temple that we weren't allowed access to

The museum, in three buildings was quite interesting with lots of history. As usual, I didn't have enough time to read the English translations!

Outside the museum is the statue of Martha Christina Tiahahu, a local heroine who fought to expel the Dutch. She died at 18 en route to Java by ship as a prisoner in 1969 but died at sea

The peace gong erected in 2009 following the Molucca islands six year war between Christians and Muslims (1999 to 2005)

In the WWII cemetery the upkeep of which is paid for by the Australian government since the majority are from there

This is a tamarind tree growing in the cemetery

And finally we are at the airport in Ambon for our flight to Sorong in West Papua for the next part of our adventure