Indonesia days 16 to 19 The Banda (Spice) Islands

The Natsepa Hotel on Ambon Island after our hour and a half flight east from Makassar 

Day 16

Again, dawned very early, pick up 04.30, half an hour to the airport, flight at 06.15. We are leaving it later and later, the joys of online check-in and no baggage to drop. It was our first Lion Air flight, part of the same group as Batik but seems to have the worst reputation. This plane was old, and smelled of wee, but it got us there.

The view from our hotel balcony

There was Ambon, one of the Maluku islands. Just a driver, with little English, but lots of enthusiasm, got us to the hotel by 10.00, which was 09.00 in our heads, we've lost another hour, we are now 9 hours ahead of the UK. When are we going to get them back? 

The headland is still Ambon Island, joined with the main part we're on by a narrow strip of land

They actually made an effort at the Natsepa hotel, to get us into the room early, though it was Sunday and they were full, we were in by 11.00, hurrah.

Walking out to our single engine Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft that will take us to Banda Neira island. It takes 9 or 10 people and they weigh everyone including luggage to calculate how much fuel they need

This place is definitely a resort, white faces around the swimming pool. We didn't go, all the sunbeds with any shade were taken and our cossies wouldn't have dried. We do come back here though. Our next flight is 10kg only, so normal people would be leaving luggage to come back to. Not us!

We're in front row seats so have a great view of the captain on the left and copilot on the right

Blog, chill, lunch, dinner, beer, not necessarily in that order and early bed. Not as early as I would have liked, the 'sunset vibes' duo were performing, though I think they finished before 21.00

Jackies relaxed (I think!)

Day 17

Yup, another early one. Pick up at 05.00, doesn't sound quite so bad except it still feels like 04.00. Didn't want to leave this one too late as we haven't checked in. This was the flight the agent had to book, on the small plane, so we have a ticket, but nothing else.

Off we go and, after 40 minutes of crossing open ocean Banda Neira came into view

The same driver picked us up, and came in with us, took pictures of our tickets and took our passports. We didn't go anywhere, as there was nowhere to go. We did have to wait about 30 minutes for anyone to show up at the desk though.

Approaching the runway at Banda Neira. Looks quite small from up here!

We were front of the queue, in fact we were the queue. We had to stand on a set of bathroom scales, with our luggage, including the packed breakfast. That's a first. Brian's boarding pass said 11.00, mine 23.30 hmmm. They started again and we got two more, seat 1a and 1c boarding 06.30.

Here's a short video of our landing

We were expecting a small plane, but this was very small. Pilot, co-pilot and 7 passengers on a Cessna 208 Grand Caravan. Having just looked it up on Wikipedia, I'm quite glad we are taking the 5 hour fast ferry home. Look up the notable incidents if you dare! We however are fine, and now on Banda Neira at the Cilu Bintang estate. It's beautiful. The owner is lovely, and it's got cats and everything. We are being joined for a couple of our excursion days by a Julie and Martin, originally from NZ, but who have lived in Indonesia 25 years, who were also on the flight. They want to go to Rhun too, but can't come with us as we are staying there 2 nights. Why? When we could stay here. Brian will have to explain, and owe me more!!!!

Safely down, we're happy to say

Afternoon was a town tour with Deni which was a total of 3.2km, so it's not big. First stop was a Dutch church (Hollandische Kerk te Banda) a church built over the graves of 30 Dutch soldiers who died in the Banda conquest with tombstones on the floor. We moved on to the house of Captain Christopher Cole, of the British Royal Navy who commanded two large troops and successfully took the Ambon and surrounding islands in August 1810 until the Anglo-Dutch treaty of 1814, in order for the British to control the very profitable nutmeg and mace trades. The board outside states that the treaty to exchange Run (Rhun) island with Manhattan island was signed in the building, but Deni says that was incorrect.

Cilu Bintang Estate, our hotel, is a beautiful old Dutch colonial building sensitively restored by the owner, Abba, who's a really nice guy and arranged everything. The once a week flight from Ambon and all trips and excursions. Its him that's arranged our trip to Run on Wednesday and 2 night stay there

Further on were two cannons lying in the gutter, something that Deni says he remembers many scattered around the town when he was a child and, further on an archaeological museum that we walked round that covers a lot of the history of the spice trade.

Every bit of this place is fabulous and they even have cats which is perfect for Jackie. Our room is the one at the end there past the open doors. We have a table chairs and rocking chair outside. Great food and beer is available too

Walking down towards the coast we walked through the old Fort Nassau which only has the defensive walls left and a shallow ditch round that used to be a moat. The big green area inside is used by kids to kick a football about and our hotel, the Cilu Bintang Estate, a beautifully restored old colonial house is just the other side of the wall. The fort was built by the Portuguese, the first European power here and it was used as an area to store the valuable spices before shipment. A doorway in the wall leads to a jetty out to sea. The Dutch took it over but soon after built a fort higher on the hill overlooking it and built a connecting underground tunnel to connect the two. The tunnel was destroyed during the eruption of Guning Api in 1989.

From the front, a great view of Guning Api volcano

Further along facing the sea is Istana Mini (Mini Palace), the old Dutch governors building. It's also a place where the last homesick French governor hung himself, etching his suicide note in one of the windows in French, using his diamond ring, which can still be seen. It's a grand old building with huge rooms and marble floors with extensive grounds that are quite overgrown and the whole site is very sad and unused. It would make an amazing hotel if someone had the vision, but they'd better be quick as it's decaying rapidly, as are many of the buildings in the town. It's a shame, but given a few years there won't be much left to see unless someone finds a lot of money.

Our walk around the town. This was Captain Christopher Coles house, him who took the spice islands for Britain in 1810 (and, incidentally took specimens of the nutmeg tree, planting them in Zanzibar, Grenada and Sri Lanka to increase production and security causing the nutmeg price to plummet)

Our last call was up a short hill to Fort Belgica, the main Dutch fort overlooking Nassau below. It's double fortified with internal rooms that apparently held 400 soldiers. Its position high on the hill overlooks the town, the harbour and sea and the volcano, a great place to end the tour. Time for a beer!

Fort Nassau and what remains of the moat that surrounded it

Day 18

After a beer, a lovely meal and the best night sleep I've had since I've been here we got up for a gentle breakfast at 07.30. Meeting time for our island hopping boat trip was 09.00, how civilised. Ipan p, our guide walked the four of us through town to the harbour to meet the boat. Felt relatively big after the last couple we've been on, perhaps as well as the sea is looking a bit rough.

Jackie finds a tiny kitten! It was on its own, but further down was a mum cat with two kittens so, thinking that was mum, she brought this kitten to it, but it wasn't mum and she didn't like it. She had to take it back and hope it found it's correct mum

After about 45 minutes we approached Hatta Island for our first snorkel. Brian and I put more clothes on than we took off, both of us in long sleeves and long trousers, and a cap for Brian, though it's not as sunny as it was in the Maldives when we first did this. I've no fish book, and the video Brian took is better than nothing, but doesn't really give a good idea. It was lovely. A small reef with a steep drop off to who knows where, so reef fish and schools of deeper water fish including some lump(or bump) head parrot fish who can grow up to 1.2m in length. I don't think any of these were quite that big, but they were probably a metre or so. Highlight for me, and probably all of us, was half a dozen or so turtles lazily swimming about, what a joy.

The mini palace, a beautiful colonial building

Hatta Island was our lunch stop. The boat couldn't beach quite where we wanted to be so we had a short walk, but that's fine, we don't mind dripping along in our wet clothes. We all decided this was better than taking them off and having to put them back on clammy! We sat looking at the sea and talking until lunch arrived, soup, tuna, vegetables and rice. Who knows where it came from, along with a jug of water that smelled decidedly smoky, most odd.

Many of the old buildings need major repair work or they won't be here in a few years. That column isn't long for this world

Back to the boat and back to Naira Island and a soft coral reef. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like that, but again, I don't know how to describe it. The snorkeling was amazing, and curiously although November is the start of the wet season in most of Indonesia, it's part of the best time to come to the Banda Islands.

A walk up a short hill to the newer Fort Belgica, a more complete structure and occupying a prominent position over the town

We got back, to a different mooring and seemed to exit, through someone's house. Still dripping. We squelched a very short route back to the hotel and went straight into the shower, fully clothed. It's a pleasant temperature as we sit outside our room writing (Brian is doing the history bit of yesterday's town tour, where the highlight for me was kittens, everywhere, in case he doesn't mention them). The clothes are on the roof drying, possibly, it's quite windy, we know the airer has blown over at least once, but I'm not sure everything had been on it when that happened! Fingers crossed we don't lose anything!

Lovely views from the fort

Day 19

A spice islands trip today, with Denny, our guide from the town tour here, and Julie and Martin. Down to the boat and across to Banda Besar, joined by an old university friend of Denny's, but that's fine. Apparently we need to tour the island by moped, first we've heard of that, but there were 5 bikes and 4 drivers, and no helmets. I went with Denny, who was very careful with me, as this was all a bit scary! Martin would rather have driven himself and has an Indonesian licence, but no, he had to pillion like the rest of us.

All over the islands. No wonder they built the fort up here

It was ok on the flat, but then got very hilly. I'm sure I got a good core workout going up and down, that was really quite scary. It was pleasant, in a way when I got used to it, but it was still hot. Better than walking though I guess.

Inside it's a pentagon courtyard with rooms round the outside. Some were used for soldiers quarters, some as prisons and.....

We stopped at old forts, Batu Berdarah, Perigi Pusaka and Hollandia Fort. A nutmeg plantation where we had a go at harvesting nutmeg and had some lovely cinnamon tea. The others bought nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla which along with cloves, almonds and mace are readily available. Mace is the outer skin of the nutmeg, both inside of the fruit, and almond trees are grown to provide shelter and protect the nutmeg trees, some of which are 350 years old. We continued round the island stopping for another great lunch before getting back on the boat and returning to the hotel.

...some for metering out punishment. The two blocks at the front are where prisoners had their heads chopped off, the others are stools for spectators 

It's the nutmeg that these islands are famous for, until the mid 19th century nutmeg was only found in the Banda Islands. The location of the islands was kept a secret by the Arabs who traded in Venice. The location was found by the Portuguese in 1512, so they filled their ships with as much nutmeg, mace and cloves as was possible.

Walking to the dock for our day of snorkeling at Hatta Island. The ship in the dock delivers daily supplies for the islands from Ambon and is being unloaded

The Dutch arrived in the early 1600's and signed an exclusivity deal with the islanders. The British didn't take long to get involved, and there was a skirmish involving Rhun island, where we go tomorrow. The Dutch were really quite barbaric, to try to maintain their exclusivity massacring 40 of the wealthy local Bandanese Chiefs and putting their heads on bamboo poles.

Our boat (which will also take us to Run)

The Dutch had the sole production and export of nutmeg for 200 years. The British however invaded in 1810 and managed to remove and transplant many nutmeg trees to Sri Lanka, amongst other places so destroying the value of the Banda Islands to the Dutch. 

Fort Belgica and the town as we motored past 

And that's my potted history, there will be more, including Rhun,.but I'll probably let him write that!

Arriving at Hatta Island

The coral around these islands is extraordinary, in such great condition, probably because of their remoteness and lack of tourists

There were many fish we didn't recognise including these yellow ones. They are yellow long nose butterfly fish

A turtle swims by

Jackie points out a lotbster. You can just see it's long white antenna

Lunch on the beach on Hatta with Martin and Julie, our NZ companions who have lived in Bali for many years

Eating our dinner last night with Martin and Julie this little chap walked along the wall by us. He looked a friendly chap, not like this photo shows. It's a Cuscus, a solitary, nocturnal animal

A Kingfisher sitting on a wire while we waited for our motorbikes on Banda Besar Island

Here we go then, our motorbike ride of the island

First stop at Batu Berdarah and old Dutch lookout fort 

Walking the ramparts of Fort Benteng Concordia

It had a cannon lying about, in fact there were several in this fort and in other odd places around the island

And then a trip round a nutmeg plantation, and here's a nutmeg ready to be harvested. To think that wars have been fought over this, tens of thousands of people have died as a result and, at one time it was more valuable than gold

Nutmegs, cloves and vanilla in a bowl with Banda Neira island beyond. You can just see Fort Belgica above the town

Guning Api volcano from the ramparts of Fort Hollandia

A panorama showing the volcano and, to the right Banda Neira. All the islands, including where we are Banda Besar and part of a giant volcano, the central cone of which, Gunning Api, is still active

The giant Almond trees. These specimens are more than 300 years old

Denny showing us how cinnamon is harvested. Just the bark is used and, in the spice islands the whole tree is cut down to harvest. In other places we've seen some bark removed from an live tree and then more later. But they say only the first cut produces the best cinnamon

Lunch is served! Fabulous it was too

On the way back to Banda Neira we had a view of Run island. It's the one on the left. The nearer island on the right is Ai island, also held by the British for a while

Indonesia days 13 to 15 - from East Kalimantan, Borneo to Makassar, Sulawesi

Day 13

The end of yesterday was a bit of a blur, the drive had been slightly scary with the driver seeming to believe that using his horn formed a protective forcefield around the car!

Brian also forgot to put a picture of one of the huge bird houses for swiftlets who build their nests to be harvested for birds nest soup. Indonesia produces 75% of all the nests for soup apparently.

She's put me on the spot now saying I hadn't put a photo of the huge bird houses erected all along the Mahakam river because, when I looked I hadn't taken a specific photo of one. The only one I could find was this one which was showing the stilts for a new house but, in the background, the large red buildings are bird houses and they are everywhere! Its obviously very lucrative to export to China for birds nest soup but, so much production lowers the individual price.

Back to day 13, another early start, though after an early sleep we didn't feel too bad, except that Brian has a cold, which probably means I'm going to get it, fingers crossed, we are both ok for all the snorkeling that is to come. The continental breakfast box had more pastries in than we can possibly eat, despite me giving one of my donuts to a small boy.

Jumping ahead with the photos to Day 14. In our open motor boat ready to cruise along the pure river to Rammang Rammang. It was lightly raining so we put our raincoats on, but that was just the start, boy, did it rain later!

The flight was fine, though required more thought than most, it stopped twice, so we had to make sure we got off at the right stop! We did, and we're met by Octo, our guide, as well as the driver. I think he wanted to take us somewhere, but at 08.30 we weren't really bothered. We'd asked for an early check in but that was not to be, they were full, so we didn't get into our room till just after 13.00. 

It was a very pleasant sail despite the light rain

We'd done the blog, gone out for a walk, finally it wasn't too hot, and then it threw it down. We first sheltered with a ginger cat on some chairs, which could have been far worse and then we dashed into a Starbucks where the two women in front of us were ordering about a dozen coffees and paying for them all separately... The rain eased so we made a run for it before ordering or we'd probably still be waiting. Back to the hotel, cup of free tea and went out again to a nearby street where every shop was a goldsmiths. Absolutely unbelievable, never seen anything like it, but we didn't buy. Walked to the water front where we could see the most amazing mosque, which we can also see from our room. Googlelens says it's the iconic 99 domes mosque.

We got off the boat at the small village and started a boardwalk round rice fields. The scenery was amazing but the increasing rain a bit tiresome

Usual stuff once in the room, laundry and shower. We have actually sent our trousers out to the laundry, so fingers crossed we get them back, I've rung, and they might be delivered, possibly, by 5 or 7 or something. Went to look at the bar, which as bars go only serves Bintang beer but that's probably all we'd have had anyway. Ate there too in the end, and a very early night.

He told this walkway is only a few years old, quite new, but it was in a poor state of repair. Bits had rotted away and fallen in to leave a gap, to be bridged by a few loose planks placed across the gap. Others were leaning heavily to one side. The wood was really slippery in the rain meaning you had to be really alert. Had we fallen in though I don't think we would have got any wetter!

Day 14

Hurrah for sleep. Huge breakfast, my selection today was fried rice and chicken, toast and peanut butter, fruit and bread and butter pudding and custard. Breakfast really is an extravaganza in all of these hotels.

Lovely scenery all the way through

Collected at 09.00 prompt and off we went to the Pute River and Rammang Rammang village. It was raining, but we put our water proofs on to get into the open boat to take us to the village, which was a few houses littered around a weird walkway that needed some serious maintenance and was very slippery. The scenery was beautiful, limestone karsts and low lying fields, odd in that half of them were fresh water for rice and half salt water for fish. 

A powered plough. They called this the Japanese buffalo. Once we got back onto the boat for the return journey the heavens opened and, by the time we got back to the car we were very, very wet!

As we got back to the boat, the rain got heavier. Octo and I weren't so bad with our cheapo, long ponchos covering us and our back packs that we could sit on, Brian however in his little jacket got really really wet. We both had feet that couldn't have been any wetter if we'd been swimming in our shoes, so not pleasant. 

We turned down the second walk in the rain and went to lunch. This plate is rice wrapped in in a woven leaf, possibly banana leaf in. Pick one up, turn it over and it's been scored through the leaf from corner to corner so you break it apart and scoop out the rice with a spoon

The next stop was Leang Leang Archeological site. 5000 year old hand prints. We couldn't be persuaded to leave the van to go and look, it was hammering down, and it was prayer time so there was no-one to let us in anyway.

The old port, our next stop where 'old' applied to everything! The ships look like they should have been retired many years ago and it's a surprise they are still floating and the trucks they bring the cargo on are from the 1950's, full of rust holes and various bits of rope to hold things on. Here, a bunch of labourers are hand loading bags of cement. 40kg each bag mind, not the 25kg bags we have in the UK, which are heavy enough

That was it for the day but Octo suggested stopping for coto (pronounced choto) a special soup of the region. Great idea, just what we needed. We both ate for £2.77 and it was delicious. As we got back to town the rain had stopped so we visited the old port, one of tomorrow's stops, as we were passing, and watched them load salt and cement off and onto traditional pinisi boats. All backbreakingly done by hand. Back to the hotel via a pharmacy, to pick something up for Brian who certainly hasn't benefitted from being wet!

Taken through the window of our 12th floor hotel window of the beautiful 99 Dome mosque, an icon of the city

Well the trousers are back, hurrah. Slightly warm, double hurrah for Brian as his others are still wet, and it was free, a benefit of our room, triple hurrah! 

We went up to the bar on the 19th floor again, but we weren't the only ones today and it was very smokey. So beer and crossword and then to the restaurant Octo had recommended just round the corner. A very nice BBQ fish, with ridiculously hot sauce and rice set us up for the night.

There was also a fairly impressive looking Catholic church too

Day 15

The weather forecast was rubbish so first stop was to buy a poncho for Brian. I've only been suggesting it for a year, since I bought mine in Ecuador.

Looks good at night too

First stop was the Sultan Hasanuddin graveyard. He is the last sultan of the region, but a national folk hero, even though he was defeated by the Dutch. It's his airport and university. 

Sultan Hasanuddin's tomb. Although not the biggest amongst his relatives tombs he is the most revered. He was the last absolute monarch of the area that is now Makassar and it was he who put up strong resistance to the Dutch when they came to conquer in 1669. He put up fierce resistance, but was eventually beaten. There were subsequent Sultans but they lacked any power

Second stop was the Balla Lompoa. Don't really have any idea what it was about, but we drifted through. Octo didn't seem to have much to say.

A statue of the rather dashing Sultan Hasanuddin 

Third stop was the Fortress Somba Opu, which had buildings in the style of all the local regions, and this is where Octo came into his own, telling us about the buildings from Toraja, where he and the driver come from, and which is apparently the most tourist visited area in South Sulewesi. "Perhaps you have 3 days and we can take you there?" No, thanks. He really didn't want to talk about anything other than Toraja, which really got very irritating. It was really beginning to feel like he didn't actually know what he was showing us here, he didn't know where there were toilets and yet he claims to have been doing this 15 years. Brian has just looked this fort up and is now quite irritated, it was the site of a huge battle between the Dutch and Sultan Hasanuddin. It was very important and only rediscovered in the 1980's but we were told nothing of this.

Balla Lompoa. Octo, our guide didn't make it very clear what this was about. It was built in 1936 and, from what I can make out from the internet, it was the last palace built for the Gowa kingdom for the 35th Sultan Muhammad Tahir Muhibuddin. It was built as his official residence, although he had no power, that was held by the Dutch colonial government 

An unscheduled stop at the mosque of 99 domes, which we couldn't go into, unsurprisingly, as the call to prayer had just gone out. Fortunately we could go up to the second floor and look down, which was probably better anyway, though it felt wrong just walking in while people were praying. For an amazing building that was only officially opened in 2023 there are an awful lot of leaks. Brian didn't notice one wet patch on the shiny marble floor and fell flat on his bum. So he still got wet trousers despite his new coat!

Inside the Balla Lompoa where the Sultan would have received visitors, flanked either side by family and/or loyalists. You can just imagine the Sultan sitting up there, this room has atmosphere and history

Lunch was close by, though neither of us were really bothered, but we had another soup, similar to yesterday's but with toasted coconut.

Here's where we got frustrated with Octo. We are in Somba Opu, as far as we were told, a government owned area where they had built replicas of traditional houses that have fallen into disrepair. He was keen to show us these Toraja houses with roofs in the shape of a ship (he is Torajan, about 150km north). We didn't do much else and after he'd told us all about these houses we left. Reading on the internet later, this was Fort Somba Opu and was the fortified commercial centre for Sultan Hasanuddin and the Gowa sultanate and was the scene of a savage battle between Dutch, using 2000 Burgis (the arch enemies of the Gowa) and the Sultan. It began on 14 June 1669 and was overrun on 22nd June when Sultan Hasanuddin abandoned the fort and his kingdom. The Dutch destroyed the fort and it lay forgotten until the 1980's when sections of the fort wall were excavated and items recovered and put in an on-site museum. It would have been very interesting to visit the remains and the museum but Octo didn't even mention it!

Our final stop was Fort Rotterdam, built by the Dutch, and added to by the Japanese, on the site of an original Indonesian fort, built to defend against the Dutch. Again we've just looked that up as again, the only thing he really wanted to talk about was Toraja and the model of the distinctive building they had.

Arriving at the amazing 99 Dome mosque, only opened in 2023

So back to the hotel to prepare for Another early start tomorrow. We originally booked a 10.30 flight which they just cancelled, hence we are on an 06.15 flight.

Inside the mosque. We are on the first floor as a call to prayer was going on downstairs. I took no photos of them worshipping below.

Looking up at the ceiling. It's huge and very beautiful, but it's got so many leaks, water was dripping in everywhere!

Our last stop was Fort Rotterdam. This is a model in the museum and shows the shape of a turtle. We didn't spend long enough in here, he rushed us through, another irritant! 

On the walls. We're walking along the right shoulder and, in front, the wall going left is the head of the turtle

Originally it was built by Sultan Allaudin, who also built Samba Opu and others between 1590 and 1637 as protection against an expected Dutch assault on the kingdom. After it fell the Dutch renamed it Fort Rotterdam and modified the buildings to European designs. When the Japanese took over in 1940's they built the single story buildings you can just see in the distance

We've now flown into a different time zone and island. This is Ambon, one of the Banda Islands and is 1 hour ahead of Makassar time, 2 hours ahead of Jakarta time and 9 hours ahead of UK time. It's sunny and warm here but we're only here one night as we're off on a small plane to Banda Neira, a smaller island. More on that in the next blog