Tag: Maluku

Bandas underwater world is just unbelievably stunning. The coral is still intact and there are fish everywhere. Among other marine life you can see sharks and turtles, great barraccuda, dog tooth tuna, clown triggerfish, squid and napoleon wrasses while just snorkling. The walls, that start just a few meters off the beaches are so deep you can’t see the bottom, not even when you have 50 m visibility and freedive down to 25 m! Diving must be awesome there!! While I was there the one dive school on the islands was closed due to ramadan. No guides would go in the water, cause obviously you will get little amounts of water into your mouth and that counts as drinking! Just one more reason to go back to those charming islands…

Happy Times

For a very long time the bandanese people had it extremely good. There was no raja or king or whatever to tell them what to do. Only Orang Kaya, village elders, but they were…, well, old! So Life was great! They were in the unique position, that their little group of islands was the only place in the world, where nutmeg and mace grew naturally. They traded with Arabs, Chinese and Malay, made a good living off it and, because growing nutmeg does not actually involve much physical work, spend their time fishing or hanging out in the shade on the beach with friends.

First Encounter Of A Smelly Kind

Now, the Bandanese had known for quite some time that a lot of their produce ended up on the other side of the world with people with unintelligible names in strange countries and were therefore delighted when they finally got a chance to meet some of them in 1512. Those guys, Portuguese as it turned out, filled up their ships with spices and then left Banda mostly to themselves for the rest of the century, concentrating mainly on the northern clove islands of Maluku. Not that the Bandanese were really heartbroken over that fact, since those newcomers always insisted on wearing heavy long clothes at all times, while having an aversion to regular baths at the same time.

Second Encounter Of A Smelly Kind

In 1599 everybody in the Banda archipelago knew that something fishy was going to happen or appear, when Gunung Api, the little but volatile 666m high volcano, started rumbling again after a long time of inactivity. And sure enough, not long after another group of pale sweaty guys turned up, this time from the Netherlands. The Dutch then did not waste any time establishing trading posts, buying as much over prized spices as their ships could hold and then set sail for Europe leaving behind a few sailors to look after their interests. Now when the Portuguese found out that the Dutch had arrived they were less than happy and for the next few years those nations tried their best to kick each other in the crotch.

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Hey hey, just got back from Banda, well like 12 hours ago. On yet another Pelni boat. Anyways, it being the end of Ramadan I was clever enough to NOT book a room in advance. So, this morning (3 am) I have been walking around for ages looking for a room. Without success. Did find a 24hour internet place though, so I thought I could change a bit on my site layout. I had thought of all the changes before already, actually. What do you think? Any suggestions or bugs you found? I’d like to hear about that! And tomorrow, if I should find a bed somewhere, I’ll post something about Banda! Today, I’ve got enough of bloody computers…

If you’ve ever been on a Pelni boat in ekonomi class, then you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. The toilets and showers smell and are often flooded, the food doesn’t taste of much and doesn’t look very appetizing, you sleep with 50 other people in the same room for days and just trying to get on the boat, or off it for that matter, can turn out to be a near death experience.

So why do that to myself?

• It’s cheap!
  I paid just 140.000 Rp from Maumere to Makassar, a 36 hour trip, not counting the nine hours I had wait at the harbour for the bloody boat to turn up.
• It’s safe!
  The ships are proper german-built cruise liners, minus the luxury, but with a distinct Titanic feel to them. Nevertheless, you might hear occasionally of a capsized ferry, but I have never heard of a sunken Pelni ship.
• It’s an experience!
  You’re more than likely going to be the only foreigner, or ‘bule’, on a huge ship and you’ll be the talk of the day or however long the journey lasts. Want to feel like a celebrity? This is your chance without resorting to Big Brother and the likes.

And that’s just a few of the many reasons…

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