Pulau Molana
Uninhabited, roadless Pulau Molana has several great diving spots. There's great swimming on soft white sand at the island’s northernmost tip, while directly west a coral wall offers excellent snorkelling.
4Sleeping
oMolana Island ResortBUNGALOW$$$
( GOOGLE MAP ; %0817 762 833, 0813 4307 7423; www.molanaisland.com; 3 nights per person US$178)
This blissful island hideaway, which only opens its three bungalows in the dry season when guests are expected, would be ideal for a small group of friends. The resort can arrange everything: meals, transfers from Haria or Ambon, boats to dive sites - and fishing trips, jungle treks and beachside barbecues are all enticing possibilities.
Pulau Seram
%0914
Some Malukans call Seram ‘Nusa Ina’ (Mother Island), believing that all life sprang from ‘Nunusaku’, a mythical peak ambiguously located in the island’s western mountains. The best known of Seram’s indigenous minority tribes, the Nua-ulu (Upper River) or Alifuro people, sport red-bandana headgear and were headhunters as recently as the 1940s. The tribe lives in Seram’s wild, mountainous interior where thick forests are alive with cockatoos and colourful parrots. Seeing them usually requires a masochistic trek into the remote Manusela National Park, for which you’ll need guides and extra permits. Seram’s greatest tourist attraction is dramatic Teluk Sawai on the northern coast.
8Getting There & Away
The Amahai-bound Bahari Express (economy/VIP 120,000/255,000Rp, 2½ hours) departs Tulehu-Hurnala (Ambon) at 9am and 4pm, returning at 8am and 2pm (no Sunday service). Grab an ojek into Masohi (10,000Rp), then hop a Masohi–Sawai Kijang (per person/vehicle 150,000/700,000Rp, 2½ hours). You can also make the Masohi–Sawai run by ojek (around 200,000Rp), with insane jungle views en route. If you're headed to Ora Beach Resort, get off in Saleman village, and hop on a small motorboat from there to your secluded bay retreat. By prior arrangement management can also arrange private transport in a Kijang from the Amahai harbour to Saleman village, where you'll meet the boat.
Masohi, Namano & Amahai
Masohi, the purpose-built capital of Central Maluku, is only really useful to travellers as a transport interchange. There's a warnet (internet cafe), modest shopping mall, bemo terminal and several ATMs. The main street, Jl Soulissa, becomes Jl Martha Tiahahu as it continues 6km through Namano to Amahai.
4Sleeping & Eating
Hotel-Restaurant IsabelaHOTEL$
(%0914-22637; Jl Manusela 17; s with fan 95,000-105,000Rp, d with air-con from 205,000Rp; as)
The Isabela's cracked concrete forecourt doesn't look promising, but its comfortable ‘executive’ rooms have windows, hot showers and settee seating. A sizeable swimming pool, open to nonguests, is plonked oddly in the car park.
Penginapan IreneGUESTHOUSE$
(%0914-21238; Jl MC Tiahahu; r with fan/air-con 135,000/330,000Rp; a)
The Irene (pronounced ‘ee-reh-neh’) is friendly, professionally run and suffers less road noise than most. Many cheaper rooms are windowless; it's worth the extra for the nicer ones. Look it up on Facebook.
AfsalINDONESIAN$
(Jl Binaya; mains 18,000-35,000Rp; h7.30am-10.30pm)
This clean, slightly upscale pick-and-mix joint has Masohi’s most appealing interior with solid black furniture, mirrored wall panels and chequerboard floors. The food's not bad either.
8Information
Central Maluku Tourist OfficeTOURIST INFORMATION
(Dinas Kebudayan & Parawisata; %0914-21462; Jl Imam Bonjol; h8am-2pm Mon-Sat)
The staff are friendly, but there's little information on offer in either spoken or written English. This is the place to begin the three-stage application for permits to visit Manusela National Park.
Northern Seram
Seram’s most accessible scenic highlight is Teluk Sawai, a beautiful wide bay backed by soaring cliffs and rugged, forested peaks. Hidden from the best views by a headland, the photogenic stilt-house village of Sawai is a great place to unwind and contemplate the moonlit sea.
Snorkelling is possible in offshore coral gardens (bring your own gear) though the reefs show signs of bomb-fishing damage. Other possible activities include boat rides to Pulau Raja or to the bay’s spectacular western side, where dramatic cliffs rise up above the picturesque village of Saleman. It’s famed for flocks of bat-like Lusiala birds, which emerge at dusk, supposedly bearing the souls of human ancestors. En route, tempting little Ora is a handkerchief of marvellously spongy, white-sand beach, where you'll find Seram's very best nest, the Ora Beach Resort.
4Sleeping
Penginapan Lisar BahariHOMESTAY$
(%0852 3050 5806; Sawai; per person incl full board 250,000Rp)
Perched romantically above the water, rooms at this age-old traveller favourite are predictably somewhat damp (bring a sleeping mat) and showers in the basic en-suite bathrooms are salty. There’s no phone, but call the owner's cousin Wati – he speaks good English and can help organise your stay. Cost includes fish dinners, assorted snacks and endless tea.
oOra Beach ResortBUNGALOW$$
(%0817 083 3554, 0813 3363 3338; www.bagualabayresort.wordpress.com; Ora Beach; beachfront/overwater 500,000/700,000Rp, meals per day 250,000Rp)
Grab one of eight beachfront rooms, one of seven brand-new romantically rustic overwater bungalows, or even the 'floating house'. Activities include snorkelling tours to offshore islands and trips up the Salawai River into the exotic and remote Manusela National Park. Packages are available, and rooms can be booked ahead through Baguala Bay Resort in Ambon.
Banda Islands
%0910 / Pop 22,000
Combining raw natural beauty, a warm local heart, and a palpable and fascinating history, this remote cluster of 10 picturesque islands isn't just Maluku’s choice travel destination, it's one of the very best in all of Indonesia. Particularly impressive undersea drop-offs are vibrantly plastered with multicoloured coral gardens offering superlative snorkelling and tasty diving. The central islands – Pulau Neira (with the capital Bandaneira sprinkled with relics) and Pulau Banda Besar (the great nutmeg island) – curl in picturesque crescents around a pocket-sized tropical Mt Fuji (Gunung Api, 656m).
Outlying Hatta, Ai and Neilaka each have utterly undeveloped picture-postcard beaches. And Run, her gnarled limestone sprouting with nutmeg and cloves, is one drop-dead-gorgeous historical footnote. Banda became a region (no longer a subdistrict) in 2015, bringing national investment, rising transport and communication standards, and (inevitably) more visitors. The new fast-boat service from Ambon is already making Banda more accessible; it's time to get there before everyone else does!
History
Nutmeg, once produced almost exclusively in the Banda Islands, was one of the medieval world’s most expensive commodities. Its cultivation takes knowledge but minimal effort, so the drudgery of manual labour was virtually unknown in the Bandas. Food, cloth and all necessities of life could be easily traded for spices with eager Arab, Chinese, Javanese and Bugis merchants, who queued up to do business. Things started to go wrong when the Europeans arrived; the Portuguese in 1512, then (especially) the Dutch from 1599.
These strange barbarians had no foodstuffs to trade, just knives, impractical woollens and useless trinkets of mere novelty value. So when the Dutch demanded a trade monopoly, the notion was laughable. However, since they were dangerously armed, some orang kaya (elders) signed a ‘contract’ to keep them quiet. Nobody took it at all seriously. The Dutch sailed away and were promptly forgotten. But a few years later they were back, furious to find the English merrily trading nutmeg on Pulau Run and Pulau Ai. Entrenching themselves by force, the dominant Dutch played cat and mouse with the deliberately provocative English, while trying unsuccessfully to enforce their mythical monopoly on the locals. In 1621, Jan Pieterszoon Coen, the new governor general of the VOC (Dutch East India Company), ordered the virtual genocide of the Bandanese. Just a few hundred survivors escap
ed to the Kei Islands.
Coen’s VOC thereupon provided slaves and land grants to oddball Dutch applicants in return for a promise that they’d settle permanently in the Bandas and produce fixed-price spices exclusively for the company. These folk, known as perkeniers (from the Dutch word perk, meaning ‘ground’ or ‘garden’), established nearly 70 plantations, mostly on Banda Besar and Ai.
This system survived for almost 200 years but corruption and mismanagement meant that the monopoly was never as profitable as it might have been. By the 1930s, the Bandas were a place of genteel exile for better-behaved anti-Dutch dissidents, including Mohammed Hatta (future Indonesian vice president) and Sutan Syahrir (later prime minister). The small school they organised while in Bandaneira inspired a whole generation of anticolonial youth.
In the 1998–99 troubles, churches were burnt and at least five people were killed at Walang including the ‘last perkenier’, Wim de Broeke. Most of the Christian minority fled to Seram or Ambon, but the islands rapidly returned to their delightful calm.
2Activities
Crystal-clear seas, shallow-water drop-offs and coral gardens teeming with multicoloured reef life offer magnificently pristine snorkelling off Hatta, Banda Besar and Ai. Some Bandaneira homestays rent fins and snorkels to guests (30,000Rp per day).
Liveaboards also descend on the Bandas en route from Komodo Island to the Raja Ampat Islands. In addition to all the popular sites around Run, Hatta, Ai and the lava flow off the coast of Pulau Gunung Api, they often enjoy muck-diving the channel between Bandaneira, Api and Banda Besar.
Dive BluemotionDIVING
( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %0812 4714 3922; www.dive-bluemotion.com; Jl Pelabuhan, Laguna Inn; dives from 350,000Rp; equipment per day from 100,000Rp; hFeb-May & Aug-Dec)
Bluemotion is one of only two land-based dive operations in the Bandas, and now has an outlet in Ambon. It has new, well-maintained gear, a good speedboat and fair prices (cheaper as more dives are taken). Surcharges for Run and Hatta apply, and trips include lunch. It's closed during the unsettled months of January, June and July.
Naira DiveDIVING
( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %0813 4490 2298; www.nairadive.com; Jl Pelabuhan; per dive 400,000Rp; h7am-6pm; diving Feb-May & Aug-Dec)
The new kid in town, Naira Dive is an Indonesian operation catering to the expanding dive clientele of Banda. It visits all the principal Banda dive sites (there's a fuel surcharge for taking groups of fewer than five to Run and Hatta) and can arrange snorkelling trips. There's a two-dive minimum.
Bandaneira
Pop 9,000
Little Bandaneira has always been the Bandas’ main port and administrative centre. In the Dutch era the perkeniers virtually bankrupted themselves maintaining a European lifestyle, even after the lost nutmeg monopoly made it untenable. Today, Bandaneira’s sleepy, flower-filled streets are so quiet that two becak count as a traffic jam. It’s a charming place to wander aimlessly, admire tumbledown Dutch villas, ponder mouldering ruins, watch glorious cloudscapes over Gunung Api and trip over discarded cannon lolling in the grass.
Bandaneira
1Sights
1Benteng BelgicaC3
2Benteng NassauB4
3ChurchB3
4Hatta's HouseC3
5Istana MiniC4
6Makatita HallC4
7Mesjid Hatta-SyahrirB2
8Rumah BudayaB3
9Schelling HouseD3
10Sun Tien Kong Chinese TempleB3
2Activities, Courses & Tours
11Dive BluemotionB1
12Naira DiveB1
4Sleeping
13Cilu Bintang EstateC4
14DelfikaB3
15Delfika 2A4
16Hotel MaulanaB2
17Mutiara GuesthouseB3
18Pantai Nassau GuesthouseA4
19Penginapan Babbu SallamA3
20Penginapan GamalamaA4
21Vita GuesthouseA3
5Eating
Cilu Bintang EstateC4
Delfika CafeB3
22NamasawarB3
23Nutmeg CafeB3
1Sights
Several Dutch-era buildings have been restored. If you manage to gain access (knock and hope!), much of the fun is hearing the fascinating life stories of the septuagenarian caretakers, assuming your Bahasa Indonesia is up to the task. Donations (around 10,000Rp per person) are appropriate.
Benteng BelgicaFORTRESS
( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; admission by donation)
A classic star fort, the Unesco-nominated Benteng Belgica was built on the hill above Nassau in 1611, when it became apparent the lower bastion was an inadequate defence. The five massive sharp-pointed bastions were expensively crafted to deflect the cannon fire of a potential English naval bombardment.
It caused quite a scandal in Holland when, in 1796, the Brits managed to seize it (albeit briefly) without firing a shot. The fort is open sporadically; to reach the upper ramparts (with great views), take the second arch on the left from the central courtyard. Be sure to look for the old jail, where locals were imprisoned if they dared sell their spices to the English.
Benteng NassauFORTRESS
( MAP GOOGLE MAP )
Nassau, quietly crumbling amongst tropical foliage now, was the scene of the Banda Massacre, the greatest enormity in the violent history of Dutch Banda. It was built in 1609, against the wishes of the orang kaya (local leaders) by Dutch Admiral Verhoeff, on foundations abandoned by the Portuguese 80 years earlier.
The Bandanese, fearing Dutch control, ambushed and executed some 40 Dutch ‘negotiators’, including Verhoeff himself. Unfortunately, the party also contained Jan Pieterszoon Coen, who was to become the fourth governor-general of the Dutch East Indies, and who retaliated (in 1621) with the infamous beheading and quartering of 44 orang kaya within the fortress. What followed was the virtual genocide of the Bandanese population.
Hatta’s HouseHISTORIC BUILDING
( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; Jl Hatta; admission by donation)
Of three early-20th-century ‘exile houses’, Mohammed Hatta’s House is the most appealing. It’s partly furnished and photos of the dissident, his typewriter, distinctive spectacles and neatly folded suit are all on display. In the courtyard, where there are vintage clay cisterns and an old brick well sprouting with bromeliads, you'll also find a schoolhouse that Hatta founded during his exile. It's literally built into the hillside.
Schelling HouseHISTORIC BUILDING
( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; Jl Hatta; hby apointment)
This massive, columned house, owned by the daughter of the last Banda king, will inspire 'I could live here' fantasies. It has a leafy courtyard, high ceilings and, in the the master bathroom, a stone tub resting against an exposed coral wall. And definitely wander up to that special shuttered loft in the rear courtyard.
Istana MiniHISTORIC BUILDING
( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; Jl Kujali)
Little in Banda gives a sense of the scale of the Dutch enterprise like this grand, atmospheric yet largely empty 1820s mansion. Once a residence of the colonial governors, it's now shrouded in benign neglect. You can find 19th-century plaques and a bust of Willem III in the shady courtyard.
Makatita HallHISTORIC BUILDING
( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; Jl Kujali)
Makatita Hall occupies the site of the former Harmonie Club (aka ‘the Soc’) that once boasted seven snooker tables and was the focus of colonial-era social events. Now it's home to chickens and furtive graffiti.
Rumah BudayaMUSEUM
( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; Jl Gereja Tua; admission 20,000Rp; h9am-5pm, by appointment)
Bandaneira’s little museum is worth a quick visit. It's dusty, and only haphazardly 'curated', but you can see colonial artefacts including coins, silverware, crockery, pipes, swords and flintlock pistols and muskets. There's also a smattering of Bandanese stuff, including the parang (machete) and kapsete (helmet) used in the cakalele (the warrior dance once performed by up to 50 young males that went underground following the 1621 massacre). T
he key is available from the caretaker: ask for Mrs Feni or Iqbal.
Mesjid Hatta-SyahrirMOSQUE
( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; Jl Mesjid Hatta-Syahrir)
Behind the main port is the eye-catching minaret of the Mesjid Hatta-Syahrir. Some locals claim this was converted into a mosque from the mansion that first accommodated Hatta and Syahrir on their arrival in 1936.
Sun Tien Kong Chinese TempleCHINESE TEMPLE
( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; Jl Pelabuhan)
The 300-year-old Sun Tien Kong Chinese Temple is testament to the ancient Chinese involvement in the Banda spice trade. Ask at the antique shop across the road for the key, or you'll have to glimpse its dim, lantern-lit interior through round, latticed windows.
ChurchCHURCH
( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; Jl Gereja Tua)
The restored 1852 Dutch church has a portico of four chubby columns, a decorative bell-clock and an antique stone floor.
2Activities
Though not Banda’s best place for snorkelling, Pulau Neira has pleasant (if distressingly litter-strewn) coral gardens at the southern end of Tanah Rata village, off the eastern end of the airstrip and to the northeast off Pantai Malole. A notable marine attraction is to spot populations of mandarin fish that emerge at dusk from rubble piles within Neira harbour. Snorkellers can find them near Vita Guesthouse, and divers can find deeper-water populations just off the Hotel Maulana, where most of the muck-diving happens. Bring underwater torches.
Lonely Planet Indonesia Page 84