Our first task in Indonesia, having cleared in, was to find local currency and local SIM cards. That meant leaving Debut, a small village, and heading to Tual about 10km away. The local currency was easy; there were ATM's everywhere; but the SIM card was altogether more problematic.
In Indonesia, foreign phones first need to be registered before they will work with a local SIM. The problem was, nobody really knew where to go to register the phone. We were sent to three different offices, spread throughout Tual, none of which could provide the service. We finally found somebody who did know and we were directed to a building no more than 200m from where we had withdrawn money two hours earlier.
Tual was not as interesting as we had hoped. But it set the scene for what we would experience over the next weeks.
Firstly, everyone is incredibly friendly and helpful. Children loved to strike up a (basic) conversation and to practise their English. When we asked directions, one shop owner temporarily closed his shop so he could walk us round to the office, which he thought we needed to visit to register our phones.
The second characteristic of Indonesia is the ubiquitous scooter. There must be more than ten times the number of scooters than cars. They are used as taxis with the customer riding pillion. To be fair, being driven round Tual on a scooter was a great way to see the place.
Air Goa Hawang is a cave about 4km walk from the dock in Debut. The water is crystal clear and quite warm enough to jump in. It is possible to swim into darkness at the back of the cave, behind stalagmites and stalagtites.
Ru had a flight booked on the morning of the 15th and decided to spend his last night in a hotel in Tual. I came into town with him to do some provisioning ready to depart early on the 15th. We had an enjoyable final afternoon together, drinking beer on the roof top terrace of his hotel.
After Tual, my next stop in Indonesia was the Banda (Spice) Islands. The passage was 189nm and, for the first 60nm, I would have to navigate between islands and Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs). Typically these may or may not be manned and most are not lit at night. So, alone for the first time on this RTW voyage, I weighed anchor at 07.15 to ensure I was clear of obstructions before sunset.
I had chosen to leave on the 15th, just before most of the Rally boats arrived, because the wind was forecast to be quite gentle. After the passage from Vanuatu, I preferred to have an easy sail, even if it meant missing the opening ceremony of the Rally. I arrived in Banda Neira, one of the Spice Islands, just before lunch the next day.
The Hotel Maulana offers a wall where you can moor stern to. Unfortunately there is quite a bit of tide and it is too shallow close to the wall. Therefore, it is best to tie up 20m from the wall. Med mooring solo, without a bow thruster, was a bit of a challenge. Fortunately I can control my anchor from the helm and Mark (SV Aliana) took my stern lines ashore with his dinghy.
The place has a lovely feel to it. The terrace oozes serenity. In it's heyday the hotel hosted Princess Diana and Mick Jagger, among other celebrities. Today, it is rather run down but Mita, the lovely owner and fifth family member to run the hotel built by her grandfather, is trying to restore it, bit by bit.
The town is a mix of colonial buildings, new structures and desolate shacks. Generally, they are all painted in bright colours, which makes for an attractive location. Even at night, it is very safe to walk around. There are two forts, a fish market, a traditional market and several historic buildings to visit.
Food here is very, very cheap. One kilo of fresh tuna costs US$2.50! Only alcohol is 'western prices'. Just the place to swap beers for their delicious (exotic) fruit smoothies. The fish market and traditional market are both worth a visit, even if the intention is to eat out every night. The fresh produce is nearly all local and good quality. Only apples are imported. However, it is much harder (impossible) to find tinned products (tinned fruit, tuna etc) as everybody eats fresh food.
The best food on the island is to be found at the Cilu Bitang Estate. This is an old plantation estate building which has been converted into a hotel/restaurant. The owner, Aba, is also a history buff and the hotel is filled with artefacts which probably belong in a museum. My favourite place there was the upstairs terrace, which overlooks one of the forts. It is beautifully done and the view is special. I spent a whole afternoon there, drinking a beer and snoozing.
The hotel also organises guides to show people around the plantations (on the neighbouring island) and to teach them a little of the history about the place.
Marco Polo, on his travels to China, brought nutmeg to Europe along the Silk Road. The Chinese had bought it from these Spice islands. Vasco de Gamma, and his voyages around Africa to India, was financed to set up an alternative sea-based 'Silk Road'. The Portuguese discovered the Spice Islands and the origin of nutmeg. This was important as the trade in nutmeg was highly profitable. But it was the Dutch who benefited the most. They captured the islands and set up an effective monopoly on the trade in nutmeg. Thanks to its medicinal properties (prevented the Plague), the Dutch could sell it in Europe at any price. They built a gamut of forts to protect their 'golden goose'.
The British finally managed to capture Ambon and Banda Neira in 1810. They handed it back to the Dutch in 1814, in exchange for Manhatten, New York, but only after taking nutmeg trees and successfully setting up plantations in Ceylon and Grenada. The monopoly had been broken.
The locals use implements which look a bit like lacrosse sticks to pick the nutmeg.
The two 'prongs' at the top are used to catch the nutmeg and pull it from the tree. The nut then falls into the basket from where it can be retrieved.
Today, the government owns all the nutmeg trees. Each family is assigned fifty trees which they can harvest. There are three harvests each year. A good tree will generate 40kg of nutmeg each harvest. Given that each kg will fetch US$6 per kg, each family can earn up to 50*3*40*6 =US$36k per year from their trees. But it is hard work. You need to pick around 250 nutmeg to yield a kilo of nuts!
The tree yields multiple products. The outer 'shell' is sweet and is used for jam and nutmeg oil. The red 'iril' around the nut (see top photo) is known as mace. It is/was one of the 'secret' ingredients of Coca Cola. It is also used for medicinal purposes as well as spices. And the kernel is dried/ground to produce the spice nutmeg.
In addition, nearly all spices can be found on Banda Neira, including cloves and vanilla.
Finally, there are canarium trees (tropical almonds) in the plantations. These were planted by the Dutch to act as windbreaks and to protect the nutmeg trees from the south easterly trade winds. Ironically, since a German company has been promoting them as a health food, the locals can earn significantly more selling a kg of tropical almonds than they can selling nutmeg.
Another reason to leave Tual early was to allow time to do some diving in Banda. This is a diving mecca, judged by Jacques Cousteau to be one of his ten favourite dive sites in the world. After the volcano on Banda Api erupted violently in 1988, with several lava flows spilling into the sea, Cousteau spent some time here researching how quickly the coral returned and how it was influenced by the presence of the lava.
It is a steep hike up the volcano with loose volcanic rock all the way. The book suggests a four hour return hike but it can be done in less if you like scree running.
I did four days of diving here and the coral is in exceptionally good condition. This is said to be related to the very deep seas around the islands, which help protect the coral from climate change by warming far more slowly than shallower waters which do not have the thermal mass. There were huge numbers of fish and many other interesting things to spot (squid, turtles, lobsters, black tip sharks, moray eels, etc).
I liked the fact that all businesses here are owned by Indonesians.Sometimes it means the investment is not there and the solution is more 'traditional'. I used the Nutmeg Dive centre. Hassim, my dive guide, was excellent and the traditional dive boat ensures that they only cater for relatively small groups of divers.
I had been trying to choose one photo to sum up my first two weeks experience of Indonesia. I chose this picture of a kid who came out to greet me and to talk to me. Of course, he wanted his photo taken. He lives in a house painted pink and bright green, there were chickens running around and the scooter is clearly to be seen. A very typical Indonesian scene.
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