One Year Away

Penny and Joe

Where to go next was the question on our minds.  With so many different islands offering completely different experiences, it is tough to choose.  We again relied on our Lonely Planet guide book to help pick our next destination.  The Moluccas or Spice Islands are described as some of the most beautiful islands in the world with interesting history and culture to boot.  We booked a flight and were off to Kota Ambon, the capital of the region. From there we planned our next few days.  Kota Ambon is unimpressive but is the gateway to the 1000 other islands of the Moluccas. 

Our first choice was to go to the Banda Islands, famous for being the only source for nutmeg and
mace until the 19th century.  They now produce little spice but do offer world-class snorkeling and interesting bits of their colonial past.  Unfortunately, we had missed the only weekly flight by a day and the ferry is even more infrequent.  We went with option two; a visit to the Kei Islands which offer visitors white sand beaches and glimpses of a local culture full of superstitious beliefs and ancestor worship.

We are staying at Savana Cottages, located in the small fishing village of Ohoidertawun which is home to about 30 families.  The village has only one badly paved road and no shops or restaurants. 

The beach at Ohoidertawun is very shallow and at low tide the water recedes 300 meters exposing loads of hermit crabs and snails.  It becomes a feasting ground for long-beaked seagulls.  At high tide, the water depth is only a couple of feet and the local children come out for an afternoon swim.

Savana Cottages is a beach front property with four cottage style rooms.  They have share bathrooms with cold water mandi (a tiled water basin with a scoop for bathing; showers are available only in high end hotels in Indonesia).  The rooms are comfortable and breezy and a mosquito net keeps (most) of the blood suckers away. A covered porch with rattan chairs and table are where we have spent a lot of time over the last couple of days watching the turquoise water.  There is also a two table common area where meals are served on request and cold drinks are available.  This is handy since there are no other eating options in the area. 

It’s been rainy for parts of the last couple of days so we’ve spent a lot of time talking with the friendly
and helpful owner, Gerson.  A Dutch Moluccan, he gave up his Dutch citizenship to live in Indonesia on the island of his father.  After serious religious conflict between the Protestants, Catholics and Muslims engulfed this area in 1999 and 2000 tourism has almost completely ended in the Moluccas and his hotel has been receiving only four or five guests per year.  The violence ended over six years ago and the islands are once again very safe, but the tourists have not yet returned.  He basically shut the place down for four years and is now in the process of rebuilding in the hope that customers will come back.

On a walk along the beach  we met a group of villagers who looked surprised to see us.  They invited us to sit with them and talk.  Since they spoke no English we used our best Indonesian (a very easy language which we’ve been picking up quicker than any other).  After the usual niceties they invited us to a party they were having later that night in the town hall, located, as almost everything is in this village, right on the beach.  We accepted and returned later that night with Gerson to join in the festivities. 

When we were spotted by the ladies who had invited us, we were dragged into the open-air town hall to dance.  Our entrance caused the whole party to break out in giggles.  The music was mainly English language oldies but the dancing was very different from back home.  In the town hall, the men sat on one side while the women sat on the other.  When the music came on they all got up and formed two lines, dancing with the person who they were sitting opposite to.  The dance consisted of a three step shuffle that even Joe could manage.  There was no physical or even eye contact between the men and the women.  At the end of the song the music stopped and people rushed back to their seats without a backwards glance.

The villagers were very happy to dance with us and we seemed to provide the people watching with much entertainment.  After three dances though we made our getaway.  It was fun dancing with them but we had become the center of attention and preferred to let them continue their party without our interference.  And party they did; till well past 4 AM we could hear the music coming from down the beach.