I am now back in Balikpapan again! I arrived here two days ago, flying in from Ambon via Surabaya on Lion Air (Rp 928,000).
Daily reports as follows:
13.06. KM Ciremai left Ambon at 22:00, 5 hours behind schedule. Well aboard the ship, I checked into an excellent third class cabin (ticket price Rp 165,000), which was good for 6 people. Nice and clean. I chatted with my fellow passengers (all Indonesians), drank 2 beers, and fell soon after asleep.
14.06. Arrived in Bandanaira at 06:00 and checked into Vita guest house (Rp 80,000 nightly). This place sails up as the best budget lodging in all of Indonesia I have seen so far, with Mercury guest house in Yogyakarta as my previous favourite. Nice room, very nice setting in wooden jetty area with views of the volcano Gunung Api, and with the most friendly and helpful staff as well.
I met two other foreigners coming with the same ship as me; they were checking into Vita as well: Stefan (an Austrian), and Roy (a Swiss). After an excellent breakfast consisting of (among other things) addictive nutmeg jam, I and Stefan was walking around the streets of Bandanaira. Later in the afternoon all 3 of us chartered a small boat for Rp 55,000 to go snorkelling off Pulau Karaka (pulau = island).
15.06. Chartered a boat to Pulau Ai (Rp 450,000) together with Stefan and a German and a Dutch, the two latter staying at another guest house (Mutiara). Great snorkelling off Pulau Ai. Walking around the island’s only village, which was surprisingly orderly and clean. The village uses rainwater as water source, and solar power for electricity.
16.06. Chartered a boat together with Stefan and 6 others (one Dutch and 5 Germans) for Rp 600,000. The plan was to go to Pulau Hatta for snorkelling, but the waves were just too big: For the first time in a long time I was actually a bit scared, when a big wave splashed into the wooden boat and knocked me down. Soon after, the boatman decided it was too dangerous to continue. Instead, we went snorkelling off Pulau Syahrir and the north end of Pulau Banda Besar (including Karnofol).
17.06. Went to Pulau Banda Besar with public boat (Rp 5000) together with Stefan. Walking around the villages. Some old, Dutch ruins of nutmeg farm houses could be seen. Tried to snorkel on the south side of the island, but nothing special about it. Missed the last public boat back to Bandanaira, so we had to charter a boat for Rp 60,000. Met a Swedish couple, which came with the Pelni ship in the morning.
18.06. Stefan and I took a public boat (Rp 20,000) to Pulau Ai, where we stayed in Green Coconut guest house in the village. Paid Rp 85,000 for each room including breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Nice place with veranda facing the open ocean. Snorkelling. Before we left Bandanaira for Ai, we had agreed with the boatman in our guest house Vita to pick us up the next day for Rp 350,000.
19.06. The boatman from Vita picked us up in Ai, together with the two Swedes, which had decided to join as well. We spent the day snorkelling off the island before returning to Bandanaira in the late afternoon.
20.06. Another day with snorkelling together with Stefan and the two Swedes. We chartered a boat for Rp 200,000 and made 4 stops: North end of Pulau Banda Besar, Pulau Syahrir, Pulau Karaka, and the 21 year old lava flows off Pulau Gunung Api.
21.06. An exciting day. I absolutely needed to travel back to Ambon, since I had a flight from Ambon to Balikpapan the next day. The original plan was to take the Pelni passenger ship KM Kelimutu, but the ship was delayed for two days due to engine trouble… So I had to search for other possibilities. There were flights leaving Banda for Ambon and Seram, but they were both fully booked. My only option seemed to be a small, wooden cargo vessel bound for Seram the same day. I decided, however, to try my luck in the morning and went to the airport to see if there might be an empty seat after all. And there was! The plane to Seram had several empty seats, so I was accepted aboard. Paid Rp 200,000 for the ticket.
Well arrived in Seram island, I took an ojek to Masohi and found a guest house there for the night (Penginapan Lulu @Rp 65,000). Masohi seems to be a boring place. Made a short trip to a nearby beach, but nothing special, although the water was crystal clear.
22.06. Speedboat from Amahai on Pulau Seram to Pulau Ambon (Rp 91,000) at 08:00. The trip took less than two hours. I skipped the city and went straight to the airport, where I waited a couple of hours before flying home to Balikpapan at 15:30 (via Surabaya), arriving in Balikpapan at 21:30. I was picked up in the airport by Caecil and Astrid (as usual, hehe!)
During my stay in the Bandas, the highlight was of course the snorkelling: I saw a lot of colourful corals, many strange fish, small fish, big fish (up to a meter), shark, turtles, squid (half a meter long). And on one of the trips off Pulau Ai, we saw a swarm of so-called Portuguese Man o’ War (Physalia physalis), small venomous jelly-like creatures floating on the surface of the ocean.
The Bandas is definitely a place I would like to return to!
I will upload some pictures later.
