Blogs from Ambon, Maluku, Indonesia, Asia

Ed eccomi qui ad Ambon seduto al tavolino di un caffe' con una busta di tabacco a buon mercato, carta, penna ed una fumante tazza di pregiatissimo Kopi Luwak; cosi' va la vita nel lontano Oriente, dove con una tazzina di liquido ottenuto dai chicchi di caffe' defecati da un quadrupede ci si puo' bere lo stipendio ricavato da una dura giornata di lavoro di un nativo del posto... Sapore intestinale dolciastro, aromi di animale rinchiuso in gabbia, residui di alimentazione forzata: e comunque non riuscirei a distinguerlo da un Kimbo qualsiasi! Cosi' va la vita nel lontano Oriente... Scappato da Singapore, lasciata con successo Jakarta, quasi alluvionato a Makassar (e scippato miseramente nel bel mezzo dei mari del Sud) il Mercante e' riuscito finalmente a raggiungere le lontane e mitiche terre delle spezie, le Isole ... read more

We left our big backpacks with the owner, Pete, at Beta Hotel so we could travel light to Puala Saparuha for a few days. We caught the Bemo to Tulehu then jumped on an Ojek – (motorbike taxi) to the port where we located the correct ferry, bought a ticket and prepared ourselves for the long wait while cargo was loaded on. We managed to find out that the ferry left at 1pm and would take two hours – all by speaking Indonesian – hope you’re all impressed! Once on Saparua we were pounced on by Ojek drivers and Bemo drivers all eager to take our money. One quoted us 50,000 rupees to take us to our chosen destination. The average price should be 5,000 rupees per journey. We surprised him by saying ‘tidak’ the ... read more

We've reached the halfway mark of our travels and it's time for the difficult bit. We will need to speak Indonesian as much as possible and expect to get stared at a lot as very few Europeans venture as far as Maluku where the Banda Islands are. We flew to Makassar, Sulawesi on 3rd January, the hope had been to get the Pelni Ferry to our final destination the Bandas. It had been impossible to get a schedule before hand so we had to just hope we wouldn't have to wait too long. Unfortunately when we arrived in Makkasar it turned out that a ferry had left just 3 days ago and the next one was probably on the 22nd but no guarantees. Makassar was not a place to hang about, a very noisy, dirty city ... read more

tanggal 29 Juni 2010 saya dan teman perwakilan dari puskomda kalbar akan berangkat menuju Ambon bang fadhli,aris,hambali,dan ...kami berangkat dari pontianak jam 14.00, cuaca saat hujan tidak menghalangi kami untuk berangkat ke supadio menggunakan mobil pribadi bapak bang fadhli. tidak lupa sebelum kami berangkat menghantarkan kami hanya di Masjid Muhtadin. kami pun berangkat sekitar setengah jam kami sudah sampai di bandara supadio. kamipun langsung cek ini untuk menyimpan bagasi, eee...ternyata pesawat yang akan kami tumpangi delay selama 2 jam lebih. kami pun menunggu di ruang tunggu sambi menikmati istirihat di room wait. hee... jam menunjukkan 18.00, waktunya shalat maghrib, secara bergantian saya berdua shalat magrib duluan, sedangkan bang fadli menunggu barang kami. beberapa lama kemudian, para penumpang yang pesawatnya pun di panggil, karena pesawat sudah mendarat.kami pun b... read more

Lieve mensen, Inmiddels zijn alweer een aantal dagen van gebeurtenissen en ervaringen verstreken… In rap tempo val je van de ene blijde gebeurtenis in de andere. De volgende dag gingen we vroeg uit het hotel weg om een kerkdienst bij te wonen in Seilale. Bij aankomst was iedereen al op en top in zondagse kledij. Vooral de kleine nichtjes weten hier duidelijk voordeel uit te trekken. Prinsessenjurkjes blijven niet gespaard! Na de dienst gingen mijn vader en ik op stap met 3 neefjes, 2 nichtjes en aangetrouwde neef. Een lange wandeling stond op het programma, dus mijn zilveren ballerina’s werden verruild voor gympen. Via een hele lange, vrij steile trap kwamen we aan dan aan op een klein strandje waar de boot van mijn oom Arnold ligt. Hij is visser van beroep met peddels dus zonder ... read more