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These twin towns hold almost all the Kei Islands facilities. While pleasant enough, neither has any real sights. Tual’s most atmospheric quarter is Kyonbawa, a semi-island with narrow lanes, some stilt houses and a small raised graveyard with views across to Pulau Fa-ir. The Un Tower (not UN) at Tual’s highest point looks like a white minaret balanced on a pile of dishes. Tual’s bustling centre is the area around the Mesjid Agung (Jl Pattimura). Tidy Langgur is bracketed by a pair of Lusiap monuments: concrete eagles grabbing bog-eyed fish. Mesjid Muharjirin (Jl Soekarno-Hatta) is a stylish new mosque built to a traditional design, while the similarly modern Anugerah Church (Jl Soekarno-Hatta) has a bell tower shaped like a spaceship.
Information
BNI Bank (Bank Negara Indonesia; Jl Jenderal Sudirman; 8am-3pm Mon-Fri) Good rates and the only reliable currency exchange; 24-hour ATM.
BRI Bank (Bank Raykat Indonesia; Jl Jenderal Sudirman; 8am-3pm Mon-Fri) ATM but no exchange.
Post office (Jl Pahlawan Revolusi; 7am-2pm Mon-Sat)
Ronevan Computer (Jl Dr Leimana; 8am-10pm Mon-Sat) Internet access; hidden away in a steeply descending back alley.
Telkom (Jl Cempaka; 24hr)
Tourist office (Dinas Parawisata; Jl Jenderal Sudirman; 7.30am-2.30pm Mon-Sat, 7.30am-noon Fri) Friendly, English-speaking Vicky (male) dispenses glossy, passingly informative brochures from a sweaty government office beside Pasar Ohoijang. No town maps as yet.
Wartel (Jl Hotel Langgur).
TUAL
Losmen Amelia (Jl Fidnang Armau; s) Cleanest of the rock-bottom cheapies. It’s not especially friendly but is quiet er than several dreary alternatives on Jl Pattimura.
Penginapan Asnolia (Jl Mayor Abdullah) This smartly well-kept place is good value and sparkling clean though showers spray straight onto the floor of the toilet.
Penginapan Linda Mas (Jl A Rhebok) This overgrown homestay in a quiet suburban setting still has a rocking chair on its upper veranda, but seems to have gone slightly to seed.
Penginapan Charly (Jl Yos Sudarso) Vibrant if sometimes jarring colours add life to the décor of this rapidly expanding hotel. The attached toilet/mandi is small but each room has a VCD player and good air-con. Some beds are king size. There’s a pool table and sitting room upstairs.
LANGGUR
Losmen Bahtera (Jl Kayu Hitam) Somewhat cramped but unusually clean and fresh for the price range with comfortable spring mattresses and private mini-mandis. There’s a harbour view from the rear, common balcony.
Rosemgem (Jl Merdeka 50) Rooms are acceptable with toilet, mandi and good new beds. However, the high-ceilinged upper corridor has horror-movie splotches of living damp and the atmosphere is eerily morose.
Hotel Dragon (Jl Jenderal Sudirman 154) The only hotel with English-speaking staff, the Dragon is super-clean and faultlessly obliging. Rooms are spacious and well equipped with desk, wardrobe, towels, soap and shampoo (but no toilet paper or top sheet). All rooms have air-con units: some are powerful but others feeble so they’re worth testing. Road noise might disturb light sleepers, especially in front-facing rooms. Hotel Vilia (Jl Telaver 1) Clean and airy, this hotel’s best mangrove views are from the shared balcony on the top floor. It’s quieter than the Dragon but less personable.
Eating
Several unremarkable warungs are strung along Langgur’s Jl Jenderal Sudirman, more huddle near Tual’s Pasar Masrun and food stalls appear near the main bridge at night.
Hotels Vilia and Dragon cook good Chinese food but this is best served in-room as their dining areas are uninspired. The local mainstay enbal (cassava) rarely appears in restaurants.
Padang Saiyo (Jl Jenderal Sudirman; 8am-5am) Tempting but highly spiced precooked dishes available almost around the clock.
Jimbaran Seafood (Jl Cempaka; 10am-3pm & 4.30-10pm) Good Chinese-style food cooked to order though the simple, bright décor lacks atmosphere.
Pelangi (7am-midnight) Often considered Tual’s best restaurant, this curious open-sided barn of a place sit on stilts above what should be a pond 3km north of Tual on the Dullah road. There are Chinese, pseudo-Thai and local menu options plus live music from around 9pm. Consider pre-ordering an ojek to get home at night.
Shopping
Several ‘souvenir’ shops are predominantly purveyors of local pearls.
Cendrawasih Souvenirs (Jl Mohammad Amir Tamher) One such shop; run by a delightful gentleman from Aru who speaks the odd word of English.
Getting There & Away
AIR
The airport is a mere 300m stroll from Langgur’s main street, Jl Jenderal Sudirman, along which bemos shuttle to Tual with quite extraordinary frequency. However a new airport is planned 12km south beyond Satehan. Trigana Air (Jl Cempaka; 8am-4pm Mon-Sat) has several local routings including five flights weekly to Ambon (1½ hours) offering beautiful views of Tayando and Banda en route. On Tuesday the Ambon flight continues to Ternate, Manado, Luwuk and ultimately Makassar, returning on Wednesdays. Baggage limit is just 10kg. Merpati (Agent Rahmat Jayamatra; Jl Fidnang Armau) flies thrice weekly to Ambon and Dobo (Aru).
BOAT
Pelni (Jl Pattimura; h8am-2pm) liners Bukit Siguntang and Ciremai link Tual to Ambon (18 hours) via Banda-
neira (10 hours). Eastbound both continue to Fak-Fak in Papua. In Langgur, Pelni agencies include Mitra Jaya (Jl Jenderal Sudirman; 8am-4pm Mon-Sat).
BEMO (MOBIL) & OJEK
Bemos (mobils) for southern Kei Kecil operate from a station near Pasar Langgur. Destin ations include Debut and Disuk. Bemos for Dullah (fairly frequent) and Difur Beach (Sunday only) leave from near Tual’s clogged Pasar Masrun. At Langgur’s Pasar Ohoijang there’s a pick-up point for mobils to Ngur Bloat (for Pasir Panjang) but departures are impractically rare. It’s much wiser to take an ojek (25 minutes).
Getting Around
Bemos are so common they form a virtual conveyer belt along Jl Jenderal Sudirman to Tual, many winding around via the Un Tower. Southbound from Tual, ‘Langgur’ bemos pass Hotel Vilia and terminate at Pasar Langgur. ‘Perumnas’ bemos divert to the area around the Anugerah church.
PULAU KEI KECIL & PULAU DULLAH
Northern Kei Kecil
BUKIT MASBAIT
With great views over Langgur, the island’s highest point is an important Easter pilgrimage site especially for Catholics. It’s dominated by an open-armed Christ statue topping a globe and tower, surrounded by various scenes from the crucifixion. Notice the strikingly Asian features of the Roman centurion. Access up steps takes 10 minutes from an unmarked pass on the road to Letman just beyond Kelanit village.
OHOIDERTAWUN
The charming village of Ohoidertawun surveys a lovely bay that becomes a vast white sand flat at low tide. Craftsmen sit in the palm shade carving out canoes with adzes. An elfin Elim Church and pyr amidal mosque coexist harmoniously. A footpath through the beachfront coconut grove passes Savana Cottages, a highly recommended four-room traveller retreat. The path continues to a stairway that leads up to Ohoider Atas village. But at low tide you can strike out across the sand from beside the bottom of the steps. Splashing through streams you pass small caves cut in the limestone cliffs, some containing human bones. And after around 25 minutes you’ll find a series of red and orange petroglyphs painted on the cliff-faces. Although some designs look new, many are antique and their origin baffles archaeologists.
Sleeping
Savana Cottages. For pure narcotic serenity, few budget guesthouses in Indonesia can beat Savana Cottages. Watch the changing moods of nature, the swooping curlews and the tide retreating in the moonlight while sipping an ice-cold beer or swinging from the hammock between sighing casuarinas. Locals believe that a particular holy tree beside the Savana Cottages has the power to enforce peace or bind relationships. And it seems to work an intangible magic on guests who are frequently mesmerised by this wonderful place’s simple charms. Airy double-bedded cottage-style rooms come with rattan balcony chairs and towels for
the shared bathrooms. There’s a sweet little four-table café with tinkling wind-chimes. When not away in Holland, English-speaking owner Gerson offers a variety of interesting excursions and explanations to some of the bizarre intricacies of Kei social life. Mosquito nets available on request.
PASIR PANJANG
The Kei Islands’ most famous tourist draw is Pasir Panjang, 3km of white sand so powdery it feels like flour. Coconut palms curve across it obligingly for your photographic delectation. Yet despite the brochure-cover beauty, the beach is almost entirely deserted except at weekends. Amid the palms around 400m north of Ngur Bloat (aka Pasir Panjang village) are a handful of Saturday-night karaoke shacks, two offering accommodation.
The basic but more reputable Losmen Ngur Bloat has four rooms. Two have narrow new beds, the other have bigger but off-puttingly aged mattresses. There are private mandis and some beds have mosquito nets (essential here). You can hear but not see the waves from the rickety terrace. Keys are available from Evlyn Dresubun whose house is near the main junction in Ngur Bloat village.
There’s nicer accommodation at the beach’s reputedly haunted north end, 700m beyond Ohoililar village. Coaster Cottages has two slightly age-ing rooms with a lovely porch plus a brand new apartment in a swish new house with double bed, big sitting room and curious scalloped mandi. Keys are available from Pedro Letsoin in Ohoililar village. Just beyond, the unmarked Wisata Café is as yet little more than a house but the owners will cook for you on request and sometimes rent out one of their dishevelled rooms.
Southern Kei Kecil
From Debut outrigger ferries cross to Tetoat from which a rough road continues to the impressive Ohoidertutu Beach. Also from Debut, daily speedboats cross to Pulau Tanimbar Kei, the most traditional and isolated of all the islands. There’s no way back till next morning and with no formal accommodation you’ll have to arrange a bed through the kepala desa.
About 4km south of Debut between Dian and Letvuan, an unmarked track to the right leads down steps to Gua Lian Hawan - a pair of cave pools with ice-blue water and lots of butterflies. The road ends at Evu, source of Kei Kecil’s fresh water and an unexpectedly popular weekend picnic spot thanks to its artificial splashing pool behind a monument displaying a lela (mini-cannon). In Evu’s upper village, the older of two St Antonius churches is a photogenically ramshackle Dutch-era chapel.
Pulau Dullah
Dullah is famous as the starting point for October Belang Races using traditional kora-kora rowing boats. The races haven’t run since 1998 but were slated to restart in 2006. A potholed kilometre beyond Tamadan is a beachless headland called Pantai Serbat with attractive distant views across limpid tur- quoise waters towards Kei Besar. For blinding white sand visit Difur which is idyllic on weekdays but over-run by strollers, motorbikes and food vendors on Sundays.
PULAU KEI BESAR
Scenic Kei Besar is a long ridge of lush, steep hills dotted with several picture-perfect beaches (better for photos than for swimming) and some of Maluku’s most picturesque villages. Expect intense curiosity from locals and take your best kamus (dictionary) as nobody speaks English.
GETTING THERE & AWAY
Two daily passenger boats between Watdek (Langgur) and Elat (2½ hours) leave at 10.30am and 2.30pm in either direction, passing a series of bagang (fishing platforms). When demand is high, faster speedboats (80 minutes) occasionally double the routes, departing at the same times.
GETTING AROUND
Mobil are very rare; most road transport is by ojek. Be sure to book a return ride; Elat is the only place that you can reliably find an ojek and it’s easy to get stranded in traffic-less outer villages.
Roadless settlements on the east coast are served by two multistop Johnson long-boats. These depart daily from Yamtel around 1.30pm, awaiting passengers off the 10.30am ferry from Langgur. The long- boats return next morning from Bandar Eli and Kilwat respectively, so day trips from Yamtel are impossible unless you charter (hugely expensive). Take sandals for wading through rock-pools to the boats. Sunscreen and rain protection are also important as the craft are uncovered.
Elat & Around
Kei Besar’s main village and port is Elat, attractively set on a bay facing a handful of islets. Tempting Pulau Kelapa has a sandy beach just 10 minutes away by motor-canoe. There’s a fine vista on the mountain-road descent towards Elat from the picturesque village of Yamtel.
An easy ojek-ride up the west coast north of Elat are several charming villages with island glimpses, bay views, stone stairways and rocky terraces. Most notable are Ngurdu (3km from Elat), Soinrat (4km), curiously named Bombay (7km) and Watsin (8km). Beyond, settlements are newer and less at- tractive. At Wer Fravav (12km) the road ends, but adventurous hikers could follow a (usually dry) riverbed through cacophonously exotic birdsong to a relatively intact stand of mountain forest.
SLEEPING & EATING
Elat has Kei Besar’s only accommodation. Neither of these places have signs or fans. Both have shared toilets and mandis.
Penginapan Sanohi (Jl Pelabuhan) Sanohi has new sheets on very aged mattresses and some damp patches on the walls. The location is odd - the two floors above the BRI bank office. To get the key find Mrs Sanohi at the shop three doors back towards the port.
Penginapan Sederhana (Jl Uver) This is the neater option with cleanly tiled if rather stuffy rooms. It’s the white-colonnaded bungalow with red trim at the northern end of the tiny park, one house uphill from the market on the road towards Yamtel.
Elat has a market and three rice-and fish rumah makan. All close by dusk, so eat early or snack on biscuits from the few tiny evening shops.
Pantai Daftel
Southwest of Elat a steep, super-narrow road passes St Josef’s, an unusual half-timbered hospital with lovely bay views glimpsed through palm fronds and bougainvillea. Pantai Daftel, a superb white-sand beach starts where the road reaches the coast (6km from Elat) at minuscule Karkarit. It stretches 1.8km to Lerehoilin, where a tiny waterside mosque faces a tidal island topped with ancient graves. The main access point is between these two hamlets at Daftel where there’s a handful of picnic shelters on the beach behind a rusty Dalek-shaped mosque.
The waving palms are superbly photogenic though the water is generally too shallow for swimming. You’ll probably have it all to yourself except on Sundays when snack stalls open to cater to local picnickers.
South of Elat
The main road south roller-coasters down the island’s central spine and is asphalted as far as Ohoiwait. Though there are few glimpses of sea, it’s worth venturing at least as far as Waur (6km from Elat). A Lourdes-style Madonna lurks in a grotto behind Waur’s oversized wooden church, the 1927 Gereja Hati Kudus Jesus. Two hundred metres beyond, a VOC cannon points curiously at the church’s front door from beside the woma.
East Coast
The eastern coastline has attractive tidal rock-pools but no beaches. Villages are comparatively isolated, steeped in superstitious traditions and tend to speak the local Kei language rather than Bahasa Indonesia. From Elat it takes at least an hour to reach Kilwair (21km away) via Reyahru, within whose high forests is hidden a mysterious batu kapal (stone boat). Straight-faced locals will assure you this was once a Portuguese shipwreck that somehow became petrified and ran up the mountain! Some 10 minutes’ walk along the beach from Kilwair, Anderius Uwaubun is happy to show off his private turtle pool. Walk five minutes further to find the triple-arched Kuel Rock, site of local fairy tales in which a woman turned into a Kuel fish.
Well beyond the road’s end, Banda Eli is home to many Bandanese. These are the descendants of survivors that fled the Banda Islands during the Dutch-led massacres of 1621. The Bandanese language, now extinct in the Banda Islands, is still spoken here and the people are renowned for goldsmithing.
SOUTHERN MALUKU
Of many very isolated island Maluku island groups, perhaps the most interesting are the Tanimbars (Saumlaki is the capital). Known for wild orchids, their one real tourist attraction is at Sangliat Dol, around 1½ uncomfortable hours from Saumlaki. Here a 30m-high staircase leads up from the beach to an intricately carved 18m-long boat-shaped stone platform. The mostly flat Aru island group (Dobo is the capital) is famed for its pearls. Both capitals are served by flights from Langgur and by weekly car-ferries from Tual. A comparatively arid arc of southern islands swings back around towards Timor. These are of much more
interest to geologists than to tourists and most are accessible only by rare Perintis cargo boats, though little Pulau Kisar has an airport. In early 2006 the Maluku government announced plans to develop infrastructure on Pulau Wetar hoping one day to develop transport links to East Timor, just 56km to the south.
