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This tiny and historically fascinating cluster of 10 picturesque islands is Maluku’s most tempting travel destination. Particularly impressive undersea drop-offs are vibrantly plastered with multicoloured coral gardens offering superlative snorkelling. Outlying Hatta, Ai and Neilaka each have utterly undeveloped picture-postcard beaches. And the central main islands, Pulau Neira (with the capital Bandaneira) and Pulau Banda Besar (the great nutmeg island) curl in picturesque crescents around a pocket-sized tropical Mt Fuji (Gunung Api). Were they more accessible, the Bandas might be one of the world’s top tourist spots. Yet for now you’ll have these wonderful islands almost entirely to yourself. Hurry - this can’t last!
In the 15th century, the Banda Islands supplied all the world’s quality nutmeg, then in great global demand.
Producing nutmeg takes knowledge but minimal effort so the drudgery of manual labor was virtually unknown here. Food, cloth and all necessities of life could be easily traded for spices with the Arab, Chinese, Javanese and Bugis merchants who queued up to do business. Things started to go wrong when the Europeans arrived, the Portuguese in 1512, then the Dutch from 1599.
These strange barbarians had no foodstuffs to trade, just knives, impractical woollens and useless trinkets of mere novelty value. So when they started demanding a trade monopoly, the notion was laughable nonsense. However, since the Dutch were dangerously armed, some orang kaya (elders) signed a ‘contract’ to keep them quiet. Nobody took it at all seriously. The Dutch disappeared in their ships and were promptly forgotten. But a few years later they were back, furious to find the English merrily trading nutmeg in Pulau Run and Pulau Ai. Entrenching them-selves by force, the dominant Dutch played cat and mouse with the deliberately provocative English, while trying ever unsuccessfully to enforce their mythical monopoly on the locals. Jan Pieterszoon Coen, the ruthless new governor general of the VOC (Dutch East India Company), reacted in 1621 by ordering the virtual genocide of the Bandanese. Just a few hundred survivors escaped to the Kei Islands.
applications for land grants in the Bandas. The odd-ball Dutch applicants were provided with slaves, but had to settle permanently on the islands and produce spices exclusively for the company at fixed prices. They became known as perkeniers, from the Dutch word perk (‘ground’ or ‘garden’). Nearly 70 plantations were established, mostly on Banda Besar and Ai.
This system survived for almost 200 years, but corruption and gross mismanagement meant that the monopoly was never as profitable as it might have been. By the 1930s Bandaneira was a place of genteel exile for better-behaved, anti-Dutch dissidents, and during WWII the islands were largely ignored by the Japanese.
In April 1999 there was a brief flare-up of violence when churches were burnt and at least five were killed at Walang including the ‘last perkenier’, Wim de Broeke. Most of the Christian minority fled to Seram where they remain. The islands have been entirely calm since then.
Activities
Crystal-clear seas, shallow-water drop-offs and soft corals teeming with multicolored reef life: the choice of pristine snorkeling sites is phenomenal. Coral gardens off Pulau Hatta, eastern Banda Besar and Run are stunning and absolutely justify chartering a boat and boatman. Even those right in front of Ai village (on Pulau Ai) are magnificent. Some Bandaneira homestays, including the following, rent fins/snorkels to guests: Vita, Mutiara Guesthouse and Delfika.
SWIMMING
There are beaches on the south coast of Banda Besar near Lonthoir, but for superb stretches of white sand the best places are Ai, tiny Pulau Neilaka (beware of currents) and especially the north coast of Hatta though shallow coral can impede swimming at low tide.
PULAU NEIRA & BANDANEIRA
Little Bandaneira has always been the Bandas’ main port and administrative centre. In the Dutch era, the townsfolk virtually bankrupted themselves maintaining a European lifestyle and competing with their neighbours to build and furnish their spacious mansions - and to rebuild them every time Gunung Api’s billows of volcanic ash burnt them down again. Today Bandaneira is a charmingly friendly place with many late-colonial houses still standing. The sleepy, flower-filled streets are so quiet that two becak count as a traffic jam.
Information
There’s no tourist office but several guest-houses have helpful English-speaking owners. Delfika gives its guests a free, basic island map and a souvenir video-CD (VCD): it hopes to have internet access eventually. There are several wartel including one which doubles as the Merpati reservations desk. There’s only the BRI Bank in town; sometimes guesthouses can exchange US dollars cash (try the Mutiara Guesthouse) but play it safe and bring ample rupiah from Ambon.
BRI Bank (Bank Raykat Indonesia; Jl Kujali).
Post office (8am-12.30pm Mon-Thu, 8am-11pm Fri).
Telkom office (Jl Asidiqin; 24hr) Modern.
Sights
Bandaneira is ideal for wandering aimlessly to admire the gently attractive old villas, ponder various moldering ruins and count up the historic cannons that still lie as though dropped casually at random. It’s lovely to just gaze at the cloudscapes and watch the sunset colours changing over Gunung Api.
FORTRESSES
In 1608, Dutch Admiral Verhoeven ordered the building of Benteng Nassau on foundations abandoned by the Portuguese in 1529. This was against the most express wishes of local island leaders and triggered a spiral of violent hostilities. The Bandanese were so incensed that they ambushed and executed some 40 Dutch ‘negotiators’ including Verhoeven himself. The Dutch retaliated in 1621 with the infamous beheading and quartering of 44 orang kaya within the fortress followed by the virtual genocide of the Bandanese population.
Ironically, the fort was in an indefensible lowland position and had to be augmented three years later by the more commanding Benteng Belgica (admission by ‘donation’), built at massive expense on the hill above. Named Belgica for Governor General Pieter Both’s native Flanders, it’s a five-pointed star fort in classic Vauban style. The massive cannon-deflecting bastions, over-engineered for the relatively easy task of keeping out lightly armed villager-intruders, were clearly designed to withstand English naval bombardment. Thus in 1796 it caused quite a scandal in Holland when the Brits managed to seize it (albeit briefly) without firing a shot.
From the 1860s both fortresses lapsed into ruin. Benteng Nassau remains largely overgrown, but Benteng Belgica was extensively restored in the 1990s. To reach the upper ramparts (great views) take the second arch on the left from the central courtyard.
HISTORIC HOUSES
Several historically significant Dutch-era buildings have been restored, a few hosting mini-museums. If you manage to gain access at all (knock and hope!) much of the fun of a visit is hearing the fascinating life stories of the septuagenarian caretakers, assuming your Bahasa Indonesia is up to the task. Donations are appropriate.
The Rumah Budaya (Jl Gereja Tua) houses Bandaneira’s main museum. Several of the lurid paintings, maps and photos have English captions and there are antique mini-cannons by the dozen. Mrs Feni who lives about 200m further north, keeps the key; opening hours are by arrangement.
Of three early-20th-century ‘exile houses’, Mangunkusumo’s Residence (Jl Kujali) has the grandest portico but is empty. Syahrir’s Residence (Jl Gereja Tua) has a few mementoes of only specialist interest, but Hatta’s House (Jl Hatta) is much more appealing. His distinctive spectacles and neatly folded suit are in the cupboard, his modest bed still has its mosquito nets and behind is the little schoolhouse that he ran in the late 1930s.
Captain Cole’s Residence (Jl Gereja Tua) is the supposed lodgings of the British Marine commander who recaptured Benteng Belgica in 1810. This was just after they’d handed it back to the Dutch having grabbed it in 1796! Closed to the public.
The grand but eerily empty 1820s Istana Mini (Jl Kujali) was a later residence for the Bandas’ Dutch governors. It’s usually unlocked. A haughty, medal-spangled bust of Dutch King Willem III rusts quietly in the side-garden.
Also empty is Makatita Hall (Jl Kujali) on the site of the former Harmonie Club (aka ‘the Soc’), which once boasted seven snooker tables and was the focus of colonial-era social events. It is still used for special occasions. Lively caretaker Paman Bahalwan has plenty of WWII yarns to spin.
RELIGIOUS BUILDINGS
Behind the main port is the eye-catching Mesjid Hatta-Syahrir. Some locals claim this was converted into a mosque from the mansion that first accommodated Hatta and Syahrir on their arrival from Papuan exile. There’s also a rarely used, 300-year old Chinese Temple (Jl Pelabuhan) and a quaint but perilously derelict 1852 church (Jl Gereja Tua) with an antique tomb-stoned floor. Separate Chinese, Christian and Muslim cemeteries are ranged around Mesjid Assidiqin in the Merdeka area.
Activities
Bandaneira has snorkelling (although it isn’t Banda’s best). There are some pleasant coral gardens at the southern end of Tanah Rata village, off the eastern end of the airstrip and just off Pantai Malole, a beach on the island’s north coast, an hour’s stroll from town.
Sleeping
Apart from homestays on Ai and a dormant bungalow on Syahrir (Pisang) all Banda’s accommodation is in Bandaneira. Over a dozen family homes offer simple but clean rooms.
Vita Guest House ( Jl Pasar; a) Four comfortable rooms face a waterfront garden whose wonderful wooden jetty area is ideal for admiring the cone of Gunung Api over a cold beer. Alan, the English-speaking owner, is very obliging and can arrange boat rentals at competitive rates. There’s a useful communal kitchen and fridge.
Mutiara Guesthouse. The Mutiara has superb-value new rooms and classically styled wooden furniture. Elements suggest nouveau riche suburban America, but the curious melange includes parrots, an artificial waterfall, a luridly colorful fish-tank, a spice garden and a veritable museum of local collectables. Enthusiastic English-speaking owner ‘Abba’ also sells pearls.
Delfika 2. Four neat rooms with mandis of which two have glimpses of volcano-view (best from room 101). The quiet roof terrace offers one of Bandaneira’s best all-round viewpoints. When unstaffed, enquire at Delfika.
Delfika (Jl Gereja Tua) Entered through an old-world sitting room with bags of atmosphere, most rooms are recently renovated and accessed off a lovely courtyard garden. Bahri speaks English.
Pondok Wisata Matahari (Jl Pasar) Three of the slightly lacklustre rooms look out across the water towards Gunung Api.
Pondok Wisata Flamboyan (Jl Syahrir) Fairly ordinary rooms around a central jambu tree, but renowned for good home cooking.
Penginapan Gamalama (Jl Gereja Tua) Functional, relatively large rooms beyond some gratuitous tree-effect concrete pillars.
Pondok Wisata Florida (Jl Hatta) This atmospherically ageing old home is full of old ceramics and lamps. Guest rooms have antique bedsteads but are somewhat basic and underlit.
Rosmina (Jl Kujali) Rather basic with small if clean rooms, though the unkempt yard behind has great potential. Manager ‘Bob’ speaks rather frenetic English.
Hotel Maulana. The strong point of this pseudo-colonial-style palace hotel is its lovely veranda overlooking the waterfront between palms and shaggy ketapang trees.
Eating
Several homestays offer inclusive full-board deals or cook dinner by arrangement. This is the best way to taste Banda specialities like eggplant stuffed with kenari-almond paste or fish in nutmeg-fruit sauce. Especially when ships are in port, vendors sell dried nutmeg fruit slices and kenari-almond cakes. In December try anggur fruit, which look like black olives but taste like mildly astringent grapes.
Half a dozen eateries lie a bone’s throw from Bandaneira’s port and market. Rumah makan Saung Kurang (Jl Pasar) is a basic shack serving decent nasi ikan at lunchtime.
Namasawar (Jl Pelabuhan) has good food and the nicest décor.
Delfika (Jl Gereja Tua)
Only Vita Guest House (Jl Pasar) appears to serve beer (normally to guests only).
Shopping
Several souvenir shops on Jl Pelabuhan sell a small variety of souvenirs, postcards, ‘antiques’, pearls, contrived artefacts and genuine local snacks.
Getting There & Away
AIR
Merpati (Jl Pelabuhan) flies from Bandaneira’s cute little airport to both Ambon and Amahai (Seram) on Mondays. The Bandaneira office is in a wartel. Book well ahead or ask your guesthouse to book for you. Be aware that the flight sometimes gets cancelled.
BOAT
Pelni’s Ciremai and Bukit Siguntang arrive at Bandaneira from Makassar (47 hours) via Bau Bau (Sulawesi) and Ambon (7 hours). Both continue to Tual (Kei Islands; 11 hours) and Papua. On the way back both return to Ambon but the Bukit Siguntang then loops south via Kupang (Timor) to Surabaya, missing Bau Bau and Makassar.
The Pelni office (Jl Kujali; 8am-1pm Mon-Sat) occupies a picturesque if bizarrely inconvenient location near Istana Mini.
Perintis cargo ships cross to southeastern Seram roughly every three weeks.
Getting Around
The island is walkably small but ojeks and becaks. A couple of guesthouses rent bicycles and several offer free airport pick-ups.
PULAU GUNUNG API
This devilish little 666m volcano has always been a threat to Bandaneira, Lonthoir and anyone attempting to farm its fertile slopes. Its most recent eruption in 1988 killed three people, destroyed over 300 houses and filled the sky with ash for days. Gunung Api’s historical eruptions have often proved to be spookily accurate omens of approaching intruders.
The volcano can be climbed for awesome sunrise views, but the ‘recommended’ route (around 90 minutes up) is surprisingly arduous and involves a scramble up frighteningly loose scree. Take much more drinking water than you expect to need, stashing some halfway for your return. Easier routes exist but are ‘closed’ due to the possibility of poisonous gas vents. Guides are prepared to accompany hikers: reassuring, though not strictly necessary.
Around Gunung Api are several attractive coral gardens, home to lurid purple-and-orange sea squirts. Good for snorkeling are the submerged north-coast lava flows and areas off little Pulau Karaka’s handker-chief of beach.
PULAU BANDA BESAR
The largest island of the group, Banda Besar was the most important historical source of nutmeg. It’s more hilly than Neira and every bit as charming.
Walang, Biao and Lonthoir
Boats shuttle regularly from Bandaneira to Walang (15 minutes) where the school’s friendly English teacher is keen for volunteer travellers to meet her students. Around 1km east of the jetty, the de Broeke family’s Groot Waling estate was the last intact perkenier plantation house. However, its old nutmeg-drying barns are all that survived a murderous attack during the 1999 troubles. Ojeks run via Biao village (home to a comical if scraggy pet cassowary) to Banree. From here coastal and ridge-climbing footpaths lead swiftly to Lonthoir, the island’s sleepy main village. Lonthoir is steeply layered from waterfront to ridge-top through lush tropical foliage. Of several beautiful glimpsed views, the most idyllic is from Benteng Hollandia. Built in 1624, this was once one of the biggest Dutch fortresses in the Indies. Until shattered by a devastating 1743 earthquake, it covered most of the hilltop. Walking west along the ridge from here you’ll pass a dinky green-and-white masholah (mosque), hidden behind which a newly concreted path descends steeply to Pantai Balakan (aka Laerkoey Beach), a pleasant sandy bay dotted with fishing boats. Alternatively continue west along the ridge-top past a 1884 Dutch grave towards Kelly Plantation. Here centuries-old, but-tresses kenari trees still tower protectively over the nutmeg grove.
Eastern Banda Besar
The Biao-Walang road becomes a narrow path at Kumber and peters out after Selamon. Points beyond are only accessible by boat. Charters are often cheapest from Bandaneira. Waer village on the east coast, is fronted by Benteng Concordia, an unreconstructed but impressive star fortress with three of its four corner bastions intact. K arnofol (aka Tanjung Cengkeh) offers snorkelers very rich sea life, including reef sharks, though the visibility is somewhat poorer than at Hatta or Ai. Pantai Lanutu towards the island’s dive-able northeastern tip is a pleasant beach stop should you be passing, though not worth a special journey.
PULAU SYAHRIR (PISANG)
This chunk of uplifted limestone has almost sheer, undercut ‘walls’ and a single sandy bay on the southwestern coast. The sunset views towards Gunung Api are better than the snorkelling here which, while good, is unexceptional by Banda’s elevated standards thanks to extensive anchor scarring. Nearby Batu Kapal (‘ship rock’) does indeed look a little like a shipwrecked hulk, but heavy currents make diving around it a lit- tle overexciting. Some of its purple ‘coral’ formations look more like a Klingon skin disease.
Homestay Mailena is a simple, bougainvillea-draped cottage complex that could offer a magical do-nothing getaway. It’s currently dormant but might be prepared to open by arrangement for longer stays. Ask at your guesthouse. A chartered boat from Bandaneira (40 minutes), though a stop in Pisang is easy to tack onto your wish list for a multistop day of snorkelling.
PULAU HATTA
Formerly known as Rozengain, this isolated island had no nutmeg. Thus its only historical relevance was a comical episode where eccentric English Captain Courthope raised a flag merely to enrage the Dutch. Today there are two small settlements with no facilities whatever. Yet Hatta has Banda’s clearest waters and richest reefs, with coral holes and utterly splendid white-sand beaches lining its northern coast. One of the most eye-boggling, coral-crusted vertical drop-offs anywhere sits mere metres off tiny Lama village. Even if you can’t find anyone else to share the cost, it’s worth chartering a stable, covered craft from Bandaneira. Smaller boats are too slow or vulnerable in case of bad weather. Charters will usually allow several stops en route, including Pisang and Karnofol.
PULAU AI
Accessible Ai (‘Ay’) has brilliant snorkeling with pristine coral and great drop-offs just a flipper’s flap from attractive beaches and rustic homestays. It was here that English agents trained local fighters to resist a 1615 Dutch attack. The islanders stunned the astonished Dutch with an unexpected counter-attack, inflicting some 200 casualties. A year later the humiliated Dutch prepared to make a revenge attack. A small British
fleet appeared in the nick of time apparently prepared to defend their Ai comrades. But after a few volleys of cannon fire the English commander changed tactics. Instead he invited his Dutch opponent for a cup of tea. After a little chat the Dutch offered the Brits nominal trading rights and sovereignty in Pulau Run. Suitably bribed, the duplicitous Brits sloped off to Seram. When they returned almost all the Ai islanders had been massacred or had fled. The Dutch repopulated the island with slaves and prisoners.
Sights & Activities
From the main jetty a concrete path leads 50m up to Jl Pelabuhan. Turn left to see the underwhelming 1875 Matalenco Gateway and a pair of champion kora kora boats used each December for the Pertandingan races. Or turn right, past the Mesjid Nur Ay, to find the four-pointed star fortress Benteng Revenge. Originally built by the English, it was captured in 1616 and renamed by the blood- thirsty Dutch conquerors in ‘revenge’ for their humiliating defeat the previous year.
Just beyond are a few remnant walls of the Welvaren plantation house, whose nutmeg perken once covered almost one-third of the island. A stepped underwater drop-off, about 50m offshore roughly opposite this point offers some of the best snorkeling in Banda. A little inland is a ruinous Dutch graveyard.
Sleeping & Eating
None of the six homestays have signs. All prices are per person including three meals. Please be very careful not to waste water: Ai has no springs and all needs are provided by collecting rainwater, or by laboriously transporting purchased water from Bandaneira when supplies run out. There are no restaurants here.
Revenge 2 (Jl Pelabuhan) With an enthusiastic English-speaking young owner and excellent food.
Penginapan Dahalia. Pink and yellow house with shared squat toilet in the covered yard. Toy plane and machine gun above one bed.
Pondok Wisata Ardy (Jl Patalima) Marginally Ai’s most comfortable option with clean, tiled floors and one room that even has a private rainwater-shower. Lacks the family atmosphere of some homestays.
Other options:
Pondok Wisata Weltvreden. Near the jetty.
Pondok Wisata Welvaren. Behind the rarely functioning wartel window.
Revenge 1.
Getting There & Away
Two or three passenger longboats (1 hour) leave Ai daily when full, generally departing between 6am and 7am. They return from Bandaneira between 10.30am and 1pm. If you want to do a day trip from Ban- daneira you’ll have to charter (90/50 minutes).
PULAU RUN (RHUN)
The main attraction here is diving or possibly snorkelling the deeper-water drop-off which runs 70m to 150m off the island’s northwestern coast (access by boat). Alternatively beach yourself briefly on the picture perfect islet of Neilaka.
After the 1616 Dutch ravaging of Ai, the English initially rushed to defend their trading post on Run and built an ‘impregnable’ fort on the tiny, waterless islet of Neilaka, where they became increasingly besieged. The same eccentric Captain Courthope, who had taunted the Dutch on Rozengain (now Hatta), put honor above death in a preposterously futile last stand, refusing even the most reasonable offers to leave. Somehow British sovereignty was maintained even after the 1621 Dutch atrocities, during which all of Run’s nutmeg trees were systematically destroyed. That left the English with an economically worthless scrap of land, which they finally swapped with Holland in 1667 for a then equally useless North American island. That island was Manhattan - not a bad deal, as it turned out.
GETTING THERE & AWAY
Most mornings there’s a single public boat(2 hours) running from Run to Bandaneira, returning around noon. However, since there’s no accommodation in Run you’re better off chartering a boat from Ai or even Bandaneira. You’ll need a boat anyway to reach Neilaka and Run’s best drop-offs.
Run Village
Today Run village is an appealing little network of steps and floral concrete paths backed by vine-draped limestone cliffs. No identifiable historic buildings remain but there are nice views from between the tamarind trees at a probable castle site at the top of Jl Eldorado (which becomes Jl Rumalatur as the steps degenerate into a muddy scramble).
Pulau Neilaka
Some of Banda’s finest white sand encircles picturesque Neilaka, an isle so small you can saunter around it in 10 minutes. All that’s left of the English fort are a few scattered coral pebbles hidden within a pandanus thicket in the islet’s centre. Swimming is safest from the eastern shore, while snorkeling is better off the northern point, but currents there are treacherous.
