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Pronounced ‘leh-a-say’, these conveniently accessible yet delightfully calm islands have a scattering of fascinating olde-worlde villages, lovely bays and snorkelling possibilities (bring your own equipment). Sleepy Kota Saparua makes the most convenient base.
Most access is by speedboat from Tulehu or Passo on Pulau Ambon. Additionally, five days weekly the 9am Layur car ferry from Tulehu-Hurnala visits Wae Riang (near Kabauw, Haruku), Pelauw (Haruku), Ume Putih (near Kulur, Saparua) and finally Wae Rae (Seram). It returns the same afternoon.
Pulau Haruku
Pulau Haruku has no formal accommodation so visits are easiest as day trips from Ambon or in linking Ambon with Pulau Saparua. The Christian village of Haruku is famous for its November Sasi Lompa festival, marking the end of the annual prohibition on catching lompa flying-fish. The village is quietly quaint and relatively isolated down 8km of narrow bike-track from bigger Rohomoni where you’ll spot Maluku’s most impressive thatch-roofed mosque.
Pelauw, Pulau Haruku’s main village, has a tacky Cakalele monument celebrating the island’s other major festival. About 300m east of the port the one-wall ruin of New Hoorn fort is barely worth stopping to see. A relatively lonely road leads to the village of Hulaliu at the western end of which is Pantai Iyanaen, a narrow, sandy beach with some lovely sweeps of view towards Saparua and Seram.
GETTING THERE & AWAY
Speedboats leave when full (regularly till afternoon) from behind Tulehu market to Haruku and Oma villages (15 minutes), and from Tulehu-Momoking jetty for Pelauw (25 minutes).
From Hulaliu it’s relatively easy to charter a speedboat to Haria (Saparua) and continue by ojek or bemo to Kota Saparua. The car ferry from Pelauw to Ume Putih (Kulur) departs around 11am. Returning to Tulehu-Hurnala via Wae Riang it departs at around 2.30pm. No service on Tuesdays or Fridays.
GETTING AROUND
Rare bemos run between Pelauw and Kailolo
Pulau Saparua
KOTA SAPARUA
The island’s main village hosts the 1676 Benteng Duurstede, famously besieged by Pattimura in 1817 (see boxed text, above) . The outer walls are renovated with moldering grey concrete showing its original form and displaying several old cannons. When the gate appears locked, just pushing it open often works! Opposite the entrance a seemingly abandoned museum still displays models depicting Pattimura’s exploits, but bring a torch as there’s no light inside. Behind the museum is a popular sandy swimming beach backed by Penginapan Duurstede with seven clean but fan-less rooms. The more comfortable Penginapan Lease Indah (Jl Muka Pasar) has a pleasant garden culminating in a pair of bay-view seats amid bougainvillea. Further along Jl Muka Pasar are a few rumah makan (eating houses), the market and a Telkom building, directly behind which (on parallel Jl Belakang) is the small bemo terminal.
SOUTHEAST SAPARUA
A twisting lane leads through war-battered Sirisori Kristen and photogenic Sirisori Muslim to Ullath where the traditional-style baileu (meeting pavilion) is overshadowed by the tall Protestant church tower. Beyond this, the road dead-ends at Ouw, famous for its elegantly simple pottery (sempe). None is obviously on show, but ask any local and you’ll usually be led to a workshop where about 5000Rp is a reasonable donation to watch the artist build up a typical bowl on an unpowered spindle device.
NORTHEAST SAPARUA
Arguably Saparua’s most intriguing village is N olloth, which retains a uniquely impressive traditional baileu and a fine 1860 church with an extraordinary chalice-shaped wooden pulpit. A curious selection of colourfully gaudy new Christian statuettes dot the town. Nolloth merges into Itawaka, where the village chief, known in Lease as raja (king) rather than kepala desa (village head), is building the five-room
Penginapan Toholau Indah on a beach 10 minutes’ walk around the headland.
There’s supposedly excellent snorkelling offshore here.
GETTING THERE & AWAY
At 5am the Satu Nusa speedboat leaves Kota Saparua for Passo on Ambon, returning at around 9am (1 hour). From Itawaka, 5am speedboats run to both Tulehu (Ambon) and to a muddy beach at Namano near Masohi (Seram), returning at around 7.30am.
GETTING AROUND
Bemos from Kota Saparua run occasionally to Haria and Itawaka, very rarely to Ouw and Kulur. Ojeks cost twice the bemo fare but are much more pleasant for sightseeing.
Pulau Nusa Laut
Sila village is the closest to Pulau Saparua. Its attractive Ebenhaezer Church is the oldest in Maluku (1719). Nearby is the small, overgrown but reasonably well preserved ruin of 1654 Dutch fort Benteng Beverwyk. Between the two, the friendly local English teacher offers a no-frills family home -stay (House 15; from 3pm).
Nusa Laut has no roads but there’s an easy-to-follow trail from Sila to Ameth (1¾ hours’ walk) via picturesque Nalahia, where you descend a staircase to a sweep of opalescent bay. Ameth has an unusual if not especially beautiful octagonal church and some very fine coral gardens 300m offshore.
Ameth’s brand new Penginapan Pari Musar (Jl Pendidikan) has en suite bucket mandis and clean squat toilets. It’s the bright pink house just beyond the tiny wartel booth facing the football pitch at Ameth’s easternmost end.
GETTING THERE & AWAY
On Wednesday and Saturday public speedboats from each Nusa Laut village shuttle across to Kota Saparua market, returning around lunchtime. At other times you’ll usually need to charter: from Nusa Laut that’s easy enough and cheapest if you head for Ouw. To Nusa Laut, however, finding a suitably powerful boat for the choppy seas can be very tough and relatively expensive as no such boats are moored in Ouw. Your best hope is to keep asking around at Kota Saparua market. Most Tuesdays and Friday mornings direct speedboats head from Ameth and Sila to Passo on Ambon returning next morning.
Some Malukans call Seram ‘Nusa Ina’ (Mother Island), believing that all life sprang from ‘Nunusaku’, a mythical peak ambiguously located somewhere in the island’s western mountains. The best known of Seram’s indigenous minority tribes, the Nua-ulu (‘upper-river’) or Alifuro people, sport red bandana headgear and were head-hunters as recently as the 1940s. Seram’s capital and main town is Masohi-Amahai, but the greatest attraction is Teluk Sawai on the northern coast. Seram’s wild, mountainous interior has thick forests alive with cockatoos and colourful parrots but seeing them usually requires a punishingly masochistic trek into the remote Manusela National Park for which you’ll need guides and extra permits.
GETTING THERE & AWAY
Air
From Amahai, Merpati (Jl Martha Tiahahu) flies to Ambon via Banda on Mondays. Ambon-Wahai flights operate on Thursdays.
Boat
From Tulehu-Hurnala (Ambon) to Amahai, comfortable jet-boats (2½ hours) run daily except Sundays at 8am and 4pm, returning at 8am and 2pm. On Sundays there’s a morning speedboat from Masohi instead. Car ferries link Waipirit (near Kairatu) to Hunimua (Ambon) six times daily (1½ hours) and Wae Rae to Ume Putih (near Kulur, Pulau Saparua) five days weekly. Daily speedboats from Namano cross to Itawaka (Saparua) at around 7.30am, returning at 5am (1¼ hours).
Bus
Cramped, direct buses perfumed with durian and sweat operate from Kota Ambon to various Seram towns. They use the Hunimua-Waipirit ferry for which you might have to wait a couple of hours. Generally it’s more comfortable to take the jet-boat to/from Amahai and continue from Masohi.
GETTING AROUND
Masohi is Seram’s main road-transport hub. Bemos are hyper-frequent on the Masohi-Amahai run. Buses or Kijangs to other destinations are rare especially after noon. By 10am you’ve probably missed the last service north to Saka for Sawai.
Masohi, Namano & Amahai
Predominantly Muslim Masohi is the spacious purpose-built capital of Central Maluku. Its wide streets are pleasant, and though there’s not much to do it’s not a bad place to wait out an almost inevitable day of missed connections and bureaucracy - technically signing in with the police here remains an obligation. The main street of Jl Soulissa heads southwest from the terminal/market/Masohi Plaza shopping mall. It becomes Jl Martha Tiahahu in the Christian suburbs, continuing for 6km through Namano village into predominantly Christian Amahai. Here, just before the main port, the larger road turns 90 degrees, passing the museum and dinky airport a kilometre beyond.
INFORMATION
Local police still require tourists to register in Masohi before travelling around Seram. Bring several photocopies of your visa and passport to police headquarters. Laboriously typing out your Surat Tanda Melapor (STM letter) takes an hour or two. On Saturdays ask the tourist office.
BRI ATM (Masohi Plaza shopping mall) More convenient than the banks strung along Jl Soulissa.
Central Maluku Tourist Office (Dinas Kebudayan & Parawisata; Jl Imam Bonjol; 8am-2pm Mon-Sat) Near the steep-roofed Bupati office in Masohi. Some staff members speak English, but while friendly they are of minimal practical help.
Police HQ (Jl Dr Siwabessy; 9am-2.30pm Mon-Fri) SuperOjek Max Dopeng is an obliging English-speaking guide cum ojek-driver.
Telkom (Jl Geser 2; h24hr) Beside the Bupati office.
SIGHTS
The minuscule Sangar Budaya Seram Museum (Soahuku; 8am-8pm, hours vary) is opposite Amahai’s Ebenhaezer church (300m after the bemo route from Masohi turns east). The highlight of a visit is hearing the aged, one-eared curator Nus Tamaela play the totobuan (bell-gamelan) or tell stories in easy Bahasa Indonesia about traditional Nua-ulu/Alifuro ceremonies. Most involve severed heads.
An alternative little-used Amahai-Masohi lane, via a tall hilltop radio mast, offers beautiful bay views. For a cooling dip, Pantai Kuako is a pebbly headland 1.5km beyond Amahai port. It’s somewhat marred by litter but is currently undergoing a major facelift.
SLEEPING
Penginapan Lelemuku (Jl Martha Tiahahu) At first glance this clean, older family house in southern Masohi appears basic and somewhat jerry-built. However, the new VIP rooms behind are vastly nicer with rattan seats facing a garden that’s a curious blend of real and artificial foliage.
Penginapan Irene (Jl Martha Tiahahu) Friendly, quiet and good value, the best rooms are ‘cottages’ at the rear with balcony seats facing a little ornamental garden.
Pronounced ‘ee-reh-neh’, the penginapan is at the southern end of Masohi at the first bend beyond the petrol station: easily accessible by Amahai-bound bemos.
Lounusa Beach (main road, Namano) Owners speak Dutch and limited English and plan to construct two stilt rooms and a waterfront restaurant on their patch of mangrove bank (despite the name, there’s no beach). Hopefully these will improve upon the somewhat lackluster existing accommodation.
Hotel Tiara (Jl Soulissa) Tiara is excellent value with clean new rooms, 400m east of Masohi Plaza.
Hotel-Restaurant Isabella (Jl Manusela 17) The two ‘executive’ rooms (265,000Rp) are Masohi’s best options with hot-water showers, king-sized beds and Guns’n’Roses posters.
EATING
There are several cheap warungs around Masohi market and terminal.
Warung Makan Madura (Jl Soulissa; 7am-11pm) Reliable, bargain-value local servery.
Rumah Makan Sari Guri (Jl Martha Tiahahu; 10.30am-2pm & 5.30pm-11pm) Simple but highly regarded for Chinese and seafood dishes. It’s just beyond Penginapan Lelemuku.
Northern Seram
Seram’s most accessible scenic highlight is Teluk Sawai, a beautiful wide bay dramatically backed by cliffs and rugged, forested peaks. Saleman, its most picturesque village, is famed for flocks of bat-like Lusiala birds. These emerge at dusk from a cave above the village, supposedly bearing the souls of
human ancestors. Saleman has no accommodation but, across the bay, tempting Ora Beach has marvellous spongy, white sand where the stilt bungalows and pavilion restaurant of Ora Beach Hotel are currently under reconstruction: for details check with Ambon’s Baguala Bay Resort.
Further round the bay is the photogenic stilt-house village of Sawai. It’s a possible base for jungle hikes and lape-lape rides to Pulau Raja where bats (kelelawar/uniki) appear at sunset. There’s great snorkelling in the offshore coral gardens (bring your own gear). The only hotel, Penginapan Lisar Bahari has creaky bamboo walls and very dim lamps but the terrace is idyllic for watching moonlight on the bay and doing nothing much of anything. Being perched over the water, rooms are predictably somewhat damp (bring a sleeping mat) and showers in the basic en suite bathrooms are rather salty. Costs include brilliant fish dinners, assorted snacks and endless tea.
East of Sawai, lethargic little Wahai was once Seram’s main Dutch fort but a small, cannon-topped mound of stones is all that remains. There’s inexpensive accommodation but little reason to visit.
GETTING THERE & AWAY
Tickets for the weekly Wahai-Ambon flight are only sold from Wahai airfield. Masohi-Wahai buses 5 hours) bypass Sawai completely. Until the road extension to Saleman is finished, all access to Teluk Sawai is by boat from the tiny port of Saka. From here Kijangs to Masohi (2 hours) and two buses to Ambon (seven to nine hours) all depart around 8.30am. Every morning boats from Sawai’s central jetty depart to Wahai at 6.30am and Saka at 7am (40 minutes), though the Penginapan Lisar Bahari might claim otherwise, hoping you’ll charter their longboat. Twice a week an uncomfortable slow boat runs from Sawai to Ambon (30 hours).
PULAU BURU
Following the political chaos of 1965, this large island west of Ambon became the home-in-exile of communist suspects making it a sort of Indonesian anti-Siberia. Authorities remain somewhat suspicious of visitors. Despite tales of giant eels and ‘flowers of longevity’, mystical mountain lake Danau Rana is rather underwhelming, with boggy banks that don’t offer ideal hiking conditions.
