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Manageability small yet offering plenty of contrasts, Maluku’s most prominent island is lush and gently mountainous, indented with two great hoops of bay. Close to Kota Ambon, the main town, villages merge into a long suburban ribbon but further out light sparkles brilliantly through alluring flower gardens and swaying tropical foliage. Religiously divided, the island was the epicenter of the 1999-2002 troubles. But recovery has been amazingly swift. Don’t be fooled by old reports of dangers or civil unrest: Ambon is back in business and is now the ideal hub for visiting some of Indonesia’s most delightful yet utterly undiscovered gems: the Lease, Banda and Kei Islands.
Until 1512 Ambon was ruled by Ternate. The sultans brought the civilizing force of Islam to the island’s north coast and developed Hitu Lama as a major spice-trading entrepot. The Ternateans were later displaced by the Portuguese who found the less developed, un-Islamicised south more receptive to Christianity and developed a fortress around which Kota Ambon would eventually evolve. In 1599 the Dutch renamed this fort Victoria and made Kota Ambon their spice-trade base. Despite a 1817 uprising in the Lease Islands, Dutch rule survived until WWII, when Kota Ambon became a Japanese military headquarters and prisoner-of-war camp. The result was extensive Allied bombing which destroyed most of its once-attractive colonial architecture. In 1950 Ambon was briefly the center of the South Malukan independence movement. This was extinguished within a few months by Indonesian military force with a last stand at Passo village.
From 1999 until mid-2002, Ambon was ripped apart by Christian-Muslim inter-communal violence. In Kota Ambon the first wave of attacks came in January 1999 with a largely Christian mob assault on the city’s main markets. A July 1999 reprisal torched predominantly Chinese businesses in the city center. Island and city alike became polarized into Muslim and Christian zones. By late 2001, battered Kota Ambon looked like 1980s Beirut. During 2002 things improved markedly and the last significant disturbances were riots in 2004, though occasional provocations continue, including occasional sniping between police and army forces. Some burnt-out ruins remain, notably around Pattimura University in Rumah Tiga, but these are rapidly being rebuilt or swallowed by insatiable tropical weeds. By 2006 the island seemed gripped with a great optimism and visible economic resurgence. It’s as though everyone suddenly awoke from a bad dream to find themselves back in their busy little south-sea paradise.
KOTA AMBON
By the region’s dreamy tropical standards, Maluku’s capital is a dusty, throbbing metropolis. But compared to ‘real’ cities elsewhere, Kota Ambon retains a languid charm emphasized by a perfect arc of bay and its lushly mountainous backdrop. Sights are minimal and architecture wins no prizes but the scars of the 1999-2002 civil war are quickly healing and the town has regained its role as the regional transport hub.
Orientation
Almost all public road transportation emanates from the traffic-clogged markets of Mardika and Batu Merah. Jl Dr Sam Ratulangi, Jl Said Perintah and Jl AY Patty (still partly bombed out) are recovering their roles as major commercial streets. Busy Jl Sultan Babullah comes cacophonously to life after dusk, with snack trolleys and dozens of CD salesmen blaring their wares.
Information
INTERNET ACCESS
@stindo (Jl AY Patty; 9am-midnight) Sweaty because of the poor air-con, but with the most reliable connection.
Post Office Internet room (GPO, Jl Raya Pattimura; 9am-8pm Mon-Sat) Grindingly slow connection.
Warnet Worm (Jl AM Sangaji) Isn’t always open 24 hours despite claiming to be.
Wartel Aladin (Jl Sultan Babullah; 8am-midnight) Best air-conditioning, variable line.
MONEY
The banks listed here have 24-hour ATMs.
Bank Mandiri (Jl Pantai Mardika)
BCA (Bank Central Asia; Jl Sultan Hairun 24)
BNI (Bank Negara Indonesia; Jl Said Perintah 12) Near BCA.
Souvenir Asmat (Jl Dr Sam Ratulangi) Friendly; a tiny, eccentric everything-shop run by an English-speaking ex-mariner who can sometimes change money at decent rates given a few phone calls.
TOURIST INFORMATION
Likes Tour (Jl Tulukabessy; 8.30am-5pm Mon-Sat) Staff speak English and offer free, basic city maps. They coordinate very occasional group eco-tours to northern Seram.
Souvenir Asmat (Jl Dr Sam Ratulangi) Ask for Marwizar Bahri, an English-speaking helper, fixer and collector of almost anything.
Tourist Office (Maluku Provincial Tourist Bureau; Dinas Parawisata; Jl Jenderal Sudirman, Tantui; 8am-4pm Mon-Fri) Offers fistfuls of colorful free brochures but the decent city map is cheaper bought from Abdulalie Hotel. The office has lovely bay views but getting here by vehicle requires a 4km one-way loop (use Tantui bemos passing the Commonwealth War Graves then doubling back). Getting back to town is less than 1km.
Yoh Syaranamual (Gang da Silva 99) Experienced if ponderously slow-moving tour-guide speaking English and Dutch. Can arrange diving equipment given plenty of advance notice.
Sights
CENTRE & KARPAN
The town’s biggest mosque, Masjid Raya al-Fatah (Jl Sultan Babullah) is a modern concrete affair with UFO-shaped dome. Next door the fanciful Mesjid Jami (Jl Sultan Babullah) is much more photogenic. The Maranatha Cathedral (Jl Raya Pattimura) has a staid if iconic tower.
The recently rebuilt Francis Xavier Cathedral (Jl Raya Pattimura) has silver-strut steeples which glimmer mysteriously when seen from Jl Sirimau (take Kayu Putih bemos). The main Dutch fortress, Benteng Victoria, remains occupied by the army. Nearby is an amusingly hideous Pattimura Memorial. The Martha Christina Tiahahu statue (a tribute to Pattimura’s contemporary) is more accomplished.
Stop at the delightful Panorama Café en route for more such views.
SOUTHERN SUBURBS
The Siwa Lima Museum (8am-4pm Mon-Fri) displays Maluku’s foremost collection of regional and colonial artifacts. It comprises two main buildings separated by 500m of road snaking beautifully up through steep, lovingly tended gardens. Air Salobar bemos terminate near the gardens’ ornate gateway but as entry is from the upper section, consider using an ojek to save a sweaty climb. The upper rear terrace offers some of Ambon’s most inspiring bay views and a stairway continuing from the top car park leads to a prettily flower decked little Hindu Temple.
About 2km further south in Amahusu, the bayside Tirta Kencana Hotel Café is the ideal place from which to watch fishermen bobbing on the crystal clear waters.
NORTHERN SUBURBS
Any bemo heading northeast (bound for Passo, Stain, Waai etc) passes two immaculately maintained graveyards in the Tantui district (outbound only). The Taman Makam Pahlawan Indonesia (Kapahaha; Indonesian Heroes Cemetery) is dedicated to Indonesian servicemen killed fighting Malukan rebels during the 1950s and 1960s. Just beyond are the Commonwealth War Graves entombing allied servicemen who died in WWII. Remarkably both cemeteries survived rioting in 2000 which devastated the nearby police arsenal. Tantui bemos loop back to the city center passing the tourist office en route.
Sleeping
BUDGET
Abdulalie Hotel (Jl Sultan Babullah) Well run and eternally popular with local petty salesmen the rooms are reasonably neat albeit with plentiful mosquitoes.
Hotel Nisma (Jl Sultan Babullah 34 & 22) Wood paneling and stained glass in the ‘hotel’ section’s reception area can exaggerate your expectations but rooms are OK if you can ever find a vacancy. For fan rooms walk across the street to the penginapan (lodging house) section.
Penginapan Beta (Jl Wim Reawaru) Longterm backpacker standby with English-speaking owners, lashings of pink-peach paint and linen featuring daisies or Winnie the Pooh. Though fairly basic it’s the best of three side-by-side options facing the big new Governor’s Office.
Hotel Sahabat (Jl Said Perintah 5) The cheapest rooms are clean and bright by local standards and a good deal if you don’t mind the sweaty climb up four flights of stairs.
Pondok Wisata Listari (Jl WR Supratman 18) Central yet peaceful, this welcoming family homestay is Ambon’s most appealing budget option. It has comfy rooms, airy communal spaces, complimentary breakfast and an owner who speaks fluent Dutch and English.
Amans Inns. Hidden behind the main building, this is the Hotel Amans’ unpublicized ugly sister. For accepting cigarette-singed carpet and a few cockroaches, your bargain-priced ‘gold’ room offers hot-water showers, high-powered air-con, multi lingual TV and many other top-end trimmings. The English-speaking staff are delightfully helpful. Be sure to avoid the horrible ‘silver’ rooms.
Within three blocks of Mardika market there are half a dozen other hotels ranging from drab to dreadful.
MIDRANGE
Ambon’s better hotels are all air-conditioned, bathrooms have hot showers and at least some staff speak English (except at the Tirta Kencana). Minimal bargaining is usually enough to get ‘discount rates’ and maybe a free breakfast.
Hotel Tirta Kencana (Jl Raya, Amahusu) This surprisingly excellent bay-side hotel attracts mainly amorous local couples but the cottage rooms are a phenomenal bargain with hot water, new beds and strong air-con (if no views). The best feature is the open-air waterfront cafe. It’s 7km southwest of the center of Ambon, 2km beyond the Siwa Lima Museum by Amahusu bemo.
Hotel Mutiara (Jl Raya Pattimura 12) Behind a dainty curtain of tropical foliage, this is by far Ambon’s most appealing central hotel. It’s cosy, tastefully executed and has a welcoming European atmosphere spiced with framed ikat (cloth in which the pattern is produced by dyeing the individual threads before weaving) and local fabrics. Rooms are to international standards with blindingly clean bathrooms. Keeping the new carpets as clean will be a challenge.
Hotel Amans (Ambon Manise; Jl Pantai Mardika 53A) Ideally placed for public transport, the Amans is undergoing major reconstruction. Sensibly they’ve started with the guest rooms which are vastly better than you’d guess from the tired-looking corridors.
Hotel Grand Soya (Jl Cendrawasih 20) Locals adore the chintzy decor and faux marble. Rooms are slightly less tacky but already show signs of wear.
Hotel Amboina (Jl Kapitan Ulupaha) Reception is stylishly minimalist and a soothing cream color scheme prevails. However, most standard rooms are windowless while the much more attractive suites tend to suffer from oppressive road noise.
Hotel Manise (Jl WR Supratman) Quite undeservedly considered Ambon’s top hotel, the Manise has surprisingly unimpressive rooms, many windowless and some with ripped carpets. Credit cards accepted.
Airport
Hotel Transit. The airport is nearly an hour’s drive from Kota Ambon but just 1.3km from this rather ragged hotel. The Transit is steeply overpriced with dodgy plumbing but those afraid to miss early flights seem prepared to stump up the cash.
Eating
Cheap warungs abound especially near Batu Merah market, on Jl Ahmad Yani, along Gang Pos (beside the post office, mainly lunchtimes) and on Jl Sultan Babullah and at Terminal Pelita (evenings).
Rumah Makan Ai-Madura (Jl Sultan Babullah 34/1; breakfast, lunch & dinner) Dowdy but clean local eatery with excellent nasi ikan (rice and fish set meal) and good gado-gado (vegetables with peanut sauce). Great value despite un-priced menus.
Café Panorama (Jl CM Tiahahu; breakfast, lunch & dinner) Open-sided terrace café with ethnic designs, fabulous views and a few Western menu options. Karpan bemos drive past.
Restaurant Halim (Jl Sultan Hairun; dinner Mon-Sat) Partially decorated with varnished sago-stem walls and Nua-ulu artefacts, this long-standing favorite remains a-tinkle with old-fashioned oyster-shell lamps and serves beautifully cooked Chinese seafood meals.
Rumah Makan Dede’s Seafood (Jl Sultan Babullah; 5pm-10pm Mon-Sat) Bustling, efficient, brightly unsophisticated place serving Ambon’s best ikan bakar. Choose your fish and it arrives accompanied by five great sauces, dips, rice and salad. Sometimes opens midday.
For Western food try the quiet Hotel Amans rooftop cafe (7am-9pm) or the very pleasant Hotel Mutiara Restaurant (breakfast, lunch & dinner). CAF (Jl Raya Pattimura; 9am-9pm) is Ambon’s best-known place for fast food, but similar fried chicken tastes better for half the price at Esteler-21 Kentucky (Istana Gizi; Jl Pantai Mardika), an ultra-simple waterfront shack.
SELF-CATERING
Mardika and Batu Merah are vast markets. Useful stores:
Barokah Bakery (Jl AM Sangaji; 6.30am-6pm) Try the great cheese buns (roti keju) here.
Citra supermarket (Jl Tulukabessy; 8.30am-8.30pm Mon-Sat, 10am-6pm Sun)
Hidaya Minimarket (Jl Sultan Babullah)
Plaza supermarket (Ambon Plaza Mall, Jl Yos Sudarso; 8am-8pm)
Drinking
Hotel Amboina Café (Jl Kapitan Ulupaha; 24hr) Jazz themes and some deep-cushioned settees make for Ambon’s most convivial informal meeting place.
Rumah Kopi Atoz (Jl Tulukabessy; 8.30am-6pm Mon-Sat) Simple coffee house occupying the only traditional-style pavilion for miles around.
Getting There & Away
AIR
Mandala (Hotel Amboina, Jl Kapitan Ulupaha; 8am-5pm Mon-Fri, 8am-2pm Sat & Sun) flies to Jakarta daily via Makassar.
Bookings are possible online: you don’t pay till you collect the tickets (at least four hours before departure) and there’s no penalty for canceling. Lion Air (Hotel Manise, Jl WR Supratman; 9am-5pm Mon-Fri, 9am-2pm Sat & Sun) has two flights daily to Jakarta via Makassar and/or Surabaya with connections to Manado and beyond to Ternate. Prices vary wildly according to demand. If you trust their ‘City check-in’ (2pm the day before flying), you can head to the airport without baggage. Their midnight flight from Jakarta arrives at 7am due to stops and time-zone changes. Trigana Air (Suita Travel, Jl Anthony Rhebok) offers five weekly connections to Langgur (Kei Islands) and one weekly direct hop to Ternate. Ironically this leaves the same day (out Tuesday, back Wednesday) as the weekly Ambon-Ternate flights with Merpati (Jl Ahmad Yani 19; 8am-noon & 1pm-4.30pm Mon-Fri, 9am-2pm Sat, Sun & public holidays) who operate a whole web of local weekly hopper flights. Deraya Air (Pattimura Airport) flights to Bula (Seram) are normally limited to oil-company employees. AdamAir has proposed but not yet started Ambon services.
PT Matrassas Abadi (Jl AY Patty; 8am-7pm) is Ambon’s best-organized travel agency for domestic tickets (bookings stop at 5pm). Some English is spoken.
BOAT
Pelni
From Yos Sudarso harbour Lambelu heads to Bitung (northern Sulawesi; 22 hours) via Namlea (Buru) returning via Ternate. Ciremai and Bukit Siguntang head east to Papua via Bandaneira (Banda Islands; seven hours) and Tual (Kei Islands). Dorolonda and the westbound Bukit Siguntang link to Surabaya via Kupang (28 hours). Other westbound boats head for Surabaya via Makassar (Sulawesi; 36 to 48 hours) and Bau Bau (Pulau Buton). The Kelimutu sometimes heads to Tual via Saumlaki (Tanimbar Islands) but its timetables are being revised. The glass-faced office of Pelni (8am-noon) is opposite the Pattimura Memorial: head down, around the back then upstairs again to buy tickets. Alternatively use one of many agencies around the port (minimal commission). One such handy agency faces Slamet Riyadi Harbour.
Other boats
Much less comfortable boats from Slamet Riyadi Harbour serve north and east Seram, Sanana (Sula Islands) and far southeast Maluku. From the ferry jetty in Galala, north of Tantui, the KMP Danaurana car ferry departs daily to Namlea (Buru) at 5pm (9 hours).
Services to the Lease Islands and southern Seram use Passo, Tulehu or Hunimua ports (opposite).
BUS & BEMO
Frequent bemos and most of the rare buses start from a variety of points along Jl Pantai Mardika in Mardika and Batu Merah markets. However buses for just a few destinations in Seram depart from Terminal Pelita (Jl Slamet Riyadi), a lay-by beside the central sports field. These include 5am Jaya Saka and Mulia Express buses to Saka (for Sawai).
Getting Around
TO/FROM THE AIRPORT
From Pattimura Airport central Kota Ambon is 30km around the bay. Chartered bemos are sometimes cheaper than taxis (45 minutes). With minimal luggage you can take an ojek from the airport gate (1km) to the east end of the runway and continue by regular Ht Besar bemo to Kota Ambon (1 hour). If ferry departures oblige it is sometimes faster to take an ojek to the Poka jetty in Rumah Tiga (15 minutes) then cross by ferry to Galala (8 minutes, up to four per hour, from 6am to 6pm). From Galala take any bemo into town (10 minutes).
BEMO
For the city centre ultra-frequent LinIII bemos (mobils) usefully head southwest from Pasar Mardika down Jl Pantai Mardika and Jl Dr Sam Ratulangi or Jl AY Patty, swinging around the Trikora monument onto Jl Dr Latumenteri. After 2km they loop back again via Jl Sultan Babullah and Jl Yos Sudarso. For any bemo ride consider getting on/off at least 200m away from the main market where vehicles typically jostle for ages through chaotic traffic jams.
AROUND PULAU AMBON
Soya Atas
An easy ojek trip to escape from the heat of Kota Ambon takes you to Soya Atas village, sitting way up on the high slopes of Gunung Sirimau (950m). The convincingly rebuilt Soya Atas church has risen from the ashes after being torched during the inter-communal strife of 2002. Across the road a tacky St Francis Xavier statue recalls the original Jesuit’s Christianising mission here in 1546. A quick scramble beside the statue brings you to a quietly attractive viewpoint. A series of much longer steep footpaths lead to Ema and other villages beyond.
Southern Leitimur
Some of Ambon’s most appealing coastal scenery is along the very accessible road southwest of Amahusu. Look for the amusing Hollywood sign painted in giant letters on the sea-defences at Eri. Thereafter the road wiggles across a pass from Latuhalat to Namalatu, a ‘resort’ of rock-pools that’s famous for its musical becaks, each pedal-trishaw competing to blast its customers with a few decibels more than his competitor. Around 3km east, backing a less than idyllic pay-beach the Pantai ‘Santai Beach’ Hotel offers eight sea-facing rooms with king-sized beds, comical toilets and curtained parking so that amorous couples can maintain anonymity. Further east are two attractive Pintu Kota ‘recreation parks’, perched atop attractive meadows which end in cliffs plunging towards the crashing waves below. Beyond a limpid bay, the increasingly bumpy road finally dead-ends at the forgotten little fishing village of Seri where outriggers and drying cloves lie quietl y beneath the giant ketapang trees.
ACTIVITIES
Ambon offers some terrific scuba diving possibilities. Professional, American-owned Maluku Divers in Namalatu specialise in live-aboard odysseys but also offer one-day options with three dives. Although snorkelling is possible off Namalatu, there’s much more underwater action around Pulau Tiga (which makes a brilliant lunch stop) and Tanjung Sial Timur (superb shoals of black snapper and surgeon fish). Pinta Kota is somewhat over-hyped but the Hukurila underwater archway is a marvel if you can handle depths of more than 40m.
Eastern Leihitu
The market town of Passo is one of Ambon’s busiest. Beyond at Waitatiri is Baguala Bay Resort (Jl Raya), set in a lovely waterfront palm-garden. There’s no beach but it’s the only hotel on the whole island to have a decent swimming pool. The traditionally styled but fully equipped ‘cottage’ rooms are the best option. Although 17km east of central Kota Ambon, this could make a good alternative to staying in Kota Ambon with Waai bemos passing right outside every few minutes till mid-evening. The resort’s Waterside Café serves good-value Western and local food including curious imitations of pizza.
A cheaper accommodation alternative with its own idyllic beach is the comfortable if slightly degenerating Taman Lunterse Boer. It’s on the main road yet easy to miss, just 300m west of the over-busy Natsepa pay-beach.
Tulehu has a trio of useful ports. Use the jetties behind Tulehu market for speedboats to Haruku village. Use Tulehu-Momoking jetty for speedboats to Pelauw (Haruku Island) and Saparua Island. Use Tulehu-Hurnala for bigger ferries to the Lease Islands and Amahai (Seram).
Waai is famous for its ‘lucky’ Bulut (Moray eels). Spotting them supposedly augurs good luck. The cost of this good fortune is about 10,000Rp paid to a waiting gentleman who will tempt the eels out of their dark recesses by feeding them raw eggs. The concrete carp pond (Jl Air Waysilaka) in which the eels lurk doubles oddly as the village washing pool. The experience is not exactly dramatic yet somehow it’s intriguingly off-beat enough to amuse. Take a Waai bemo, get off just before the ‘Margreet Salon’ sign and walk two blocks inland to find the pond.
A spur off the main Liang road leads to Hunimua which has some pretty, uncom-merchandised beaches and is the departure jetty for car-ferries to Waipirit (near Kairatu, Seram), departing every two to three hours.
Bemos are very frequent till mid-evening on the Kota Ambon-Natsepa-Waai route. Liang buses are rare.
Northern Leihitu
The north coast is peaceful and little visited though several sleepy village stalls sell smoked fish to occasional passing ojeks. Hitu Lama has a rather scenic setting and a dawn speedboat service to western Seram. But the nearest thing to a tourist attraction is the 1649 Benteng Amsterdam in quietly attractive Hila. That Hila should be renowned for a Dutch fort is somewhat ironic considering it was originally the power base of anti-colonial Ambon. The four-sided water-front fort has a uniquely complete central keep, though the tiled roof is getting a little dilapidated. Five minutes’ walk inland from the fort, then across a school football field, seek out Kaitetu’s pretty little thatch-roofed Mesjid Wapaue. Originally built in 1414 on nearby Gunung Wawane, the mosque was transferred to the present site in 1664. According to a local legend, supernatural powers did the moving.
Hila is reached from Hunut by relatively rare bemo or by ojek. Continue on foot for five minutes be-
yond the eye-catching Mesjid Besar to find the fort.
