In and around Ambon
Shopping
Downtown Ambon is quite compact and easy to walk around. If you’re tired, lazy, or have a longer way to go, bemos cost 450, and tend to have regular pick up/drop off sites (i.e. you may not just be able to flag one down). We usually went to the terminal near the Pasar Mardika to catch a bemo. The confusing mass of bemos there is actually well organized into different lanes for different lines, and these lanes are well labeled. Just go to the front of the correct line to find the next bemo departing.
In town, there are a couple of typically crowded colourful markets (e.g. Mardika, in the north east near the "muslim quarter", the bus depot, and bemo terminal, and Batu Merah closer to the main docks, behind Ambon Plaza). The Matahari supermarket is located within Ambon Plaza, which is full of shops, restaurants, a games arcade and a cinema). There are lots of decent restaurants, travel agents, and souvenir shops.
Many of souvenir shops are quite large, and are often owned by Chinese goldsmiths. You’ll see a fair amount of Irian stuff (esp Asmat carvings) here, as well as Mollucan specialties such as a wide array of items made from cloves (boxes, purses, boats…). Cute tacky animals made from a variety of shells, mother of pearl "art" framed on velvet background (flowers, birds, Koranic or Biblical verse, scenery, and larger more ambitious themes), primitive carvings from Southeast Maluku (e.g. Tanimbar), as well as fabrics from various parts of the Archipelago. Much of the weaving seems touristic, but you can find some nice traditional (natural dies etc.) Tanimbar textiles if you ask around.
The Rinamakana shop opposite the Post Office recommended in the LP guide was closed when we were there. A hand-written sign on the door suggested that the society which ran the shop had "run out of funds".
Latest news
If you’re addicted to the latest news, you’d better check into a hotel with a television. Unlike Manado, we could not find any up-to-date English language newspapers. The Jakarta Post seems to take at least five days in transit to Ambon. Personally, I didn’t care. While in Maluku it’s easy to forget about the outside world.
Sights
Statue of Marta Tiahahu: You can read her story in the Siwalima museum (see below). If you don’t want to sweat too much, take the KarPan bemo up to Karang Panjang – the name of the hill (and neighbourhod) on which Marta stands. From here there is a nice few down over the town and harbour. We enjoyed walking around the quiet shady neighbourhood up there as well, then walked back downtown via the market.
Commonwealth War Cemetery: It’s far enough past the Pasar Mardika to merit a bemo ride. The Tantui bemo makes a big clockwise loop from the bemo terminal near the market, past the entrance to the cemetery, then up the hill before heading back downtown.
Although I’m not a big war history buff, nor religious, I found this cemetery to be a beautiful, interesting, and moving site. It’s superbly landscaped with huge spreading trees, flowers and shrubs, and well kept lawns. There are over 2000 graves here, many who died in Japanese POW camps, but also those who died in battle in Ambon, Sulawesi, and other parts of Indonesia. Just over half are Australian, with large numbers of British and Dutch (it’s not exclusively commonwealth), as well as several Indian/Pakistani (pre-partition), and a few South Africans, Canadians, New Zealanders, and even a few Americans. One of the groundskeepers gave us some informational material on the cemetery, as well as the guestbook, which made interesting reading as well.
Siwalima Museum: It takes a good museum to hold my interest, and this one did it. It’s reasonably comprehensive without being too big or overwhelming. There are a lot of well documented cultural exhibits from all parts of Maluku (and further), plus historic displays as well. Although I understand why museums don’t use bright lights, my only complaint about this one is that the light is so dim that you can barely see some of the artifacts nor read the captions.
The museum is a long way out in the suburbs (southwest along the coast), so a bemo ride is in order (Amahusu or Taman Makmur).
The entrance ticket costs 750, but a guest book and donation box will be proffered before you leave (the "standard" donation amount seemed to be 5000).
Walks Soya Atas and Gunung Sirimau: This is an easy (if hot) walk on paved roads and good paths. Just go south on Jl. Raya Pattimura, cross Jl Ahmad Yani at the Police Headquarters, and continue uphill (about two sweaty hours). There’s really only one main road all the way (ignore the side roads), so you can’t go wrong. You may want to take a bemo up to the top and walk back. We walked since we were planning on returning to Ambon via a different route (see below).
This hike offers tidy houses with nice gardens, clove trees, friendly people, beautiful scenery over the hills and valleys, and the city and harbour of Ambon, cloves drying on the roadway, old churches…
As you approach the village of Soya Atas, the road ends but the route continues on stone or concrete staircases and pathways. These can get extremely slippery when moist, since they seem to be covered in a thin layer of moss or algae. We were there only three days before the "Cuci Negeri" (village cleansing/purification) ritual. Many people were out preparing for this by tending to their houses and gardens, clipping lawns and hedges, and even scrubbing stone walkways and walls. Unfortunately we couldn’t return for the event itself since we didn’t want to miss the Wednesday flight to Banda.
At the top of Sirimau (somewhat indistinct since it’s well forested) you can see a stone "throne", a couple of WWII era circular concrete "pillboxes" and trenches, and the so called magical "tempayan setan" – a clay pot set in the ground containing water which apparently never dries up. We confirm that it had water in it when we checked.
Hiking from Soya to Kilang
I should warn you that this is not necessarily the "gentle" Sunday stroll that the LP guide makes it out to be, if, like us you don’t seriously estimate the amount of water you’ll need considering the extreme heat and humidity, and if you accidentally pass by Kilang. The hardship we experienced was partly due to our own misjudgement. Read on.
Based on our maps, and also the description in the LP book, we thought we would continue our hike southwards through the village of Ema to Hukurila or Kilang. From the top of Sirimau, walk back most of the way towards Soya Atas. You’ll come to a distinct junction with an unpaved road (path actually) leading to the left. You will probably have to ask directions (as we did) of the infrequent passers by. A hundred meters down this road we found a house on a small hillock, and asked the old man there if the path continued to Ema. He did his best to convince us that it was a very bad path, and quite difficult and steep. It there would be a lot of down and up to get to Ema, and would take at least 1.5 hours. Although he seemed to be trying to dissuade us from continuing at all, we eventually decided to take his compromise suggestion of continuing to Kilang via the village of Naku (not found on any map I had). This would avoid the steep uphills, and get us to the south coast and a bus ride back to Ambon a bit more quickly and easily. Since we were already quite tired from our ascent of Sirimau, we thought this would be the best choice.
We proceeded on the narrow jungle trail, heeding the old man’s advice to ignore all paths to the left. The path went down into a valley, crossed a creek, then up onto a ridge where within 15 or 20 minutes it joined an old dirt road. We met some women who explained that the road led from Ambon (to the right) to Kilang (to the left). It was obviously not in any shape for any sort of vehicle, but there was a construction crew working on it, so I think in a few months (barring any weather or economic disasters) this road could be open to traffic again.
The terrain here is essentially hilly jungle – there weren’t any houses or farms. The scenery was nice enough – thickly forested hills down to the south coast, with the occasional village church poking up from the green.
About 45 minutes walk took us to the village of Naku, which is very close to Kilang. The road is paved and navigable from here. We started asking people where we would find a bus back to Ambon, and they just kept pointing down the paved road. Our mistake here was not realizing that Kilang is actually down an unpaved road to the right. Although we were just about out of water, and extremely hot (and hungry), we continued along the paved road, and everybody we met said the "bus stop" was just a few hundred metres ahead. We walked up and down steep hills in the forest (no more buildings) until my friend came close to suffering from a heat stroke. I walked back until I met some other pedestrians who once again ensured me that there was a terminal just ahead. I walked back and my friend and I continued with no terminal in sight. We found a farmer who was heading in the same direction and he as well ensured us of this fact, so we walked with him for a few hundred metres, then he stopped and said we could wait there (there was nothing indicating that it was a bus stop). I asked him how far Hukurila was, and he said it was 15km (!). I then explained that my friend was sick, so he said if we walked a few hundred more metres we could find some water. Sure enough, there was a village just ahead. The farmer took us to a teacher’s house, where the teacher’s wife made us some tea (which saved my sweating, panting, semi delirious friend), and let us wait there for the bus. It was more than an hour before the bus from Ambon came by on it’s way to Kilang. They told us to wait and we would catch the bus on the way back towards Ambon. About 45 minutes later the bus came back, but didn’t have enough room for us. Fortunately, another bus came by shortly afterwards, and we "reserved" two seats on it for when it returned. In retrospect, we would have been more comfortable if we had veered off the paved road and gone into Kilang, where we could have probably found a meal, replenished our water supply, and caught the bus to Ambon.
The road between Hukurila and Ambon offers beautiful scenery, winding up and down the jungled hills along the coast through lazy little villages, bays, and beaches.
Elsewhere in Ambon
Unfortunately we did not have the opportunity to explore the large peninsula of Pulau Ambon, other than what we saw on trips to/from the airport, and to/from the Hunimua ferry dock. All I can say is that it’s a pretty (and pretty hot) island. I do believe though, that if (or rather when) I return to Maluku, I would still rather sacrifice time on Ambon in order to spend more time on islands like Seram, Saparua, and the Bandas.
Going North (info provided by Jimmy Maluku 1/99)
If you take the road NE out of the city you can follow round, across the isthmus between the islands (or over the ferry), and there's a road that goes right across the middle of the north part of the island (Hitu I think it's called). Once over the top, there's a fantastic view of Seram, and if you go west once you hit the north coast, you'll come to the renovated, but still a bit dog-eared, Fort Amsterdam (eventually) and a really old, and intriguing church. Well worth a trip out of the city (I took a moped).
I've also spent a few days doing some really great diving with the Ambon dive centre on the SW point of the island (at Namalatu - get the greenbemos going to Latuhalat). $70 per day incl. food, boat, 2 dives, and so on. Worth a look. I've seen shark, dolphin, cuttlefish, moray, tuna, and lots ofnudibranch. Great coral too. |
