December 2011

The group of islands known as the Maluku islands are scattered all over the Indonesian waters, isolated from the busy megacities of Indonesia. To the west is Sulawesi, to the east is Papua. To the north are the Philippines and south is Timor and further south, Darwin, Australia. To get to any of these places requires at least 200km of air travel, or days of sea travel. That is how remote the Maluku islands are. In 2007, the Indonesian government divided Maluku into two provinces: Maluku and North Maluku.

We flew in from Jakarta to Ternate on Sriwijaya Air, with a stopover at Makassar. Ternate, the biggest city in North Maluku, has a population slightly over 100k. Back in the 17^th century, it was one of the original kingdoms in this region, lording over the clove trade, the single source of the spice in the world. Expectedly, the European powers of the time made their way to Ternate, made treaties with the locals to trade valuable spices. It got a bit messy with the Portuguese, then Dutch and Spanish, coming either to exert their authority or to ally themselves with Ternate’s local rivals, the kingdom of Tidore. You can read my other post for the history of the Spice Islands.

Today, Kota Ternate is a bustling city, despite being so isolated. A network of domestic flights means it is well connected. There is hardly a tourist scene here though. I’m writing this on Day 2, and so far, we are the only two foreigners. It’s a modern place; there is even a mall with pre-paid wifi. Actually, it is typical of most Indonesian towns I have been to, unspectacular, practical with very good food. The only exception is that I see some faces that look more Melanesian.

The flight in. Did you know that Sriwijaya has a Singapore office? They fly to Jakarta from Singapore. The online booking was pretty smooth, with an sms security code confirmation. A couple of days before the flight, they even called to confirm the flight. Food on the Boeing 737 plane was simple but tasty, and there is a free 20kg baggage allowance. Flight stewardesses were hot.

From the airport, it was an overpriced (as we were to find out) 50k Rupiah (Rp) to town. We put up at the Sasqavia Guest House, 175k Rp a night for a double room. With cable and aircon, it is pretty alright. We took a look at some homestays, aka “penginapan” but these were all full, taken up by travelling Indonesians doing sales.

From there, we headed out to explore the town. Ternate is a volcanic island, circular in shape, with Gunung Gamalama towering over the entire island. It looks like one of those volcanic islands you see in movies, majestically rising out of the sea. As a result, the entire city is built along the eastern coast of Ternate.

First was a visit to the big mosque by the coast, the Al-Munawwah mosque. The unusual thing about this mosque is that two of the four minarets sit on stone pillars that rise straight out of the sea! Interestingly too, if you look closely at the repetitive pattern on the dome, it spells out “Allah” and “Muhammad” in Arabic language. This is typical of Muslim architecture, exhibiting repetitive abstract geometrical patterns.

Next we popped by the Dutch fort built in 1607, Benteng Oranye. Located right in the city centre, the walls of the fort still stand, but whatever remains inside are long gone, replaced by residential homes. On the bastion there are still cannons, and when we were there, many, many goats.

Further north, the Sultan’s Keraton is the home of the current Ternate Sultan. This is the same Sultan whose family ruled over the spice trade many centuries ago. It is a fancy two storied raised home, with a museum inside showcasing the treasures of the royal family. We wanted to enter (and perhaps have tea with him) but the Sultan wasn’t home. Neither was the caretaker. Someone mentioned that after the resident volcano blew its top two weeks ago (leading to mass evacuation and a two day shutdown of the airport), the Sultan wouldn’t be at the keraton. I wouldn’t be either, seeing that the palace is right at the foot of the volcano. While there, we also dropped by the Sultan Masjid, a small but interesting mosque.

Bemos, the 8 seater minivans that plough Indonesia’s roads, go around the island. We took one to Rua, where the kolam, or pond, which leads to where locals visit the black sand beach. The stroll was brief, passing by nutmegs laid out to dry by the roadside. This was one of the spices which famously led to so many political shenanigans in the past. Now no one even thinks twice about these spices.

Back at Kota Ternate, the new Jatiland mall, Ternate’s biggest and only mall, was where we had time to cool down. The sun burns through you here, and I made a mental reminder to put on sunblock tomorrow. XH had a 10 SGD cup of kopi luwak, the prime coffee made out of coffee beans excreted by civet cats, while I gawked at the rideable toy train that chugged through the ground level of the mall.

We decided to have dinner at Floridas, a fancy restaurant recommended by LP. It’s quite out of the way. And the food was expensive by Indonesian standards (50k Rp for mains), but the view was worth it. Overlooking the dining area was Kiematubu, the peak of Pulau Tidore, with the smaller Pulau Maitara in the foreground, which made for spectacular sunset views. The exact scene could be seen from the back of the Indonesian 1000 Rupiah note, a fact proudly remarked by the owners. Try the ginger almond (kenari) tea, it is the specialty, but it takes some getting used to.

For a city with barely any tourist sights, we did manage to do quite a few things. Tomorrow, we will hop on a boat to Tidore, the island to the south, and also Ternate’s perennial rival.