Saparua: Ambon’s Little Cousin: part I

Indonesia is an endlessly fascinating place and when you dig into an are you often find interesting stories and facts. Mike Hillis explored an island in Eastern Indonesia called Saparua, close to Ambon. Here’s part I of his account.

Its late afternoon at Laino Beach on the west coast of Saparua and the coconut trees are blowing in the wind at a pretty good clip. The storm clouds are moving in quick and the local music group, which is composed of about 20 small kids, is running late. The kids soon arrive adorned in their finest Portuguese era dance costumes and my friend Gary from Bali, who is waiting patiently with his video camera, breathes a sigh of relief. The music teacher sets up the ‘boom box’ on the grass and the kids take their position as Gary is ready to hit the Play button. Oops, it appears someone bought the wrong sized batteries for the music box! Moments later after some fidgeting by a few ‘technical experts,’ the batteries are abandoned for a nearby motorcycle battery that is quickly extracted from the nearest available bike and the kids patiently line up again for a second attempt. All is going well for about 90 seconds until the motorcycle battery gives up the ghost. All eyes are on the poor guy that did not get his motorbike serviced on time! Some quick decisions are made by a bunch of guys standing around rubbing their chins and it is decided that we must move the performance site about 150 meters away to a cow pasture, which is accessible by car.

Up drives a minibus into the middle of the field and the cassette is now inserted into the car stereo and the kids are soon dancing away with smiles on their faces and everyone in the crowd is happy to see the show has started. Everyone except the cows, which were forced to watch from the sidelines, but not before leaving an impressive number of Olympic sized turds scattered throughout the dancing arena. The local fishermen and farmers are catching up on a little social time while watching the dance, the kids are finally dancing (and skillfully dodging the cow poop) with plenty of power from the car stereo, the rain has not yet arrived, and Gary is finally smiling as the cute little girls and boys are swaying their hips in rhythm………Just another day in Saparua.

Travel and Accomodation details:

There are daily flights to Ambon from Bali and Jakarta. Ambon is the gateway point into Maluku province.
There are daily ferries from Tulehu in Ambon to Haria on the west coast of Saparua. It’s a 2 hour pleasant trip on a public ferry twice a day.
Maluku Divers can handle all your diving and adventure travel needs while in Ambon or Saparua. (unexploredadventures@yahoo.com)
Accomodation at Laino Beach guesthouse is simple and can be arranged by using Maluku Divers as your local agent.

Mike Hillis is a writer that specializes in travel to Maluku with a special emphasis on the ancient spice trade and its effects on world history.