World Sojourn 2014: Ambon, Indonesia

Indonesia hasn't been one of my favorite stops so I was not expecting much here in Ambon. We docked -- yippee -- and saw a much larger town, more like a city. The view from the ship was of rusted tin roofs, two mosques, and a sign welcoming the Seabourn Sojourn. We missed the greeting committee on the dock.

We did not have any tours scheduled and planned to take the shuttle to the mall. After our experience the other day, I wasn't sure what to expect. This was going to a mall, not a market. My definition of a mall is enclosed with air conditioning. The weather was a bit cooler with some overcast, keeping the hot sun from burning down on us.

After breakfast, we walked through the cruise terminal building to await the shuttle. We were told by others waiting in line ahead of us that they had been awaiting for over an hour with no sign of the shuttle in sight. There was a tour operator there who offered to get us a taxi so we wouldn't have to wait. After a quick confab, Stan and Linda joined us in hiring a taxi for one hour at a cost of $15. Wow, cheap! The caveat was that the driver spoke no English. The tour manager told the driver what we wanted to do, just have a tour of the city.

The car was clean and relatively new and had great air-conditioning. We piled in with me in the shotgun seat. That was both good and bad. The good -- I had an unobstructed view and could take pictures without too many obstacles. The bad -- I could see the crashes coming! The driving here is so totally chaotic and random. There were lines painted on the road surface, but that was just for decoration because no one paid attention to it. There were pedicabs, bicycles, motorbikes, cars and buses jockeying for wherever there was a clear spot. Pedestrians crossed wherever they felt like, seeming to have not a care in the world. Cars angle parked at the curb and in order to back out into traffic, some brave person, who was paid a few cents, would go out into the traffic to stop it so the car could back out. For all the craziness, no one crashed during our tour.

Pedicabs are popular

The main boulevard

The town was a lot larger than it looked from the ship. Mosques and rusted tin roofs dominated the view from aboard the ship. From the ground, it looked like a regular third world city with dilapidated structures next to nicely maintained ones. We passed catholic churches, schools, army offices, a hospital and retail establishments of all kinds. Sorry that these pictures are so bad, but it is hard to take a good picture when you are driving fast and weaving in and out of traffic.

We got tired of just driving around the city, and asked the driver to take us up into the mountains. He nodded yes, but kept driving around the city. We had enough of the city and indicated we wanted to go back to the ship. We needed to have the English speaking tour operator tell the driver where we wanted to go before we ever left the port. Lesson learned: when all else fails communication wise, have a map of the area handy and point to where you want to go. Lillian and Adrian did this on their tour and saw way more than we did. In fact, Lillian was so excited about what she saw that I invited her to write about it here. There you go, my first guest commentary in my blog!

Lillian's Commentary

As the tender returned from Ambon at 11am filled with Seabourn guests, everyone exclaimed to Adrian and me “don’t bother, there is nothing here!” But like Beverly in Laratuka, we had to see Ambon for ourselves. We engaged a taxi with the Osofskys for 2.5 hours to see the island. We clutched our maps and pointed out the landmarks that the woman in the Square told us we had to see. The taxi driver did not open his mouth for 2.5 hours. Thank God for maps, and his good driving because we were dodging the motorbikes, cars, people, pedicabs, everything. It was really scary.

Ambon is the chief town and seaport in the Banda Sea. It is mountainous and fertile, full of palm trees and scenic views of the beautiful beaches and the sea. We visited the Christia Martha Tiahahu statue, dedicated to the Ambonese freedom fighters, and the World Peace Gong, symbol of peace.

We were impressed with the number of schools on the island. The children only go for half day, and when the schools let out at noon, children were everywhere. Each school wears a different color uniform. The tour guide on the ship was proud to tell us that Christian and Muslims live side by side. One of the most interesting stops we visited was the pond containing sacred eels. A local man fed the eel boiled eggs, which is a sign of very good luck when you see one.

Also in the same pond were women washing clothes and children swimming. They had no toilets. All seemed happy and we felt welcomed.

I insisted that we stop at one of their hotels, and we did. No one spoke English. It was open air, marble, very clean and had wonderful views. When we returned to the dock, I shopped for artifacts, souvenirs, and of course, my postcards. Back to the ship I went with a carved wooden statue of a king, silver and diamond (?) bracelets for me and Beverly. Fond memories and lots of photos of the wonderful people we met in Ambon. As we left, it seemed like half of the town was there to wish us bon voyage, dancing, singing and waving their hands, even though they did not speak English; naturally, I could not speak Indonesian. We all had a good time and respected one another for the differences.

A traditional dish that is considered a delicacy was given to me to share with the group. The crust is made from grated palm trees, water and lye. The filling was ground up coconut, honey and sugar. I proudly took it around the ship from cocktails to dinner and everyone who tasted it said it tasted just like cardboard. All in all, our day in Ambon was unforgettable.

Beverly is Back

We returned to the ship for lunch and some R&R at the pool. The best part of the day was an unexpected sail away. The folks of Ambon have not seen a cruise ship in many years, so throngs of people turned out to see the ship. There was typical Indonesian music playing over loud speakers on the dock: "Oh Delilah" and "Vaya con Dios!" Hahaha, it was funny, but the catchy tunes had everyone dancing. The locals had a dance team on the dock and everyone was waving to us, and we waved back to them. After the dance show was over and as we castoff the lines, passengers started throwing the chocolates candies (that are placed in our rooms every night) from their verandas down onto the pier. With that, the still and silent crowd became a mass of humanity rushing to gather the chocolates (I thought this was dangerous, as adults and kids collided trying to retrieve the treats). In any event, this was an incredible send off.