Spice Islands!

The Moluccas are known as the "Spice Islands" for very good reason.

We often found nutmeg, mace (actually the filigree surrounding the nutmeg pit), cloves and chocolate drying by the roadside, adding a lovely fragrant aroma to our travels.

Spices drying by the roadside

Chocolate beans

Nutmeg

Mace (the filigree around the nutmeg pit)

Nutmeg fruit (unripe)

Dried Nutmeg fruit candy

There was also ginger, galangal, tumeric, lemongrass and lots of other great herbs and spices found in the markets... and in the food!

Galangal with Market lady

No, it's not ginger... similar, but much more whitish (than yellow) inside

lovely little packages of seri (lemongrass) for sale for apount ten cents

We found Ambon not only rich in spices, but also all manner of fruit... which I think is the defining factor for their famous Rujak Natsepa (a special Indonesian spicy peanutty fruit salad)!

And of course, there's always that lone chicken with his beautiful pink wall...

Rujak Natsepa

Rujak is the Indonesian version of a fruit salad... and like all food-things Indonesian, it must have its share of chilis!  I've written about the common-man's rujak here... 

But of all the Rujaks in all the land, the most famous is Rujak Natsepa, from Natsepa Beach in Ambon.  So of course, we had to try it... twice!  The beach itself, although it did nothing for me whatsoever, is a very popular spot for locals to spend the weekend!  Overcrowded... ughh.

But the Rujak was its redeeming quality...

Rujak ingredients

The combination of an extensive variety of fruits, plus fresh peanuts used in the sauce, no water, but fruit to make the sauce saucy, are what makes this the King of Rujaks.

Masterpiece

They even got the bule to try to make the Rujak sauce... 

It did not compare to the original!

Rujak lady at her station at the far end of the beach mixing up her sweet goodness for us!

Flying Water!

A great little side trip on our Ambon trip was an impromptu hike to the Waka Waterfall...

We had just stopped along the side of the road to admire some spices (more about this in another post)...  As is my style, I ended up chatting with the locals who were standing around... asking about the area, the spices, their gardens and farms... chit-chat.  Of course, my obvious interest led to an invitation to go see some of their lush forest gardens, with promises of not only all these spices on the trees in their natural state, but almost all the fruits I have ever heard of in Indonesia, plus a few I never had!

Pala, or nutmeg... one of the main export commodities of the spice Islands.  The fruit is actually quite tasty, and the under-ripe fruit (above) is extremely sour, but supposed to be very good for cleansing the palate, or curing halitosis.

Oh and that wasn't all... our elderly gentleman tour guide was eager to show us the villages 'flying water' (air terbang).  Huh?  Yes, you heard it right... When I first heard him say this, it took me a few seconds, then a smile of recognition played on my lips as I realized he was talking about a waterfall (usually, air terjun)!  Only here in Waka, the water doesn't just fall as it does in other part of Indonesia and the world, it FLIES!  YES!  Sign me up, that was the clincher... flying water... let's go!

Well, the flying water was no longer flying in all the glory of its more formidable days when it was given the moniker, but we enjoyed the walk through the forest freshness anyway!  It seems agricultural activities up-stream have stemmed the flow of water and reduced it to a mere quarter of its original size.

Waka "Flying Water" Waterfall

Of course, it started to POUR just as we were heading back down, and after taking shelter for half an hour it was apparent the rain wasn't letting up, so we fashioned ourselves some local umbrellas and continued on our way!

Ambon Manise

Retro-posting!

I was in Ambon to help with a ten day Sustainable Fisheries Management Planning Training... the training was excellent, but draining, as it always is when I'm functioning morning 'til night in multiple-languages.  It also meant I was in an area of Indonesia that I had never been before... and with the long Easter weekend on the horizon, I decided there was no better time to extend my ticket and explore a bit!  Luckily I wasn't going to have to do that alone, either... ii came and joined me and we had a fabulous weekend!

We explored the underwater Ambon diving for two days and then explored the terrestrial portion of the island as well!  We literally covered almost every square inch of the island!  There are a few stories about it I wanted to share... but as they say, 'a picture is worth a thousand words'... so...

Hukurila

Hukurila Cave

Laha Piers

"Dad, what's a toad face..."? 

Better keep that eel in your trousers!?

Coy eel

Posing mandarin fish

Tube anemone

Lionfish dead ahead

shoefish

Bottle sponge

Lightbulb eel

Squat lobster catching a ride on a fire urchin 

Stylin' underwater Ambon

Dive log

The diving at Laha was the most utterly surreal experience of diving I've ever had... I can understand why they have named this area 'the Twilight Zone'... because it is!  You're diving in a black sand slope FULL of garbage under the constant drone of the active fishing vessels at the jetty, which throw all their waste directly overboard...  at one point the only exposed skin on me was so itchy... it was disgusting to think of the cause... but then on the other hand, everywhere you looked there was another unique an interesting critter... The types of creatures that choose to make this place their habitat are seriously special!

Our overland exploring consisted of a two-day road trip around the entire island!

Best umbrellas ever!

View of Seram from Fort Amsterdam

1642... still standing after all these years (with a new roof) - good ole Dutch construction!

So many eels at Larike!

Seaside mosque near Larike

Gardaria... the Ambon specialty... size and texture of a plum, tastes like Mango!

Standing on "Pintu Kota", the Gates to Ambon City

Pintu Kota

Downtown Ambon city

A lone rooster with his pink wall

Gimme five!

Hug an eel today...

quite content

I really don't know exactly what it was about this place... the people, the place, music, food...  Ah, Ambon, Sweet Ambon (Ambon Manise)!