Travel Adventures in Indonesia: 2011

In Batujaya, a half day's drive to the east of Jakarta, lies a complex of ancient buddhist temples slowly emerging from Karawang's rice padi mud. Walking among the mounds concealing these ruins you get a sense that there is something huge and undiscovered buried beneath your feet. The occasional story of rice farmers enriched by finds of gold trinkets only adds to the mystique.

Karawang is known as the “rice bowl” of Jakarta due to the endless rice paddies that year after year produce the carbohydrates necessary to sustain metropolitan Jakarta’s millions of hungry stomachs. Karawang owes its rice bowl status to the Citarum river and the annual floods which refresh Karawang’s layers of alluvial sedimentation keeping the rice growing year after year.

Jakarta isn’t the only civilisation the Karawang plains have historically supported, along the banks of the Citarum river there is evidence of much older human encampments. At Batujaya the remains of fifth and sixth century Buddhist communities is gradually emerging from rice padi silt that has built up over centuries of Citarum river floods.

I first became aware of Batujaya on reading about rice farmers’ ploughs getting accidentally stuck on human bones in burial sites and the farmers unearthing gold trinkets that had been buried together with the dead human. As you would expect, your average rice farmer isn’t too aware of the value of two thousand year old gold jewellery and typically sold it for melt down in local markets.

But the fact that the farmers came across two or three burial sites means there are likely to be more. Some basic research revealed that there are a number of prehistoric sites in Karawang. Most are in Batujaya and contain crumbling Buddhist temples but there are others in Cibuaya and in total there are around 30 specific locations where ancient remains poke out of the rice padis.

Little of these ancient sites have been excavated and it is exciting to walk over the mounds sticking out of the rice padis and wonder what could be hidden beneath them. The temples appear to be built from clay bricks, and in many places you can find them scattered around as if they were recently placed there.

The complex at Batujaya is the most expansive covering an area of around five hectares and consists of one large restored temple, one large temple in the process of restoration, several temples that are undergoing excavation, an ancient well, and scattered mounds of earth that have barely been touched by humans and who knows what is contained beneath them.

The restored temple is Candi Jiwa, or the temple of the spirit, and Candi Blandongan is the temple that is undergoing restoration although when we visited there wasn't much restoration activity. Still, both of these temples are impressive structures, and from them you can site other mounds sticking out of the rice paddies where clearly other ancient remains reside.

Batujaya and Cibuaya are well within day trip distance from Jakarta and worth visiting. Getting there isn't hard and just requires the usual perseverance to drive out of Jakarta. Karawang is east of Jakarta and hence you need to take the Cikampek Tol. I can't remember exactly where you take the exit from the toll but Rengasdengklok is the name of the town that you need to bear in mind as you pass through it on the way to Batujaya. Batujaya is in the village of Segaran so watch out for this name as you drive.

Getting back to Jakarta we took a short cut on a pontoon that took us an dour car across the Citarum river. We could never have found this on the way to Batujaya Segaran but it was pretty easy to find these mom and pop ferry operations on the way back.

Panoramic View of Fort Belgica, Banda Neira, the Banda Islands, Southern Maluku, Indonesia.

In 2006 I spent seven days in the Banda archipelago otherwise known as The Spice Islands. Ever since then, when asked about my favorite destination in Indonesia, my enthusiastic response has been the Banda Islands. No other destination offers the same unique mixture of laid back tropical island pace of life, unpolluted environment, ruined and restored old world dutch villas, ancient Spanish, Dutch and British stone forts, an active volcano, groves of nutmeg and mace and pristine crystal clear oceans alive with colorful multitudes of fish, coral and all manner of other vibrant sea life and all within a very short trip of one another. I am writing this five years after my visit and the memories are still strong.

The Dutch East India Company Symbol, this one on the stone floor of the
Chinese Temple. Banda Neira, the Banda Islands, South Maluku, Indonesia

For many solid reasons the Banda Islands could be one of Indonesia's most visited traveler destinations. Perhaps due to its remoteness and the challenges posed in getting there, quite fortunately, it is spared the maddening crowds of mass tourism that put such pressure on the environment and culture elsewhere. Many do not realize it, but that this small and remote archipelago played a historically pivotal role in European history and especially in the huge gains in wealth experienced by the Dutch from the sixteenth to twentieth centuries. The Banda Islands was the only source of highly prized nutmeg and mace, used for a variety of purposes from cooking, flavorings, preserving meats, and believed to have medicinal properties. Spices that could be acquired for a pittance in the spice islands of the Dutch East Indies were regularly sold for hundreds of times their purchase price and just a small amount acquired in Banda and sold in Amsterdam could make a man rich beyond his dreams.

The red outer membrane is mace and it encases the nutmeg nut.

The Banda Islands are located in the Banda Sea in Eastern Indonesia directly south of the sparsely populated island of Ceram and to the southwest of the more populated island of Ambon in the province of South Maluku. They are made up of six main islands and a number of smaller rocky outcrops. The main group consist of Banda Naira (Neira) where the main town, also called Banda Naira and bristling with historical buildings and forts is located, Banda Besar (Pulau Lonthoir), a long banana curved island forming the edge of an ancient caldera and where much of the nutmeg is farmed, and Banda Api (or Gunung Api), a 666 meter high active volcano which has been steaming away happily since it last properly erupted in 1988. Islands situated further out include Rozengain Island (Pulau Rozengain) to the south east of the main group, and Ai Island (Pulau Ai) and Run Island (Pulau Run) directly to the west.

Banda Neira in the foreground, Banda Besar in the background, and Rozengain
barely visible in the distance. View from the summit of the Gunung Api volcano.

Remnants providing an indication of Banda Island's historical importance to the western world can be seen scattered all around the islands. The township of Banda Naira has the most amazing colonial character and charm to it given that the majority of the buildings are old dutch villas, mansions, forts, and churches some of which have been restored or maintained, and some of which have fallen into disrepair, yet all of which combine to give it a wonderful old world mystique that is hard to find anywhere else in Indonesia. It is a reassuring feeling to see there are few modern buildings in Banda Neira and those that have been built more recently, for example the Maulana Hotel, have taken into consideration the extremely valuable architectural heritage of the island and were built in a style respectful of this and aiming to preserve it.

A view of the governor's residence from his lawn. Banda Neira, Banda Islands, South Maluku, Indonesia.

I spent two days roaming around Banda Neira's township soaking up the atmosphere. Around every corner there is another historical treasure. Kids in red primary school uniforms playing on scattered old rusting Dutch cannons bearing the Dutch East India Company symbol. One of the glass windows of the large dilapidated waterside governor's residence etched with writing in French, the sorrowful musing of a European resident of the islands far from home who is said to have committed suicide out of loneliness. The hands of a church clock frozen in time, supposedly the moment the islands were bombed by arriving Japanese soldiers during World War II. The restored ramparts of the pentagonal Fort Belgica on the hill above Banda Neira from where exceptional 360 degree views of the main islands and especially of the Banda Api volcano can be enjoyed. The house where two Indonesian revolutionaries and founding fathers, Muhamad Hatta and Sutan Sjahrir, spent years in exile . The ancient Chinese temple, where Banda's small community of Chinese traders and pearl farmers pay respects to their ancestors. Nutmeg tree seedlings growing in the shadows of nutmeg nurseries out of the way of the beating tropical sun and ready to be transplanted to one of the other islands. The list of gems goes on and on.

The church silhouetted in the Gunung Api volcano.
Banda Neira, Banda Islands, South Maluku, Indonesia

During my visit I stayed in the Maulana Hotel situated on the Banda Neira waterfront next to the port and boasting inspiring views of the Banda Api volcano just across the narrow strait between the two islands. The Maulana hotel is the best hotel on the Bandas and was built by the renowned and iconic character Bapak Des Alwi, otherwise known as the King of the Bandas, serving as one of his retirement activities. Des Alwi made my trip to the Bandas special. Every evening at the Maulana dinner was served with all guests sitting around the dinning table devouring seafood and sashimi fished from the Banda seas that same day with wasabi squeezed from a large Buddha shaped bottle. The evening after I climbed the Banda volcano Des clapped his hands and announced there would be a ceremony. He made a small speech and summoned me to the front of the table where he presented me with my certificate of citizenship to the Banda Islands. Des had made it a custom to present all who ascended to the summit of the volcano with such a citizenship paper granting free access to the islands and upon which it states the time it took the recipient to reach the summit.

Hotel Maulana. I wondered what the large bollard was for until a
massive Pelni passenger liner moored outside of my bedroom

Des Alwi's family featured large in the Banda's archipeligo's history, and Des himself was a historically significant figure in Indonesia's formative years and beyond. When he was a kid, the Dutch government exiled two leading intellectuals in the Indonesian nationalist movement from Java to the Bandas. These revolutionaries were Sutan Sjahrir, who went on to become Indonesia's first prime minister, and Mohammad Hatta who became the first vice president under the charismatic Sukarno. Sutan Sjahrir who was an educator, must have sensed the talent, latent passion and hunger for learning in Des Alwi, for he took him under his wing and when he finally returned to Java, was accompanied by the young Des. Des went on to play a role in Indonesia's revolution and exploiting his talent for communication was active in the mass media and in particular with the state radio station, Radio Republik Indonesia, and recorded on film the many dimensions of Indonesia's freedom struggle. Later he represented Indonesia internationally first as a cultural attache in the embassy in Bern, Austria and the Philippines. Sadly Des passed away in November of 2010.

Des Alwi presenting me with my citizenship papers.

One night while staying at the Maulana I awoke to the hum of large diesel engines and upon taking a glance out the window discovered a monstrous Indonesian Pelni passenger liner had docked just outside the Maulana to offload and onload produce and passengers. The arrival of this ship had woken the sleepy town of Banda Neira from its slumber and for once the streets teemed with life. Villagers from all over the islands had arrived in small boats and set up stalls in and around the port selling seafood, sate, bottles of nutmeg jam, mother of pearl ornaments, and real pearls to passengers who alighted to stretch their legs on a voyage that stretched almost the entire the length of the Indonesian archipelago, from Jakarta in the west to Papua in the east. It was strange to see so much activity in Banda Neira in the middle of the night but I can imagine that in such a small and isolated community the ship's weekly arrival would be a welcome injection of cash and stimulus of commercial activity.