We woke up late. 10am, and neither of us had bothered with the alarm. We took brunch, a hearty Soup Saudara and Soup Konrod, before making our way by ojek (7k Rp) to the Bastiong ferry terminal. The ferry terminal is actually where the big ferry leaves from. For more frequent departures, ask for the sirpet harbour, from which 16 seater speedboats leave (8k rp).
Ah Tidore. If we thought Ternate was laid back, Tidore is even more so. We disembarked at Rum, and took the bemo (9k Rp) to the main town, Soasio, on the other side of the island. I thought that the bemo terminal would be in the middle of the town centre, like it was back in Ternate (where it was at the market). But here, the terminal sits in a quiet uninviting area.
The view from atop the Spanish fort ruins, Benteng Tohula
We flagged one of those funky carrier ojeks(they look like mini-tractors with scoops), and made for the Spanish fort, Benteng Tohula. While Ternate made pacts with the Dutch, the Tidore folks allied with the Spanish. Located on top of a cliff, the undergrowth covered ruins from the 17th century is now someone’s farm. The owner cultivates chilli plants along the fort walls!
From there, we went down to the Tidore Sultan’s keraton, almost an exact replica (but with blue roof) of the Ternate palace. Beyond that, and up the hill was another Spanish fort. Tidore’s peak was nearer and thus more grand-looking from this fort. Or perhaps it was because the peak was not covered in mist.
Then it was the 40 minute bemo ride back to the jetty. We had durian, authentic meaty Maluku durians at the docks, before making our way back to Ternate.
Dinner was in Kota Ternate, at an open air collection of warungs, near the Swering promenade. Tomorrow, we will attempt to get to Halmahera, the huge K-shaped land mass that overlooks both Ternate and Tidore.
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 17th 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.
The view from Floridas restaurant in Ternate.
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.
Now here’s a thought. Singapore is a nation of migrants. No, I’m not talking about the recent influx of foreigners. Rather, I’m talking about our forefathers, those immigrants from the Malay archipelago, China, the Indian subcontinent and various settlements around the region. They came decades ago, to Singapore looking for better opportunities, settling here and setting the stage for modern Singapore.
And so, as I was looking for new destinations to explore, I thought to myself, how cool would it be if we were to visit the place of birth of our forefathers. For me, that would be Ponorogo, a city somewhere in East Java, Indonesia. That’s on my dad’s side, we are of Javanese descent. On my mum’s side it’s not so clear, she’s Chinese by birth but we’ve no idea exactly where the migration trail started and passed through before ending up in Singapore. So let’s talk about Ponorogo.
Reachable from Surabaya after a 5 hour bus ride, the town is completely off the tourist trail. A quick google turned up some interesting findings. Ponorogo is known for it’s delicacy, sate ponorogo –> I make a quick note to taste the satay there and compare it to my dad’s version. Ponorogo is also well-known as the site of an annual festival, the Grebeg Suro. This is a week long cultural festival where the locals will celebrate by performing the Reog, a dance which pits the hero against a lion-like creature – the singa barong. Apparently there is a lot of mystical symbolism in the dance, a legacy of the Majapahit empire.
Reog Ponorogo
Back in 2007, there was apparently an uproar when a reog dance was published in a Malaysia tourism pamphlet. The Indonesians protested saying that the dance was an art form that originated from Java.
Very interesting. I resolved to pay a visit, possibly in early 2012. The last festival was back in November 2011, but there are monthly reog performances during the full moon in the Ponorogo town square, so that would be a highlight.
How about you? Have you thought about going back to the hometowns and villages of your forefathers? Or perhaps you even have relatives you know there? Maybe you can even tell me more about the Grebeg Suro? Discuss.
Deep in the Indonesian archipelago lie the Maluku Islands. Here, where the mountains are pretty, the waters sublime, and the people friendly, this group of islands little visited by tourists is where I would be spending this upcoming X’mas festive period.
A Long Long Time Ago
The islands of Maluku are collectively known as the Spice Islands. Why? To answer this, we have to go back 500 years. Back then, the islands were ruled by various sultanates that grew powerful through trade of the spices uniquely found on the island: nutmegs and cloves. The sultanates of Ternate, Tidore, Bacan and Jailolo had been trading spices with the Chinese and later the Islamic World (hence the conversion of locals to Islam and the formation of the Muslim Sultanates) pre-16th century. The Arabs of that time, essentially the Mamluks (1250-1517), the Ottomans (1281-1924) and the Safavids of Persia, transported these valuable spices and traded from the Mediterranean coast to Venice. The Republic of Venice hence enjoyed a monopoly of the spice trade, and grew powerful from trade with the rest of the European powers.
Of course, the Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish and British wanted a piece of the pie, and sent explorers to find the source of the spices, in the hopes of setting up their own trade route. This was the Renaissance Period, and individual empires had the financial clout to send expeditions around Africa and through to Asia.
Spice Wars
No, that‘s not the title of the latest Facebook game. It’s the almost comical yet tragic occupations of the Maluku by the colonial powers of the time. The Portuguese were the first to find Maluku, after colonizing Malacca in 1511. They made their way to Ternate, Bacan and Tidore, and set up trading posts and forts. They didn’t make themselves too popular, proselytizing Christianity to the locals, helping themselves to the spice production, beheading one of the Sultans, and in general making total pricks of themselves. The ramifications were inevitable. The local populace kicked them out of their main base on Ternate, and the Portuguese ended up setting shop further south in Ambon.
The Spanish were already in Maluku, coming in a few years after the Portuguese. Despite a treaty (Treaty of Zaragoza, 1525) between the two stating that the Spanish will not lay claim to Maluku, they continued to shadily trade spices with the locals.
The Portuguese in the meantime, weren’t doing very well in Ambon either. Successive revolts from pissed-off locals on Ambon eventually ended up in a full out assault by the Ternate sultan and his allies from the Sultanate of Mataram, Java. Already licking their wounds, they encountered the Dutch. The belligerent Dutch came along, besieged Ambon and kicked out the Portuguese from the region for good in 1605.
Pick Your Allies Carefully
And where were the locals in all this? The Sultanates of Ternate and Tidore were inconsequentially bickering with each other, oblivious to the European powers desire to completely take over the spice trade. With the Portuguese gone, the Spanish filled the power vacuum and occupied both Tidore and Ternate. As with their predecessors, the Spanish weren’t too popular either, controlling the cloves production. Ternate, eager to put one up against their southern rivals, allied themselves (stupidly) with the Dutch, and proceeded to square off against Tidore, who (even more stupidly) were allied with the Spanish.
The stronger power won, and to the victor, the spoils. The Dutch monopoly of the Maluku spice trade grew with the establishment in 1602 of the VOC (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie), more commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, to take advantage of the spice trade. Meanwhile the influence of the Spanish and Tidore waned. The Spanish removed themselves from Maluku in 1663.
A Massacre at the Bandas
The Dutch weren’t saints either. They were now the superpowers of the region, and proceeded to flex their muscles. They quelled any uprising around the islands violently. They restricted the production of cloves to only Ambon Island in order to protect their trade. Of course the locals’ livelihood was affected and their revolt was again spectacularly put down. One of the Moluccan heroes was the Pattimura, Thomas Matulessy, a local from Ambon who led a failed revolt in 1817. He was hanged by the Dutch. His last words were: ‘I wish you all a pleasant stay’.
The epitome was probably in 1621, when the Dutch forcibly occupied the Banda Islands and massacred its entire population (15000!). They resettled the island with imported slaves from Java and elsewhere in Indonesia. Before this, the interaction was treaty based, but after the Banda massacre, it was full out occupation by the Dutch.
The British were also in the middle of these shenanigans. Latecomers to the show, they set up their forts in the islands of Rum and Ai. They were paying higher prices for the spices, which seriously undermined the Dutch. So, the Dutch did what they do best, invading Ai in 1615 and causing a full scale rivalry with British revenge attacks. In 1623, the Dutch murdered a bunch of British merchants on Ambon, which probably made things worse. Things only got better after the British seceded control of the Bandas to the Dutch in 1667.
You Would Trade Manhattan for One of These Islands???!!
Amazingly, the Dutch wanted to complete their Pokemon collection (gotta catch them all!) of all the Banda Islands. The last island of Run was traded with the British, after the second Anglo-Dutch War of 1665–1667, where under the Treaty of Breda (1667), the Dutch got Run in exchange for what is now Manhattan Island in New York. Seriously. They MUST have regretted that decision ever since.
Anyway, the sly Brits smuggled out the spices to their colonies in Sri Lanka, Singapore and replanted them there, thereby ending the Dutch monopoly of the spice trade. The Maluku islands fell to obscurity, and the sultanates were abolished by the Dutch.
Modern History
After the Japanese occupation, and when Indonesia gained independence, the Maluku people were surprisingly pro-Dutch. These nederlandophiles had what I would think is a case of Stockholm Syndrome. They set up a secessionist movement in 1950, creating the unrecognized Republic of South Maluku. Matters weren’t helped by the silly idea to transmigrate Indonesians from elsewhere to Maluku. There was actually an incident in 2000 where local Muslims and Christian Ambonese fought each other. Today, things are OK, the sultanates reinstated, and the Maluku Islands are peaceful little visited historically important sites. (And a great dive paradise too, I might add).
The impact of the colonial powers’ rule was many: Portuguese words such as bendera (flag), meja (table), sabun (soap) exist in the Indonesian language. Locals in Ambon have Portuguese sounding surnames like de Souza and de Fretes. And many immigrants formerly from Ambon and the rest of the Maluku islands have been assimilated and are living in Holland.
To read my post about the other Spice Islands, of the Zanzibar Archipelago, click here: http://www.thefuriouspanda.com/2010/02/25/87-%E2%80%93-zanzibar-the-places-just-gets-more-and-more-exotic/
References:
Carboni, Stefano. Venice and the Islamic world, 828-1797: Yale University Press, 2007
Timeline : Molucca Islands http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/seasia/tlmoluccas.html
Various Wikipedia entries
Indonesia is made up of more than 17000 islands. And besides commonly visited places like Jakarta and Bali, there are many, many fantastic places to visit. Navigating your way through to these locations is a potential headache though. There are so many airlines and so many routes to consider. Indonesian domestic airlines do not exactly have the best reputation for safety. But that’s not an excuse for not exploring what the Indonesian archipelago has to offer.
I’ve been flying in and out of Indonesia, visiting little enclaves of paradise and historical and natural wonders over the last few years, flash traveller style. This meant travelling out of Singapore, taking flights that no sane traveller would even consider taking, either because I was trying to keep costs low, or simply because the bigger airlines don’t fly to the destination. It used to be a nightmare booking flight tickets through local agents or at the ticketing counter. However, over the last year, local airlines have started using online ticketing, to my relief.
Online Ticketing
First, let’s take a look at the different airline ticketing methods:
LionAir – I’ve tried booking online for Singapore to Bali (this route no longer exists). Verdict: Successful.
AirAsia – No problem with online booking here. Very reliable, though they only cover the major hubs.
Sriwijaya Air – Site goes down sometimes. But I just booked Jakarta to Ternate just now. They email you the ticket/itinerary. Someone will call to confirm your credit card user info. Verdict: Successful.
Batavia Air – Selecting the destination may stump you. There’s a field for “Departure city”, “Destination City” and “Return City”. So your return city technically can be completely different from your departure city. Weird. Leaving the Return City field empty will allow you to book one-way ticket. Worked for me. I didn’t get an email, but you can print out the ticket after payment confirmation. No idea how you can access your ticket if you don’t have a printer at that time though. Verdict: Successful.
Merpati Air – I’ve only tried buying from counter (Denpasar to Tambolaka), but there is an online booking option on the website now. However, there is a line saying that only Indonesian issued credit cards can be used. Plus the session keeps timing out each time I tried booking. Tell me if you managed to book Merpati tickets through their ticketing system. Verdict: Unsuccessful
Trigana Air – I can’t find any online ticketing service. And the page is in Indonesian. Verdict: Not Available
Express Air – The site is in English. But there is no online booking. You need to call, which means if you are not somewhere in Indonesia, it will be very tough to book. Verdict: Not Available
Air Transport Hubs of Indonesia
Depending on where in Indonesia you actually want to go, there are some routes that make more sense than others. I don’t profess to be an expert, but let me try to share what I know. This next section assumes you have a good geographical knowledge of the Indonesian islands, or at least have Google Maps opened in another tab right now. If not, please open one and type in Indonesia. =)
Jakarta‘s Soekarno-Hatta airport is obviously the main transport hub to the rest of Indonesia. (Side note: all the airports have unique funky names I love!). You can’t go wrong if you start from here. It’s the main international airport where most airlines end up.
On Java, Surabaya‘s Juanda airport is another hub that serves east Java. Conveniently, AirAsia flies there from Kuala Lumpur, and Batavia Air and Jetstar flies there from Singapore. Both are convenient entry points if you want to avoid Jakarta.
Further east, of course Ngurah Rai airport in Denpasar, Bali is well known, going out to many International destinations, and probably the destination we Singaporeans end up at. But did you know you can actually go beyond Bali to places like Dili, East Timor through Batavia Air, for example? Ngurah Rai is also the hub for destinations to its east, covering the Nusa Tenggara Timur / Barat (East/West Nusa Tenggara) provinces, which covers attractions like Lombok (the Gili Islands! Rinjani!) and Flores (Alor diving/whaling! Komodo Islands!).
While Denpasar covers the western end of Nusa Tenggara’s two provinces, the eastern end’s hub is served by Kupang’s El Tari airport. I’ve never been there myself, but it’s somewhere to start if you want to do an overland crossing to East Timor.
Over on Sumatra, Polonia Airport in Medan is a hub serving the land mass. Its close proximity to Malaysia and Singapore means airlines such as Jetstar, AirAsia and Firefly make frequent flights there. Medan itself is an interesting destination (Lake Toba! Bukit Lawang Orang Utans!)
Balikpapan‘s Sepinggan Airport is the hub for sights around Kalimantan. Diving in Derawan and Sangalaki is to the north. Surprisingly there are no connections from the north side. (Borneo’s Kuching and Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia). AirAsia flies here from Kuala Lumpur though.
Recently the Indo government is trying to make Makassar (Sultan Hasanuddin Airport) the major transport hub leading to destinations in East Indonesia. So now Garuda, Indonesia’s national carrier flies direct from Singapore. Makassar is the start-off point for adventures up north in Sulawesi (Tanah Toraja!) though a connecting flight is oft needed elsewhere, even on Sulawesi since travelling overland is not easy. Makassar would serve people wanting flights to Manado, and elsewhere on the Maluku islands (Ambon, Ternate etc)
Lastly, all the way to the east is Papua. Jayapura is the capital of the province (Sentani Airport) leading to Cenderawasih Bay and overland crossings into Vanimo, Papua New Guinea. Sorong (Domine Edward Osok Airport) is where you start for Raja Ampat diving. I haven’t been on Papua myself, so I do not have much information on these airports.
There you have it. So in summary, you have Jakarta for destinations all over Indonesia including western Indonesia, plus Makassar as the main hub to destinations in eastern Indonesia.Then you have the seaports and the Pelni boats. But that would stretch this post to twice the length, and I doubt you want to spend 48 hrs sitting on board boats. If any of your reading this is an expert on the sea network, you can educate me. =)
If you found this entry useful, do share the post! Do comment or drop me a note if you need help with these routes. I’ll share what I know.
“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit” runs through my mind as I stand in the snaking queue. I glance at my watch every few seconds, mentally wishing the queue before me would vanish, and I would be next in line to have my passport stamped. The Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) customs clearance building is a huge high-ceilinged hall which fits hundreds comfortably. Yet, with thousands pouring out of the planes outside on the tarmac and making their way into the building, it is inevitable that there will be a huge crowd.
Despite the surprising efficiency of the passport-stamping customs officers behind the tables, it really was a long queue, and I seriously doubted I would make it in time for the next flight. I will need to clear customs, collect my checked-in bag from the conveyor, rush to the departure counter, do my paperwork for the connecting flight, check in again, and rush back on the SAME tarmac I left earlier to get to this second plane.
I hear the final boarding call, the check-in counter closes 45 minutes before departure, which meant I have exactly 5 minutes left. As soon as the line reached me, I beseeched the customs officer to be quick, and then sprinted down the corridor, traversing the escalator, to the check-in row, only to find out the counter close, and the staff packing up. I pleaded with them to let me check-in. To my enormous relief, they decided to help the flustered pathetic Singaporean, and made a phone call or two, telling the plane crew that there’s one more passenger coming in. Phew, made it by the skin of my teeth, I thought as I finally boarded the plane.
How did I get into this predicament? I was flying Singapore to KL, and then KL to Aceh. I had buffered two hours for the transit period. What I didn’t count on, however, was a delay on the Singapore to KL flight, which seems to be the norm, especially later in the afternoon, when the accumulated delay of multiple SG to KL return flights starts to add up.
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There’s no doubt about it, for the budget-conscious Singaporean traveller, AirAsia flights out of Kuala Lumpur (KL) are considerably cheaper than on other low cost airlines that fly out of Singapore. It could be the airport tax, or price competition, but flying from KL to Siem Reap is on average cheaper than from flying from Singapore to Siem Reap. Now this point about cheaper prices is moot, since most Singaporeans (i) can’t be bothered with the extra hassle of taking two flights, (ii) the cost of the SG-KL return flight included adds up to about the same price anyway, and (iii) we don’t have so much time to do things like take overnight coaches or trains from SG to KL, which though cheaper than the SG-KL flights, demands much of our precious time.
And yet, why do I do it? Simply because in the AirAsia network, there are many exciting destinations that both Jetstar and Tiger currently do not cover. Want to dive the Indonesian Sulawesi archipelago? Fly KL to Makassar. Want to see how well the tsunami recovery work goes in Aceh? Fly KL to Banda Aceh. Want to see Sri Lanka’s many historical and natural marvels? Fly KL to Colombo.
Visiting these places requires that I plan properly. After the aforementioned incident, I decided that putting in extra buffer time is not just a good idea, it is a practically a necessity! Better to lounge at KLIA / LCCT and wait (wifi available) for a few hours rather than risk missing the flight altogether.
However, in accordance to Murphy’s Law, anything that can go wrong probably will. So here below are a few tips to get through a potentially really bad situation, in case you do try the KLIA / LCCT Customs Clearance Run.
1) Firstly, prevention is still the better option. Plan your trip well, don’t allocate 2 hours to clear the entry and then exit customs. It’s not enough, knowing the unreliability of low-cost carriers. Flightstats.com’s Feb-Mar 2011 data shows that despite AirAsia’s higher than industry average of 96% on-time performance; the KL-SG route achieves only 89% on-time performance. Which means that there is a whopping 11% chance your flight will be delayed. (There is some doubt on the accuracy of data, since SG-KL is 100%, impossible since it’s the same plane going back and forth.) Delays are brief, around 45 minutes is the max I have ever come across. A safe guide then is 3 hours buffer, more if you can afford the time.
2) Don’t check-in luggage. This cuts at least 5 to 10 minutes of waiting time, important especially when you have no time to hunt for your bag amongst the mess that is on the conveyor. Or maybe you have to wait because you are too fast and they have yet to unload the bags (No snaking queue, but you didn’t buffer enough time). Without luggage, you may just get that next flight before the counter closes.
3) If you really need to have checked-in luggage, consider waiting for the ground staff to unload the luggage. I’m not sure this is possible at LCCT, but I have witnessed elsewhere at a smaller airport where a fellow traveller picked up his backpack straight from the baggage compartment and going himself, thereby saving valuable time.
4) Make sure all your papers are in order: fill up your white immigration card, don’t have suspicious stamps on your passport. You really don’t want to get into a situation where you miss the flight because the customs officer cannot read your handwriting, or starts questioning you about your Israel stamp.
5) Join the queue that is on either end of the mass of queuing passengers. Somehow, experience has shown that these are the fastest queues. It is a clear line, unlike in the middle lines, where two squashed masses may merge to form one line, once they realize there is only one queue in front of them. This slows down the queue considerably. Another variant of this trick is to simply join the queue which has an adjacent empty counter. A customs officer would inevitably start a new counter, and half the crowd from your line will shift to this new line. Since you are in the adjacent line, you can call dibs to stay or join the new line. Either way, you r queue is halved.
6) Take care to remove all airport prohibited items, and get rid of all your metallic gear so you can go through the metal detector without a hitch. Any delay is unacceptable, and missing the flight because you are too lazy to take off your belt is a sad, sad thing.
So that’s the post. Hopefully it helps to get you through the customs clearance run without a hitch. If you have other tips, do post a comment below.
And finally, a footnote: Since the end of 2010, AirAsia has introduced the “fly-through” concept, which allows flights out of Singapore, via KL, to a destination, to be booked under a single return ticket. This applies for most of the AirAsiaX destinations, to further places in South Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, even London and Paris. I have yet to try out, but it is a smart idea that opens up many new destinations, albeit, with the extra waiting time, and changing out to another plane. However, with no plan in sight to allow Singapore to become an AirAsia hub, the “fly through” concept ensures AirAsia still gets a big piece of that lucrative Singapore travel market. Personally, I have not tried it before (let me know if you have) but I will let you know how it went, come August. SG-KL-New Delhi.
Today was spent touring Bohol. We engaged through the hotel a driver and a car, for 2500 pesos, to take us to all the sights in a day. The standard package that all the tour companies offer will include the famed Chocolate Hills, a butterfly park, a man-made forest, the hanging bridges, a river cruise cum lunch in Loboc, tarsiers, the Bacylon church and the sandugo monument. Not bad for a full day tour, even though the main attractions were the Chocolate Hills and tarsiers, the rest were more or less filler.
When taking a car hire, everyone and their neighbour will offer to take you on the standard Bohol tour. It’s better to go with the hotel or a proper tour agency, rather than the trishaw rider’s brother/uncle/friend. There are some laws about having licenses to be a driver/guide, plus private vehicles have plates coloured differently. Only those with yellow plates or rainbow colourful ones can carry public passengers.
From Tagbilaran, we traveled inland towards the Chocolate Hills, a unique natural geological phenomenon here in Bohol, of over 1300 hillocks than dot the countryside. Formed centuries ago below the sea out of limestone, the hills were created when plate movements led to their formation. They get their name because during the dry season, the top of the hills dry and turn brown, hence Chocolate Hills. Sadly, we saw only the green hills.
A small buttefly conservation centre, a man-made forest (mahagony seeds planted over 40 years ago to prevent erosion) and a hanging bridge (initially made for some families on the other side of the river) become attractions for tourists.
Lunch was a kitsch affair, touted as a cruise on Loboc river on a boat where we would have a buffet lunch. At 400 pesos, I felt the food was sub-par, and the guitar strumming performer didn’t help much to improve the environ either. Possibly a highlight would be a ukelele strumming local performance choral group that sat by the side of the river and put up a performance for us. Very packaged, and touristy, I ended up buying a 400 peso ukelele. Talk about tourist traps.
After lunch, we headed for a “Kingdom of Tarsier and Other Animals”, to check out the other highlight of Bohol. The tarsier, one of the smallest mammals in the world, is found in the Philippines, and most easily spotted in Bohol. Cute little buggers, the tarsiers have gigantic eyes that take up half their face.
Their uniqueness means many tourists come to see them, and this inevitably leads to illegal tarsier poaching and the such. Hence, government regulations means places such as these are allowed to keep only 10 tarsiers. The enclosure is pretty big, allowing the tarsiers to jump from tree to tree, but visitors can come in and stand within centimeters of a tarsier. This particular establishment stops tourists from taking flash photography and tells them not to touch or startle the tarsiers, but the regular flow of tourists will mean that some of these little guys end up traumatised and as ominously pointed out by the handler, “they commit suicide”, that is, they refuse to eat till they die. =(
After the tarsiers, we trooped to the next couple of attractions, both pretty anticlimatic actually. The Baclyon church was not bad, one of the oldest most well preserved churches in the Philippines, set up in early 17th century. We did a stop by the Blood Compact monument, to signify a treaty made by the Bohol chieftain and a Spanish explorer. I was more interested in the fact that blood compact here is the Sandugo, also the name of a footwear brand in Bohol. The slippers are good quality.
Car sent us back to the ferry terminal, where we took OceanJet this time. (Supercat has newer boats, but Oceanjet has wifi on board). Back on Cebu, we found a metered cab to take us to a rest house near Ayala Center, an impressive megamall. And that was all for Malapascua / Bohol. Until the next backpack trip to Bangladesh (now THAT should be an interesting one), bye.
Morning saw us getting more adventurous, eschewing the chartered ferry and van for public transport. We walked to the village where others were waiting for the public bangka to take them to Cebu mainland.
Yellow buses from Ceres Liner greeted us at the Cebu side, ready to bring passengers down south. I quite like the buses, even though they were non-aircon, the big windows allowed me to look out and take in the sights and smells. The bus driver’s route meandering around town also lets me see more.
The big city (relatively) of Cebu City is completely different from Malapascua’s laid back charm. We had a plan though, and skipped the city for later, instead heading straight to the port for our fast ferry to Bohol. Supercat’s ticket office, and subsequent check-in and waiting area were comfortable, modern and sees many tourists, evident in the multiple nationalities sitting inside this ferry right now with me.
Reached Tagbilaran city, spent the rest of the day there. We took a 50 peso trishaw to Chriscentville Hotel, in the city centre for a 1200 peso room. Went to explore the surrounding malls, BQ Mall is a 5 storey mall which looks like the majordomo mall out here. That’s where i had Halo-halo, ice shavings and sugar and toppings, very much like our local Ais Kachang. More charming is Tagbilaran City Square, adjacent to it. This mall looks older and more run down, but then I’m biaised, because TCS was the location of Miss Dunkin Donuts 2010! We were shopping and minding our own business when the commotion on the second floor atrium signalled the start of the pageant. We stayed 2.5 hours to watch the beauty pageant from start to finish. My favourite, contestant number 8, won top honours!
Practicalities: It’s a 10 minute walk from Exotic to the village where the public boat sets off, just ask anyone for directions. The ferry ticket is 50 pesos one way, and at low tide, you need to pay 10 pesos on each bank for the little boat (tundas) to take you from shore to the ferry. First ferry sets off at 630am, so it makes sense to be at the ferry station (which is nothing more than a covered tent) at around 615am. The ferry bangka itself is about 40 minutes.
At Maya, its a 95 peso, 4.5 hour bus ride with stops down to Cebu city. The bus is the yellow Ceres Liner, non-airconditioned. The bus stops outside SM Plaza in Cebu City.
From there, I took a 5 minute taxi ride to the pier. Always metered, starting meter price is 30 peso. In total it was around 50 peso, excluding a 10 peso port entrance fee.
Pier 4, where Supercat and Weesam have services to Tagbilaran, on Bohol. Pier 1 is where Oceanjet’s service start from. At Pier 4, I took Supercat, 535 pesos, a 1.5 hour fast ferry ride to Tagbilaran port. The ferry leaves at 1230pm, other timings also available on the bohol website.
9am for the first dive. We headed towards Lighthouse, the site of hull of a Jap WWII wreck, just 10m deep. We didn’t get a chance to do the dive sites at Gato Island, which was 45 minutes boat ride out. There needed to be at least 4 of us before they could take us there. Nevertheless, the next best alternative at the Lighthouse was a pretty good one. After all, we were getting one bangka boat to ourselves, with a 2 DM to 3 divers ratio.
Dive 4: Lighthouse. Hard corals, long dive since it was only 10m deep. Dive 5: Deep slope, which is a semi-wall dive, my favourite kind. The sheer amount of nudibranches spotted was enough to keep me happy all day. A moray roaming the slope was icing. Dive 6: Lighthouse (night). We returned back to Lighthouse for a dusk dive, ready to spot the elusive mandarinfish, a colourful fish that shies away under hard coral. They come out only at night, and since they fit into the palm of your hand, you can imagine how hard it is to find one in the water at night. Our DM Jojo was the hero, finding a mandarinfish almost immediately at the beginning of the dive. Additionally, he also found plenty of seahorses, a first for me in over 50 dives. Crabs, hermit crabs, cuttlefish and more boxer shrimps made up the night party.
Dinner was at one of the beachfront restaurants. Dishes were around the 150-300 range, fairly reasonable. There was an absence of local type eateries here in Malapascua, since most of the food is home cooked for the family. I had adobo, which is any mean cooked with vinegar and what seems like soy sauce.
At 430am, we were up and about, getting ready for the pre-dawn dive, in order to catch a thresher shark sighting. The dive location is Monad Shoal, a sunken island, on whose plateau the trhresher sharks regularly hang out. They come out from the depths to this plateau to get cleaned by the cleaner fish, before going back down. It’s one of the few places to see threshers, characterised by their long dorsal tail fin that grows to almost half their entire body length.
We were hoping we’d get lucky. There’s a 55% chance of seeing one this time of year, according to the Evolution Dive owners, Matt and David. Our DMs were Jojo and Julius, both born and bred on Malapascua island. The conditions that morning at 5am were unfavourable. Morning torrents and choppy waters. We’d be cursing if we don’t see the threshers today; as it meant we’d have to go out again tomorrow morning in the cold rain to try again. We hear stories of divers who come here and dive for a week daily without ever spotting a thresher shark.
We weren’t disappointed. A huge 2m plus thresher was in the vicinity and swam round in circles, at one time turning towards me and coming within a few meters away. Stupidly, i forgot to bring down the underwater camera, and only had it passed to me later, by which time I only got fleeting shots of the shark. Ok, I’m content. Mission accomplished. Thresher shark spotted.
The next couple of dives saw us spotting various local stuff like a frogfish, pairs of banded boxer shrimps, lots of lionfish. Dive 2: Lapus Lapus. Dive 3: Bantingi.
In the evening after the dives, did a loop around the village that sits behind all the dive resorts. It’s my first Filipino village experience, and it delivers. Despite the resorts catering to the dive crowd, life in Malapascua remains simple. Children play in the sand, neighbours crowd outside a house, peeking in to watch the television in the household. Videokes abound too, you can hear the singing (wailing!) from the villagers belting local and foreign chart toppers. Malapascua’s changing though. More resorts are popping up, structures are being built as I was there, no doubt to capture the increasing tourist dollar. Come to Malapascua now, before it’s all gone in 10 years time =)
And the highlight, besides the sharks, here’s a video of the Malapascuan village kids dancing away, the last shot in the vid sees one kid pulling the other’s pants down =)
If you don’t see the Youtube video, go to the original source : http://furiouspanda.blogspot.com
