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Here’s Thrifty Traveller’s first-hand account of his “pretend trip” to Banda Neira in the Maluku islands of Indonesia, also known as the Spice Islands, about midway between Sulawesi and Papua.

“It’s a place I’ve been meaning to go to for some time,” he writes. “Thanks to the internet and having already visited many Indonesian islands, I have a pretty good idea of what to expect, so I’m writing this as if I have actually been there.”

Let’s go!

The journey to Banda

To get to Banda, there is an airstrip with scheduled flights from Ambon, Jakarta, Surabaya and Makassar, but the runway looks rather short and some of the smaller airlines in Indonesia do not have the best safety record. So I thought a ferry might be a better option.

A fast ferry leaves Ambon for Banda Neira twice a week when the sea is calm, but only if there are enough passengers. It usually takes six hours but this time was cancelled.

So I was left with the only other option: to take a slow, government-owned ferry called the Pelni, which stops at Banda about twice a month from Ambon.

Basic meals included in the 100,000-rupiah ticket price consist of rice, vegetables and tempeh.

My arduous journey was rewarded when I clapped eyes on Banda, which comprises three beautiful islands enclosing a tranquil harbour, with crystal-clear waters overlooked by a classical-shaped volcano and jungle-clad hills.

During the Dutch colonial era these islands were the chief nutmeg garden of the world, at a time when nutmeg was more highly prized than gold.

The spice trade brought prosperity to the Dutch merchants living here who were so rich they didn’t know what to do with their money, so they built fancy marble-clad houses with wide verandas.

There’s not much evidence of wealth these days, and the few surviving Dutch houses are very much faded. Nutmeg is still cultivated here, and you can catch a whiff of it in the air along with cinnamon and pepper, mixed with the ever-present fragrance of Indonesia’s clove cigarettes.

Accommodation

I decided to stay at the Mutiara Guesthouse in the centre of town for its cosy feel, convenient location, and reasonable reviews. Breakfast was particularly good: banana pancakes, scrambled eggs, fried eggs or omelette, tasty coffee, and fresh tropical fruits.

Better than in Somerset Maugham’s day. This is his description of breakfast in the 1932 novel “The Narrow Corner”, which was set in Banda Neira (he called it Kanda-Meria):

“Breakfast in the little hotels in the Dutch East Indies is served at a very early hour. It never varies. Papaia, oeufs sur le plat (fried eggs), cold meat and Edam cheese. However punctually you appear, the eggs are cold … the coffee is an essence to which you add Nestlé’s Swiss Milk … the toast is dry, sodden and burnt.

“Such was the breakfast served in the dining room of the hotel at Kanda and hurriedly eaten by silent Dutchmen, who had their offices to go to.”

Day 1

• Fort Belgica

After checking in the hotel and freshening up, I set out to explore the sights of Banda. My first stop was Fort Belgica, a grey stone castle built on a low hill right behind the guesthouse.

It was one of several forts built by the Dutch on the Banda islands to protect their grip on the world’s nutmeg trade. It replaced an earlier 16th-century Portuguese fort.

The Dutch began their construction in 1611 and it was expanded, strengthened and rebuilt several times, with the current pentagonal design completed in 1673.

It survived several earthquakes and volcanic eruptions but surrendered to the British without firing a shot in 1796 and again in 1810, having been handed back to the Dutch in 1803.

• Fort Nassau

Next, I took the short walk to Fort Nassau, which was an earlier fort completed in 1609. It was rectangular with four stone bastions and a moat, but is now mostly dilapidated and overgrown.

• Nutmeg Café

Feeling thirsty and hungry, I took a break at the Nutmeg Café and filled up with nasi goreng and nutmeg jam pancakes, washed down with iced nutmeg juice. Nice and refreshing!

• Parigi Rante

This is an old well and monument listing the names of 40 Banda fighters and chiefs, who were among the many killed in 1621 during Dutch admiral Simon Janszoon Coen’s conquest of the islands.

• Rumah Pengasingan Bung Hatta

This small, simple house is where Bung Hatta was exiled from 1936-42 as a political prisoner by the Dutch colonial authorities.

Bung Hatta is the affectionate nickname for Mohammad Hatta (1902-1980), an Indonesian national hero and was one of the leaders in its struggle for independence from Dutch rule.

During his exile he ran school classes on the terrace of the house, which now contains a few items of furniture and his possessions.

• Istana Mini

Just 100m away is the Istana Mini, an elegant colonial mansion built in 1820 as residence for the Dutch Contrôleur or inspector/governor. The grounds of the residence face the sea and lead out to a small pier where the Contrôleur and his guests would have disembarked.

• Gereja Tua Banda

Heading back to the town centre, you will pass Gereja Tua Banda, a church built in 1873. Inside the floors are paved with a number of tombstones, mostly Dutch but some British, many of which predate the church.

Most of the tombstones are large and elaborately carved, similar to the Dutch graves found inside the ruined church on St Paul’s Hill in Melaka.

• Rumah Budaya Banda Neira

Just along the street, Rumah Budaya Banda Neira is a small local history museum. There are a few interesting exhibits here, including a gory painting of Dutch atrocities against the Banda islanders using Japanese mercenaries to do their dirty work.

Certainly the Dutch used harsh measures to gain monopoly control of the nutmeg trade, and some scholars estimate that 90% of the local population was killed, enslaved or deported during the campaign.

• Downtown Banda Neira

To round off the day I wandered through the main commercial streets, such as they are. There was not a lot going on. Most of the shops were shuttered for the day, or forever, and were few in number anyway.

The entire population of the Banda islands is less than 20,000, so I didn’t expect huge shopping malls.

The Chinese population, who always add vibrancy to southeast Asian towns and were once numerous in Banda, have largely moved on elsewhere, and only a handful of families remain. The Chinese temple was locked up and looked abandoned. Christians, too, have mostly migrated to other islands following sectarian conflicts in the late 1990s.

I had a quick look at the fish market, all closed for the day but still reeking of dried fish. Then I watched the boats at Banda Neira Harbour overlooked by Gunung Api, the islands’ still-active volcano, which is next on my itinerary.

Don’t miss part two of this article tomorrow.

This article first appeared in Thrifty Traveller.