Immeriswas
Contributor
After all the good reviews about the molucca islands,we deceided to visit the Banda islands during our longer trip last autum. There are only two options to reach Bandaneira - either on one of the three times a week 16 seater planes or with one of the two ferries -Kelimutu or Tidar .
We were booked by Dive Bluemotion on the Tidar Ambon - Banda first class cabin ( reasonable 40 Euro ) and 2 weeks later back on a plane.
Two days before we left home, i noticed that the scedule of the Tidar suddenly wasn´t anymore on the Pelni homepage. On my inquiery Bluemtion got the information that this ship was unexpectedly on dry dock for a whole month ! Luckily we had planned some time in Ambon and Saparua, which we extended for a few days and then got for a little "extra" fare ( means 16 instead 8 Euro ) an econymy ticket on the smaller and totally overbooked Kelimutu. The 13 hour crossing with 4000 people us sitting on a car tire ( a lot better than on the steel plank, where the locals even managed to sleep !! ) was quite strenuous, but the whales, the amazing sunset and the absolut stunning sky full of stars was a good compensation.
Even the flight back brought some thrill , as two days before another traveller sitting already in the plane had to stay on Banda, because the seat was needed for an important member of the goverment. He just reached his plane back to Germany three days later, due to the govenor , who took him the next day with his ship to Ceram, from where there is a regular ferry to Ambon.
We stayed at the Maulana Hotel on Banda Neira, which spacious AC rooms offers a great view over the small strait towards the volcano ( well worth the climb with stunning views at our last day !! ). The included breakfast on the colonial style terrace was a great start for the day.
The dive center was conveniently located in the Maulana hotel ( Tuta the german dive operator has plans to move up the road and build a small dive resort there ).
But Bandaneira is very small, so that all the other guesthouses and even the brandnew posh Bintang Estate with his nice rooms and great food are in 10 min. walking distance.
The dive operation was very relaxed with a two tank boat dive starting at 9 am . The trip to the furthest site "pulau rhun" was around 70 min - all the rest between 20 to 40 min.
Between the dives there was a surface intervall from around 1,5 hour mostly at a beautiful beach at one of the island. Tea, coffee, water as well as a local rice dish with fish or tofu were included - even if you came back for the break to the hotel .
In the afternoon there was a single dive to a closer site and the night or sunset dive was just in front of the Maulana Hotel in the harbour at "Mandarin and Critter city ".In this cleanest harbor in indonesia, i have seen, due to the enviromental engagment of Tuta and his crew, there is not the density like in Ambon or Lembeh, but still a lot to see during the night dives and night snorkeling - my favourate evening event.
Especially with Tobi the best spotter i ever had ! He is the one, who discovered the psychadelic frogfish in Ambon years ago at his time with moluccu divers. His eyes are unbelievable sharp. He showed me my first hairy shrimp - 5mm !! Only later on the picture you could see all the details making the difference to a piece of alge !
Because of Tobi and his eye for the tiniest things, the macro lens came a lot more into action as exspected -at nearly every dive site. I never got such a good impression about what a difference a good dive guide makes as on Banda .
The walls, slopes and pinacles in Banda were spectacular and the good vis helped a lot to see so many different fish .The corall hard and soft are in a very good condition - close to the one in RA, where we went next. In RA is more variety and amount of soft corall, where as here are the giant barrel sponges and gorgonias outstanding. You get a lot of different reef formations , swimthru, arches and caves.
My favorate places were" Lava flow" - a underwater hilly landscape with extremly dens hardcorall covering -,"batu kapal" - underwater pinacles with massive amount of fish and abundand moreels - and "pulau Hatta", where we saw our first hammerhead sharks.
Tuta and his team is very helpfull and in the planning of the dive trips he involves the guest as much as possible. If there was interest in local dish he organized a big dinner with astonishing variety of local food in a private home, which kitchen dont have to hide.
Beside diving the Bandas are very interresting with old fortifications , colonial house - some of them nicely renovated -and the old nutmeg plantation. You even could have stayed on the island Run or Ai or Hatta - to get away from it all -, with a pick up service from Bluemotion for diving. ( Involves a little bit of planning and worked only for two dives a day and maybe not on every day )
As a resume i definatly advice to visit the Banda islands because of their far away situation. ( Maximum 40 -50 traveller at the time we were there i would guess ), if you bring a bit of flexibility in your scedule. For a two week vacation too much travelling involved - for my taste.
Hope this review helps a bit. I only could thank all the other writer here in the indonesia forum to make so far all my decisions to various destinations a lot easier.
If you like to see some picture here is the link to flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/130865049@N05/sets/72157650662576787/
We were booked by Dive Bluemotion on the Tidar Ambon - Banda first class cabin ( reasonable 40 Euro ) and 2 weeks later back on a plane.
Two days before we left home, i noticed that the scedule of the Tidar suddenly wasn´t anymore on the Pelni homepage. On my inquiery Bluemtion got the information that this ship was unexpectedly on dry dock for a whole month ! Luckily we had planned some time in Ambon and Saparua, which we extended for a few days and then got for a little "extra" fare ( means 16 instead 8 Euro ) an econymy ticket on the smaller and totally overbooked Kelimutu. The 13 hour crossing with 4000 people us sitting on a car tire ( a lot better than on the steel plank, where the locals even managed to sleep !! ) was quite strenuous, but the whales, the amazing sunset and the absolut stunning sky full of stars was a good compensation.
Even the flight back brought some thrill , as two days before another traveller sitting already in the plane had to stay on Banda, because the seat was needed for an important member of the goverment. He just reached his plane back to Germany three days later, due to the govenor , who took him the next day with his ship to Ceram, from where there is a regular ferry to Ambon.
We stayed at the Maulana Hotel on Banda Neira, which spacious AC rooms offers a great view over the small strait towards the volcano ( well worth the climb with stunning views at our last day !! ). The included breakfast on the colonial style terrace was a great start for the day.
The dive center was conveniently located in the Maulana hotel ( Tuta the german dive operator has plans to move up the road and build a small dive resort there ).
But Bandaneira is very small, so that all the other guesthouses and even the brandnew posh Bintang Estate with his nice rooms and great food are in 10 min. walking distance.
The dive operation was very relaxed with a two tank boat dive starting at 9 am . The trip to the furthest site "pulau rhun" was around 70 min - all the rest between 20 to 40 min.
Between the dives there was a surface intervall from around 1,5 hour mostly at a beautiful beach at one of the island. Tea, coffee, water as well as a local rice dish with fish or tofu were included - even if you came back for the break to the hotel .
In the afternoon there was a single dive to a closer site and the night or sunset dive was just in front of the Maulana Hotel in the harbour at "Mandarin and Critter city ".In this cleanest harbor in indonesia, i have seen, due to the enviromental engagment of Tuta and his crew, there is not the density like in Ambon or Lembeh, but still a lot to see during the night dives and night snorkeling - my favourate evening event.
Especially with Tobi the best spotter i ever had ! He is the one, who discovered the psychadelic frogfish in Ambon years ago at his time with moluccu divers. His eyes are unbelievable sharp. He showed me my first hairy shrimp - 5mm !! Only later on the picture you could see all the details making the difference to a piece of alge !
Because of Tobi and his eye for the tiniest things, the macro lens came a lot more into action as exspected -at nearly every dive site. I never got such a good impression about what a difference a good dive guide makes as on Banda .
The walls, slopes and pinacles in Banda were spectacular and the good vis helped a lot to see so many different fish .The corall hard and soft are in a very good condition - close to the one in RA, where we went next. In RA is more variety and amount of soft corall, where as here are the giant barrel sponges and gorgonias outstanding. You get a lot of different reef formations , swimthru, arches and caves.
My favorate places were" Lava flow" - a underwater hilly landscape with extremly dens hardcorall covering -,"batu kapal" - underwater pinacles with massive amount of fish and abundand moreels - and "pulau Hatta", where we saw our first hammerhead sharks.
Tuta and his team is very helpfull and in the planning of the dive trips he involves the guest as much as possible. If there was interest in local dish he organized a big dinner with astonishing variety of local food in a private home, which kitchen dont have to hide.
Beside diving the Bandas are very interresting with old fortifications , colonial house - some of them nicely renovated -and the old nutmeg plantation. You even could have stayed on the island Run or Ai or Hatta - to get away from it all -, with a pick up service from Bluemotion for diving. ( Involves a little bit of planning and worked only for two dives a day and maybe not on every day )
As a resume i definatly advice to visit the Banda islands because of their far away situation. ( Maximum 40 -50 traveller at the time we were there i would guess ), if you bring a bit of flexibility in your scedule. For a two week vacation too much travelling involved - for my taste.
Hope this review helps a bit. I only could thank all the other writer here in the indonesia forum to make so far all my decisions to various destinations a lot easier.
If you like to see some picture here is the link to flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/130865049@N05/sets/72157650662576787/
Thank you for your report on Banda and great photos in Flickr. 
