Au revoir STTR

It was on Saturday 17th 2012 that this blog saw its first post and many beautiful shots came along. Thought it was a nice experience, I chose to focus on other things. Therefore today, I bring you my last post on this blog. Thank you for a great year & Hbd S.T.T.R. 

Dissolving

Syzygium Armaticum Manisé

A spice also known as clove or Cenkeh in Moluccan, you can see them drying in the sun along the road on pulau Ambon, and other Moluccan Islands. It is here were it all started, the beautiful cute and georgous smellicous spice was traded by Moluccans through Sri Lanka and Alexandria untill the Portuguese got tempted and closed the trade. It then only got traded by the Portugeuse in Lisboa and Antwerp.  The trade later became dominated by the Dutch in the seventeenth century. In Britain in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, cloves were worth at least their weight in gold, due to the high price of importing them.

Now you can find it how wonderful in your own cupboard were you can use it for you delicious cupcakes, Dutch Speculaas, Stews, Indonesian/Indian and other exotic cuisines. And not to forget for you smokers out there it's even possible to smoke it, it's called Kretek in the Moluccas. Cloves also reportedly imparts spiritual uplifting, warming and stimulation benefits. Why for example it's is smelled within the Jewish tradition during Havdalah (closing Shabbath) to soften the nostalgia when Sabbath ends. Besides cloves are also used as a medicine, chewing on the flower buds it will ease toothache pain and even freshen your breath. While drinking tea from cloves it will calm your stomach. But when pregnant it is advised to avoid the cute spice.......

Last days of summer

Rudjak Natsepa, a real delight

Before I travelled to the Moluccas my uncle told me what food and drinks I really had to try. Not only because some of it isn't available in the west but also because of the environment you are isn't the "perfect" environment to eat certain dishes. One of the dishes I really had to try was rudjak; a salad with a variety of raw fruit such as guava, mango, papaya, pineapple, kedongdong, belimbing (star fruit) and many others.
The salad dressing consist out of ground peanuts with thick red sugar. Sounds weird, I know! And it's eaten out of  a (wrapped around) piece of paper or on a little plastic plate. But my uncle was really crazy about it, when he started talking about rudjak, his eyes started to shimmer and it was like he was tasting it again. So it was one of the things on top of my list that I had to do, eating rudjak. "But not just rudjak" my uncle said; "nooooo, when you're going to eat rudjak you have to get it in Natsepa. "There you'll have a long row of little tents between the coast and the Salahutu district. And in each tent there's one person who makes/sells rudjak with all the patience they have, because time obviously doesn't excist in the Moluccas. It was a feast to sit along the water and watching how my rudjak was made with a magical sunset in the background. "Oh how many chilli peppers I wanted in the salad?" I said that one was enough and hoped that it wouldn't be to spicy, and so I tried my first rudjak in Natsepa. It was incredibly tasty and after trying it on other locations I came to the same conclusion; that yes, the best rudjak is found in Natsepa!

Hanal Pixán

Hanal Pixán, also known as Día de Muertos is a holiday celebrated in the Mexican culture amongst others. It is a 3 day celebration to commemorate friends and members of the family that have past away. It has been traced back since Pre-Columbian era and has been kept alive to this day.  Having lost two strong women in my life, I dedicate this to you C.C. & P.L.

Lonthor, once the center of the universe...

Great visibility is a blessing here, steep drop offs and an unlimited amount of all kinds of marinelife. The seas around the Banda Islands are a tropical paradise with it's unspoiled corals it is one the world's richest reefs!
After diving and snorkeling around the world, this is the best underwater world I've ever experienced and I'm afraid that I'll never experience better? People like Columbus, Marco Polo and Jacques-Yves Cousteau sought the Banda Islands. The original Spice Islands and the most coveted destination on earth, particularly by the Dutch and Portuguese who colonized the islands and exported the indigenous nutmeg, mace and cloves. On all these Banda Islands you can still find a lot of VOC (Dutch East Indies Company) remains like forts and colonial buildings that are really intact.

The common nutmeg is a native to the Banda Islands, is the actual seed of the tree and mace is the innner reddish skin of the nutmeg. On the biggest island Lonthor (Banda *Besar) you'll find plantation with big trees full of nutmeg. Walking through the Island Lonthor  you'll see and smell the scent of nutmeg drying in the sun infront of almost every house you pass by. It's hard to believe that the small Banda Islands were the world's only source of nutmeg and mace and therefore the center of the world in the 17th century dominated by the Dutch. A funfact an probably not so smart is that the Dutch almost controlled whole Banda except for one Island called Run that was controlled by the British. At the end of the Second-Anglo-Dutch War the Dutch finally got Island Run in exchange for New Amsterdam (New York) in the USA. After this trade it didn't take long while the British were smart enough to transplant nutmeg trees to their own colonials elsewhere. And now you can find it in everyone's cupboard, it's tasty and healthy. While nutmeg has a small amount of toxin it is advised to use a minimum because it can take you into a very nasty trip that even leaves you behind with a more nastier feeling...

*Besar= Big

Trick or Treat?

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Only the good die young.

By Justin Canning
Justin Canning Photography

Bemo's, Beautiful Smiles & J.Bieber

*Kota Ambon has a gazillion-whatever Bemo's in all colours, riding through- and from Kota Ambon to all kinds of locations and back. Their all stacked with people and it's never enough when you think the bemo is full and ready for a ride, there's is allways room for one more and a huge bag of rice and/or a box with a living chicken.

Normally I get into a riding Bemo so I'm sure that it's not getting more stacked then it allready is. But one time I caught myself on getting into a Bemo that waited at Mardika station for passengers, it waited so long that the Bemo turned into a sauna and instead driving home people could swim home in their wet clothes. Anyhow I'm pretty tolerant but that moment I felt like I was the most dirties person in the world that really needed a shower ASAP. Not because of an obnoxious smell but more the idea having other people sweat rubbed onto me, Yikes! The weird part is that of all these rides I've taking I couldn't caught anyone smelling badly?! What's up with that?!
I've been travelling a lot and allways had to accept all kinds of (bad)smells from people. It kept me busy each time I got into a Bemo. Even the hitsingle "Baby" from Justin Bieber that was busting through each huge speaker in every Bemo and got sang along by schoolkids couldn't get me of the thought. Eventhough Ambonese people have so little they are very clean, washing themselfs couple of times a day. And Ambonese allways keep on smiling even when they have to wait a half a day to get a ride!

*Kota = City

Remembering Bayon

One of the temples of Angkor, in the Siam Reap region in Cambodia.Built around the 12th or 13th century, Bayon's most distinctive feature is the multitude of serene and massive stone faces on the many towers which jut out from the upper terrace and cluster around its central peak. 

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