Review: Pulau Ai & Greenpeace Guesthouse, Maluku, Indonesia

Spice Islands III

          Pulau Ai fishing boats at night           Loaded boat to Ai           Pulau Ai smile           Pulau Ai chill           Iyan and Opan Pulau Ai fishing boats at night

Pulau Ai's a beauty. Unlike Banda Neira, the only boat you need is the one to get you there. After that it's snorkel and dive heaven right off the beach. Nice and quiet too - we only saw two motor bikes in the ten days we were there.

We had the good luck to run into Opan on Banda Neira. Opan told us that his family's new Greenpeace guesthouse was open for business and that we should check it out. It would have been hard to miss. It was only a few dozen steps east of the Ai jetty and once past the narrow flotsam zone at the foot of the seawall, a snorkellers paradise awaited. Coral gardens replete with fish, squid, moray eels and a sunken Dutch cannon stretched over the fifty metres to the vertical drop off into the pelagic deep.

Perfect. So what's to do on Pulau Ai? Dive, dive, dive! Or, in our case, snorkel 'til you dissolve. When you can't take any more immersion, there's awesome beaches for walking or lazing on. There's the usual Banda historical ruins to explore - fort, decaying plantation houses, abandoned graveyards. Trails wind through the nutmeg groves and gardens of the island to the cliffs on the south side where the open ocean rolls.

Greenpeace's hosts, Pak Mohammed and Ibu Ambina extend a warm welcome and Ibu Ambina's food has to be tasted to be believed. The best in Indonesia we reckon. Three (way too big) meals a day, with a constantly varying array of dishes produced from Ai's generous bounty. Don't miss the fish and be sure to try Ibu Ambina's eggplant with almond paste. Yum.

Evenings are for soaking up the sunset colour while Opan and Ian entertain themselves helping you to polish your Bahasa Indonesia. They're great lads and will kick your ass at frisbee anytime you're inclined!

All in all, Ai is chill capital of South East Asia and we can't recommend it highly enough. Go there!