North Maluku : Amazingly Exotic!

It's been 3 days since we've gotten back from North Maluku. We spent 2 days in Ternate, 8 days in Jaelolo, Halmahera Barat, and 4 days in a village up on the mountain called Gurabunga in Tidore. 16 days shooting trip to the eastern part of Indonesia remains at heart. I mean the people, the nature, the food, the food, (again) the food, the beach, the diving and snorkeling spots. They are just remarkable, frabjous and amazingly beyond measure. I want to stay there and never come back to Jakarta!! :P



First day (read: exhausting day)

We spent almost a day to reach the eastern part of Indonesia. But the effort to wake up very early to do the crew call at 2 o'clock in the morning pays off! We went through Surabaya, Manado, then stayed one night in Ternate because the wave was already big. It would be quite dangerous to continue our almost-done trip to reach West Halmahera, North Maluku.

Very early Next day we took our speed boat very early too and off to West Halmahera! :'D

The port in Ternate to Halmahera Barat

Oh the way to Halmahera Barat

The homestay is facing to the free ocean directly and has a very sexy view in the morning

Wednesday December 14th 2011

Once we arrived in Halmahera, we were greeted by the warm welcome of the tourism government of Halmahera Barat. We did some surveys for the shooting location, and at the evening, we were offered to do a night diving, to see some Mandarin Fish! Although we were already quite tired because of the long trip and jetlag (even only 2 hours difference :p), ofcourse we didn't give that chance up. Our producer who loves diving had already brought his full diving gear so here we were, right on the side of the boat deck, had some night dive and... We were succeeded to see some Mandarin Fish! :D Unfortunately our producer couldn't take the picture just yet.

First day at homestay and already welcomed with much food! :D

The boats just next to the port where we night-dived the first day and get to see some Mandarin Fish at around 7pm

On the next day, was time for us to do the full day shooting. It was really tiring, because the sun was very super really incredibly hot!!
Thursday December 15th 2011

Today we did shooting at Worat worat Village... Each village has its own Sasadu (the traditional house), and they're are different to each other. The uniqueness of Sasadu here is because there is one part of the roof that looks as if that part is unattached to the other part of the building. And that part can be rotated everytime there's a traditional ceremony held.

This is how Sasadu (traditional home of West Halmahera) looks like. When the wheather is strikingly hot outside, just come inside the house and we'll feel like in the heaven. The weeded-roof makes it the air inside soothes.

With one of the children is Sasadu

That part of the roof has actually its own history. Many years back when the kingdom of Ternate and Tidore were fighting to each other, people from this village had successfully brought back a big umbrella from Tidore Kingdom to their home land, and so to celebrate their victory they put that big umbrella on their roof.

After the shooting session is finished, we went to Gunung Nyesel (it means a 'regret mountain' in English) to take a timelapse for sunset...


After 5 days shooting and hard working...

5 days after and we did the shooting all well. Still got 2 free days to dive on some spots like : Bubua Island, Tanjung Hiu, NHR 6, Fastufiri and some others...

Here come the day when we get to move back to Ternate, then heading to a village called Gurabunga in Tidore Island.. It took only 11 minutes boat-speed away and another 30 minutes to drive all along from the port to the village up on the mountain.







Shooting at Gurabunga Village

The Gurabunga village that we were staying was probably the best village I've ever visited! No wonder that it won the second best village of Indonesia. It's very clean, they have a match and colorful wall, and the beautiful flowers make the village even more romantic. The fog that often comes in the evening makes the village called 'a country above the cloud'

Funny thing about this village is that because it's placed on a highland far far away from the water sources beneath the surface, they only use rain as their water source. So everytime we're going to use toilet, we must take the water from its water storage. Such an effort! And can you imagine that this village experienced a season without any rain at all for 9 months one time!??? So they had to buy water at that time... It kinda reminds us not to take water for granted!

The soccer field that this village has. Many times in the evening the fog comes down and we can't even see the people playing soccer

One of many flowers in Gurabunga

How the folajikusesurabi (traditional house of Gurabunga village) looks like from the front side. There are 6 traditional houses like this in the whole village

The veggie fields just next to one of the houses

The Food

The food is the other main reason you should visit North Maluku once in your life. One time our producer Mas Rian told us that if we get to try the fresh fish taken from the free ocean here in Maluku, we wouldn't want to eat those iced and stored fish in Jakarta anymore. And it's indeed true! I usually can lose some chilos of my weight when I have a shooting-trip, and in contrary, I gained a little bit of weight this time. Whoopsiedaisy! :p

Here are some of the food that are successfully captured :

Pisang Mulut Bebek (Duck Mouth Banana) with Santan (Coconut milk). This is my MOST FAVOURITE dish ever from North Maluku. We can eat it with spicy, veggies, or whatever we like :D

Papeda (Traditional carbohydrate intake made of pearl sago) with kuah cumi (Squid sauce fresh from the ocean). The texture is a bit soft-chewey but the sauce makes it more nyum :')

Fried Pisang Mulut Bebek (a type of banana called duck mouth. Probably because its shape that looks a like? Not sure though :p)

Sayur Lilin goreng tepung (A type of traditional veggies called 'Candle Veggie' fried with flour)

Raw fish doused with a very hot oil. Somehow it tastes like one of the Japanese dish where we can feel half of the fish is still a bit raw. But it tastes delicious! :')


Nasi Jaha (it's a glutinous rice mixed with coconut milk, wrapped with a banana leaves and fired inside a bamboo). They usually eat it in the morning or in the evening with tea

These are what I called the FRESH FISH from the ocean. Without iced, stored, or died 7 times, get it fresh and cook them straight away.

Jailolo is famous for its super sweet and tiny durians. Oh I love durians!! :D

On the left side that's the Dabu-dabu (they call dabu-dabu instead of Sambal for spicy sauce). The ones that are made by Ibu Fauziah at our homestau is striking and exceptional! :D

The language

Eat : Oho (Ternate), Oyo (Tidore)
Sleep : Hotu
Full (as in can't eat anymore) : Tifuru
Delicious : Saki'
Very : Bahaya
Beautiful : Njang
Brother/sister : Kakak
They : Dong
We : Torang
Want to : Bau
Wake up : Mom
Yes : Saya
Fish : Ikang

The funny thing about this language is, they're used to put 'ng' for every words ended by 'n'. So for example they would say Ikang instead of Ikan for fish, makang instead of makan for eat, temang instead of teman for friend. And they don't actually just say it, but on their written conversation as well! :D
Thank you :)

Thank you, thank you, thank you very much we would give our deepest appreciation to the nicest people we ever met during our shooting-trip.

Ternate : Mas Udin, Bang Usman who generously treating us well when we were there

Government of Halmahera Barat : Bapak Bupati (Ondo Afi Kecil), Ibu Fenny, Bapak Kalbe, Pak Ical, Bang Aby, Om Edi, Mas Krisna, Mbak Anggi

Homestay at Jaelolo : Pak Sam, Bu Fauziah the most romantic lady ever, Bu Ami, Bu Mala, Bu Naken, Nenek, Ama who never smiles but turned out to be funny, Maya

Sweet divers and boat driver : Kak Dodi whose my love was rejected (just kidding), Kak Zul, Kak Nelson who hardly ever smiles

Tidore : Bapak Walikota the cool and funny widower Ondo Afi Besar, Pak Kadin Pariwisata, Bu Mina and Pak Mul, my new daddy in Tidore Pak Yunus, Pak Abdullah

Architecture tutors from Universitas Khairun Ternate : Pak Hikmansyah, Pak Harto, Pak Amko, Pak Ardi, Pak Arhim, un autre que parle le francaise bien, and others who I can't mention one by one!

Last but not least.. The solid team who'd been helping each other through out our difficulties. Not to mention how much farts we produced during the trip. Mas Rian our wise and cool producer, Mbak Gadhis and Riri our sweet and caring creative person and PA, Mas Galih & Bang Daus the most well-fit and romantic campers couple...

Saying goodbye at Jaelolo

The full team at homestay

The most romantic lady Ibu Fauziah
With Ibu Mala who cooks for us every day

With my new daddy in Tidore Pak Yunus. Instead of saying kemarin for yesterday, he rather says 'kalamarin'. How lovely! :'D