Ambon Bound - Womp Womp

I woke up too early this morning, but I just rolled with it.

Today we fly to Ambon and get on the Nusa Kembara Liveaboard.

7am Depart hotel for approximately 45 minute taxi ride to the airport

9:40am  Garuda Flight GA 646 Jakarta (CGK) to Ambon (AMQ) departs

3:20pm Garuda Flight GA 646 Jakarta (CGK) to Ambon (AMQ) arrives

We had a series of taxis that took us to the updated domestic terminal.  The terminal looks so nice.

I was so excited that they didn't give me a hard time about my bags.  They didn't charge me for any excess baggage weight... and they didn't ask to weigh my carry on.  I felt like I had won the lottery.

I went through security and made it to the gate and there was a Starbucks right next to it.  A venti iced vanilla latte only cost me $4 instead of the $10 it does at O'Hare.  

When it was time, I queued up at the front of my group.  Let's do this... 

And then.  Delayed.  Until 11am.  OK, well I went to get some snacks and finished my book.  It was a cute Hallmark movie type read called The Tomorrow Tree by Carolyn Brown.

I chatted with some of the other travelers on this trip and got to know them.  It seems like it is going to be a great crew.  There are 16 of us total.

At 11am, I queued up again.  Ha Ha.  The joke was on me, this flight was to Denpasar.  Not Ambon.  Whoops!  I sat back down.  

Our flight was delayed again, until at least 12:30pm.  We also found out that yesterday's flight into Ambon also got delayed and just took off today.  I guess there are some fires happening nearby with some weather conditions that are making it impossible to land.

After another stint waiting, I saw people queuing up again and I jumped in my Group line.  Ha Ha Ha.  Joke was again on me.  This was a still different flight.  Not us.  OMG.

... a little bit later...

Although there was no formal announcement, we found out that our flight was in fact canceled.  And the first time they were going to possibly fly again to Ambon was days away.  

Womp Womp.

Graham went into solution mode.  God love him.  I don't think I could do his job.  Shuttles.  Hotels.  Flights.  New Liveaboard itinerary.  Times sixteen people.  Wow.

We were all a bit stunned as we reclaimed our luggage.  Still in Jakarta.

Then we had to go to the Garuda counter to rebook and find out our options.  16 of us in a queue is a lot.  Nevermind all the rest of the travelers from the flight.  Graham grabbed all of our tickets and stood in line on our behalf so we could just sit with our luggage and relax.  He's my hero.

We made our way down to the transport.  And keep in mind each of us has at least two big bags and one or two small bags.  So 16 people times 4 bags... 64 bags.  Yikes.

Although there wasn't much availability, Graham was able to book five rooms at FM7 which is a nice resort style hotel near the airport.  I have been several times but never stayed for very long.  This time we may be there for a while.

Some of the guests figured out their own bookings, but I was relying on Graham.  So I was by his side witnessing all of the input and suggestions.  He handles them with such grace.  I don't think I could be so calm.

Graham and I got a great big room with two beds steps away from the restaurant and the pool.  I have warned him that I snore.  We will see how I do.  

After a long day of waiting and queuing, I dropped my stuff, grabbed a bathing suit and checked out the pool.  They have quite a system with a locker room, towel and flip flops.  Not only do they have a pool, they have a hot tub right next to a serious cold plunge.  And a sauna and steam room.  Of course they also have massages, etc but that's not my thing.

I didn't have much time, but I did the pool and then the hot tub.  I put my legs into the cold plunge but couldn't get much further than that.  My toes were tingling.  What a strange sensation.  Maybe tomorrow I will try to go all the way under.

At 7pm I met the crew for dinner at the bigger hotel restaurant called The Porte.  Of course there was the whole challenge of splitting the bill.  We had about 10 people at this meal.  At first the waiter said no.  But after a man asked, they said yes.  Really?  

Anyway, my pad thai was delicious and we had a fun meal.  When the bill came, they broke mine out and I paid and then the waiter walked away and never came back.  I had to flag him down to break out the bill for the rest of the group.  The moral of the story is that the staff can do it, they just will say no at first.

OK, so here is the actual story of why our flight was canceled.  There are fires happening in Central Papua.  The winds are blowing to the west into Ambon.  Pilots needs at least a certain amount of visibility to land and that threshold is not being met.  The winds are predicted to continue to the west for several days.  Therefore, our group needs to fly into somewhere else instead.

After much consideration, we will be flying into Alor instead of Ambon.  So we will be starting the cruise where we were supposed to be ending.

It will take three days for the Nusa Kembara Liveaboard to get from Ambon to Alor.

I had to map this out for my brain to comprehend this:

This is a good site telling us about the fires:

https://www.iqair.com/wildfire/indonesia/west-papua

Just to get on flights, we had to split up!

9 of us are going this route:

    14 Oct 2026 Jakarta-Kupang 05.50-10.05 Super Air Jet 

    Transit Kupang 

    14 Oct 2026 Kupang-Alor 12.15-13.15 Wings 

7 of us are going this route:

    14 Oct 2026 Jakarta-Kupang 03.35-08.45 Lion Air 

    Stop Surabaya & Transit Kupang 

    14 Oct 2026 Kupang-Alor  12.15-13.15 Wings 

But we all end up in the same place at the same time.  

As a reminder, this is the path we originally planned, so it will be interesting to see exactly how much we will still be able to hit:

OK, that's enough for now.

 

Culture Vultures

Today was a day for Old Town Jakarta Culture.  Graham arranged for a tour guide and tuk-tuks to take us around.  Thank God because it was a pretty warm day.

We started out with a very nice breakfast buffet at the hotel.  First we explored the bridge right outside our hotel that has been there since the 1800s when the Dutch ruled Jakarta.

Then we went to see Bastion Culemborg/Amsterdam which was a 17th-century Dutch colonial fortification and watchpost in old Batavia.  It was the Spice House where they stored all of the spices.

• Nutmeg and Mace: Sourced mainly from the Banda Islands and transshipped or consolidated through Batavia to Europe and global markets.
• Cloves: Sourced from the Maluku Islands (Moluccas) and routed through Dutch-controlled ports to international destinations.
• Pepper: Shipped in large quantities from Banten and South Sumatra through the port of Batavia. 

The trees have overtaken the building.

There was plenty of animal life, but not so wild.

Then we went to the old marina and learned that the city was sinking and Indonesia is going to relocate its capital to Nusantara in 2028.

Then we went back to the square we were in yesterday and learned about hangings and the Portuguese cannons.

Tradition was that if a woman was barren, she could sit on top of this hand and it would help her to conceive.  Ummm... And that is the hand signal for wanting sex.  OK.

Then we went to the Wayang Museum (a Puppet Museum) and sat and watched a show for a bit.  It was weird because only one guy did all the puppets and the voices.  Yet there was an enormous 50 person "orchestra" and three women singing.  And everything was done in a Javanese language that nobody understood, not even the locals.  Then the audience was so far back that we couldn't really see anything but there were closed circuit TVs on each side so we could see what what going on.  I didn't love it but it was good to sit for a bit.

Can you say creepy!  I do love the hands though.

These reminded me of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.

Then we walked over to The House of Tugu where we had lunch.  From the outside, this place looked pretty crappy.  But on the inside it was spectacular!  Graham arranged a sampling of Indonsian dishes for us in a private room.

David trying the Durian Creme Brulee.

After lunch, we got a tour of the museum on the property with artifacts going back five generations from the owner.  It was very interesting but a LOT of stuff everywhere.  

I did pretty well on this walking tour but I was glad to be back at my hotel and definitely needed another shower.  It was so hot.

We are taking the afternoon/evening off and will be boarding transportation to the domestic terminal tomorrow morning at 7am.

Culture and Clay

I was still pretty tired in the morning so I slept in until noon-ish and finally headed down to the hotel lobby for lunch around 1pm.

Graham came and joined me.  It was so fun to see him again!  I need to look up the last time I saw him in person, but it has been a WHILE.  

Graham introduced me to David and Dennis from the Houston Underwater Photographers Society.  They invited me along for their adventures.

We went to the Museum of Fine Art and Ceramics.  It was like $3 to get in and had many paintings and ceramics on display.

I think this one was my favorite.

We came across this outdoor pottery studio at the museum.  Instead of the potters wheels spinning with electricity, the pottters spun it with their own feet!

This group was celebrating a birthday.

Afterward, we stopped to watch a band playing on plaza.  Graham knew the singer's husband who started playing this instrument in the Jakarta streets.  Now he is traveling throughout Indonesia playing.

Then we went to a Cafe Batavia and sat around the rest of the afternoon.

We started with a drink and a couple desserts, then stayed so long we decided to have dinner there too.

One of the desserts was a Graham surprise.  We had to taste it first, then he would tell us what it was.

OMG, it was made with durian.  The smelliest fruit in Asia.  So smelly in fact that some countries have banned it.  I mean it was ok and pretty mild.  But I could have done without it.

I got a pink flamingo mocktail.  Look how pretty.  It tasted good too.

Graham eating the head of the red snapper.  I was not as adventurous and got the chicken satay.

I got to know David and Dennis pretty well.  They were telling stories about their lives back home.  They aren't necessarily nudibranch fanatics, but they appreciate my obsession.

And Dennis has the same camera as me and uses it exclusively to shoot video.  What!?!?!?  That's pretty amazing.  I need to learn from him.

As we walked back to the hotel, we saw that so many people were sitting on the square watching a show.  It turns out that it was a mime.   Interesting.  Everyone had a cold drink in their hand with a straw in the cup but they didn't hold the cup.  Instead the cup was in a plastic bag with handles and they held it that way.  There were also lots of vendors lining the streets selling everything from sunglasses to stuffed animals.

O’Hare Happiness

I used Lyft for the first time and reserved a ride the day before.  The driver was really good and on time.  I realized I forgot my iPhone charger before we left the condo driveway and I ran back up to get it.  Hooray!  And the Lyft cost $20 less than uber.

I arrived long before the check in counter even opened, so I just sat and read my book and charged my phone… with the charger I almost forgot!

Then I got the friendliest older guy at the ANA counter and he DID NOT WEIGH MY CARRY ON.  Hallelujah.  This is always a point of contention since my carryon is way over the weight limit.  Since it has all my underwater camera gear, I definitely don't want to check it.

I quickly left the area before the guy at the counter could change his mind and… I caught a glimpse of a very skinny Cheryl Mell out of the corner of my eye before exiting.  Holy crap.  I didn’t stop but texted her.

We connected after security and it turns out she and Patti are going diving in the Spice Islands.  They are also leaving from Ambon.  So we are on the same flights to Jakarta!  Wow, what a small world that I would bump into some of my SCUBA Sistahs at O'Hare.

What are the chances?  They headed off to the fancy lounge and I hit Chilis.  The restaurant wasn't serving breakfast though so I went for buffalo wings at 9:30 in the morning.

The check in counter didn't seem very busy.  Maybe the flight won’t be that full.  That would be awesome.

Womp Womp.  My first flight to Tokyo was completely full, but 14 hours went pretty fast.  Then I had an empty middle seat on the second 8 hour flight, so that was great to have a little extra wiggle room.

I wasn't too bad off after landing and got my visa on arrival as well as my bags.  Then I hit the ATM before searching for my pre-arranged ride.  The ATMs here only let users get out 1million rupiah at a time which is only like $55 USD.  Well, I was glad to get some local currency out.

My ride was pretty easy but by now it was about 2am.  I don't think I fell asleep until 4am or so.

Foray into the Forgotten Islands

I'm excited for my next big adventure.  This quarter is going to be a LOT of traveling.

My first trip of this quarter is to Indonesia, the Forgotten Islands.  Graham Abbott organized it.

I did a Google Earth to see where we are going:

https://earth.google.com/earth/d/1KFWRqOiglLzqe0gp_vcRMfSNuiM1oSm5?usp=sharing

Here is what Graham shared about this exploratory trip on the Nusa Kembara Liveaboard:

This is going to be different than the nudi, macro focused trips I've been used to.  It's going to be some larger subjects and more adventure than usual.  I packed my Go Pro along with my regular macro setup.

I have been quieter than usual recently in preparation for this trip and the ones after it.  I feel like I am overthinking a lot of things.  Especially about my gear.  I just hope I don't have any issues.

I've worked hard on my Alor Nudi ID book.  I think I only have like 40 species to go.  It will be interesting to see if I find any new ones on this trip.  Really we are only in Alor for two dives on the last day.

Nudi Naming

I thought this was an interesting article about naming nudis: 

https://opistobranquis.info/en/taxonomia-dels-nudibranquis-quan-esta-justificat-canviar-un-nom/

Understanding Nudibranchs and Other Sea Slugs

David Mullins is coming out with a new book!  This is so exciting!

https://book.nudibranchdomain.org/product/understanding-nudibranchs-and-other-sea-slugs/