Ternate and Tidore. The fabled spice islands. What better place to kick back and relax? Unfortunately, we were still in Hong Kong mode, rushing from one site to the next. I’m not entirely sure why were rushing round, all the sites were forts. Spanish forts, Dutch forts, Portuguese forts. We saw them all. So hectic was this sight-seeing that we didn’t even have time to eat during the day. We would stagger back to the warung (eating huts) at the end of the day, always their final customers for the last of their rice and fish. And that was probably always the highlight of our day as, unlike the forts, the food was always incredibly enticing!
As the only foreigners, Dad and I acquired a minor celebrity status on the island. Wherever we went the both of us were followed by calls of “Hello, Mister! How are you?” and constant requests from people to take selfies with us. One man even pulled a baby out of a car (hopefully his) and gave it to me to take pictures with. I think dad (who hates cameras) has taken more photos in the past 3 days than he has his entire married life!
In all the people were incredibly friendly, everyone wanted to know where we came from, where we were going and to help us. The only problem was that no one really seemed to know anything. Any information that were given to us was completely contradicted by the next person. This led dad to become more and more agitated and stressed. It probably didn’t help that, as this was a Muslim island, he was suffering from alcohol withdrawals. His lips had turned a whitish-blue and were twitching uncontrollably. So it is swiftly on to New Guinea and the reunion with free-flowing beer!
Musings and Wanderlust 