We've just spent a week on Ternate, Maluku Utara. As I noted, I've been researching and language-learning, but have also had some time for sight-seeing.

Highlights:

1. Staying at the Villa Ma'rasai, Gambesi, about 7 km out of Kota Ternate. I just loved this place. We had a spacious room, and a wonderful airy balcony, with superb views. The food is lovely. Water, coffee, and tea are always available. There are scooters to hire. It's just bliss, particularly if you're largely working rather than touring. I could read and write on that balcony for ever...





2. Never tiring of the views. On our days off, we lapped Ternate and its neighbour, Tidore. Sea and volcanoes, volcanoes and sea... And as if that were not enough, brightly painted houses; villages awash with flowering plants and colourful shrubs; trees dripping mangoes; picturesque piles of goats... Effortlessly pleasing.





3. Visiting the forts. There's a fascinating history in these islands (which is part of what I'm working on). Various armed bands of Europeans rampaged round here -- Portuguese, Spanish, British, Dutch -- and stories of intrigue, betrayal, murder, siege, and ceremony abound. Other historic places worth visiting include the Grave of Sultan Babullah and the Kraton in the Makassar area of Kota Ternate.









4. Smelling the spices. A spin round either island will take you through areas where cloves, nutmeg, and mace are laid out to dry, right there on the street. Heavenly scents.

5. Riding the local transport. Having your scooter (Scott Junior) roped to the top of a little boat, along with a vast quantity of bamboo, on the way to Tidore. And getting a strange, legs-level view of the world from inside the local mikrolets. Which are also very musical... BOOM, ba-BOOM, ba-BOOM, ba-BOOM...



6. Enjoying the fresh, light, sour/spicy flavours that abound here -- for example, in that deliciously tangy tomato sauce/relish they serve with fish (tomatoes are important here -- you constantly see them being transported around in bags on motorbikes), or in the avocado salad we often had for breakfast.

7. Trying popeda at a great little rumah makan near Kota Ternate's market. This is made from sago. It's gelatinous and difficult to get onto your spoon; and it takes on a greyer version of whatever colour the bowl it's served in is (in our case, blue). Your low-lying island of popeda is surrounded by a sea of very tasty, thin gravy. On the bench in front of you are plates of sambal, cabbage, cucumber, beans, eggplant, cassava, and so on, to which you help yourself. Also available are fish and various kinds of stir-fried vegetables. Popeda gets terrible reviews on some websites. But I really liked it. I have no quarrel with gloppy textures, and as far as I'm concerned, it makes great comfort food.

8. Trying, right next door in the same row of stalls, bubur Manado. In addition to the signature rice, pumpkin, and spinach, our bowl also contained a little area of noodles, and fried shallots on top. On offer to eat with it were dried anchovies, a very solid and meaty fish called ikan fufu, fried tofu, and sambal. Delicious.

9. Finally getting to taste es pisang ijo. This is best enjoyed on Kota Ternate's seafront, near the mosque, accompanied by pleasant breezes and spectacular views. The version we had consisted of slices of pisang ijo (a very firm type of banana, which comes in a bright green jacket); a pink Bandung-like liquid, in which floated shaved ice and clots of delicious custard (I'm guessing this is coconut milk and rice flour); plus peanuts on the top. Stupendous!



10. Enjoying a whole lot of delicious serendipity food: fabulous plain fried bananas with sambal opposite the extraordinarily green Danau Tolire Besar; awesome es kelapa muda on the shores of Danau Tolire Kecil; and meatballs and tofu with hot chilli sauce, acquired from the back of a motorbike in Soasio, and eaten (as the best food often is) on a sea wall looking out towards a volcano.





I know I say this so often that it threatens to become meaningless. But I'd LOVE to come back here. Get to know the two islands better, visit a few of their offshore islets, and head off further -- out to Halmahera, down to Ambon, on to the Banda Islands... One day...