Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine March 2014 | Page 142

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Travel | Seram

Seram is different.
It combines astonishing
beauty with a real
sense of being off the
beaten track.
minuscule and the beach just a thin thread
of golden white where the limestone rocks
crash into the clear blue of the water.
We descend to the village of Saleman below.
Children with huge grins and wild hair greet
us warmly as we pull up along the quay, and
we throw our luggage into a narrow boat that
will take us the five minutes across the bay to
the resort. I reflect on how we got here: the
flight from Java to Ambon, an hour’s taxi to the
port, the two-hour ferry to Masohi and a
90-minute drive through the heart of Seram.
As our boat pulls up at the pontoon, there is no
doubt that it was worth every minute. This is
about as remote as a beach paradise can get –
no TV, no Internet and a long way back to
civilisation – but the only concern is that you
may never wish to leave.
There are only seven huts at the Ora Beach
Resort. They are perched on stilts above the
water and accessed by a wooden walkway.
Lying on the deckchair of the balcony feels like
being suspended over the most untouched and
beautiful stretch of water imaginable. The
water is crystal clear, and wherever you stand
in the resort you can stare down at a dazzling
array of coral and tropical fish below your
feet. The rooms are simple but comfortable,
and the staff are wonderfully friendly.
I could sit staring at the scenery for
my entire stay, but there are plenty of
excursions to do from here. We start with
the Seven Islands (actually six, but no one has
updated the name since one was submerged
around a century ago). They lie an hour or
so out in the Seram Sea (as if Ora Beach was
not remote enough). These islands are totally
uninhabited puffs