Big ships to serve as Sail Morotai participants` accommodations

Anumber of big ships will be chartered to serve as floating hotels forparticipants of Sail Morotai 2012, the chairman of the event`s local committee,Muhadjir Albar, said here on Wednesday.

"We have a limited number of hotels and accommodations in Morotai andtherefore we will charter a number of big ships to serve as floating hotels forSail Morotai 2012 participants and guests," Muhajir said.

He said the local committee of Sail Balitung 2011 did likewise to accommodateguests and participants of the international marine event last year.

Playing Hooky in Ambon

Headingeast to the Maluku Islands, formerly known as the Moluccas, had always been onmy things-to-do-before-I-die list, thanks to the alluring descriptions intravel guidebooks and images friends had posted on Facebook. So when my editorassigned me to cover Sail Banda 2010 on an invitation from the Ministry ofMaritime Affairs and Fisheries, I believed I was the luckiest writer in theoffice.

I woke up early for a sleepy-eyed cab ride to Soekarno-Hatta InternationalAirport to catch my flight for Ambon, the capital of Maluku province.

The rushed and panicked crowd milling around the check-in counter of thelow-cost airline I was flying with made it feel more like a hectic marketplacethan an airport.