An airstrip for the people

The airstrip in Banda Neira is a point of contention. Expanding it would bring in more tourists and the plan has earned both support and resistance from local business owners. But for the residents of Banda Neira, the main island in a remote island chain, it’s an ideal gathering place at the 5 o’clock hour. Friends come to gossip or share secrets. Middle-aged civil servants walk up and down it for exercise. Families pile on motorbikes to circle the strip. Lovers park at the end and snuggle hidden by the grasses. Men with testosterone to burn race each other on their motorcycles, others learn how to drive them. Sports abound: football, badminton. Syafira, who works at Baba Lagoon hotel, says people also practice singing.

"The view is good," says Achmal whose friends have parked their motorbikes in a row at the strip's eastern end. Occasionally one hops on a bike and takes off down the tarmac. "It's chill," Achmal adds. Another friend says they come there because, well, everyone does. 

The airstrip trends downward gradually, running perpendicular to Gunung Api volcano at the west end and down toward Banda Besar Island at east. It’s hardly flat, which makes it less than ideal for landings. Like many airstrips in remote parts of Indonesia, however, it serves a purpose far beyond providing a means for take offs and landings. And for an island of a few thousand people that can be circumvented on foot in two hours, it's a rare gathering spot with views the European explorers that once colonized these islands would envy.