Cycle 16 – Item 281

Post 5,760

13 (Mon) October 2025

Beef Semur

2.5

on MSY Mola Mola 1

-Banda Sea, Indonesia-

with fellow divers

Living Aboard the Mola Mola: Day 1 of 7

• • Day -4 (16.277 Nasi Goreng Kampoeng)
  • Day -3 (16.278 Ikan Bakar)
  • Day -2 (16.279 Chicken & Beef Platter)
  • Day -1 (16.280 Buntut Goreng)
  • Day 1 (16.281 Beef Semur)
  • Day 2 (16.282 Egg Fuyunghai)
  • Day 3 (16.283 Egg Balado)
  • Day 4 (16.284 Ayam Goreng Lengkuas)
  • Day 5 (16.285 Hotpot)
  • Day 6 (16.286 Beef Rendang)
  • Day 7 (16.287 BBQ with “My” Sambal)
  • Day +1 (16.288 Fried Chicken Nusantara (Quarter Chicken Package))

In Indonesia.  Here for a 7-day liveaboard scuba diving trip: sailing across the Banda Sea on board the MSY Mola Mola, while diving, eating, drinking, sleeping (i.e., “living aboard”) the boat.  The Banda Sea is one of four seas surrounding the archipelago of Maluku Islands aka the Spice Islands (where European powers fought wars during the 16th-17th centuries to gain control of the islands’ abundant spices, such as nutmeg, cloves, and mace).  Primary objective: sighting schools of hammerhead sharks.  (Two prior liveaboard trips were both to the Maldives aboard the MV Adora (see previously 14.062 Sautéed Sword Lettuce (Three Times) (2023) (9.191 Grilled Beef Tenderloin (2018).)  My first time ever in Indonesia – who knows if I’ll ever return? – I arrived a few days early to maximize the visit and hang out in Jakarta.

At long last, the day has come to board the boat.

DID YOU KNOW: Recreational scuba divers typically breathe air when underwater, consisting primarily of oxygen (21%) + nitrogen (78%).  Inexplicably, movies always refer to oxygen, as in “oxygen tanks” or “I’m running low on O2!” – in actual practice, divers refer to air, as in “How’s your air consumption?”  In fact, oxygen turns toxic under pressure, so breathing pure oxygen would be extremely dangerous starting at a depth of just 5 meters; the oxygen in air turns toxic at 55 meters.  For extended deep dives, like during a liveaboard trip, nitrogen builds up in the body, resulting in fatigue and increasing the risk of decompression sickness (“the bends”), so the air can be mixed with a slightly higher concentration of oxygen, between 25%- 40% (i.e., enriched air = nitrox = EANx), allowing for longer bottom times and shorter surface intervals.  Other mixes with other gases are also possible, but more for commercial/technical divers.

FULL SCHEDULE

REFRESHMENTS

Unlike the Adora, rooms on the Mola Mola don’t have fridges, so we share a communal fridge.

The boat sells Coke Zero at USD 2 each, compared to the convenience store price of IDR 7,000 (around USD 0.40).

Beer is USD 4 apiece.

SAILING

Everyone on board, we began our 8-hour journey towards Banda Sea.

Our first dive will be tomorrow morning.

LUNCH

Breakfast had been served in the morning, but I wasn’t in the mood.

So lunch was my first meal on the boat.

Lunch comprised 10 courses: 1 soup + 1 salad + 1 appetizer + 1 cooked vegetable + 3 proteins + 1 steamed rice + 2 fruits, as well as the all-essential condiment sambal (more on this later).

Throughout these posts, if a listed dish does not include a 4-point rating, that means that I didn’t taste it.   Not that I was trying to be picky, but with so many options at every meal I only wanted to eat what I would likely enjoy.

Whenever possible, I will try to highlight an Indonesian dish for the featured post of the day.

The food was okay.   The “chicken bulgogi” kinda tasted like General Tso’s Chicken – later, the chef would explain to me that she used a bottled “bulgogi” sauce from Malaysia.  In fact, the spread overall was vaguely reminiscent of Panda Express, in a goodish way.

STILL SAILING

Although I’d offered to pay double to have a double room to my own, the organizer preferred to have more participants and so assigned me to share a room with another diver – first time since 1992 (spring semester, freshman year, Columbia University) that I’ve had to share a living space with someone who wasn’t a girlfriend/wife/child.

No matter, as I would spend most of my time in the communal space.

SUNSET

DINNER

Dinner was the 4th meal of the day (forgot to document the afternoon snack).

Same as lunch, dinner comprised 10 courses: 1 salad + 1 appetizer + 1 soup + 1 cooked vegetable + 3 proteins + 1 steamed rice +  2 fruits.

Semur is an Indonesian dish.  Meat, typically beef, braised in a brown gravy, seasoned in some combination of sweet soy sauce (kecap manis) + shallots + onions + garlic + ginger + candlenut + nutmeg + cloves + black pepper + coriander + cumin + cinnamon, often accompanied with eggss, tofu, potatoes, tomatoes, etc.

Mola Mola’s beef semur was okay.  Rich flavor, a bit too sweet for me.  But the meat was tough.  Nevertheless, I enjoyed experiencing what seemed like the first truly authentic Indonesian dish since landing in the country.

LIGHTS OUT

In lieu of the room – the smallest room on the boat, with beds arranged so that potentially I could be rubbing feet with my roommate during the night (we’re both taller than the lengths of the beds) (forgot to take a photo) – I elected to sleep in the communal space – not without precedent, some divers slept under stars, on the open deck.

(See RESTAURANTS IN INDONESIA)

(See GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

(See BOOZE)