Blogs from West Papua, Indonesia, Asia - page 2

L'aereo si rivela la prima delusione di questo viaggio: non uno scassato, instabile bimotore ad elica, bensi' un comune Boeing 737 della Trigana Air; venti minuti di volo, o forse mi sono addormentato e si e' trattato di qualcosina di piu', ed arriva la seconda delusione: non piu' il vecchio ed arrugginito aeroporto a forma di capanna ma una nuova e moderna costruzione dallo stile completamente occidentale! Fortunatamente per noi viaggiatori, ma forse non troppo per gli abitanti autoctoni, il governo indonesiano sta gia' provvedendo alla costruzione della prima strada che tra qualche anno (chi mi dice 2 o 3 anni, chi 6 o 7 ore...) colleghera' Wamena alla costa e quindi alle vie di comunicazione con il resto del mondo. Sono arrivato nella Valle del Baliem, racchiusa tra le aspre ed inaccessibili montagne della Nuova ... read more

I just spent a month in, quite literally, the middle of nowhere. You know you've spent too much time in a remote region like Papua once you start to look at any inanimate object as 'currency'. Any time that there is something that I am about to throw out, that I do not need, but that could still be used by someone else for something else, I stop and think about what I could trade it for. Not that I need anything really, but it's just fun to trade for things instead of using money. I haven't used an ATM, or even seen one for that matter, in well over a month now. You know you've been in the middle of nowhere for too long when you consider seeing a couple of dugout canoes as being ... read more

Throughout this journey, we have been stopping at villages along the way to see if they would be something that our boss might be interested in seeing. Each village has been located in incredibly remote areas that have really been untouched by current civilization. It's not a bad thing. It has been really interesting. I swear that I think we are pretty much the only white people that most of the locals in these villages have ever seen. The first village we pulled up to, called Yendi, was located right on the water. We dropped the anchor, and 5 minutes later there were 6 dugout canoes hovering around our stern, just curious, seeing what we were up to. They weren't trying to sell anything, they weren't begging for anything, they just wanted to have a look ... read more

As soon as we topped up with fuel, we departed and our 7 day voyage to West Papua was underway. Our journey was generally moving in the direction of ENE of Bali, with many islands to zig zag around along the way. Bali is just one of nearly 13,500 islands in Indonesia, and between all of those islands are around 240 million residents. Most of the islands are quite populated, even if you've never heard of them. Most are quite poor as well. We went by countless islands where there were hardly even any sort of lights lit at night, but there were definitely a lot people there, kickin' it old school. Our trip brought us through a whole side of the world that is completely new to me. The way that I saw it as ... read more

"In a moment we'll be landing at the Sentani Airport in Jayapura. Please return to your seat, stand back the seat and wear your seat belt. " *** There is always a sentimental feeling when it comes back to Jayapura, Papua. Small town squeezed between the topography of hills and beaches are always fascinating to a variety of cultural attractions and of course endless. Like diamonds, the more honed Jayapura more beautiful as diamonds. This is the third time I visit my birth place since 2007. The expensive ticket price and a great distance from Jakarta to make me think twice to visit Jayapura every time. After receiving permission to leave from the office, on 5 September 2010 in the morning, I was already in terminal 1A Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Jakarta. I chose the flight at 5 ... read more