We headed out as usual around 9 am with apples and peanut utter for lunch. We headed north to the Baliem Valley Resort, which is a very high end hotel above the valley about 15 km to the east, with little deluxe local huts for the guests, all with fabulous views over the valley. We had asked to go here to see the artifacts on display that had been collected by the German owner. The road up was definitely a 4WD road but our little Toyota Avansa car managed to get there. The view was lovely and we had tea out on the terrace with our binoculars looking for birds, and saw one very unusual bird that was mostly jet black but had a wide collar of brilliant red. We hiked along one of the trails through two villages accompanied by local children with knives that are at least 2 feet long! The women carry their babies our their back in several noken bags all bundled up. We were able to get a picture of the baby inside the noken this time.
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| What is in her many layered noken? |
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| Carefully looking inside |
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| Isn't he sweet! |
We then drove back though town and out the other side up to the highest point above the town for lunch and the view. The location was right next to a military outpost. One of the guards came up and said something to our guide Mac, who was displaying his ongoing attitude issues. We went up to have our picnic and took with us our binoculars and camera. We took some pictures, but David used the binoculars discretely away from the direct vision of the outpost. Mac was granted permission to use the binoculars and he proceeded to go over by Leslie, who was in clear view of the military outpost. Leslie told him to go back to the other side where David, away from view of the military, but he proceeded to ignore her instruction, telling her it is no problem. She asked him again to go over to David but he refused. She is of course furious and has decided that Mac, who has been difficult to work with, has extremely a limited cultural knowledge and is always asking for things such as posting good references for him on Lonely Planet, our hiking clothes,etc. has just lost any extension of his job with us.
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| Mac - taking care of tourists? |
David finally got Mac to move to a more discrete location and explains we are not interested in being part of any issues with the local authorities. All along we have been the ones insisting on having our "Surat Jalan" (travel permit) completed with appropriate stamps and carry it with us all the time. Mac believes this is unnecessary. Mac insisted on wearing the binoculars as David and he descend to the military outpost, where they were greeted by three military fellows in normal clothes. David was advised to avoid getting involved and to get in the car. Voices were rising, and then some pushing ensued, after which Mac was escorted into the military post as he continued to give sass. The driver, from Sulewasi, requested us to have our "Surat Jalan" ready. After some time, with one fellow staying by our car and repeating that we had "no problem", and us remembering Kevin's words of advice "if there is trouble go the opposite way". Finally a chastised Mac was allowed to return to the car and we head back to the hotel. At that point, David took him aside and informed him that, "although we know you are really a trekking guide, but we are not trekking, and we have seen everything there is to see so we no longer require a guide." He also gave him some advise about playing it cool with authorities and avoiding unnecessary risk. We arranged to keep Jimmy the driver the rest of our time in Wamena.
Kevin and Beth came and picked us up for a wonderful meal and fellowship at their house on the MAF compound. Kevin is a missionary kid (MK) like David so it was fun to hear of his growing up experiences with his brother here in Papua. His father, also an MAF pilot like himself, was killed in a crash like Beth's first husband,the father of her five children. We admire their faith that gives them acceptance of the risks their ministry involves. The three girls that are here with them are off visiting with another missionary family, wherein the father is also an MK actually from Wamena. They did not discourage us from going off on our own without a guide for the next two days.
Arabic words found in Bahasa Indonesian language include the word for chair, wait, original (asli ), the days of the week, pineapple, world, bible, etc. These have made it possible to have some basic communication with the locals, particularly our driver Jimmy from Manado in Sulawesi.
Below are a few men around the town and countryside.
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