July 27 – 30 Baliem Valley back to Sentani then to Jakarta’s Antique Market and on to Chiang Mai

We rose early to finish some emails and get packed, had a quick breakfast, and headed to the airport by 8 AM.  We managed to get checked in for the “first flight”, but we did not actually get onto our plane until 10:45 AM.  When we arrived in Jayapura, we were met by a guide we had contacted to take us to Lake Sentani, but he asked for too much money ($200) for the afternoon, so we just took a car to pick up our left luggage at the Ratna, then checked in at the new, much nicer, Travellers Hotel. The Travellers has good AC, internet in rooms, breakfast, hot water, etc. for $90 per night. Next door there is a rudimentary shopping mall with a pizza place called “Papa Ron’s”, which provided us a nice change for lunch.

Enrico even let us handle the exhibits!

Through the Hotel, we arranged for a guide to take us to Lake Sentani, visit a couple of lakeside villages of the Sentani Tribe, bought a painting on paper made from crushed tree bark, and then visited the interesting Cultural Museum Loka Budaya just outside Jayapura in Abepura, on the Cenderawasih University.  We were taken around by an anthropology student (Enrico) at the University, who was very knowledgeable and fluent in English, so this visit was very worthwhile. The artifacts in the small museum were collected by New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s youngest son Michael on two expeditions, but Michael disappeared in dangerous headhunter territory in Asma in 1961.  Subsequently the Rockefeller family donated the items and funded the museum in memory of their son. The majority of Michael collection is now at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.



Bone Keris handles

Next morning we were able to use the internet for a couple of Skype calls, get a good breakfast, and head to the airport for our Lion Air flight to Jakarta with a stop in Makassar.  Lion Air is a no frills airline – you even need to buy your water! We had reserved a room in a small apartment residence for two nights, the Shraya Residence in Menteng that was recommended by Connie Ikert’s daughter Amanda, who lived in Jakarta for many years ($45/night). The location was perfect as just across the street was the Jalan Surabaya antique market. We spent the whole day, Sunday, browsing the various stalls and picked up a few things.  David bought a kris or keris which is a distinctive, asymmetrical dagger from Indonesia. Both a weapon and spiritual object, krises are often considered to possess magical powers. 

The Neka Art Museum in Ubud has an exquisite display of Krises which we really enjoyed studying, as there are so many aspects to them, the handle, the blade, the pattern on the blade and then the sheath.

So much choice!

In the market we fell in love with a kris from Solo, Java that had the sultan’s ensignia, but sadly due to it’s price it was left behind.  We did, however, buy two paintings, both signed and one also inscribed by Antonio Blanco, a known Spanish artist (the “Dali from Bali”) from Bali. There is a Blanco museum that we have been to see while in Ubud.  We will send pictures to the museum to see if they know of these painting we have.  If fake, most likely, we still like the paintings and for $200 we would not consider ourselves out anything. This purchase did add another larger sized piece of luggage to our check-in baggage though.

Antonio Blanco - right style and mat frame - real?

We then caught a Singapore Airline flight to Singapore, then Bangkok, then Thai Airways to Chiang Mai, where we are now reorganizing and recouping at a studio apartment at the Galae Thong Tower after almost two months on the road. Singapore airlines was so modern with nice comfortable seats, entertainment system, meals and drinks on every flight etc. such a contrast to the discount airlines we have been flying.  Indonesia does have excellent pay for lounges ($7 per person) with wi-fi, food and beverages and were well worth the money.  Unfotunately Bangkok Airport does not have such a facility.

Signature and Inscription

July 26th the road to Pyramid

Birding - wish we had a bird book~

The road to Pyramid is lovely, hilly, not too windy and offers beautiful views of the valley as you climb higher. There are also a large variety of wild flowers and other flowering plants including poinsettia, lantana and colorful coleus. With all these flowers, we have seen many butterflies that always elude the camera.  We enjoyed seeing many birds and Jimmy has developed quite an eye just in the few days we traveled alone. The children always wave and call out either "wa" (greetings) or "da" (bye) also a request for "gula gula " (sweets). We learned to call back "gula gula lego" (sorry no sweets). The Dani are friendly but also quite shy people. In reading about both Archbold's team and the first missionaries, both were greeted by friendly people and only a few times faced hostile groups in this area.

Boys trying to spear fish from their rafts

On the road we went over many interesting basic bridges... You almost wanted to get out of the car and let the car go first alone on the bridge. The discoverer Archbold was amazed in 1938 at the bridges he encountered of bamboo that allowed 20 people to cross on them at a time using only bamboo and rattan with no nails or modern tools. Interesting to see all of life's activities taking place along the river sides.


From Kevin and Beth we learned of the mission retreat center at Pyramid,  "Alpine Lodge", where there had been a Papua missions retreat gathering of all the missions in Papua a few weeks ago. We also found the airstrip that Kevin said they used to fly into with only an 8 minute flight from Wamena.

Pyramid Mission Retreat cabins and church

We continue to see in the town and the road and countryside the juxtaposition between the old and new. The men with the penis gourds and feather crowns in all locations, the bare breasted women just in the fields and only a couple on the roads. The men in shorts with the feather  crowns, beaded headbands, armlets etc.

The women wear clothes of jungle camouflage,so not really very picturesque except from the back when you see their noken bags.  The traffic is very light on the roads but speed is slow with all the pot holes and road repairs underway.

We had dinner with Kevin and Beth at the hotel so they could check out the restaurant. We enjoyed their company and meeting them has made real difference to our trip here. We had been hearing a siren going off at all times of the day, including early morning, and asked them what the siren meant. Kevin said it was to tell the people with all the animals on the runway to get out of there. The weather here has been a nice temperature during the day and drizzly in the late afternoon and evenings such that a long sleeve shirt is needed.

MAF landing strip at Pyramid

We packed up for our Triana flight tomorrow morning, the second flight of the day, if all goes according to plan.  We have another guide Usman, that we have arranged to meet us and take us to some tribes living on Lake Sentani.

July 25th Dani Mock War and other activities

Chief Yali  in the watch tower

So Wednesday started with us heading over to the Internet cafe papua.com to speak to the owner,who is mentioned in the guidebook as being a source of travel information. Francis, as we think he is named, advised us that if we wanted to see to see a mock tribal war to go see chief " Yali" in Sumpaima near Jiwika, as he had the best field for the fighting.  Yali's is next to the first mummy place we went to, so we headed out that direction arriving at 10:30. We were advised that a tour group was already there so we could not join them, but to come back at 2pm and talk to chief Yali. We proceeded down the same road looking for birds and just enjoying the day without the guide. We came back a bit early at 1:00 PM and met chief Yali, who was all "dressed" in the tribal war fare attire. He allowed us to join the couple of tourists whose guide had  organized the activity. The chief advised the price of the equivalent of $70 for the two of us with unlimited pictures, so we were pleased, as Mac had been telling us the price was double that amount. Jimmy our driver told us afterwards that he had learned from the other driver that the other couple had only paid the equivalent of $50.  David was the big shopper so everybody was happy.

Shells on breast plate valuable

We enjoyed the "mock war", which followed the ritual movements that we had read about in our books. The "attire" with the pig grease, soot, boar's tusks through the septum, spears and bows and arrows are sight to see. Following the mock war, we were invited into the village where the men and women then approached us singing and dancing and invited us further into their Dani compound.  The women then sang and danced for us and while Yali the chief demonstrated making a fire for us using the traditional method of friction with a wood pole, a rattan piece and straw/tinder. 

Preparing to show how fire was made

After this, they set out their handicrafts for sale.  It was interesting to see all the penis gourds and we had earlier seen a part of a demonstration on how they were made. Their were even selling some of the used coir rope skirts that the married women wore made by the men.  We had not seen those for sale before.





The fire starts with wood and rattan piece

David enjoying war games

We returned back to town and stopped at papua.com to ask about a good bird watching place for the next day. We were advised that 100% chance to see the yellow bird of paradise at Lake Habbema. Habbema is where Archbold (American Natural History Museum) landed his amphibian aircraft back in 1938 and discovered the valley and all kinds of new species of flora, fauna and ornithology. Unfortunately Francis also advised that the police would not at present allow tourists to go there, so that was a shame.  He did seem to know about birding though, so in the end, we decided to take a road we had not been on to Pyramid, along the eastern side of the valley. Francis explained to Jimmy where we wanted to go, and a small additional fee was asked for the additional distance.

That night, as we called Beth to the thank them for the other evening, she invited us to come out to a local restaurant, R. M. Fakhira, that made excellent grilled chicken. They were heading out the door just as I called.  The chicken was excellent and came with a rice cooked in coconut so it has a delicious flavor. Leslie even had a fresh melon juice and ate the cabbage leaves and greens like Kevin and Beth. When Kevin said the samba wasn't  spicy enough, she put some on her rice and the was grabbing for her juice drink. That MK eats things very spicy! We enjoyed sharing more stories and our photos of the Dani tribal activities. Neither Beth nor Kevin had seen some of these activities and, like us, recognized that while touristic, it was the original format. Beth said she and some of the other mothers were planning to go with the children to the Baliem Festival which is coming up in the next week.  We encouraged her to do that even though it is a pain to wait in line for the gas rations of 5 gallons a week. They have to start now to get their gas to travel there and back! The cost of the gas is not that high, $2 gallon, but the rationing is because it all has to be flown in, so it is highly subsidized. You could buy additional gas that is being sold along the road side in bottles, but you would not know how pure it is and of course the price is much higher.

Greeting Dance with women and children



July 25th more Pictures of Dani Activities

we have so many pictures of this day!

Mother and child checking us out



Bones through the septrum

Love the feathers!

 

Noken, penis gourds, axes, feather crowns or married female skirts - all for sale~

July 24th Wamena valley - Baliem Valley Resort and Guide Issues

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.

What is in her many layered noken?

Carefully looking inside

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.

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.

July 22 – 23rd Baliem Valley Wamena – Wosi and South to the Yellow Bridge of Baliem River and Missionary landing point.

We start the day around 9am with procuring lunch for the guide and driver from the restaurant across the street and large bottles of water for each of us. We tried to have the hotel fix us 4 hard boiled eggs and 4 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and we got 4 sandwiches with sunny side up eggs, lettuce and ketchup, with peanut butter in a messy glob on the side, so after that first day we made our own lunches. We drove northwest to Wosi to see the local cave, and afishing pond especially known for its gold fish (a favorite fish to eat here).  The location of the fishing pond also had overnight huts for trekkers so we checked those out. The cost was $25 per person per night and they had a place for a wood fire and one had some cold running water.  There were basic toilet facilities available as well.  We went inside a Dani house, called ”honai”, which are circular huts with a thatched roof.  The lower flower is built a foot above the ground and the sleeping area is about 4 feet above that. The sleeping area is entered through a small square hole in the low ceiling to climb to the “loft”. Both floors are carpeted with grass straw.  In the center of the ground floor is a hearth, which is delineated with four upright poles in each corner. The smoke of the fire must escape through the small doorway onto the courtyard or under the hanging fringe of the roof.

David then went a short distance into the cave with Mac and returned after going in about 100 yards – normal cave with stalagmites, etc., but they had not found the end yet.  We had lunch and then came back to Wamena and went to the local grocery store which we were happy to see had peanut butter, nutella and sweetener.  We took our laundry across the road to a laundry service and were gagging at the $10 price.  Everything in Wamena is basically flown in – including cars, gasoline, asphalt for roads and all building materials with the exception of wood, so the expense base is very high.  Fresh vegetables, especially sweet potatoes and tarot, and a poor quality of rice are grown here in the valley. Pigs, cows, goats and chickens are raised here, with pigs being the most dominant. We trekked off the road to several other villages where they were supposed to have mummies, but all of them were “closed” to tourists with the mummies hidden indoors, and villages mostly deserted when we arrived. So we returned to our hotel by 2:30, quite an early close for the day’s tour.

We are eating all our meals here in the hotel to try and avoid any stomach issues.  We also are taking our Malarone anti-malaria pills every night after dinner.

The next morning we headed south. We had discussed with Mac that we wanted to bring a gift to either a Dani village or a school that we would visit, and explained that in Burma we had carried dried fish, chilies, seeds and such items up to the different villages we visited, and that in Thailand we had given books to a school. We gave him some time to think about what would be best, and he decided on paper notebooks, pencils and other items for an elementary school.  So we stopped on our way out of town at the biggest store and purchased some puzzles, some 3-D puzzles, packs of crayons, packs of notebooks and packs of pencils and erasers along with some sea life display items for display on the class room wall. Mac also insisted we buy a Statue of Liberty so the children would be told about America.

We drove through rolling hills as the valley walls began to narrow.  We came to an area that was the “landslide” area.  Basically water flows, sometimes very fiercely during the rains and keeps washing down large rocks and sand, washing out the road.  While in this landslide area we drove down to the river where there is a hanging “yellow bridge”, where we parked and unloaded our gifts.  We then walked across the bridge and down a path till we came to an elementary school with the children all out in the field for recess.  We met the teachers and head of the school and gave them our gifts, for which they seemed surprised and pleased.  We then had our pictures taken with the children and headed down the path further to a lake.  The path got more treacherous, muddy and steep so being the risk-adverse people we are because we have a wedding coming up we elected to stop and turn around. We believe this village was called Maima.

Moving carefully holds up the que

We then drove further south and arrived at a stream where we ate our lunch watching the women washing their vegetables in the stream. Moving on from there we stopped at the point where you saw the Baliem River. At this area, later known as Minimo, is where the first missionaries landed on April 20, 1954 by amphibian aircraft on the river. They were a group of Americans and a converted family from the Kapaukus tribe that made up the initial “Baliem Project”. The plane basically landed and unloaded tents, tinned food etc and took off back to Sentani.  The valley had actually been discovered by the American Natural History Museum team lead by Richard Archibald in 1938, when he saw the valley as he landed his seaplane in a much higher lake, Lake Habbema at 3,400 meters. Archibald had been on an expedition around the world along the equator looking for new bird, plant, and animal species.

On our way back, we stopped at the “mission museum” and saw a couple of monuments commemorating the missionaries’ landing. On the large carved stone wall on the lower left hand side a sea plane was carved. We had had various discussions with Mac on missionary activities, and were lead to believe they built no schools, hospitals etc., but only worked on converting Dani to Christianity, their success in this at least being evidenced by the many churches.  We had a hard time believing they did not contribute more, so at the end of the day we asked to be taken to the mission compound so that we could talk with some of the missionaries. 

We left our business card with our Indonesian phone number and a note that we wanted to hear of their activities here in the Baliem Valley.  Within 20 minutes we had a call and within the hour we were meeting and seeing the MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) operation and meeting a couple of the staff working there, and then also across the street at the NRC (Netherlands Reformed Church), where they have many community training programs.  We asked where the NRC church was, as this would be the equivalent of the church for which David’s parents and his grandfather served.  Our driver was given directions so we went there and then also to see the new school, where we met the Dutch headmaster. He also pointed out the new theology college that the NRC is building.

Kevin -watch out for that propeller!

We went back to the hotel and around 6pm Kevin and Beth Lynne came knocking at the door to invite us to their home for dinner next night. We had met Kevin, an American pilot, at the MAF hanger working on his plane. He had said he would stop by to loan us the book Cannibal Valley by Russell T. Hitt, about the early missionary activity in Balien Valley. Kevin was raised in Papua as his father had also served with the MAF flying food, missionaries, emergency evacuations, etc. to the remote airstrips that are the only way to move around in Papua’s interior.  We are excited to have an opportunity to hear of his stories growing up and their work here in the valley and surrounding territory.

Other reading material we have on this area is Under the Mountain Wall by Peter Matthiessen.  The missionary pioneers to Papua had a pretty challenging situation to deal with.

July 21- Baliem Valley, in central Papua

After buying some snacks for lunch, we set out with our guide, Mack, who is a Yali tribesman from the hills outside the valley that as recently as the 1970’s, would have been killed by the Dani tribe that inhabits the main parts of the Baliem Valley. We learned that his father was a cannibal warrior who had killed many men, had two wives, and still did not trust the Dani.  The Dani were known as the fiercest fighters and headhunters in Papua, but they did not usually eat their human victims, unlike most of the other tribes. Christian missionaries, first American and then Dutch and other nationalities, came to the valley starting in the 1950’s and were careful to avoid being killed.  Since there was no road or practical way to get to the valley, the first missionaries came by seaplane and landed in the Baliem River, which must have been quite a trick because it is narrow and curvy.  The isolated Dani tribe and its nearby rivals were still living in the Stone Age, did not have metal or pottery, but used stone axes and weapons. The missionaries convinced the various tribal leaders to believe in the Christian god, and also, very importantly, to stop the tribal wars, often serving as peacemakers as well as converters. Like in other places, many of the old aspects of religion and culture remained the same, with tribal custom and animistic practices surviving among those that had been converted.

Our first stop was to a traditional Dani village which possessed the famous mummified remains of a great warrior chief that was supposed to be several hundred years old, and which was carefully taken in and out of his allocated dwelling as if he was still an honored elder in the village. Not only was the mummy supposed to have supernatural powers that benefited the village, but they made use of him by allowing tourists to view and photograph him for $5 each, so the mummy had acquired a monetary power as well. A village elder with a dour expression held the mummy from the back to keep him comfortably sitting on his perch while we took his picture. If you look closely you will see the mummy still has his “horim” (penis protector) on, as well other warrior ornaments.

We then took pictures of Leslie with 10 or 12 villagers in their traditional dress (or undress) after negotiating that deal for 50 cents each, or $5 total.

Photo shop has provided some censorship~ long gourds provide modesty

Then we noticed a poor old lady with a hopeful expression who was standing quietly at the side wearing the traditional coir skirt, and took her picture for 50 cents. We noticed she was missing the ends of several fingers – this is because young girls have their little fingers amputated to show mourning when a close relative dies. 

This practice is forbidden but reportedly is still widespread, and we saw many women with missing fingers.

 Noken (net bag) worn with strap on head and traditional coir skirt

We walked over to another nearby village, seeing more people in traditional dress, and then saw the beginning of a mock war by Dani warriors attacking below one of their traditional village watchtowers. We had to turn back because we learned that the four German tourists ahead of us (the only other Westerners we saw for the next two days) had paid for a private war demonstration and traditional feast with killing and preparation/cooking of a pig, and we were not invited to the ensuing 4-hour party.

We then hiked and crossed a river on an “X-bridge”, which was a precarious locally built system, to reach another village with an important mummy, but the village was “closed” –no one home, and the guy caring for their mummy had gone - (We think there are so few tourists that the local villagers have stopped catering for them). So we hiked back to the road, with Leslie slipping and falling in the mud not far from another village watchtower.

We stopped at the local market to see what was availabe and saw for sale the Noken bags, local tobacco products, and warrior crowns made with endangered birds of paradise.  The original noken bags were of thread made of from the inner bark of certain trees which is dried, shredded and then rolled into thread. The bags used to be colored with vegetable dyes but now are all synthetic string.

Dani Lookout Guard Tower - and MUD!

Returning home exhausted, we took a nap before eating a good dinner at our hotel restaurant.

July 19 – 21 Ubud to Denpasser to Jayapura, Papua to Wamena in Baliem Valley

After a farewell visit to our gym in Ubud, and a healthy lunch at Kafe, we took a taxi to Kuta to the Best Western Kuta Villa, a new hotel that Leslie had booked and paid for on Agoda for $55 with breakfast in a quiet area close the airport.  When we reached there, they said there was a mistake and no room available, which was the first time this had happened to us.  They said they would take us to another nearby Best Western, just as close to the airport, and give us a free dinner there as compensation for their mix up. We found ourselves in a noisier environment, and the dinner they offered was very limited – rice or pasta or fish and chips, no salad, veggies, desert.  Anyway, it left a bad taste, and we saw several other people who had been “moved” in this “bait and switch” program by Best Western.

We left next morning at 5 AM and were quickly checked in to our flight to Makassar, just over an hour away, but ran into a snag rushing to catch our next flight to Jayapura when David had been given a transit card with the name of someone named David Anselmo, another passenger trying to catch the same plane. We managed to get on the plane finally.

With only two other European faces on the plane, we were greeted by a man who held a sign with our names up – but he turned out not to be the person we were to be met by, but a guide we had tried to contact earlier.  Later a young lady named Fanny came in, a bit late, and asked if we were the Bosches.  It was a bit delicate to explain to the man that we had already made arrangements for her to take us around that afternoon, but the fellow accepted it with good grace.

Fanny, however, seemed not to have ever been a guide before, and the fellow at the airport that was supposed to have our onward ticket to Wamena indicated that all tickets were sold, but that if we came back next morning before 6AM, he would fix us up. We checked into the Ratna Hotel, a very ratty place indeed, and then Fanny took us off to get our permit to travel to the local sights and to Balien Valley next day. When we reached the police offices, we were politely told (as the guide book indicated but Fanny thought was superfluous) that we needed passport pictures and copies of relevant pages of our passports before they could process the permit.  So we rushed back to our hotel, stopping en route to see the McArthur monument, where the General had made his temporary HQ after taking Jayapura (then called Hollandia) from the Japanese in 1944, and from whence he was supposed to have developed his “island hopping” strategy to defeat Japan as he looked out from his high point over Lake Sentani. Rushing back with our papers, we saw the official concerned leaving the police offices on his motorbike, but he turned around when he saw us and kindly processed our papers. By this time it was getting dark, so there was no time left to visit the lake or museum, so these attractions would have to wait until our hopeful return from the Balien Valley.

Lake Senteni from McArthur Momument

We had a good cheap dinner across from our hotel, and then crashed after watching an improbable show about Sindbad the Sailor on the television. Rising at 4 AM next morning, we were turning on the lights at the breakfast when we surprised a rat grazing on the buffet, who calmly ran the length of the buffet and leaped into a space behind the wall-mounted television set and disappeared like Houdini.  Leslie did not see this amazing yet disturbing sight and was left in her blissful ignorance as we devoured our Asian breakfast of rice, soup, and stale toast. (She did take a picture though of the chicken feet in one of the dishes.)  This hotel did have free wi-fi throughout so we were able using Google translate plus sign language, to convey that we wanted to leave one bag with them until our return from Baliem Valley in a week, and that we needed an immediate ride to the airport, which they kindly agreed to. Then, at 5:40 AM we managed to be first in line at the ticket window, rapped on it until someone came, and got two seats to Wamena on the first flight leaving.  After some tumult checking in, we ended up waiting about two hours in the departure lounge as two planes boarded before our flight. Boarding passes are color coded so everyone can tell what flight they are on – no fight numbers used.

The plane was full, not very clean or fancy, had two propellers, and reached Wamena the 2,000 meter-high valley in the interior of the island after flying over heavily-forested mountains for 45 minutes. Papua is the name given to the part of the island previously known as New Guinea that is Indonesian territory, while the other half, know as Papua New Guinea, is independent. The island is largest tropical island in the world (perhaps Greenland is bigger) and has the highest mountains between the Himalayas and the Americas. It also has a higher concentration of species of plants and animals than any other area of the world, perhaps with the exception of the Amazon.

 Our baggage was unloaded on the tarmac, later being placed on a large wagon and pulled by several men to a shack where it was unloaded –taking about a half hour, as the two planes ahead of us were having their baggage unloaded and claimed in the same small space. Our guide “Mac” greeted us there – we were the only white faces on the plane so he easily identified us.  We got into a car for the couple of hundred yard trip to our hotel, the Baliem Pilamo Hotel, probably the best hotel in town, and they did have a room for us and remembered our calling from Bali for the reservation.

July 12 -19th Loving life in Ubud and Bogged Down with Logistics

We have spent the last week just going to Ubud Fitness gym in the morning followed by a Yoga class in the afternoon or late morning, eating healthy and planning our trip to Papua. Our friend Helma came up to spend a long weekend with us which was wonderful. We took her to our favorite restaurants, including a blues night at Moko that we enjoyed, to our batik shirt maker at Bamboo Bali. I told the owner that I had bought a "cap" for batik but did not know how to use it. He promptly put on a video of the process of making batik with a cap complete with how to design the cap, making the cap and then stamping with the cap etc. I now have the family craft project for our Christmas gathering - batik napkins. We were at various yoga classes both at the Yoga Barn and also at Radiance Alive Studio. We also were hunting for the healthy raw dark chocolate that is made by two companies here in Bali. We actually did manage to find some chocolates from both companies to sample but stayed true to our "wedding prep diet" and only had a small piece.

Ubud is much more crowded than it was even two weeks ago when we were last here. We shuffled between three different hotels in this past week, Cendana Resort and Spa off monkey road, and then Artini 3 which is close to the Yoga barn and then Villa Puriartha also on Raya Pengosekan, the lower part of Hanoman street, and close to the Yoga barn. We have been in and out of at least 10 hotels/guest houses checking availability, rooms and prices for each move we make. Moves happen because the accommodation is only available for a few days and not the whole period of time we need a room, and we are in process of determining our departure arrangements for our next destination. The weather also has changed and we have had rain almost everyday. Back in April a pool was a necessity to cool off and this time we have not used the pools at all.

Planning for Papua has taking considerable time, as none of the tour operators shown in the 2010 Lonely Planet have responded, so we can only assume they are out of business. In doing Internet searches we came up with some other companies and also names of guides. The majority of the tourists going to the Baliem Valley are going to do some strenuous hiking with porters and cooks etc. We decided we are only going to do one night of that kind of adventure and have booked ourselves into the best hotel in the valley for all the other nights. The Baliem Palamo hotel advertises having Internet, but we had to call several times to get them to answer the email we sent. We are keeping our fingers crossed it has Internet as Jonathan's wedding paperwork has hit a road block in Cairo and with help of friends we are trying to get it back on track.

The prices for tours are very high so we have been organizing flights, hotels etc ourselves, because as a last resort we were just going to fly to Jayapura and go to the police station ourselves to apply for the travel permits. however one local guide from the Baliem valley has been located and we have been using email and our Indonesian cell phone to arrange everything.

There are still many more yoga classes to take in Ubud, a Balinese dance class, color theory class, and shops that have not been investigated. We have not been to all the evening dance performances and we will miss the big cremation ceremony on the 28th as we will fly from from Papua directly back to Jakarta. We did manage to see the Neka Art Museum in Ubud this trip.

In the afternoon of the 19th we took a taxi to Kuta, near the airport, and also the infamous beach for Australians. We stayed overnight there so that we are close to the airport as we have an early morning flight to Jayapura via Makassar.

July 10th a wedding, textiles and rice terraces - 11th trip back to Ubud, Bali

Getting ready

Wonderful beading!

Everyone enjoys seeing their picture!

We were up and out the door by 9 am heading out to the north of Rantepao for the most scenic area. On our way to our first stop we happened upon a wedding. Weddings always take place in the morning, when the sun is moving upward, and it was delightful to see the young girls and boys of the family dressed in the traditional Torajan dress. The car brings the groom to the bride's house, at which point he speaks eloquent Torajan poetry to convince her to get in the car to go to the church. As you can see from the pictures, weddings are much smaller affairs than funerals, and only a few pigs are slaughtered for the food for guests.

Many Buffalo killed for funeral at this Thongkonan

We continued on our way to the village of Palawa where we viewed another traditional village like Ke'te Kesu with Tongkonan and rice barns but no graves. We then drove to the town of Sa'dan To'barana which was theoretically the center for textile weaving. The area was a disappointment in terms of textiles, but there were activities related to an upcoming funeral, and if we had stayed around the preparation of pigs. Our guide then took us to another village, Sangkombang, where we bought two decorative textiles. They were not something we had seen before and involved weaving (Ikat and regular), embroidery, and designs made with sea shell pieces. We bargained and bought two for $130 a piece. We were told they were brought by someone from the very northern part of Toraga called Make'.

A happy shop keeper and shopper

We then traveled south and west through Deri where you have verdant green terraced rice fields with boulders wherein graves have been carved out. The rice that is grown on the terraced fields at elevations up to 2,000 meters requires a special hand cutting with a small bamboo stick and blade. Only the short stem with the rice grains is cut, then bundled, and all the little bundles tied together and stacked up on boulders for drying and transport. Lovely friendly people in the fields demonstrated how to use the rice-cutting knife. Later on a young man showed me his knife, and he had a big bandage on his finger as he had cut himself. They keep these blades very sharp! We continued climbing in altitude through Lempo till we arrived at Batutumonga where we had lunch in a restaurant with a fabulous view over the rice terraces. Had we had more time we would have enjoyed a walk through the area. If you were hiking you could have also stayed overnight here.

Deri rice fields with graves in rocks - see woman's hat and carved door

On the way back to Rantepao we drove through Bori to see the "ranti" (ceremonial ground for the slaughter of animals related to the funerals of noble class people) and their associated megaliths, like huge gravestones, but really honorific monuments without an actual body. We arrived back at the hotel before dark and then had another dinner of apples and peanut butter while we packed up our bags for the early start the next morning.

Ranti with place for coffin during ceremony

Both of us had not slept well while in Rantepao because we had neither AC nor fan in the room, and we did not open the windows as there were no screens to protect from the mosquitos. We did get a fan from the front desk and that did help. We use plugin mosquito repellent devices, and have way too many refill cartridges. We tried washing a few items but they took a couple of days to dry so we gave up on doing laundry.

On Bunaken we had met a young Dutch couple (sold us their malarone powerful malaria pills) that had been in Rantepao and had gotten quite sick. Usually if you have a guide, they will only take you to certain restaurants, and we did survive all of Sulawesi without any food problems. We did feel that 3 days was enough in Toraja, but 3 days should be the minimum, as the drive each way to Rantepao is 9 hours. The first three and a half hours is a straight divided "highway" and you have lunch at Pare Pare at the only "approved for tourists" restaurant. Then the rest of the trip is on a narrow winding round with too many curves. Those with motion sickness problems should be prepared. I swear by the Thai "patches" that you put over your belly button, and eating candied ginger!



Map of our day trip

For our trip back to Makassar we were up at 5 am and on the road by 6:30am. We stopped at Pare Pare for a quick lunch and were at the airport a little before 2:30 PM. Traffic had been fairly light on the windy road so we were able to make good time. We checked in for our Lion Air flight, and then went to find a pay for access lounge. The Makassar airport was a relatively modern, fancy airport and actually newer and nicer than Denpasar. The lounge was nicer and cost $7.50 each, but the wireless was properly set up and fast. Lion Air was late leaving so we were happy to be in the lounge. After the 1 hour flight it took 45 minutes to get our luggage and get to the car that had come to pick us up from the Cendana hotel. Overall, we were happy to be back in Bali after our Sulawesi adventures.

Map of our trip to Sulawesi