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The capital of Western Irian Jayapura is much less known among Russians. The small provincial town (something similar to the Moscow region town Podolsk by our standards) used to be called Hollandia, then Kota Baru, and later it was renamed Sukarnopura. Until 1963, Western Irian had been a Dutch colony called Dutch New Guinea. This is where such a variety of names for the capital comes from – paying respect to the periodically changing ‘landlords’.
However, today Jayapura is quite a civilized port town where native residents enjoy a comfortable life together with all kinds of Indonesian officials. Admittedly, the majority of them are nice and polite people who follow a typical Asian philosophical principle: the less you hurry, the fewer problems you have. An independent traveler who made it on his own from Jakarta to, let’s say, Jayapura, won’t practically have any problems in his further travels around the island. One can get a special pass to the internal territories of the island either on his/her own at the police station or with the help of an airport volunteer guide who meets flights at the airport and volunteers to help for a symbolic amount of money. “A symbolic amount” is 2-5 US dollars but for many Jayapura families this means a week’s or even a month’s salary.
Before going deep into the jungle of Irian Jaya, I would like to keep you a little longer in the state capital so you could better feel the local flavour of New Guinea, fully enjoy the sunsets on the most beautiful island of Sentani and visit a small uninhabited island where we were taken by the local fishermen who took pleasure in taking us there in spite of their surprise at our request. Let me explain the latter: the local population is not very spoiled by the tourists’ attention, so any request, even such a common one as to show someone around, elicits enthusiasm and delight.
Due to the capital status of the town, its 150 thousand residents have a few of their own factories, plants, some hotels and restaurants, and even their own local university. Two more touching features of Jayapura are the number of family temples per person and the total love among Jayapurians for chess. And if the latter can in no way be explained (they are unlikely to have read something about our Vasyuki and like Ostap Bender dreamed of turning their native town into the world chess capital), the family religious houses are probably the result of many missionaries’ preaching. We have seen Catholic chapels (we don’t even know what they should be called in fact), Buddhist temples as well as Muslim mosques. They all look approximately the same – a small construction of wood, palm-tree leaves, and cardboard and asbestos sheeting, generously decorated with drawings on various religious topics and located right in the house’s yard. There are very well-taken care of flower beds and sculptures of certain gods in front of these small buildings, as well as some tape-recorder speakers whose loud music informs the locals and tourists that the temple is open. A special box for donations is nearby too. This is how it goes: go into the place, say your prayers, listen to some music, leave a donation and go on your way. It looks like the missionaries have failed to explain to the locals that religion is not another way to make money but something very different. But, anyway, decade by decade the missionary reports stated the steadily increasing number of established parishes and converted people. As for Jayapurians, they started seeing new temples as a given. We have them now – it’s good. They make us feel good – it’s even better. That said, their attitude towards life and God (the gods) is much more understandable than the rabid fanaticism of some faiths.
To the east of Jayapura by the coast of Yos Sudarso Bay there is Yotefa National Park with lots of beautiful beaches where you can see several shipwrecks, the result of past naval battles. A little further to the east along the bay coast there is a village of the Sepik tribe, famous for their primitive drawings on tree bark and carved ancestral statues. By the way, it was this tribe’s fishermen who showed us one of the few islands left untouched by civilization, though it didn’t go without an amusing incident. The matter was, in the past we had been so spoiled by the intrusive and usual tourist services that we completely forgot about such simple things as food supplies. I am sure you will agree that it’s only normal when during “arranged” tours which last for at least half a day you are provided with a primitive lunch box – with an egg and some chicken fried rice. Do you remember that? We counted on that unsophisticated service as well… Here, upon seeing us approaching the boats empty-handed, the locals were really frightened: “What? Haven’t you bought any food? But there is nothing on the island. Absolutely nothing! And it’s not a good time to fish…” Our irresponsible answer that we should make it somehow without food for ten hours caused some slight confusion. Such light-mindedness is totally intolerable for men of the Sepik tribe, so it’s not surprising that all those hours that we spent on the island being lazy and enjoying the luxury, our fellow travelers spent trying to catch at least something. And the fact that our cameraman followed the fishermen’s every step with his camera served as a kind of excuse for our behavior in their eyes, especially because neither they nor us were able to catch any fish, a sea-serpent or a crab, though we truly enjoyed splashing in the clear waters of the warm ocean. Later, these moments proved to be the last minutes of such total relaxation before a rather difficult and uneasy trip into the jungle.
On our way back we dropped into Cendrawasih University, which has a great anthropology museum. Though our main idea was not only to see the exhibits, but to try and acquire some topographical maps of where our expedition was heading and speak to some of the workers. Unfortunately, we managed practically none of it, but we were able to see the collection of Asmat tribe artifacts. The collection was acquired thanks to a subsidy from the John D. Rockefeller Fund. The figures and weapons exhibited, made by this tribe’s craftsmen, are highly regarded by primitive art specialists. Even though the Asmat tribe lives on the southern coast of New Guinea, there is a shop in Jayapira, specialising in Asmatic handcraft.
Excursus One. How to Remain Friends. Alexey’s Story.
Any serious journey is not only a holiday but a rather difficult job too. In our everyday city life we get used to a certain tempo, loads of duties and even stress. In the jungle, desert, sava
In my opinion, in our quadriga galloping around the dark corners of the planet there are no wheels or off-wheelers. It may even be good. We do not have a leader the same way we don’t have those who would drag in a bunch of others as u
There are four of us. And we are all different. Among us Michael is the most reckless, the most sincere and… the most contact-ready, if I can say it this way. This skill of his and his preparedness to socialise with people is a very important trait, because those representatives of the native population we will have to meet should immediately realise that we have friendly intentions, won’t harm them and, even more so, see them as our equals. The distant feeling of a common tourist who will be paying money to see ‘a true caveman’ in many situations can end sadly. Michael totally lacks this “civilization snobism”. Thanks to his integral personality and a natural sense of dignity he is absolutely open, cordial and friendly.