selamat siang
greetings from jayapura! i arrived in sentani, the next town over, yesterday around 8:30am after catching a 2:30am flight from bali, where i'd spend 2.5 days running around trying to squeeze as much holiday time as possible out of the place before beginning work. doesn't that sound relaxing? but it was.
in bali i was befriended by the driver who picked me up at the airport and he took me to ubud the next day, away from the maddening debauchery of kuta, the beach nearest the airport where people come to bali to party. kuta is where the bombings happened, so because of all the bad press, the place has really taken an economic hit...which makes it a great time to visit, since there aren't any crowds. most people make a living off of tourism, so they desperately need the business. ubud was lovely, full of traditional arts and culture, if also full of tourists.
in the meantime, i am already getting a crash course in indonesian, and in the cultural differences between an island like bali and one like papua. i'm really sympathizing with the plight of the native papuans; without going into too much detail at this point, it's clear that the indonesian government and military keep a pretty tight rein on the papuan people. it's very clearly a tense situation, with little friendly integration of the papuan society and the indonesians who have migrated in and settled. i've been lucky to have met some english speakers who have a lot to say and teach me, but we'll see how it goes in the more remote areas. even here in jayapura, the provincial capital, it's been a challenge to find people who speak enough english to point me in the right direction. part of the adventure.
other fun adventures: visiting a balinese temple carved out of rock faces, where yellow-bellied skinks slithered among the stones; some dude treading over my toes with the front tire of his motorbike at a gas station because i guess i was standing in his way? (thanks, man!); seeing an amazing performance of balinese kecak dance, involving 100 men in concentric circles chanting, singing and percussing with their voices to tell a sliver of the ramayana (the hindu epic); and learning how to say 'penis gourd' (koteka).
this is really a different world. i'll post more on papua when i get internet access again. in the meantime, i have a couple of minibuses to catch...
in bali i was befriended by the driver who picked me up at the airport and he took me to ubud the next day, away from the maddening debauchery of kuta, the beach nearest the airport where people come to bali to party. kuta is where the bombings happened, so because of all the bad press, the place has really taken an economic hit...which makes it a great time to visit, since there aren't any crowds. most people make a living off of tourism, so they desperately need the business. ubud was lovely, full of traditional arts and culture, if also full of tourists.
in the meantime, i am already getting a crash course in indonesian, and in the cultural differences between an island like bali and one like papua. i'm really sympathizing with the plight of the native papuans; without going into too much detail at this point, it's clear that the indonesian government and military keep a pretty tight rein on the papuan people. it's very clearly a tense situation, with little friendly integration of the papuan society and the indonesians who have migrated in and settled. i've been lucky to have met some english speakers who have a lot to say and teach me, but we'll see how it goes in the more remote areas. even here in jayapura, the provincial capital, it's been a challenge to find people who speak enough english to point me in the right direction. part of the adventure.
other fun adventures: visiting a balinese temple carved out of rock faces, where yellow-bellied skinks slithered among the stones; some dude treading over my toes with the front tire of his motorbike at a gas station because i guess i was standing in his way? (thanks, man!); seeing an amazing performance of balinese kecak dance, involving 100 men in concentric circles chanting, singing and percussing with their voices to tell a sliver of the ramayana (the hindu epic); and learning how to say 'penis gourd' (koteka).
this is really a different world. i'll post more on papua when i get internet access again. in the meantime, i have a couple of minibuses to catch...
posted by a wandering eye at 12:29 AM
1 Comments:
koteca!
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