Day #17 New Guinea Adventure

Jayapura, West Papua

Jayapura’s version of the Hollywood sign

Map of the region showing our heading - Google map link

During the night we have travelled west from Papua New Guinea to West Papua  and our destination, the city of Jayapura. You know when you are in Jayapura because perched on the top of a mountain in 16 metre high letters are the words JAYAPURA CITY.
The western half of the island of New Guinea is referred to as West Papua and is administered by Indonesia as two provinces, Papua and West Papua. Jayapura City is the Capital of Papua province and is the largest city in the region. It is situated on Yos Sudarso Bay and it’s population is somewhere around 300,000.

As we approach our mooring it’s quite a dramatic change to the villages and small towns we’ve been visiting in Papua New Guinea. There are hundreds of houses and shanty's clinging to the steep cliffs around the bay and ahead of us is an urbanised downtown area.
Jayapura houses and shanty's clinging to the mountain side

There’s quite a bit of excitement amongst the crew as a KFC sign can be clearly seen in the downtown area. This is something we experienced on our Gulf of Siam trip, whenever we docked at a town larger enough to be home to a KFC, the crew were quick to take shore leave and return laden with buckets of KFC.

As in other ports of call, large or small, the local performers resplendent in their costumes are waiting for the Orion to dock. This time it was pretty clear who the leader was!
Chief of the welcoming group

It’s a bit overcast this morning and it has been showering on and off during our arrival but all of the dancers and performers looked amazing with their bodies painted and beautiful bird feather headress's.
One of male performers

Looking at the performers the thing that struck me the most were the women, they looked quite different from the women in Papua New Guinea, being much more asian in their features.
One of the female performers
 
Despite the rain the team gave us another amazing performance signing and dancing on the wharf in front of the ship initiating us in local tradition with sago, gifts and spices placed on a honoured ancestral tray.

The whole group singing and dancing around the chief

By 08:30 we had disembarked the Orion and we had climed aboard some dodgy old buses for our visit to Jayapura. Our first destination is to an area called the Skyline Hills about half an hour from the wharf. Somewhere along the way we have picked up a police escort and we have motorbikes up front and a police car behind us. It’s remarkable how incident free our journey through town is!
Skyline view toward Sentani Lake

From Skyline in the hills behind the city, one gets a beautiful view of Jayapura, Yo Sudarso Bay and back toward the mountains and Sentani Lake.

At the top of the hill, Jalan Kotaraja, is an impressive Buddhist temple called Vihara Arya Dharma. It has beautiful gardens with lush vegetation and a large number of native plants.
Some of the local flora and fauna (but you have to look closely)

In addition to the gardens the temple is surrounded by lawns with very distinctive dragon sculptures running across them.
Dragon sculpture

We didn’t stop at the temple for very long just enough time to have a quick walk around the temple and gardens before getting back on the buses.

Yours truly assuming the photographer's pose

Leaving the temple we drove down the hill and headed east toward Lake Sentani. The drive to the lake took us through some of the outer suburbs of Jayapura. What we saw was in stark contrast to what we had seen in the towns of Papua New Guinea as there was a lot of economic activity going on, plenty of building and trade being undertaken everywhere.

We pull up en mass at a building on the shores of the lake. The building turns out to be an open air restaurant called the Yougwa which has a nice view, albeit through chicken wire, over the lake. Apparently we have the restaurant booked for lunch once we return from a visit to a village called Assei. I think the food at these restaurants generally is Chinese style, although from what I can see there maybe some western items on the menus. I think I heard someone saying it is the Indonesian President,  Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's, favourite restaurant in the region.
Main dining room of the Yougwa, with a view out over the lake

With only a quick pit stop we gather down on a small wharf and prepare to board these very narrow wooden boats for our trip across the lake to the village. The boats are powered by an outboard motor, seat about 15 people but you have to be pretty careful getting in because they aren’t very stable.

Boat ride across the lake

We are in the last boat, but unfortunately one of the boats that pulled away earlier has been having motor trouble, and everyone in it is stuck offshore so we wait at the wharf. Finally we are away and they have managed to fix the dodgy outboard motor on the other boat os it’s off we go across the lake.
View of the mountains from the lake

Lake Sentani is one of the biggest lakes in New Guinea and still virtually untouched by tourism. It seems the people who call the shores of this lake home still live in a traditional manner, and are renowned for their woodworking and pottery. We are heading across the lake to the Apayo island, and the village of Assei where we can look around the village, see and meet the local people of the Sentani tribe and buy some of their bark paintings or other crafts.
 
As we approach the village the shore is dotted with, what looks like to me, pretty flimsy and not too stable shacks.
Assei house on the waters edge

As we motor past the houses, we are certainly the centre of attention and a lot of the kids jump into the water, splashing and waving too us. Others just watch us go by with a cool detached look in their eyes.
Young man watches us pass his house on our way to the village

We pull up at quite a large wharf where, once again, young men and women in native costume are preparing to welcome us to their home.
Assei welcome party

As we, carefully, disembark the wooden boats, one of the young men sounds his welcome by blowing through a large shell.
One of the performers welcomes us to Assai

We follow the dancers along the wharf, past a memorial stone topped with a large cross into the village square.

360˚ Panorama of the stone memorial and cross

As we make ourselves comfortable more villages join in and the performance gets underway.
One of the village chiefs

After the performance and when the excitement dies down that’s when we get to the business of shopping. The village is the main centre for Sentani bark paintings. The paintings originally done only on bark clothing for women are now a Sentani art form. There is one building, just off the square where the performance took place, that is decorated in some of the intricate patterns the local artists use in their bark paintings.
Wall of bark painting patterns

There are so many wonderful artifacts to choose from, but we are particularly interested in a set of carved wooden paddles and these are what we end up buying.
Carved wooden paddles

It’s getting close to lunch time so laden with our purchases we head toward the wharf where our boats are waiting for us. We thank the villagers for their hospitality and wave goodbye. The trip back across the lake is smooth and uneventful; Andrew and Michael got to travel first class in their own, go faster boat, while we chugged along in ours.
Andrew and Michael speeding past us

As we were the last boat to leave the island most of our fellow passengers are seated and tucking into lunch by the time we get there but it doesn’t take us long to join them.

Lunch crowd at the Yougwa

The Orion is due to set sail at 14:00 hours so we’ve only got an hour or two until we have to be back onboard. After lunch we all get back on our buses and the expedition team advise us that we are going to stop at a spot called the Loka Budaya Ucen Museum.
Kelly back on the bus

The Loka Budaya Uncen Museum is owned and managed by the university Cenderawasih and the complex is located on campus in section of town called Abepura-Jayapura, about 8 kilometers from Jayapura city.

The weather has turned again and by the time we arrive at the museum it’s starting to rain again. We grab some umbrellas and make a dash toward the entrance. There’s a bit of slipping and sliding as the entrance tiles are really slippery wet with the rain; I’m amazed that no ones gone over. Once we are under the shelter of the entrance, guarded by the police who have accompanied us on our trip, we shake the water off our umbrellas and enter the museum.
Fran, one of the entertainers from the Orion, gets friendly with one of our police detachment

The museum itself, is a bit ramshackle and is in need of a bit of TLC. The museum was launched in 1973 and has a collection of over 1,800 ethnographic objects from various ethnic papua include kitchen appliances, a means to pay, sacred objects, transport equipment, works of art such as painting the skin, and wood carvings, and equipment associated with the eye livelihoods such as farming equipment, hunting, and fishing.
One of the many costumes on display

Though it may be in need of a bit of work, the collection is magnificent and it is well worth a visit if you are in Jayapura. There is one room, curiously the only one air-conditioned, that has a collection of amazing shields. Moomoo is in the room with me and I tell her they are native surfboards, unfortunately someone tells her I’m lying and she whacks me one!

360˚ Panorama of the museum room containing the shields

There’s a great shop in the lobby of the museum and we purchase a rather unique lime bowl and spoon before boarding the buses once more for the trip back to Orion. Once we are all back on board, Captain Frank gives the order to cast off and we start to move away from the dock.

Departing Jayapura

When we first entered Yos Sudarso Bay I saw these ships that looked to me, from a distance, paddle steamers with two large vertical funnels. On the way out of the harbour I got a much better look at them and it turns out that they are huge fishing platforms.

Fishing platform and closeup view of the platform

Back on board we’ve taken a break and freshened up and Kelly and I are sitting in the lecture theatre with a cup of coffee and a biscuit waiting for Michael Moore to give a presentation entitled, “Island Biogeography: Wallace to Wilson”. I’d never heard of the Wallace Line but it’s a fascinating boundary that separates the ecozones of Asia and Australia and west of it you will find organisms related to Asiatic species; east of it a mixture of Asian and Australian. For more information check out the Wikipedia entry for the Wallace Line.

We finish the night with a bit of room service and are looking forward to a bit of swimming and snorkelling tomorrow in the Coral Triangle.

Day #16 New Guinea Adventure

Wewak, Papua New Guinea

After a restful day at sea our arrival at our next port-of-call is imminent and we are just finishing breakfast as we come in sight of our destination, Wewak.

A jumble of rigging from ships moored in the harbour

Wewak, located on the northern coast of New Guinea, is the capital of the East Sepik province of Papua New Guinea and it’s the largest town between Madang and Jayapura. Between 1943 and 1945, during World War II, Wewak was the site of the largest Japanese airbase in mainland New Guinea. Directly west of the town centre is a peninsula known as Cape Wom, which was the site of the surrender of Japanese forces in New Guinea.

It’s still early, around 08:00, as we approach the wharf, but there are a few curious locals who want to see what we are up to.

Two of the locals in their dugout canoe

It’s not long until we come alongside our berth at a small wharf not far from the centre of town, Captain Frank manoeuvres the Orion until it gently comes to rest nestled next to the wharf.

Mike looks on as the ship is berthed

As we congregate on deck 6 we can see the local performers assembling to present to us their official welcome to the region. Today their costumes are a riot of yellow flowers and grasses.

Male dancer with a ceremonial hand drum

The chief is resplendent in an amazing costume of jewellery, headdress, feathers, flowers and beads.

The chief

There is, from what I can make out, a symbolic representation of a bird with a beautiful painted mask.

Symbolic bird

As well as the Chief and the Bird there are many dancers both male and female who are performing for us.

Woman dancer

Today is going to be a hectic one as we have quite a lot to see and the ship sails early at approximately 14:00 hours. Our first destination is the Cape Wom Memorial Park at the site of the Japanese surrender.

We head through town in our little bus convoy. It’s Sunday morning and everyone seems to be on their way to church. Cape Wom is about 20 kilometres north west of the town, at one stage the road passes right along the coast through a thick mangrove swamp.

Mangrove Swamp

Arriving at the memorial park there is a long colonnade of palm trees leading to a pyramidal cairn which holds a plaque detailing the surrender ceremony. 

Cape Wom Memorial Park

At the base of each palm tree is a small concrete block holding a plaque to those who lost their lives here.
Pte. R.N.Addison of the 2/4th Australian Infantry Batallion

Of course there are lots of curious children who show us around and pose for pictures.
Local kids at Cape Wom

Back in the buses, we head back toward town and a spot called Mission Hill and Boy’s Town. Mission Hill is inland from the main town and was settled by Catholic missionaries during 1912 and that’s where it got it’s name.
View of Orion from Mission Hill

The area is also known as Boy’s Town, a home for wayward boys founded in 1959 and used until the 1970’s. Today it’s a Catholic retirement centre for missionaries. There is a church at the top of the hill and a Japanese War Memorial.
Japanese War Memorial

The memorial has inscriptions in Japanese and English. The memorial reads in English: "In memory of the brave soldiers who paid the supreme sacrifice for their countries Japan, Australia, American and New Guinea during World War 2 From 1941-1945. We sincerely hope that or men will never again engage in war but that a deep spirit of friendship may exist between all"

Leaving Boy’s Town we headed down to where the buses were parked but rather than get aboard we were lead by a couple of guides down a narrow path into the jungle that covers most of the hill. As we trekked down the hill we came across an old Japanese Anti-aircraft gun emplacement that was still in reasonable condition.
Japanese Anti-aircraft gun

Apparently in the jungle around this area there are six emplacements, an old trailer and a fair bit of wartime debris scattered about.
Not much further on we came across another of the emplacements, this time there were a few kids perched up on the gun watching us as we shuffled past.

Kids on the gun - 360 Panorama

After a bit of slipping and sliding we’d climbed back up the hill and this time it was into the buses and back toward town.  As we entered the town and approach the local market there are people everywhere. Now that the church services have finished everyone is out buying food, heading home so the streets are crowded.

We’ve come to the Dagua market, at the west end of the town’s main shopping strip. You enter the market through a small alley between two tin sheds and thread your way past market stalls set up in the alley.
Dagua market alley

At the end of the alley you come out onto a large open area that is quite colourful and there are multicoloured umbrellas shading a wide range of foods. There are a few small trinkets for sale but primarily it’s a produce market.
Selling peanuts

Everyone seems a bit surprised to see us but all in all they are very friendly as we make our way around the stalls gawking at the strange foods on display.
A welcome from one of the guys at the market

Even though it’s a bit overcast it’s still a hot day and climbing around in the jungle makes it feel even hotter.  There’s not much shade in the market itself and the dried fish is looking and smelling a bit ‘ripe’ in the sun.
Dried fish on display

We’ve been warned about buying and eating local food so we steer clear of trying anything but just as we get back on the buses I see that a couple of people have scored fresh coconuts and I wish I had one.

Our final stop before we head back to the ship is a small artefact market selling lots of bilums (string bags) and sculptures. The bags are all under cover in a small dirt floor shed, hanging from the roof beams. It’s quite funny just to see everyone’s legs sticking out under the bags.
Artefact Market

There’s a traditional building just next to the market that has a beautiful painted mask attached near the peak of the roof .
Painted Mask

We buy a couple of bilums but you have to be quick as there seems to be a bit of a shopping frenzy going on, I don’t know how some of these people are going to get these large sculptures back home!

It’s time to head back to Orion and leave Wewak, in fact it’s where we leave Papua New Guinea as our next port of call will be Jayapura in Papua Province controlled by Indonesia.

We’re pretty tired by the time we get back on board so Kelly and I head to the bar and grab a beer to enjoy on the Delphinus deck. Just as we head out on deck it starts to bucket down, but hey it’s warm, we have a large umbrella above us, life is good.
A beer on the Delphinus deck

Day #15 New Guinea Adventure

At Sea, Papua New Guinea

Today is another sea day, and once again that means no landfall but lots of onboard activities to keep the passengers busy. For me it’s a chance to organise all of the photos I shot yesterday for the Virtual Tour.

Map of the region showing our heading -  Google map link

One of the best experiences onboard the Orion are the sunsets and I think the ones I’ve seen, day after day, in Papua New Guinea will remain with me forever and today is no exception.

Sunset on the sea day to Wewak

Tomorrow we are scheduled to arrive in Wewak at 08:00 our last port of call in Papua New Guinea.

Day #14 New Guinea Adventure

Rabaul, Papua New Guinea

This is a little bit like being Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day because today was what yesterday was supposed to be. This morning was a bit of a sleep in so I didn't get to see the sunset, but I did get up on deck before breakfast and took this shot looking across toward Tavaurea Volcano.

Looking toward Tavaurea Volcano

Map of the region showing our heading -  Google map link

So once again we say our farewells as our shipmates once again prepare to head out but this time we are pretty sure they won’t be coming back and a new ship load of passengers will be more that happy to come aboard.

In the meantime, while all of the ship preparation for the new passengers is underway, Kelly and I prepare to photograph a number of cabins for the Orion 1 Virtual Tour presented on the Orion website. It’s pretty much going to take us all the time up to the arrival of the new passenger to get all of the shots done that we need to so it’s a case of heads down, bums up for us.

Around about 1pm the mini buses with the new passengers start arriving at the dock and Kelly and I finish the last of the cabins, pack up all our gear and head up to deck 6 to check out the new arrivals.

As I mentioned yesterday there are 8 of us continuing on from the first leg and we know that two of our friends, Sharyn and Gary, who were on our first Orion cruise, the Gulf of Siam, are amongst the new guests. It’s also going to be a full ship and not an empty cabin or bed to be had.

It’s a hectic time for the crew settling everyone in to their cabins and finalising the provisions but finally we hoist anchor and head out of Simpson Harbour toward a day at sea and our next destination Wewak, near the border with the Indonesian controlled, West Papua.

To welcome the new passengers there’s the traditional “Sail Away Celebration” on deck 6, where we enjoy champagne and finger food while renew old acquaintances and start making new ones.
Yours truly on deck with his new 50-500mm lens

Sailing out of Rabaul we get a chance to catch up with Sharyn, who’s busy taking pictures of everyone, so we turned the tables on her and got one of her.
Sharyn

Then there’s John and Mandy, they are two of the eight passengers carrying on from the first tour.
John and Mandy

We also met this sociable bunch from up Minyama way in Queensland. Two couples Muriel and Neil and Joanne and Max.
Murial, Joanne, Max and Neil

After we’d left the harbour and started sailing West up the coast afternoon tea was served followed by the mandatory lifeboat drill. To finish the day Tracy Griener, the Orion hotel manager introduced Orion to those of us unfamiliar with her and the staff responsible for making our expedition comfortable and enjoyable.

Just after the briefing and before dinner there was the opportunity to stroll around the ship and get some shots of the sunset. The first is from the rear deck in the Delphinus lounge, the second is of the moon just after it had appeared and the third is panorama shot with a fisheye from the forward area of deck 6.
Heading into the sunset

The moon

Sunset panorama from the forward deck of Orion

Day #13 New Guinea Adventure

Rabaul

Ooopps almost missed that damn sunrise again but I made it just in time to get a shot of the of the volcano reflected in Simpson Harbour.
Sunrise across the Harbour

Before we head off for breakfast and more farewells, I take the opportunity to walk around deck 6 and photograph the area around the dock.

Red Tugs - Niguini Trader - Abandoned and rusting boats

Today is the day we say goodbye to all of the friends we have made on this first leg of our journey through Papua New Guinea. It’s been great meeting Nick and Peter, they are truly inspiring and have without a doubt inspired me. Jennine, Nick's wife, what a gal, I’m not sure how far Nick would get without her ☺

There are 8 people, including Kelly and myself, continuing on for the second leg around New Guinea. The rest of the passengers will be disembarking and heading to the airport around 10am. Orion has arranged a charter flight from Cairns to Rabaul to bring in the new passengers for the second leg and take home all of the current passengers.

During the time between the current group leaving and the new group arriving, the ship will have a complete makeover with all of the cabins and public areas being thoroughly cleaned and prepared for their new occupants. It’s a pretty hectic time and Kelly and I will be in amongst it all trying to finish off shooting the cabin panoramas. The other 6 continuing passengers will be heading out at 9am for a expedition and should be back about 3pm. The remaining passengers will be disembarking at around 10am to head to the airport. This will give Kelly and I a couple of hours to shoot some more panoramas.

Well the 6 passengers have left on their expedition and we are just saying our last goodbyes when there is an announcement on the ships intercom that the charter plane from Cairns has been delayed and hasn’t taken off yet.  After the announcement everyone relaxes again and has an hours grace to enjoy the ambience of the Orion once again.

About an hour later, just as the anticipation of leaving reached it’s peak, a new announcement asking us to meet in the Leda lounge is broadcast. We made our way there where Captain Frank announced that the flight was not going to leave Cairns today. Even though a replacement plane had been found because the crew had logged too many hours they would not be allowed to fly!
Captain Frank went on to tell us that the guests departing Rabaul would stay on the ship another night and the guests departing Cairns would stay in a hotel at Cairns for the night.

So after all the farewells said the night before and this morning we are still stuck with them!

The next couple of hours are pretty frantic with people phoning home and to travel agents to change their travel plans. I can only imagine what sort of organisational hell is going on behind the scenes. A further announcement is made that the bar will be an open one until the passenger swap is done. All in all I think most of the people on Orion and okay with the situation.

In order to keep everyone busy, as if they weren’t busy enough, Justin and the expedition crew have arranged a tour of the local market. So we go grab our gear and get ready to head out. We form up our group down on the docks and head on out past the main gates to walk up to the town centre along Malaguna Road. Even this far from the volcano you can see quite a build up of ash on the sides of the road. We head up to the main street and everyone seems surprised but happy to see us walking toward town.

After about 15 minutes we arrived at the main entrance to the Page Park Market and it was full of activity with people buying all sorts of produce and goods.
Justin pointing out landmarks in front of the Page Park Market

Just inside the entrance was an old man selling coconuts and Mike was sitting talking with him.
Coconut Seller

Mike with a couple of coconuts

The market is large and covers quite an area with stalls selling everything from bags to tobacco to betel nuts. In fact there lots of produce I’d never seen before.
Woman buying betel nut

When you chew Betel nut you need three things. First, obviously betel nut, second you also need Mustard sticks and third, Lime. Once you are chewing the nut you can dip the mustard stick in the lime and then put it in your mouth. Here's a betel nut "how to" course.
Mustard stick (Daka)

Young girl selling bananas

The market is such a visual treat with lots of sounds and colours including this somewhat threatening T-shirt!
Handgun T-shirt

Across from the market there was a supermarket and a crowd of people watching something. I could also hear music coming from that direction so I thought I’d take a look.
Local Supermarket

Sitting in front of the supermarket was an old musician playing a combination of ukulele, hooked up to a megaphone, tambourine and harmonica.
Old musician

I sat down on the ground with a group of school kids and watched him perform.
School kids watching the performance

Heading back to the market I caught up with Kelly again and we were sitting in front of a large sign that said “Market Rules” that warned of a on the spot fine of 20 Kina, which is about $8 Australian.
Market Rules sign

Unfortunately all of the things you cannot do are in pidgin, so I had no idea of what you could be fined for! Mike on the other hand speaks and reads pidgin so he gave us a rundown of the list. Now I can’t remember it all but I think some of it goes like this. If anyone has better translations I'd love to know them.

Hey Justin has just commented and provided translations:

Itambu tru long - It is forbidden to

• Kaikai Buai - Chew Betelnut
• Spet Buai - Spit Betelnut
• Simuk - Smoke
• Salim ol Spak Burus- Sell Marijuana
• Toromoi Pipia Nabaut - Throw Rubbish About
• Kalapim na burukim ol flower - go and damage the plants
• Sindaun antap long ol bet na long stone walls - sit down in the garden beds or on the stone walls
• Usim maket long sande na long pablik olides - use the market on sunday or public holidays

halivim lukaut long maket bilong yumi - help to look after our market

Check out Justin's blog - Ramblings of a Global Citizen

We decided to walk back to the ship rather than take the shuttle bus and this time we took some back streets. Close to the docks we came across a group of kids who wanted us to take their pictures.
Kids near the docks

It’s interesting to see, after so long, how high the ash wall is next to the roadway. You can see it in this photograph of Michael showing the kids the shots of them he just took.
Michael showing the kids their photos.

By the time we’d arrived back the 6 other passengers who’d gone out for a days expedition, thinking that on their return, they’d be welcoming a whole new group to the Orion, were incredibly surprised to find out everyone was still onboard.

At the evening briefing we were informed that everything was being resolved back in Cairns, the expedition team were busy working on an alternative travel destination know that we were going to be a day behind and that disembarkation would be as planned for tomorrow morning.

Kelly and I decided a quiet night with a bit of room service was in order and we headed down to the cabin.