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Papua - Trekking in Baliem Valley

Some notes from my recent trip to Indonesia’s final frontier in the east: Papua.

I wanted to visit Baliem Valley, maybe the most accessible part of the highlands of Western New Guinea. It’s mainly occupied by the Dani people, but there are other tribes - like the Lani - as well. The main town in the valley is Wamena with est. 8,000 people. According to Wikipedia the valley is about 80 km in length by 20 km in width and lies at an altitude of about 1,600-1,700 m, with a population of 100,000. Wamena is dusty, has some interesting markets and besides that not so much to see. Anyway it’s the only hub to reach the valley. People in the whole area seem to go to bed quite early and get up early as well. Like in ancient times.

It is only 72 years ago that Richard Archbold discovered the valley and the Stone Age tribes that survived into the 20th century. Still the Dani live like that: The men sharing a hut, the women sharing a hut and there is a hut for cooking. Some small villages don’t have anything brought in from the western world. Men still dress up with penis gourds and nearly nothing beside that. Women wear skirts of grass, some of them still go bare-breasted.

Alcohol is forbidden due to the fact, that a lot of people couldn’t handle it. That reminds me of a trip some years ago to the Okovango Delta in Botsuana: a very remote area as well and people quite struggled to keep track with the changes modern civilisation brought to them. Many started drinking then, quite sad.

Wamena can be reached by plane from Jayapura / Sentani with Trigana Air only. Different airlines go to Jayapura from Denpasar, Jakarta, Makassar etc. Flights with Trigana often are booked or simply canceled, so give it some time to get there and fly out again. On the flight to Wamena a steward came around and handed out some tissues because the plane was leaking. If you need to stay in Sentani, no worries: beautiful ‘Lake Senatani’ aka Danau Sentani with nice fishing villages is waiting. Everything has to be flewn in by plane to Wamena. A road is planned but construction might take ages. So prices compared to other parts of Indonesia are quite high, except for local stuff like sweet potatoes.

 

If you visit a traditionell Dani village you will most likely find some ladies cooking. Guess what? - Sweet potatoes in most of the cases. Even rice has to come by plane and a lot of people cannot afford. I ordered a veggie soup in Wamena and it tasted like it came from Europe: potatoes, onions, cabbage, peas, carrots and so on. I learned that most of these vegetables have been braught to the region by dutch missionaries. Maybe they got bored after some time by the sweet potatoes!? Other local specialities are gold fish and sweet water prawns. The gold fish was quite nice and tasted much better than the one from the bowl in Europe.

Accomodation in the valley is quite basic. As far as I know there is only one lodge that meets western standards, “Baliem Valley Resort”. It starts at 100 EUR per night and is very remote, est. 45 mins from town. I stayed at Hotel Mas Budi which was basic, clean and centrally located, so I’d recommend it. The attached restaurant is nice and people quite friendly - even for Indonesia.

To go trekking you will need a guide. For some daytours you might do with a map only. If you go on your own trip for several days of trekking you will definitely get lost. I met an English guy who was looking for an accomodation in the valley, didn’t find any suitable and was running around without a guide like a headless chicken. Nearly nobody speaks English, even Bahasa Indonsia isn’t spoken everywhere.

If you’re looking for a place to sleep you might try a teachers house, some of the villages even have special huts set up for tourists. You are more the adventurous type and like insects a lot? Then you might sleep in a Dani’s cooking hut. Or in a Dani’s womens or mens hut: There’s an open fire at night and people sleep in a second storey. In the mornings they smell like smoked ham.

The local tribes are incredibly friendly. They like very long handshakes and seem to really try to feel the people that come around. Some of them have funny looking greeting rituals like “pull my finger”.

To set up your own trekking trip some stuff could be helpful:

• A mozzie repelent, even though this area shouldn’t be a malaria zone ’cause of it’s altitude
• A mosquito net
• Maybe some water purifier. My guide boiled water for 40 mins which should do as well, I didn’t get sick.
• You’re own sleeping bag and a mat. It’s getting cold at night. - And you might see the most impressive moon ever: There are absolutely no reflections coming from the valley, it’s totally dark. A dutch couple and me stayed in the same village and we had full moon. So we saw our shadows very sharp and would have been able to read a book. Fantastic.
• And - most important - you will need some people: an English speaking guide, a cook and porters. My guide cooked himself and did it very nicely. You will need one porter per person.

Trekking isn’t really hard, but if you’re not doing it on a regular basis you will most likely feel your muscles. Walking hours vary from 3 to 8 per day, depending where you’re going. You can go for daywalks, go for 2, 3 or whatever days you like. The most beautiful region in the valley is the south. If you got the time you might walk for several months to some now unexplored region, find an unknown tribe and spread some western diseases. Or you simply stay in Baliem Valley.

Besides that you need a ‘Surat Jalan’, a travel permit for all parts of Papua. You can get one at Sentani’s police station. It’s free of charge and takes you around an hour. Bring your passport, a photo, photocopies of your passport and your Indonesian visa. Afterwards make several copies. You will have to show this in a lot of places you’re going to visit. Name all areas you might go to when getting the Surat Jalan.

Most people come in July and August. When I visitied the valley in November the only westerners I met was this dutch couple. It has been raining occasionally, but that was totally ok.

To sum it up: It might not the easiest region to travel, but it’s quite rewarding. Breathtaking landscapes, very friendly people and a lot of ancient culture to explore. You really feel like traveling back in time. It’s way more expensive than the rest of Indonesia, but it’s worth it. I always felt safe and welcome in Papua.

Filed by Hartmut at November 27th, 2010 under Traveling