It was raining heavily at 0400 when I woke in Biak. I had arranged for the hotel staff to take me to the airport by motorbike. It was wet; I had a raincoat as pillion and he didn’t. He would have been wetter.
I was the only one at check-in. The agent there stood up and greeted me with hands in prayer position; this seems to be the Garuda trademark greeting and they require it from even their contract staff, it seems (the check-in agent did not work for Garuda).
Moving into the departure hall, I got quite cold from being wet. I sat for about an hour before we boarded the 1h flight to Jayapura. The 0555 departure ended being about 15 minutes late as we had to be bused (rather than walk) to the plane due to the rain.
Upon arrival at Jayapura’s airport, I walked to the Rasen Hotel in the nearby Sentani township were I would spend the night (instead of going about 40km to Jayapura).
After a brief rest, I took an ojek up to the MacArthur monument. This commemorates the famous General’s presence here where he set up his base in preparation for attacking the Philippines in 1944. The monument was inconspicuous but the view of the lake and airport area was very panoramic.
Next I took a taksi (shared van) to Kampung Harapan where I transferred to an ojek to Kalkhote. I waited at Kalkhote for a boat to Pulau Asei but wasn’t quite sure if I had to charter one or wait for a regular service. I asked around but didn’t get a good answer.
Eventually a Papuan man and his Jakartan wife wanted to go as well and we ended up going together. She is Muslim and he converted to marry her. We walked up to the church which was built in 1950 and visited the inside together.
Pulau Asei’s specialty is bark paintings (paintings on flattened bark). There were some for sale and lots of pigs running around. It was also refreshing to see kids playing outside here instead of on an iPad!
I got back to the hotel and by about 1400 I felt like I had done so much and was ready for bed. I resisted the urge to sleep but instead used the very intermittent hotel wifi to write and upload photos at a tediously slow pace.
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- Lake Sentani as we come into land at Jayapura’s Sentani airport.
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- Waste not, want not. The hotel leaves partial bottles of water consumed by other guests for me. In addition to my allocation of two bottles.
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- View of the Sentani area from MacArthur monument.
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- MacArthur monument.
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- Meals on wheels. Mobile kitchen on motorbike.
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- Looking from Kalkhote towards Pulau Asei.
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- Jetty at Kalkhote.
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- Looking from Kalkhote towards Pulau Asei.
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- Boys playing on the jetty at Kalkhote.
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- On the ferry to Pulau Asei.
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- Pulau Asei.
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- Pigs at Pulau Asei.
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- Family on their boat at Pulau Asei.
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- The church at Pulau Asei dates back to around 1950.
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- The church at Pulau Asei dates back to around 1950.
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- In some jurisdictions in Malaysia, Christians cannot refer to God as Allah.
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- Bark paintings for which Pulau Asei is famous for.
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- Kids playing on Pulau Asei.
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- Leaving Pulau Asei.
