Lake Sentani Cultural Festival

Today is the first day of the Lake Sentani Cultural Festival. I hadn’t planned on being here because the approximate dates in the guidebook didn’t quite fit in. But obviously there is some movement in the date year-to-year and I was lucky enough to be here for it.

After breakfast, I led a group of four other foreigners there. We had intended to catch a bemo but chartered one for a little more.

Being Indonesia there were lots of speeches but it culminated with a lot of dancing, most of which were on boats on the lake. Each “boat” was actually two tied together with a platform joining them. It was good to see the different tribes and their respective costumes performing.

While some might argue that it was a little Hollywood, it’s good to keep the culture alive as modernisation and the Indonesian influence has taken root considerably through the land.

We got back to the hotel around 1400 just in time before the rain set in. In the evening, the same group headed to Yougwa restaurant some 13km away on the lakeside for dinner. I learnt a bit from John and Tamrika about life on board a catamaran sailing around the world. In their case, it is a cushy vessel with four bedrooms so it isn’t exactly roughing it!