Flying to the Bird’s Head

It was an early flight departing at 0705 from Fak Fak to Sorong. I had made it to the airport by ojek. With a 0530 pick-up I was a wee bit nervous as to whether he would show up or not and it was only a small consolation having the driver’s number. There was a small risk of having the time wrong as I only after numerous trips to Indonesia that they express time differently (eg. 0530 is called setengah-enam, ie half-six, rather than lima-setengah, ie. five-and-a-half, as in Malaysia). I couldn’t believe it when I realised yesterday when I made arrangements for the ojek.

After check-in by a guy who had worked in Miri, I crossed into the departure area where I had a view of the apron area with three dogs hanging around. The flight actually left on the dot this time. Thanks, Wings Air; but it’s not like they were ever significantly late.

After about 40 minutes in the air, we landed at Sorong airport in the Bird’s Head peninsula. I didn’t mind things at the airport happening in slow motion as I had a lot of time to kill till my 1400 ferry departure to Waisai. But of course, my bag was first on the conveyor. I collected it and walked across to the JE Meriden hotel opposite the airport.

I paid for a buffet breakfast upstairs and whiled some time away. Frans Yoe, the owner of my accommodation at Toko Surya in Waisai was in town and came to meet me and help me with various information. He seemed like a nice guy. He was on his way to Manado for a holiday since the “Sail Raja Ampat” festival had been postponed due to adequate accommodation not being ready in town.

As breakfast closed up, I moved to the lobby where I paid for my Raja Ampat dive permit. For a change, a couple of ATMs didn’t work (ran out of money) and I had to find a third. Then back to the lobby for some more rest in the cool.

I took an ojek to the port. Halfway, we got stopped by the police. The driver got into trouble as an ojek driver was supposed to supply a helmet. He gave the cops IDR50K (NZD5) he said). I gave him that amount in addition to the IDR20K fare when we got to the port’s ticket stand.

He offered to take me all the way to the boat. But as we were entering the road from the gravel, he slipped and we fell to our left. I had some scratches but no open wounds. I then chose to walk to the ferry and boarded some 1.5h before departure.

It sure filled up and some people had to stand. I was glad I didn’t buy the ticket at the last minute. We left late but the journey was slightly less than the 2h that I had expected. Time went quickly talking to my neighbour and watching bits of two kungfu movies, one of which didn’t have subtitles. Strange!

At Waisai, I took an ojek on the hilly but straight, wide road to Toko Surya where I’d stay for two nights. It was basic and expensive for what it was. But this is Papua. Everything is expensive and Raja Ampat is worse, I hear. At IDR350K, it is about the same price as a 3-star hotel in Bangkok and twice what I had paid for Tune Hotel in Bali (including some options).

Apet, the worker in the shop took me out for dinner on his motorbike. It was grilled fish tonight along with kangkung (sweet potato vines).