From A Distant Land

I’m just being thrown to a far-away land. Welcome to Papua! I finally landed in Sorong, Papua on September 1st, 2007 after a long flight with 2 layovers (that means 3 takeoffs and 3 landings … phew!).

A new episode has just begun.

I was told by the Archdiocese with whom I flew to Papua that Sorong was actually quite big of a town. Hm, I didn’t quite believe him and I chose to play safe. So, I brought so many stuffs with me thinking that Papua was “supposedly” the least developed region in Indonesia where you could not find anything but only the very, very basic stuffs. I packed my bag like I was about to go to South Pole or Timbuktu or somewhere like that. Fortunately, they didn’t charge me for the overload baggage. But to my disappointment, I soon found out that Sorong had almost everything I needed! I could find my shampoo, my soap, my milk, my tissue there ;-). I also could easily find satay, soto, martabak, Chinese food. And, they even have KFC! Ah, there goes my exotic, tribal island! There goes my plan to use this chance of forcing myself to go on diet based on the knowledge that the food would be so plain. Truly disappointing!

Wait, but that’s only Sorong, the city, that I know only for 3 days now. The truth of the matter is I ain’t seen nothing yet for I haven’t been to those remote places, up in the mountain, or to other part of Papua which I’m sure would captivate me. So, I shouldn’t kill that hope yet ;-).

Another surprise is to see so many non-Papuan here in Sorong. Some people even told me that the non Papuan actually outnumber the native Papuan. They mostly come from Sulawesi (Makassar, Toraja, Manado), East Nusa Tenggara, Ambon, Java and I see some Chinese. But it all makes sense because Sorong, being a harbour, is actually a gate to Papua island, the “closest” to Indonesia ;-).

I’m interested to find out more about the people. It should be interesting. I’ve already heard about the heavy drinking habit and BNS (Baku Naik Sembarang) the free sex culture that placed Papua as the region with the highest rate of HIV/AIDS infection. But for now, let’s hold all the judgment …