Now I know where to go if I decide to permanently live in Papua. It’s Manokwari. Well, I haven’t been to Jayapura or Timika yet, but I could say that Manokwari is on top of the list for a place to live in Papua. I like the town. Compared to Sorong, Manokwari is far more “civilized”. It’s beautiful, clean, green, in orderly and not very crowded. Whereas it is hard to find streets without holes in Sorong, most streets in Manokwari are in good conditions and clean. Even the streets to the outskirts of the town as far as 80 km are very good (for Papuan standard).
Manokwari just recently became the capital of Papua Barat, the new province. [In case you wonder, it is a picture of fish in the beach of Manokwari]
The town is at the bay and is quite hilly. So the town has the beaches and the hillside. The beaches are clean and beautiful. There is also forest in the northern part of the town that belongs to the local college. You could take a small boat to go to the nearest, small islands like Mansinam where the first Christian missionaries (Dutch pastors) first set foot in the land of Papua in 1855. That’s why Manokwari is called the “Bible Town” (Kota Injil). In every corner you could find a picture of Jesus giving the blessing to the town.
Like other towns in Papua, Manokwari is a small town with perhaps only 2 or 3 main roads. There is 1 department store and some convenient stores in town but there is no (yet) a mall. So you could actually save up some up some money because there is nothing really to spend your money with.
Surprisingly, I saw some coffee shops here in Manokwari. These coffee shops look quite nice. I never see any coffee shops in Sorong. Well, yeah there are restaurants and pubs in Sorong but coffee shop is something different.
The only shortcoming or perhaps advantage of the place (depending on how you see it) is that no alcohol allowed in Manokwari. So, the only place where you could drink wine in Manokwari is in the church during the communion ;-). They’ve got quite some problems with alcohol here in Papua. By legally banning alcohol in town the government hopes to solve the alcohol problems. Effective? Hm ... I don't know. But the rumour has it that some people (those with lots of money obviously) fly to Sorong to get booze during the weekend.
So, perhaps Manokwari is a good place to raise your children. Don't you think? A beautiful and clean place without malls and alcohol. What more could you expect?
3 comments:
Manokwari does sound great, hopefully some day i'll have a chance to visit! -- esp cos of lack of shopping malls :):)
Sounds like the best place to live.
My late husband & I were drinkers since our 20's. With friends, family, work mates, & just made it part of our lives. Never knowing that it contains enough deadly power to permanently strike you with severe health damage, where there is NO cure!
Somehow, we've got to force our Governments to make it mandatory for all Liquor containers to bear large warning labels & raise the prices too. Exactly what's been done with Cigarettes.
Otherwise, what's going to happen to all our children?
If you'd like a copy of our entire story, 2 pages, just let me know.
Sincerely,
Sheila Joyce Gibbs
sjgibbs@shaw.ca
I suppose there's no internet either. Hmm, that would deprive the kids of the joys and benefits of Facebooking, Skyping and iPhoning.
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