The Last Civilization

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  Wamena, Papua Barat, Indonesia
Thursday, May 6, 2010

The Baliem Valley is a vast expanse of mountains in West Papua (not to be confused with Papua New Guinea, which is an independent country occupying the eastern side of Papua), and was in fact believed to be uninhabited until 1938, when an airplane flying overhead saw that there were people living in the hills. It was actually the last civilization on earth to be discovered, and is home to over several hundred thousand indigenous peoples (the exact number is unknown). Although there are many tribes in the area, the Dani predominately occupy the areas nearest to Wamena. Because the Dani were isolated for so many years (up until the "white man's" discovery of them), they thrive on subsistence living, growing their own crops and using Neolithic-age tools made from stone and wood. Many of the men living in the hills still sport the traditional “koteka” (penis gourds) and many of the women wear traditional woven skirts with no shirts (see attached pictures). It is this “last civilization” which I was seeking when I decided to go to Wamena…

Wamena:

There are only two ways to get to Wamena from Jayapura: One month of hiking through the jungle or a 45 minute flight. While a month of hiking sounds adventurous, I did not have a month to spare (nor the resources for it), so I decided to take a flight. After two days of trying to get a plane ticket, special permit (required), and guide for the Baliem Valley, I showed up at the Sentani (Jayapura) airport with nothing but the permit, a reservation for a one way flight to Wamena, and the phone number of a friend of a friend of a friend, who leads trekking tours around the Baliem Valley. As the plane started its descent, Wamena came into view as a small but bustling town surrounded by giant mountains covered in white, fluffy clouds. Upon arrival at Wamena airport, a Papuan (named Harry) struck up a conversation with me in decent English, guided me to the police room where I had to show my special permit, showed me where to by a return ticket to Jayapura, and walked me to my hotel. I was prepared to reluctantly give him money for his services, but when we arrived at the hotel I realized that what he wanted was to be my trekking guide. Knowing that I had the phone number of the other guy (the friend of a friend of a friend) in hand, I let Harry make me an offer. He explained to me where we would hike and what villages we would visit and quoted me a price of $250. I wanted to first check my options with the other guy, so I told Harry I would call him later if I was interested. Then I texted the other guy (Utung), who wanted $800 for a similar trip, and when I told him that was too expensive, he went down to $500. Thanks, but no thanks, I told him, and called Harry to tell him we would leave tomorrow if he would do it for $200. After testing my seasoned bargaining skills (Thanks Dad!), he agreed on $210. After a nap in my tiny, cockroach infested hotel room, I walked around for a little bit. Very few people in Wamena speak English, and I managed to get by on my very limited knowledge of Bahasa Indonesia. I don’t think I could have survived without it, actually. (Thanks Tiffany!) Walking around Wamena also made me realize that I never want to be famous. Papuans are friendly people, and while I never detected a hint of malignancy, they all stared at me with either intense curiosity or amusement, and sometimes yelled to their friends and pointed at me. I was never scared, but I felt a little uncomfortable (okay VERY uncomfortable). Harry had agreed to take me to the market, which I was thankful for, because I didn’t want to go it alone. The market was a bustling array of traditional woven bags, native fruits, and cheap imitations of Western-style clothing. I attracted no less attention at the market, being the only white person in sight. I bought a couple of the hand-woven bags, and put them on my head, mimicking the way the locals wear them. This amused everyone at the market, and attracted lots of giggles and smiles. There is literally nothing to do at night in Wamena (alcohol is illegal and I couldn’t very well go strike up a conversation with someone in Bahasa Indonesia), so I went to bed very early.

The Baliem Valley:

In the morning, Harry picked me up at the hotel, and after one tuk-tuk (a guy riding a bicycle barefoot with a carriage on the front to sit in) and two extremely crowded and bumpy truck rides, we started hiking. A couple of the locals that were in the truck with us were heading the same direction so we all started off together: Harry, myself, two village women carrying huge bags of food on their heads, and their children. After a little while we crossed a river, and as soon as I got to the other side I kept walking, with Harry behind me. He yelled at me to stop but it was too late. I stepped into a quicksand-like pile of mud. My foot started sinking and I pulled my foot out only to lose my shoe in it. Harry fished it out for me and I put the muddy thing back on to wash later in the next river. The whole scene delighted the local women and children, we all had a good laugh, which continued for about 20 minutes. This is good, I thought – even though we can’t speak each other’s language, we can bond over the naivety of a foreigner. Ha Ha. After the women reached their village, Harry and I continued alone. The scenery on the hike was incredible – we were hiking on the ridge of the mountains with a view of the valley below, a roaring river running through the middle. Every so often we would hike through a village, and every single person we passed would greet us hello and shake our hands. I cannot stress enough how friendly these people are! After several hours, we arrived at Wakima, the village where we would spend the night in a traditional Dani hut (see picture below). We were greeted by little kids running around playing and elders dressed in the traditional hill tribe attire (penis gourds and hand-woven skirts). We were exhausted from hiking all day, and after a delicious meal of fish in a tomato garlic sauce and curried vegetables, I went to sleep. It rained all night, so the next day we decided to take it easy; We left our packs in the village, scaled a couple of mountains, and returned to the village in time for dinner. The mountains were steep and slippery and I fell a couple of times. We also lost the path a few times and ended up hiking in brambly bushes up to our waists, resulting in several new scrapes and cuts on my legs. Eh! All in a day’s work! On our last day, we hiked out, this time sticking to the valley floor. The views were no less stunning than from the mountain tops, and we passed through several more villages filled with people eager to greet us. All in all it was an amazing three days! We arrived back in Wamena in the afternoon. I spent the rest of the day eating, reading, and sleeping, and caught a very early flight back to Jayapura the next morning. (And just a side note: There is zero security at the Wamena airport. I did not pass through a metal detector, nor put my bags through an x ray machine. No one even bothered to look in my bag! Made me feel very secure on that flight! But then again, in whose interest is it to do something to a flight from Wamena to Jayapura??)

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Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

A guy brought a pig onto the public bus   Comments!	Our first hiking companions	The river crossing where I stepped in mud	Villagers taking in the view
Traditional Dani attire (the penis gourd)	Village	Beautiful-ness	Where I slept
The village shower	Yumminess	He wanted me to stay and live with him haha   Comments!	Traditional village elder
Two villagers	Traditional woman	Ah serenity!	The Baliem River
...lookin down on creation	Pondering the meaning of life	Potatoes I think	This is about where Harry lost the trail
More beauty	Another view of the river	Cute village kids	Village on the river
I wonder if she realizes how beautiful this is...   Comments!	Yep	The Wamena airport   Comments!	Kids playing in their "backyard"

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