Danau Sentani Cultural Festival

My last mini-holiday in Indonesia (complete with my Indonesia holiday buddy, Cecilia) was to attend the first ever Danau Sentani Cultural Festival in Papua. It was an absolutely incredible experience, and certainly worth the expensive plane ticket from Sorong to Jayapura (provincial capital)! This was the first time I had been to another area of Papua, and the short visit only convinced me of one thing: the need to return!

I think my festival pictures will tell more than words, enjoy!































Of course, since the 'koteka' (penis gourd) is used only in mountain tribes, we didn't see any authentic ones, but in the souvenir shops there were many for sale; we thought this one was most-interestingly shaped!


One evening we went into Jayapura (the provincial capital), and we even got to meet Michael, the runner-up for this year's 'Indonesian Idol' (akin to American/Canadian Idol, except Indonesians are really fanatical about it)! He was one of the stars of the show.


We were staying at the best place on the whole lake as far as we were concerned! We were even able to access the festival site (several kilometers away) by boat instead of walking and using public busses in the insane heat!

Flores
The Land of Flowers

...or The Land of the Tube People, as I came to affectionately refer to it during my holiday there in May.

There are a few things synonymous with the island of Flores in Indonesia: the textiles, the flowers, and of course, the tri-coloured lakes.

My 'Tube People' reference has to do with the textiles and the temperature! After two years of living in coastal Indonesia (average temperatures easily over 30C during the day), I found it COLD in Flores (albeit not unhappily so!). Of course, I was mostly visiting the mountainous areas... because that is where my friend Sigit, another CUSO volunteer, lives! But it's not just me, and my newly-adapted coastal blood, Flores really is quite chilly! So... people use their fabulous thick, tightly woven sarongs as full-body wear to keep them warm.




Getting to Flores was an adventure in itself... because there are no direct flights to Bajawa (the small town in the central mountains where Sigit lives), I spent an enjoyable overnight in Kupang, West Timor. Next morning, bright and early, I report for my flight to Bajawa, with only a handful of other people... because that's all the plane can seat; we're flying in a small twin-engine with a 1-2 seating configuration! It was really windy, and the pilots were struggling to keep us steady... I think they were quite stressed, as they were smoking throughout the entire flight - no kidding!



There is only a curtain between the cockpit and the cabin... there was no doubt... I'm just not sure they didn't open their windows to ash as well!? Anyway, after THE craziest landing I've ever had (which entailed a literal hop, skip and jump, as well as breaking SIDEWAYS down the runway!) we deplaned... I swear I saw the captain kiss the ground!



Straight from the plane we visited the natural Mengeruda hot springs, which were perfectly relaxing after the hair-raising flight! (The beer Sigit brought helped as well!)


I was lucky to visit Sigit at a time when he had lots of field work to do; he works in Eco-tourism for the Ngada Regency, so his 'work' was my 'vacation'! We spent a lot of time on his motorcycle, blackie...



... and I really experienced WHY Flores is called 'the cape of flowers'; it honestly feels like you're driving through a gigantic wildflower garden!







I got to see an amazingly-varied amount of the island considering I was there for less than a week!


We went to Aimere on the South Coast...





Riung and the Seventeen Islands Marine Park on the North Coast...






The traditional village of Bene...



... and I made a side trip to some of the traditional weaving villages, and had lovely visits with the ladies...

I also got on the road at 4 am for a solo motorbike ride up to Kelimutu National Park, the home of the tri-coloured lakes... when I got there my hands were frozen around the handlebars and had to be pried off... luckily the hike up warmed me up, and there was a gentleman at the peak serving tea... aaahhh.



Visiting the lakes was a religious experience in itself, but of course, to top it off, I was joined mid-morning by a group of nuns and a priest (who also happen to be working in Sorong). I actually spent the entire morning up at the lookout, just hangin', reading, visiting with the unique characters that happened my way, and enjoying the colour changes as the sun rose higher in the sky... by the time I left, the middle lake appeared to be an opaque, chalky robin's egg blue.



I chose the perfect moment to come down from the summit, because it was about to be turned from my peaceful respite into a MAJOR party! As it turns out it was the continuation of a religious holiday and it included a 'pilgrimage' of sorts to this lake. So, as I was getting ready to leave....



I was also lucky enough to meet Sigit's good friends Mama Mia and Pak Lawrence; at their house I was introduced to the Florenese tradition called 'nalo' (the gathering, eating, drinking, and discussion of friends and family). Nalo inevitably involves 'moke'. I thoroughly enjoyed both the Nalo and the MOKE!


Moke is actually a mildly(?) alcoholic. It comes directly from a specific species of palm tree (below), and with no distillation or processing whatsoever it is a cloudy whitish liquid. It has a very unique, possibly acquired, taste!



Traditional ceremony in Narualsdkjf


I got stranded in Flores for an extra night by a plane breakdown (as Martin says, better before take-off than somewhere over the Flores Sea!)... but made the best of it, and went wandering around Ende, finding myself in my favourite situation... the market...


... and like almost everywhere else I've been in Indonesia, I am a bit of a star, gathering a fan club wherever I go... oh dear, what a let down it will be to be back home in Canada where I'm just another regular Canadian! haha!

Malls of a Million Wonders

Jakarta was really a bit of a culture shock in itself!

We stayed at a hotel not too far from one of the newest, largest malls in the city, Grand Indonesia, where you can basically travel around the world without even leaving the city!




Water show at the Empire State Building in 'New York'


Wandering around Arabia



Hanging at the Moulin Rouge...


... and the Roman balconies...


...to the streets of New York...


Then back out onto the streets of Jakarta... for a meal at a neat little street cafe

Buah Merah
(Red Fruit)



It's red, and it's a fruit... they hit this one BANG ON!

Maybe you remember the post I did a while back on Ants' Nests?

Well, this remedy is even more celebrated... everyone in Papua has a buah merah story... I've heard about some pretty miraculous cures that I'm not quite ready to pass off as fiction.

Buah Merah is heralded as THE ultimate natural medicine, curing everything from cancer, to paralysis, to diabetes, to aids!? Can we please get some samples of this into the lab to study!?!?! I couldn't find any official data, but several sites claim to have information that buah merah contains all kinds of antioxidants, multivitamins, minerals and antiviral compounds, to which it attributes its ability to defeat many different diseases.

So I went in search of this miracle cure... thinking I really can't go wrong! And hoping to check for a slightly processed version (meaning, well-packaged) that would make it through customs and border security. Turns out it's not that hard to find in Sorong, nor is it very expensive... I walked into the market, asked, and was directed to an area full of ants' nests and red fruits!



Good luck getting that across the boarder!

Latin name: Pandanus Conoideus Lam.
Geographic Distribution: Endemic to the Papuan central mountains; 2000-3000 m alt.
Uses: food, traditional medicine for cancer, cholesterol, rheumatics, diabetes, hypertension, lung spots, hepatitis, coronary problems including stroke, vision care (including prevention of blindness!), immune system problems, intestinal worms, skin disease, low-metabolism, to osteoporosis and HIV Aids.

Traditionally, as a food, it is cooked using a process called a 'Bakar Batu' ceremony. As a medicine, the liquid-gold oil is extracted from the 'skin' of the fruit and consumed alone or as a tea.



I will be starting my buah merah regimen immediately (apparently one teaspoon is enough for eternal life (or something like that, I didn't read the fine print). And luckily, buah merah oil is sold in sealed containers, so I will be able bring it home without being detained at the border for questioning!

FLOOOOD!

I'm not talking about anything on the scale of the New Orleans flood, or the Jakarta 2002 floods where hundreds of thousands were displaced from their homes; there was no heart-wrenching footage of entire families taking refuge on a make-shift raft as their roof gets swallowed by water... but last week our staff house flooded!

This is the first time we've had flood issues since being in Indonesia, but according to friends it had to happen sooner or later (most have experienced floods, and some on several occasion)! "Everyone has to have an Indonesian flood story to take home", consoled Cecilia!

In fact, the situation wasn't THAT dire... it was just the series of factors that came together: high tide ("so", in terminology I adored, a coworker said "the sea was full"), major garbage problem in Sorong (ie. blocking the gutters and sewers, and more devastatingly their outlets to the sea), heavy rainfall (duh!?), and a low-ish lying property. But the worst that happened for us was that a few things got a little wet... but they probably needed a good washing anyway (luckily nothing electronic)!

Of course, then yesterday it *almost* happened again... when I realized it had been raining on a torrential scale for quite some time, I rushed home to 'guard' against the floods (how does one do that exactly!?)... when I arrived the water was already surrounding the house in a dirty brown moat, and not a speck of the patio was showing, but it hadn't quite reached the doorways. After raising everything up off the floor and out of harm's way (including the clothes which were not quite dry from the thorough wash they got after the last event!), I spent two hours running from the front to the back doors, checking on the 'current situation' and readying 'dykes' at the doorways - haha!

The rain slowed, and we were safe... this time. Let's hope this isn't us in the future!