Wilderness cities in Asia’s final frontier

A woman cleans the inner bark of a sago palm tree, preparing to turn it into a makeshift basin that she will use to wash ground sago pith. PHOTO: LI-ANN TAN AND JON SONG

A FRIEND once declared emphatically: “If you’ve been to only Bali, you’ve not been to Indonesia.”

Having spent three months in the stunning wilderness of Papua recently, we will readily add: “If you’ve not been to Papua, you’ve not seen the best of South-east Asia.”

Papua, often confused with Papua New Guinea, is Indonesia’s easternmost province.

It is popularly known for the Raja Ampat diver’s paradise, but those with a serious penchant for off-the-beaten-track travels venture in search of the island’s once-cannibalistic tribes, whose way of life is under threat by encroaching tourism and the modern economy.

Many of them still dress in little more than a “koteka” (penis sheath) or grass skirt, but that too is rapidly changing.

Getting to Papua is an adventure in itself. There are no international flights into the capital Jayapura, and we fly in via Manado, another Indonesian city.

Just as we are about to exit the airport, we are stopped by roving immigration officers who ask us a slew of questions and proceed to take photos of us with their smartphones.

There is a palpable air of tension as we wander around town on foot. Unlike other parts of Indonesia we had travelled to, we find homes here heavily gated with their entrances secured with locks, while many shops transact through iron grilles.

We begin to understand why Papua is oft-avoided for its political instability and “dangers”, in part attributed to a decades-old guerilla independence movement.

Thankfully, we push past that initial feeling of apprehension to discover up close some of the centuries-old customs of Papua’s tribal communities and its astounding nature, all of which characterise it as Asia’s undoubted last frontier.

Jayapura: First taste of the wild

Jayapura is like no capital city we have seen, home to dozens of ethnic tribes and offering a real taste of the wild right at its doorstep.

It is home to Lake Sentani, the ancestral settlement and source of life for many indigenous tribes who live around the enormous, pristine water body.

We rent a motorbike and ride to a gritty harbour, Pantai Yahim, and board a local boat for S$1 (RM3.30) to Yoboi Village. Here, tribal communities live in floating stilt houses and subsist off the land.

We wander into the thick forest surrounding the village and stumble upon a family harvesting sago from trees to make “papeda”, a glue-like carb-rich paste that they eat in place of rice.

From the patriarch to the grandchildren, everyone works with a rhythmic familiarity, first removing the bark of the sago palm tree, then grinding the pith and washing it to produce the prized sago paste.

The women nimbly weave palm fronds into a sieve to drain liquid from the sago pith and fashion skewers out of the fronds to barbecue fish. Nothing in the forest is wasted.

The men then gesture us to follow them deeper into the forest. They take us to a felled sago tree, where they proceed to tear open its rotting bark to reveal a thriving colony of squirming beetle larvae feeding voraciously on the starchy pith.

One of the men casually pops a big fat larva into his mouth and gestures us to follow suit. We hesitate. Our intrepidness clearly has limits.

Sensing our discomfort, another man takes us back to his family encampment, where a fire is already blazing.

They skewer the sago larvae with palm fronds, barbecue them and offer them to us again.

Declining again would be impolite, so we gingerly pop one into our mouths and hope for the best.

We are amazed at how tasty the grub turns out – much like the crispy chicken skin we enjoy in Japanese izakayas, but way better. From that moment, we are fighting with the kids to eat the rest of it.

To thank the family for the unforgettable afternoon, we buy and cart back to our guest house a 3kg sack of sago flour that we later learn to cook into “papeda”, the gooey staple we grow to love.

Wamena: Gateway to the highlands

After our taste of Jayapura, we decide to head further inland – to the Baliem Valley, home to the fabled highland tribes.

We first encounter traditional natives in Wamena, the gateway town to Papua’s central highlands.

Landing in the city after a short flight on a turboprop aircraft, we emerge into pleasant 20ºC weather that reminds us just how geographically massive Papua – and Indonesia – is.

The hotbed of a fledgling independence movement, Wamena still bears the scars of violent conflicts – just three years ago, racial riots killed more than 30 people.

As we wander the streets, we see the wave of destruction left in its wake – abandoned shells of buildings and homes with reinforced iron gates. There is an unspoken curfew, and we are advised by the owners at Pintu Biru Hostel – where we put up in Wamena – not to leave the hostel after dark.

We explore the town in the morning and are taken by its natural charm. On our way to the sprawling local markets, where tribespeople descend from their mountain homes to sell their fresh harvests, we walk past houses that are beautifully landscaped with home-grown, edible produce.

We chat with men who roam the streets dressed in little more than their kotekas and elaborate headdress – evidence of their refusal to depart from their traditional customs.

Wamena is a hiker’s paradise, a portal to the Baliem Valley, which caters to beginner trekkers looking for a day trip and experienced hikers game to spend a week or more in the highland forests.

However, within just a two-hour hike from the city, it is possible to reach the villages of Aikima and Jiwika, where the Dani tribe still keeps on display 300-year-old mummies of its ancient leaders.

It charges a fee ranging from S$15 to S$20 (RM49 to RM66) for photographs, reflecting its keen awareness of the modern tourism trade.

Agats: City in the swampPapua is a land of extremes, a diverse nation of peoples from the mountains, lowlands, jungles and swamplands.

After our highland adventure, we decide to experience another region and head to Agats, capital of the Asmat region – home to the “swamp” tribe.

Our flight to Asmat is a portent of what is to come. The plane is delayed by two hours and, upon landing, we realise why.

The airport and town are built on a marshy bog, where water flows 3km inland during high tide. The airport runway had been flooded prior to our landing, and we learn that it is not uncommon for travellers to be stranded for days due to irregular tidal patterns.

To get to Agats, which is accessible only by boat, we hop onto an “ojek” (motorbike riders who solicit clients in person rather than off a tech platform), which cruises across raised wooden planks to a harbour where we board a speedboat.

On arrival, we are greeted by our host family, whom we met in Jayapura and invited us to stay with them. As we cruise around the town, something feels strangely off.

Because Agats is built on a swamp, the whole town is raised on 3m-high stilts and the streets are made from raised wooden planks instead of tarred roads.

We see dozens of motorcycles zipping by, but Agats is eerily quiet compared with the usual bustle of Indonesian towns.

Our hosts tell us the town’s entire vehicular fleet (save for emergency vehicles) runs on electricity, and we are amazed at how tradition and modernity collide here. Though their lives are highly subject to the whims of the weather, their transport infrastructure is advanced and eco-friendly.We explore the town on electric motorbike, and our hosts show us a slew of modern facilities all built on stilts above the swamp, including Asmat’s only hospital, a fledgling radio station and a museum where a mummified 5m giant crocodile is displayed.

During our time in Agats, we learn how residents came to adapt to living in a swamp. Rainwater used to be their main source of water and, till now, some still have their water buckets hanging outside their houses.

Homes are also maintained and raised frequently, as the wooden stilts they are built on sink deeper into the mud over time.

We visit a family who cook us a meal – barbecued sago balls, sago pancakes and roasted sago – showing the locals’ reliance on sago palm trees that grow natively in the swamp. Their home is a stilt house, cradled in a muddy swamp teeming with mudskippers.Like Wamena, Agats serves as a gateway to the inner areas of the swamplands, all of which can be accessed only by boat, some taking as long as six hours one way on a speedboat.

Even as we look forward to more tribal experiences that await us in the depths of inner Papua, we are taken by the ruggedness of its wilderness cities, shaped by communities torn between moving forward and holding on.

As they find a way to delicately balance tradition and modernity, Papua’s cities and people continue to remain beautifully stuck in a different time.

Travel pro tips

Cash is king: Papua is Indonesia’s largest island, with over 70% of its land covered in dense forest. Travel can be very costly as airplanes are practically the only mode of transport between different regions. Most airlines do not take credit card payment for flights booked between one and three days before departure, so bring sufficient cash with you.

Due to Papua’s challenges in connectivity, food and supplies are generally expensive. The best way to pay for goods is to use cash.Festival circuit: Many festivals take place throughout the year, which is ideal for time-strapped travellers who want to experience local culture.

The popular Baliem Valley Festival takes place around June and travellers can experience the Dani tribe in its full glory – with their traditional clothes (or rather the lack thereof), mock war parties and feasting on pigs cooked in earthen pits filled with hot stones.

Agats hosts the not-to-be-missed Asmat Pokman Festival around October, showcasing the best of its tribal culture such as massive wood carvings and elaborate war dances.

Licence to travel: A travel permit called the “Surat Jalan” is required to travel through the more remote areas of Papua. You can apply for it with your passport and a photo, and receive it instantly at the regional police stations of larger capital cities such as Jayapura, Sorong and Manokwari.Plan your trip well to avoid having to turn back for your permit. — The Straits Times/ANN