Izzy Travel Notes

It was over the weekend…

I went for a trip to Jayapura, the capital of Papua province, 1 hour flight from Timika where I currently reside. I’ve never been at Jayapura before, so it was a good chance for me to explore the city and its surrounding area, even though I only had 1 and half days to do that, because by Sunday morning I had to depart early to the airport, flying back to Timika…

Friday, we arrived at Sentani airport at 10 in the morning after 1 hour flight from Timika. After stopping by at my friend’s parents in Abepura, around 45 minutes from Sentani, we went straight to Jayapura, another 30 minutes road trip from Abepura. Checked-in to the hotel, took a couple of hours for friday prayers, and we were ready to start exploring…

We started with lunch at a restaurant named ‘Bagus Pandang’, a place on top of the hill where the stunning view of Humboldt Bay with Jayapura City at the shoreline lays down in front of us. Forget the lunch! I took out my camera, setup tripod and started taking pictures…

Next target was Base-G beach, 30 minutes off Jayapura. People used to go to this beach for recreation at weekend. But is was still Friday afternoon, so there were not too many people around and the beach was quiet and peaceful. After paying the entrance fee, we started to look around. There are empty benches along the beach we could use to take a rest. Well, it looks like empty and nobody cares about it. But once you place your belongings, take a seat or lie down on the bench, the ‘owner’ will show up and ask for rental fee . It goes just the same with the beach itself. Eventually the beach shore was already ‘divided’ and each block has its owner who will charge you fees for ‘a walk on the beach’ or ‘photo taking’. But don’t worry, the fee is very cheap though, only 10,000 Rupiah max…

We also went to TVRI tower, a place on top of a steep hill where a big sign ‘JAYAPURA CITY’ that can be seen from the city is also placed. The evening view is spectacular, with Jayapura city lights blinking down there, along the shoreline of Humboldt Bay (BTW, this bay is also known as Yos Sudarso Bay, named after an Indonesian navy hero during the war against the Dutch, back then in the 60’s). Too bad, it was a cloudy evening. And by the time the sky was a little bit clearer, it was too dark to take a good evening shot…

Saturday, the plan was sunrise hunting along the bay shoreline. Again, the plan was hampered with clouds! No sunrise pictures then. We ended up taking a walk to a floating fishermen village nearby the hotel, had a chat with the people and taking few photos…

If you intend to go out from your hotel early in the morning for any reason and plan to have breakfast outside the hotel, you might want to reconsider your plan. It is very difficult to find a restaurant, or even ‘warung’, to have breakfast at Jayapura. After quite a while, finally we found one small ‘warung’ that serve porridge. Well, at least we had something to eat. Next time, I don’t wanna get out from the hotel before I had some breakfast…

We then took off again, heading to Holtekamp beach, around 30km east of Jayapura. It took us around 90 minutes to get there, the last 30 minutes was a land cruise trip via country roads. And from there, we went for another 1 hour land cruise trip to reach Skouw beach. Both beaches are potential, waiting for incoming investment to make it a beautiful resort. Skouw is a beauty. With the shoreline directly facing to the Pacific ocean, it gives you a stunning scene that makes you want to stay longer. It’s just a pity that lumber  debris are everywhere, awashed by the ocean along the shoreline. I wonder, it must be coming from (illegal ?) logging sites that we’ve seen on the way to the beach. The debris must have been came down by the river to the sea and washed back to the shoreline…

On the way back to Jayapura, we stopped by at one of eating places at Koya. There are lots of similar eating places along the road, mostly were arranged and managed by Javanese people, serving fresh fish, grilled or fried, and sauted vegetables. They also provide you benches around the fish pond, where you can relax or even do some fishing. These people were located there by the government years ago in ‘Program Transmigrasi’, where the government tried to reduce Java’s population density by spreading them out (especially people from Java countryside). It seems like they’ve already earned their success now…

Last target was lake Sentani, 30 minutes land trip heading to the west of Abepura. The plan was to shoot some spectacular sunset views. No luck though, the clouds were with us again. We still hoped the weather would be a little bit friendlier when we went to McArthur Hill, a hill where US General Douglas McArthur once had his quarter during WW-II. There is also a memorial dedicated to him, located on top of the hill. We would have been able to see the beautiful lake Sentani from here should the clouds were not there. Even worse, it even became a hard pouring rain. We then decided to go down to the lake shore, luckily the weather was a little bit better, allowing us to rent a boat to go to some small islands at the middle of the lake, doing some souvenir shopping (bargaining is a must !!!), and then went back to Jayapura again.

Not a bad trip though. While packing at my hotel room, I’ve already made a plan to go back here someday. But it needs to be longer than just a weekend, and I’ll make sure to check the local weather forecast report first before deciding to visit Jayapura again next time…

* Photos from my trip to Jayapura can be found at:

http://www.ismawanismail.com/gallery/index.php?/category/jayapura