Going with the flow

What this photo shows: me, Xander, and Zekey bobbing around on the waves with a lot of local kids at Tabula Nusa Beach, a gorgeously remote stretch of seaside about two hours west of the Papuan capital of Jayapura.

What it doesn't show: the relative height of the waves, which, at around two feet, weren't really dangerous, but strong enough to toss everyone around like so many assorted socks in a washing machine. Fortunately, unlike socks in the wash, nobody went missing. (One of those times where I had to squelch the Protective Dad instinct and watch the boys happily bob around and get smacked silly by an unexpected wave or two.)

Also not shown - many of the Papuan kids were eating corn on the cob, which, as Jane pointed out, is the perfect thing to eat while floating around on an inner tube in salt water. No butter, but the salt's all provided!

A few more pics, while we're at it... (Click to see them larger on Flickr)




Some of the local flotsam - a sprouted coconut and a cool spiny starfish of some kind.


Jane tried chewing betel nut, which turned her mouth a bright scarlet and made her an instant hit. Worthy of a post in and of itself...


And, yeah, I've posted this picture before, but have to do it again - if only to remind myself that I was there...

The plane is coming! Let's have a picnic!

Some related notes about flying in Indonesia before moving on - there aren't very many flights scheduled from Jakarta to West Papua, and the ones that are scheduled are a bit more, um, rustic than flights we've taken elsewhere. First, the distance from Jakarta to Jayapura is pretty huge - four or five hour's flight time, about the same as from LA to Florida in the US. (Okay, that's a rough guess - please correct me if I'm wrong.) It's made longer by two stops in between, during which everyone gets off the plane, the crew is changed, and then continuing passengers get back on the plane again for the next leg of the trip.

Second, the plane has seen a little more wear and tear than most airplanes that are flying around in other places. From the look of it, our 737 probably started its career flying between Dallas and Omaha sometime around 1977, and hadn't had any new seat upholstery installed since then. We made it there safely, stopping first at Makassar on the island of Sulawesi, then the small company-owned gold mining town of Timika in West Papua before arriving in Jayapura in the late afternoon.

The best part of the journey came on the way back, as we made our first stop on the small island of Biak. What made it? As we taxied around for takeoff, I noticed that there were all sorts of people, grouped along the edge of the runway. I was curious for a bit, then noticed the blankets, baskets of food, and even a vendor or two. Everyone was coming out for a picnic, and to watch the plane take off.

I was just starting to think how many milliseconds somebody would be able to even be inside of the security fence in an airport in the Sates before the National Guard would be called in and every single airport in the country closed, when we started our takeoff. As we accelerated, I watched the two kids in the picture above running alongside the runway, waving and smiling and (I assume) screaming with delight at the top of their lungs. Would that every airport in the world could be so...

Arrangements of things in no particular order, part 1

Starting the day right

Had a quite chaotic day yesterday, which started off with finding that my very old glasses were broken, and also included my wallet getting stolen at a bus stop, a very long wait to fill out the required (and universally useless) police report, and lots of time on the internet to the States canceling credit cards. So this morning, I'm beginning the day on the beach:


Oh yeah, I was there, too! Okay, yes, life can be pretty good as well. Now off to teach an 8:00 class. In a cold unheated classroom. But I'll be imagining palm trees....

Oh, by the way, we’re not in China anymore...

In case you were wondering where we were, the Slow Boat took a long plane ride to West Papua, Indonesia shortly after Christmas. We’re at the beginning of a (wow! gulp!) seven week vacation / business trip / travel adventure through Indonesia, Thailand, and a bit of Singapore at the end. No photos at the moment because 1) the internet is fairly slow where we are, and 2) after all, I am on vacation...

If you’re only keeping up with our adventures by reading this blog, it may come as a bit of a sudden switch, but trust us, we know what we’re doing here. (Well, we never know exactly what we’re doing, but at least we’ve been planning this trip for a while...) Why and how we got here is the subject for the next post (or twelve).

A warning - there’s still happenings in China from before Christmas that I ideally would like to write about, so there may not be too much in the way of chronological order or logical sequencing coming up. If you’ve stuck with us so far, however, this should come as no surprise. In any case, happy end of 2010 and beginning of 2011!