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getting there: Land or water routes to the Baliem are nearly impossible. Access is only down one air corridor into the valley, a 300 m escarpment in the northern pass. The plane flies through it and there it is. Either fly from Jayapura, the easiest, or else fly from the south coast from Kokonau, more difficult to arrange. There's a village, a government post, and an airstrip at Wamena in the southern part of the Grand Valley, the focal point for most tourists. Before you fly into the Baliem, change your money at a bank in Jayapura into stacks of red 100 rupiah notes. This is the only denomination the Danis accept. Only the chief recognizes the value of a Rp1000 note. In Wamena, get change, at the Catholic Mission near the Pertamina Hotel. climate: High bracing weather. The temperature is mild. Rainfall is moderate. The wettest month is Nov. and the driest are Jan. and February. Sept. through Oct. is the season of high winds lover 80 km an hour). Wind rises in the afternoon. It's fre quently cloudy except in the early morning when it's bright and all the surrounding mountains are in clear view accommodation: There are hotels in Wamena, but expensive. If you hike out to a Dani village, be sure that you're invited to enter their U-shaped compound otherwise it's like walking into a stranger's living room. Sleep as a guest in the hot smoky honnay (mens' roundhouse) which looks like a giant beehive. No furniture. Straw is spread over the floor and in the center a pit fire always burns. Ceilings are black with soot. About 1 % m above is the 2nd floor for sleeping. Charms, tools, fetishes, weapons are also kept there. Sleep in this smoky top section as the cooler bottom room is unbearably thick with mosquitoes. Anywhere in the valley where you see a corrugated iron roof, this means that it's the home of an Indonesian school teacher or a missionary and you can probably stay there. There are village school teachers at Kurima and at Woogi; they are quite glad to see you and they can speak English. Better to stay at Catholic missions in the Baliem rather than the Protestant ones (especially CAMA) since they enjoy better relations with the natives and aren't so rabid. Expect to pay about Rp1000 for food and bed at the missions.
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we must point out a very important distinction which the Balinese make between
two clearly separate groups of ancestors. The first of these groups consists
of the dead who are riot yet completely purified. This group is in turn subdivided
in pirata, those riot yet cremated, and pitara, those already cremated. The
former are still completely impure; the latter have been purified, but are still
considered as distinct, individual souls. The second group consists of the completely
purified ancestors who are considered as divine. Everything Bali Indonesia |
