Fun Times...

Hugo and I are back from our 2 night-3 day get-a-way at the beautiful Swiss-Belhotel in Jayapura. (The 4 oldest kids stayed with friends and Brynnie stayed home with Rita and her daughters) Located on the ocean-front, the Swiss-Belhotel offers a stunning view of the harbour of Jayapura where you can watch container ships being unloaded, well, all day if you wish. From the other side of the hotel you are treated to the view of the street in front of the hotel and the crumbling, or, in the process of being built, concrete buildings. The hotel is like an oasis, it really is. This is actually the only hotel around that we would voluntarily stay at. It is actually really quite nice.
We drove to Jayapura on our motorbike and not 15 minutes into what was feeling like a wobbly ride, our back tire was flat… What to do? We asked a guy what we should do and he said to ask his friend for help as he had some dead fish that needed to get into a fridge. So we asked the friend and after much discussion and deliberation, it was decided that as I was the lightest person I would sit as far forward on the seat as possible and drive it to the nearest tire repair place while the guy gave Hugo a ride and followed behind. So we putt-putted our way to a tire repair place. The guy didn’t even want any money for helping us. What a guy! Well, we needed a whole new tire so the tire guy went out and bought us a tire and put it on the bike along with a brand new Honda brand inner tube… And off we went and the ride was much smoother after that….
Our first evening we dined next to an anatomically correct Papuan man… wooden carving… Yikes, it is best to view this carving from the front where his shield is strategically located… Unfortunately, there was no lettuce, so salads were out. But they had plenty of chicken and freshly caught fish for the grill, yummy! Sadly, they were also out of ice cream so we were forced to walk to the nearest StarMart to fulfill that craving… For lunch the next day, we drove to a town about 15 minutes away and ate at a new pizza place there. This restaurant, which decorated in only black and white giving it a sterile feeling-so unusual for here, was started by a man (can’t remember his name) from Victoria. It’s called Sarpino’s and the colours and logo look suspiciously like the Panagopolous logo. The pizza was amazing, fresh mushrooms (WOW!!!) and other fresh veggies and a crisp salad of iceberg lettuce on the side (WOW!!!-iceberg lettuce in Papua????). Okay, you get the idea…
Then we walked the streets of Jayapura. I would liken it to playing a game of Mario Brothers. Watch out for the open pits of sewage water and garbage, look out for the hunks of concrete scattered around and the pools of beetle nut spit. Watch out for that scary guy following you… Ignore that weird guy calling out to you… Watch out for that motorbike!! We saw no other white people the entire time we were walking around the city. You feel as though you are an alien, especially when you see people nudging their friends and looking over at you… Anyways, we did manage to find some nice little gold hoop earings for Brynnie. She’d still been wearing her piercing studs which are not gold. There are lots and lots of people buying and selling gold in Jayapura. We bought from a street vendor because half a gram of gold from them was 35,000 cheaper than from a store. No taxes or rent when you’re a street vendor. The gold is 23 karet here. In South Papua there is the world’s largest single gold deposit at the Freeport Mine. I guess that would explain the big gold market here.
Each morning as we left our hotel room and walked through the hallway, we were treated to the chirping of birds. The night before we left they came and made up our bed (yes mom, I didn’t make the bed…) and left a little bag of chocolate on top of a survey they really, really wanted us to fill in. I told them I was quite happy with the hotel, but that the orange carpet in the rooms really had to go… Okay, it was dark orange but still rather reminiscent of the 70’s…
Fun times in Jayapura! Have a great weekend!