Raja Ampat, West Papua, Indonesia

Taken at: Arborek, Raja Ampat Regency, West Papua, Indonesia

Finally, in between this crazy thesis making process I unfortunately have to get through, I have found some time to write my impression about Papua. Unlike the previous travel stories that I have written, this one will be short and simple due to the limited time (and diligence LOL) that I have.

My family and I went to Papua for the first time 2 weeks ago. A trip to Papua was a trip that we dreamt together but weren’t sure when it would happen. It was a trip that my sister and I thought we would not have anytime soon after we went to Sumatra for the first time 4 months ago.

For those of you who haven’t known, Papua is the most eastern part of Indonesia. It is divided into 2 provinces, Papua, with the capital of Jayapura and West Papua, with the capital of Manokwari. Even though the capital of West Papua is Manokwari, the largest city in West Papua is Sorong. Since we chose to explore Raja Ampat Regency, we needed to fly to Sorong from Jakarta then from Sorong we had to take a ferry ride to Waisai, the capital of Raja Ampat Regency.

Here’s what I can tell you about Raja Ampat: Yes, it is a paradise. No, you don’t have to be rich to go to the paradise.

What I’m trying to say is please don’t be drown in some misconceptions about Raja Ampat. A lot of people think, “It’s expensive to go there.” “You’re just dreaming to go there.” “There’s no way you can go to Raja Ampat anytime soon.” or even “Wake up and forget it.”

Ladies and Gentlemen, what a BULLSHIT.

The airplane ticket to go there is quite expensive, that’s right, but it’s not as expensive as you thought it would be. It would depend on which airline you choose, the date of the departure, if it’s a direct flight with 1x transit or different flights with several times of transit and when you guys book the ticket. We paid around 3.400.000 IDR (240.21 USD or 205.12 EUR) for the round-trip ticket of Batik Air per each person (no transit for Jakarta-Sorong and 1x transit in Makassar for about 45 minutes for Sorong-Jakarta). You don’t need to stay at some fancy resorts in Raja Ampat (well, if you want to and your budget allows, that’s much better!) because the homestays there are actually very beautiful and comfortable too. My family and I stayed in Mambetron Homestay, in Mansuar Island and we (specifically I) loved the homestay so much. The beachfront view was excellent and the traditional Papuan design of each huts were amazing. It was definitely the real definition of going back to nature. Anyway, other than that, when you look for a travel agent to take care of the trip to Raja Ampat, keep this in mind: try to find a local travel agent from Papua. Because otherwise, they will charge you more if the travel agent is from Jakarta or another city that’s actually so far from Raja Ampat. The travel agent that we used was Wombon Swandiwe Homestay, owned by Mr. Brian, a local Papuan guy (contact me if you guys want his contact!).

In Raja Ampat, we explored several interesting parts, like Yenbuba Jetty, Telaga Bintang (Star Lagoon), Piaynemo, Arborek and Pasir Timbul.

Yenbuba Jetty was my sister, Wina’s favorite spot because it was an excellent spot to do some snorkelings. Telaga Bintang (literally means Star Lagoon) was a greenish blue lagoon that’s amazingly shaped like a star – it was so beautiful right there but the climbing was insane. We needed to do some rock (karst) climbing to get to the top of the hill to be able to see the star shape (seriously guys, if I knew how hard and challenging it would be, I wouldn’t have climbed at all and waited on the boat instead. I nearly couldn’t climb back down, you know!), so if you still want to go there brace yourselves. Piaynemo (often spelled Pianemo, Painemo or Penemu Island) was a mini Wayag (the climbing to Wayag was much more insane than the one to Telaga Bintang, we heard, so brace yourselves again if you want to go to Wayag :D), the view of the karst islands that looked like a group of some teardrop islands was very extraordinary and unforgettable. The excellent thing about climbing to the top of Piaynemo was we didn’t climb at all hahaha President Jokowi had made big, wooden stairs for us to reach the top of the hill so it was much, much, much better than the journey to the top of Telaga Bintang, indeed. Another destination was Arborek. Arborek was my favorite spot. The crystal clear water was… gorgeous. I had no idea the ocean water could be that clear for us to see the fishes and the coral reefs even without snorkeling or diving (even though it was a great place to do snorkeling and diving too). Several eco-friendly signs were also hung in this area (I shared about it in my Instagram post!) to remind the travellers to be environmentally conscious while they're there, so amazing, right? And the last destination was Pasir Timbul. Pasir Timbul (the type of the sand area that could only be seen when it’s low tide) was my mom’s favorite but for me it was just so-so, maybe because of the combination of these reasons: we were a bit late when we arrived there and the sand almost drowned, I was already so tired and constantly stressed out when my dad pointed out that I had a pretty bad sunburn on my back.

So overall, it was a very satisfying first-time trip to Papua. I kept telling Wina that it was not our only journey to Raja Ampat because I’m still so curious with Misool (another amazing part of Raja Ampat that unfortunately we haven’t explored yet but we surely will later) and I really, really want to go back to Arborek to stay there. I can’t wait either to go back there and explore Raja Ampat more with Kori and Bram again, the local Papuan guide of ours.

Therefore, do not believe in those misconceptions I told you guys in the beginning of this post. When people say we’re just dreaming to go to Raja Ampat, well, of course we are. It’s a paradise. How can’t we dream about it? And when those people say there’s no way of us to go to Raja Ampat anytime soon and to wake up and forget it instead, just smile and say, “Watch me.”