Kurima

Today was pretty low-key. Mickey and I took a rickety minivan filled with about 25 people from Wamena to a town called Sogokmo, where we began hiking through the South end of the valley. Hiking today reminded me a little bit of the two-week hike I did through the foothills of the Himalayas last year, except Papua is much warmer and the mountains here are a fraction of the height they are in Nepal. Still, we hiked up and down narrow trails traversing across the mountains, occasionally passing through tiny villages made of grass huts and crude stick fences. We hiked from Sogokmo to a town called Polimo, then followed something resembling an old road to a town called Kurima.

Nearly everyone I saw in the villages today was dressed in western clothes – usually a t-shirt and some cheap shorts. I wondered if the same villages used to be filled with people who dressed in the traditional outfits that indigenous people wear around here. Perhaps even the same people who live in the villages today used to dress that way, but have in recent years decided to dress according to western customs. Before coming to the Baliem Valley I imagined that it would be filled with people who still dress in traditional outfits and are more or less isolated from the outside world. Those people are still around, but I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that most people don’t dress that way. Besides that, who am I to say how these people should dress? To me it’s just a novelty – something to keep me entertained for a few days while visiting the area as a tourist. To these people it’s their lifestyle. Of course they should be welcome to dress however they want – and why wouldn’t they want to change with the times?

I’m happy with my visit to the Baliem Valley despite the apparent westernization of the culture. I’ve seen a handful of the indigenous people, which is what I came for, and I’ve had a few days to explore different parts of the valley. In retrospect it would have been better to have planned less time here; or even to have planned a week-long jaunt to a different location (I could have gone to Thailand or Australia, for example). With that said, there was no way for me to know what this place would really be like without actually visiting, and it’s exciting to be in such a different part of the world where so few people go.

Tomorrow will be my last day in the Baleim Valley, then on Sunday I’ll fly to Bali. I’m way excited for Bali. I can’t wait to just sit back and unwind for a week, enjoying the world-class beaches and surfing every day. Until then I’ll enjoy the valley – with one more day here I might even have some wild adventure that I didn’t see coming.