::Jayapura and Sentani - Papua Travel Guide ::
Jayapura City (Indonesian:
Kota Jayapura) is the
capital of Papua province, Indonesia, on the island of
New Guinea. The approximate population in 2002 was
200,000.
The city is situated on a bay called Teluk Yos Sudarso
(formerly known as Humboldt Bay).
History
From 1910 to 1962
the city was known as Hollandia and was the capital of a
district of the same name in the northeast of West New
Guinea. The city was renamed as Kota Baru for the United
Nations ceremony of 1st May 1963.
The northern part of Dutch New Guinea was occupied by
Japanese forces in 1942. Allied forces drove out the
Japanese after amphibious landings near Hollandia, from
April 21, 1944. The area served as General Douglas
MacArthur's headquarters until the conquest of the
Philippines in March 1945. Over twenty U.S. bases were
established and half a million US personnel moved
through the area.[citation needed]
In 1945, the Dutch made Hollandia the capital of
Netherlands New Guinea. After the territory was handed
over to the United Nations, on October 1, 1962,
the city became known by the Indonesian name Kota Baru,
and retained the name when Indonesia took control, on
May 1, 1963. The city was briefly renamed Sukarnopura,
after President Sukarno, until the end of 1968, when it
acquired its present name. The literal meaning of
Jayapura is 'City of Victory' (Sanskrit jaya: "military
victory"; pura: "city").
Jayapura is the capital of
the Indonesian-administered territory of Irian Jaya,
otherwise known as West Papua. The Indonesian Consulate
in Vanimo issues visitors visas for Jayapura. Passports
lodged in the morning will be ready by afternoon. A
small fee is payable.
Tourists who are wanting to travel further into
Indonesian territory than Jayapura will need to wait
longer for their visas to be issued as the consulate may
have to refer your application to the embassy in Port
Moresby.
There are no regular air or sea links between PNG and
Jayapura. Light aircraft can be chartered from Vanimo to
do the trip (the flight takes around 30 minutes) but
this is relatively expensive unless you are travelling
in a group of 4 or more. Small boats and fibreglass
dinghies travel regularly betwen Vanimo and Jayapura and
by asking around the waterfront you may be lucky enough
to catch a ride although it may not be at a time
convenient to you. You will still be expected to pay for
your seat and the amount will depend on who you're
going with and how many other passengers they're
carrying, as the aim is usually to spread the cost of
fuel between the people taking the trip. However, be
warned that small boats and dinghies are often used to
smuggle contraband goods into Jayapura for sale and you
may unwittingly get caught up in a difficult situation
if your dinghy is intercepted by an Indonesian Navy or
Customs patrol boat and found to be carrying contraband.
The most commonly smuggled goods are vanilla beans and
alluvial gold (smuggled to avoid PNG export controls and
taxes), and marijuana. You should also be aware that the
route to Jayapura is deep, open sea and dinghies often
do not carry adequate safety equipment. As a passenger
you will have no control over the amount of cargo or
passengers being carried in the dinghy, or the state of
sobriety of the driver. If the dinghy happens to be
capsized by a wave you will at the very least lose all
of your belongings. In general we do not recommend
travelling to Jayapura by dinghy.
Most
tourists travel by road. The most difficult part is
getting from Vanimo to the border post at Wutung. There
are PMVs but they are not frequent or regular. There are
no taxis in Vanimo although Visser Enterprises does have
cars for hire and it is possible to make an arrangement
for them to take you to the border and come back to pick
you up on your return. We don't have costs available for
this but it will not be particularly cheap; probably
around K200 per trip.
It's possible to hitch a lift with a private, company or
government vehicle which is making the trip to Wutung.
If you stand by the side of the road out of town with
your bag and look like you're hoping for a lift
somewhere, most vehicles will stop and ask you where
you're going. If you start early enough, you're bound to
get lucky eventually. Thursdays and Fridays are the best
days to catch a lift as these are the days when Vanimo
people most commonly travel to Jayapura for the weekend.
Before leaving Vanimo you may need to change some money.
The banks in Vanimo do not trade in Indonesian Rupiah
but there are several shops which will change kina to
rupiah. The going rate in Vanimo is about K1.00 to
RP3000. If you wait till you get to Jayaura most money
changers will give RP3200 per kina. However there are
also plenty of automatic teller machines in downtown
Jayapura where you can get cash advances with your
credit card. This works reliably.
The
drive from Vanimo to Wutung takes about 2 hours. The
road is unmade but in reasonable condition. The first
hour or so passes through pretty seaside villages and
the rest of the drive is through rainforest.
The border is situated on a cliff top. From the PNG
border post (left) you can see down to Wutung Village on
the coast and many miles in the direction back to Vanimo.
On the Indonesian side you can only see jungle. On one
side of the border fence is a very large Indonesian
lighthouse. On the PNG side is a small solar-powered
shipping light (circled in the photo at right). Locals
refer to them as David and Goliath.
At the border checkpoint on the
PNG side your passport will be stamped and you will have
to pay PNG departure tax (K40). You will then have to
walk across the no-man's-land to the Indonesian side. If
your timing is good, there will be one or two Jayapura
taxis waiting. When they bring passengers from Jayapura
to the border they usually wait to pick up a fare back
into Jayapura. If you happen to arrive at the border at
the same time as some other people travelling to
Jayapura, you may be able to share a taxi and share the
cost. The going rate for the trip from the border to
Jayapura is RP200,000 (about K62). Most taxis are
mini-buses which can carry 5-6 people plus bags. Petrol
in Jayapura costs only K0.40 per litre and the basic
wage for a shopkeeper is about RP200,000 per month so
your taxi driver is doing OK.
The Indonesian border post is very showy. There is a few
h
undred
metres of wide boulevard with welcome arch and a large
border checkpoint building. However the road soon
deteriorates into a single lane although it is sealed
most of the way to Jayapura. At the Indonesian border
station you will be able to stay in your taxi while your
passports are taken inside for examination and your
baggage may be searched by Indonesian border guards in
various stages of undress and possibly carrying weapons.
Nobody seems to speak English at the border station. If
you don't look like you are smuggling vanilla beans they
may just wave you through.
A short distance down the road is a line of small
buildings and your taxi driver will stop at one of these
buildings where you will be expected to pay RP10,000 per
head which seems to be some kind of charge that the
border police levy without issuing any receipt. It
probably goes into the staff coffee fund or something
like that, of course. It's not worth querying or
objecting to as it's only about K3.00.
From the border post it's another three hours drive to
Jayapura but the scenery is interesting, including rice
paddies and Javanese migrant settlements.
Jayapura is a big, bustling and fascinating city (well,
compared to Vanimo). If you've always wanted to go
somewhere in Asia where there are no other tourists,
this is the place. Jayapura is a well-kept secret that
the Indonesian tourist authorities don't talk about, due
to the political sensitivities surrounding the
Indonesian annexation of West Papua. You'll love
Jayapura. Enjoy the city but don't go trying to go
places and do things that you didn't state when applying
for your visa, as the authorities here are quite
suspicious of foreigners (especially if you look like a
Western journalist).
Everything is cheap in Jayapura. A taxi costs between
RP20,000 to RP30,000 (K6-K9) per hour to hire. A local
bus fare is only RP600 (K0.20t). A cheap hotel room is
RP80,000 (K25) per night and a room in the best luxury
hotel is only RP320,000 (K100). Shopping for
manufactured goods and handicrafts is very cheap. Market
vegetables and fruits are fresh and cheap. Food from
roadside stalls is clean and cheap.
Come and Discover Indonesia Islands with us!
