Tembagapura, "Copper Town"

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Arrived in Tembagapura in the Papua province of Indonesia on Tuesday; it's now Friday April 8th. Just had a hike up from the main town area to Hidden Valley - an suburb-like area where the families live that have come here for work. It's about a 2km hike up 1000ft - hard work WOW! Looks like I just beat the rain - you're guaranteed rain here everyday anytime after 11am going on indefinately. The hike is up a rocky dirt gravel road and is very steep at times. I got up about half way and could start seeing my breath. Not from the cold, but because I was then in the clouds. It's warm here, probably no colder than 20 degrees but the humidity is almost nil. Quite a change from Cairns where it's all hot and humid everyday! I imagine Darwin will be much the same so I'll have to re-climatize. Gordon has been working the last few days so I've been amusing myself which fortunately I'm really good at. My days look something like this: wake up about 10am, lounge about have some breakfast, go to the gym, stretch, shower, go on the computer, play some Sudoku (which I'm getting realllllly good at!), and perhaps flick on the TV. By then Gordon is home and we have a chat and just chill out. I went into town on Wednesday to check out the spa.. I ended up getting a manicure, back massage and foot reflexy (as they call it) for $16! Holy crap! I'll treat myself to a pedicure in Bali on the 14th once we arrive. I'll also look into my tattoo and some more diving now that I'm a certified advanced diver WOO HOO! Gordon has a really nice place here with a beautifully noisy creek behind us. I'm going for a tour of the mine on Sunday so am really excited about that and to take a cable car to the top of the mountain, up 13,500ft!

On my little outing on Wednesday I met a couple ladies on the "bus" (see picture above) that takes us into the main town centre of Tembag. You will not find anything smaller than a 4wd SUV here, mostly ute's and big ass trucks. One lady is from Brisbane, the other is from America but married a Canadian and they have both been here about a month but plan to stay a couple years. There seem to be people from all over the world that move here to work in the mine. It is quite beautiful actually, families making the move into such a remote small place for steady work. Apparently you live vacation to vacation because I can imagine you get itchy feet staying here for too long. There is a school, Bahasa language classes, and an ID card required to get anywhere in this town, and much more. I got mine at the airport, so I'm able to get into the little plaza to buy groceries or have a massage. Security is tight here, perhaps to ensure that the Papuans living in the rainforest around us cannot come and use all the services for nothing? Tembagapura is truely beautiful, but not an easy place to get to! Here's a google map: http://maps.google.ca/maps?rlz=1T4SKPT_enCA408CA408&q=tembagapura+papua+province+indonesia&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=Tembagapura,+Indonesia&gl=ca&ei=o4yeTd3PAsLJrAeBkrzxAg&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBkQ8gEwAA

Tonight Gordon and I will be going out for dinner with his friends Manuel and Claudia so will be nice to get dressed up. No bare shoulders or low cut shirts though! The Islamic faith is prodominant in Indonesia, but here in Tembag there are some Christians too since it was founded by Americans. The mosques ring out their call to prayer at certian intervals throughout the day which has an eerie quality to it. Some ladies wear the head wrap, but all are covered up. They all seem to be accepting and friendly to my obviously western appearance. I was asking for directions (yes still hopeless at navigation but working on it!) today on how to top up the credit on my phone, and asked some Papuans that couldn't speak any English. Then two young girls took my picture, so I took THEIR picture, also above.

All in all this is quite a fantastic experience. I am doing my best to absorb the town and culture here and all this natural jungle beauty. Just struck me today though, don't think I've seen any birds here? I'll have to get back to Oz and see my favourite - the Willy Wagtail! More pictures on facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=304072&id=511839756&l=e34e1c79e6

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