Life in Jayapura

On Saturday, I went to the only complete grocery store in the area. While I was moving around the shopping alley, there were only a few shoppers. It surprised me as I come from an island where the weekend is when people go shopping and crowd the street. I wondered if that was the habit and how people shop and move around here. The thing is, I visited the store on Wednesday that week, it was packed with shoppers, and I had to line up just to pay for my small groceries. So, I went back home with that question in mind to ask one of my neighbors.

As I reached my co-living space, I met my neighbor and asked about it. He explained that people in this area tend to shop on weekdays, especially after work. Saturday or Sunday are the days they spent with family or friends possibly away from the hum drum of the city life and later Church on Sunday. If there is one thing I can be sure of, people in Jayapura and around respect Sunday. Even this whole island is often referred to as The Land of the Gospel.

That reminds me, I have been in this area for about 7 days. This time around, I managed to brave myself to explore more places just behind my co-living space. You see, despite how often I travel, it takes me a while to brave myself, especially when I am alone to discover places on my own. It is not that these places are scary, but they are often a bit inconvenient to reach. So, just a few days ago, like a donkey with a carrot stick, my motivation was to walk to Starbucks. I could have taken the motorcycle and paid $1 but Starbucks according to google is a 5 minutes’ walk passing through a rather sketchy area which turned out to be a church complex.

If there’s one thing I hate is the feeling that I seemed and appear lost. I hated being approached on the street in a place where typically, I don’t have a plan. I like to just walk and look around and see if anything is of interest.

So, at first, like a donkey with a carrot stick, I was sticking to Starbucks. But as soon as I got back from it, I walked with ease and looked around if there’s any food stalls or places I could check out. Turned out, there are plenty of places that I could try and do.

This is also why I never really like travelling for only a week or two. It took me that much to familiarize myself with my surroundings so it’s almost impossible that I could do anything much with only a few days trip. I am also not the type of person who only travels for sightseeing. I enjoy peeking into lives of other places and how locals move about their day.

While I know that my stay is temporary in any places I go to, there are always a few places that become my go-to destination and anchor myself to the place such as these roastery and coffee shop called Tana Papua. I wrote about them in length and if I am going to be stationed in this region in the future, I know how to start my adventure in this place.

Just walking around the shopping malls, following the locals’ habit of shopping, has already made me feel like I am one of them. While I look different and the way I carried myself might seem different but one thing that is for sure is that they don’t feel I am that too different from them.

Jayapura itself is a melting pot of many different cultures and customs. There are small villages in each district that could represent people from different cultures from all around Indonesia. I am also surprised of the availability of Chinese products and snacks in the grocery stores more than the places I go to in Java. Having to be here twice now, I can see myself going back and forth multiple times in the future. This place is still such a mystery to me as like a game, there are many levels I haven’t unlocked.

The way people spend money is also intriguing to me. Back in Java, most people tend to think twice before buying anything and haggling is a custom. Over here, despite everything is a bit more expensive than Java, nobody flinches when they must pay. No haggle aggressively, no asking twice for a price, and everyone simply takes out their wallet and pays. This habit has also been confirmed by my neighbor, who despite isn’t local has lived here for almost two decades.

That reminded me of the first time I came here and was about to shop that I was advised not to haggle aggressively nor just ask questions without buying. While I did things I shouldn’t, I was lucky not to be harassed by the lovely elderly women in the market. They were all nice to me despite just window shopping and asking around.

Having to explore this place on my own gave me more insights and adventure than when I was with my team. Back then, I hesitated to go around, ask around and even only stuck to my own team who simply found it hard to be a part of this island and seeing themselves constantly being outsiders. For seasoned travelers like me, it was easy to be a part of a place and easily calling it “home”.