Live like a Papuan: back-to-basics homestays in a marine paradise
Time loses its meaning for Cameron Dueck while staying in a grass hut in Raja Ampat, in a remote and still-undeveloped corner of East Asia where he weaves between islands by longboat, admiring the karst topography above the waves and the dazzling corals and marine life below
There's the muffled rattle of floorboards as someone walks across the platform you're living on. Parrots, hornbills and a score of other exotic birds chirp and trill overhead. There's the hiss of waves hitting the shore and maybe the splash of fish. But other than that … silence.
Raja Ampat, an archipelago in the Indonesian state of West Papua, is less densely populated than the Western Sahara, but this undeveloped, remote corner of Asia is home to the greatest diversity of marine life and coral reef ecosystems on Earth.
Scuba divers have been exploring this marine paradise for a few years and live-aboard dive boats are a common sight, but for land-based tourists, the region's back-to-basics homestays are the best way to immerse oneself in Papuan life.
A 35-hour string of flights, ferry rides and car journeys from Hong Kong deposits us at Mando's, a homestay built typically of bamboo and palm fronds on stilts over the sea. Home life in Papua takes place on wooden platforms, each having several rooms or huts on it, for cooking, eating and sleeping. As at most homestays, meals at Mando's are served family style.
The dive industry here is largely operated by Indonesians from other parts of the country, but homestays are owned and operated by Papuan families. They form a bridge between the life on the sea that is so central to Papuan culture and the wild, forested islands that provide wood, food and fresh water.
