I decided it was haircut day. taking directions from the hotel desk, I set off. A taxi ride to the supermarket, third floor salon. Sounds simple.
Sorong is located in West Papua New Guinea. The edge of civilized Indonesia.
100k Rupiah for the taxi ride for my haircut; about $7.50 - seems pricey, but oh well. Ride on.
I arrive to the chaos of an under construction structure; pay my driver and enter the with the locals. can you say sketchy ? Finding the stairwell I make it to the salon. My confusion begin; apparently they won’t cut men’s hair there. There are empty seats, girls standing around - but no!!!, woman only. Wow, that was interesting. Now what?
I head out holding my local map -a piece of crap!! And no WiFi. And I haven’t downloaded the local offline maps from Goggle. No matter, I’m an explorer - here goes. I walk the main road heading to where I understand the restaurants are located and the tourist gather. After an hour, passing dozens of oil transfer stations, soot, some of the ugliest shipping ports I've seen anywhere ..... I give up. Time to regroup at the hotel.
I flag down one of the local yellow buses - There everywhere, packed with people catching rides. Ok, at least I’m heading in the right direction.
Cost- 5k Rupiah - .35cents. Wow, another reality check. Tourist transfer by taxi was 100x more expensive, and half the distance... and half as enjoyable. I love the Yellow bus ride, it was the best part of the days adventure. The driver wants to share cigarettes and stories.
Local travel in Sorong. Not much to see here. The jungle seems to be off-limit to the tourists. No roads, controlled by the government. Curious. This is the least populated province in Indonesia, unexplored mountains, dense jungles, untapped potential.
No haircut today. Well, at least a curious blog story.
At the hotel- first thing I do is download the local google map. Bruce - Don’t make that mistake again!!! Order an expresso and regroup for another day.
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