Today’s excursion was “Bird Watching at Variarata National Park”. It involved an hour and a half bus ride to the park, some driving around in the park, an hour or so walk on a muddy trail and then an hour and a half bus ride back to the ship.
The excursion description suggested the bus would have no roof and no air conditioning, the roads would be bad and there would be lots of bugs. The bus did have a roof and it was cool enough with the breeze that we didn’t need air conditioning and there were no, well maybe one or two, bugs in the forest. The roads were ok but did have a number of potholes.
I enjoyed the drive and the views of the countryside and liked the walk and the multi-species forest in the park but I was in the minority. Almost everyone was upset with the muddy, slippery conditions & tree roots on the trail. A number of folks slipped or fell and one woman broke her ankle.
We were at the park about noon so I didn’t really expect to see very many birds but others really expected to see some of the specialties such as the cassowary (a huge emu sized bird with fist sized claws that could eviscerate you) and the Raggiana bird-of-paradise (a beautiful bird with amazing tail feathers that is the national bird of Papua New Guinea and usually displays early in the morning and again in the evening). We did see a pretty cute owl.
This is the first excursion I’ve been on that I didn’t feel 100% safe. There was lots and lots of garbage along the streets and graffiti was everywhere. In Bali there was garbage and graffiti but not to the extent as here.
Abandoned/wrecked cars were frequently seen along the road and in the fields. There were no scooters but lots of walkers along the highway. The vans drove very fast so that was a bit scary too. I did like all the Pepsi signs.
The other thing I noticed was there were no temples, shrines, offerings or churches which we saw everywhere in Bali and West Timor. I only saw a couple of missions(that were not thriving) on the drive.
Many folks waved was we drove by and there was lots of yelling- I couldn’t tell if they were saying ‘hi’ or something on the order of ‘tourist go home’. It sounded happy anyway.
Men and women chew betal nut here. Betal nut is a seed of a palm that is a stimulant as well as carcinogenic and turns the mouth, teeth and gums red.
