West Papua Indonesia: An Insider’s Guide

West Papua is a province of Indonesia with many unique and exotic cultures, amazing scenery and challenging trekking terrain in the world. You will not find any discussion about Free West Papua evil propaganda in this article. In contrast, you will find informative stories about visiting West Papua from Alex Hatton, a contributor travel writer for World Nomads.

World Nomads mission is to help travellers get the most out of their adventures and support them when things go wrong. You can find so many stories that can guide you to visit every corner of the world safely. Today I would like to quote and link some stories from Alex Hatton about visiting West Papua.

The first impression when Alex visited West Papua:

As soon as I stepped off the plane I received disbelieving looks. I was the only backpacker in the entire Papuan airport. Friendly locals rushed over to shake my hand and practice their broken English on me. “Why you come here!?” and “good luck!” were the phrases I heard the most.

He then continue to share his story starting from safety, how to choose a local guide, wifi, withdraw local cash, potential tribal conflict, trekking routes, cultural encounters, wildlife, mystery, and many more. For the detail please read West Papua: Dangers of Exploring Indonesia’s Wild West.

Insider’s guide from those who had first hand experience in exploring a place or region is very important. Finally, before visiting West Papua, Indonesia as Alex mentioned in his NOTE:

For your own safety, please consider your government’s travel advice before deciding to travel to West Papua.

I would like to add one more NOTE:

If you see any organisation or group offering “First Contact” with uncontacted tribe in West Papua as tour programs, it is a scam.