Join Viktor Wynd on his dream journey

Gone With The Wynd Expedition Number X

To The Asmat People

 

Duration : 13 days / 12 nights
Arrival : Jayapura
Departure : Timika

$3500 per person

– please email [email protected]

 

An Extraordinary journey through one of the world’s last great wildernesses, traveling 100kms by boat through the coastal swamp of The Asmat, a journey through the world’s third largest rainforest on the world’s second largest island, a forest with no roads accessible only by plane, boat and trekking.

 

 

 

 

The Asmat People

– perhaps the most famed woodcarvers and artists of The  Pacific with their work  held in museums worldwide – most notably in The Michael Rockefeller Collection in New York’s Metropolitan Museum (where I first encountered it and have been obsessed ever since).  The 70,000 or so Asmat are made up of at least twelve different groups with at least five different languages or dialects, traditionally a fierce headhunting, cannibalistic warrior people (they chased Captain Cook back to his ship in 1770 and probably ate Michael Rockefeller in 1961), they have a rich cultural tradition and we very much hope to see some of their ceremonies such at the Spirit Masks, the mBis Pole Ceremony and canoe warriors.   The hope is to find spectacular carvings and other artifacts to buy in remote, little visited villages

 

 

Day 01 October 22nd

Arrive in Jayapura, welcome dinner, overnight in local hotel near the airport

DAY 02 : JAYAPURA – Agats

Early start  to catch 8am flight to Timika and then to Ewer/Asmat  and by boat to Agats.

Agats is a small town built on stilts on an island without cars, we will explore the town, visit the museum where we hope to have a private tour from the director  and to learn about what we will see on our journey and hunt down  artifact dealers, overnight in local guesthouse

Day 03-12

We leave Agats by boat on a journey into the past,  the journey will have no fixed itinerary – we will head deep into Asmat territory, very few people visit the Asmat, and even fewer venture far from Agats and the more civilized surrounding villages,   life in the villages carries on in many ways as it has done for thousands of years, on arrival in each village we will go to the great longhouse – The  Jew House  – each family or clan with have their own fireplace in The Jew, young men may live there and all the social and political life of the (male) village happens, we will introduce ourselves to the elders and ask permission to visit their village,  we may be welcomed with drumming and singing,  or indeed by a flotilla of canoes, as many of the villages we plan to visit rarely receive visitors from the outside world it is difficult to know whether we will be received calmly or with great excitement and celebrations.  We aim to spend two to three nights in each village allowing us to soak in the atmosphere and get to see and experience Asmat traditional life, we will hope to join them as they go fishing, crocodile hunting and sago harvesting.  In the evenings we will sit quietly in the Great Jew Houses, observe and hopefully listen to stories

Villages we hope to visit, travelling through lush mangrove forests, coastal estuaries and overgrown rivers,

Uwus – Atjamutsji – Omdesep – Pirien – Ocanep – Yaptambor – Beriten

at Omandesep, famed for it’s carvings we hope to experience the mBis ancestor pole ceremony,  before traveling to Ocanep where it is now generally believed that Michael Rockefeller was killed and eaten.   We hope to experience the Spirit Mask Ceremony and dancing in one of the villages – where great masked dancers descend on the village before being ritually chased out and the village cleansed of evil spirits

Day 12

We return to Agats to pack our bags and overnight in local hotel

Day 13

Early Morning flight to Timika

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


DAY 12 : AGATS – EWER –  TIMIKA (B)

Visit to Agats Museum and Artefacts dealers, packing bags

DAY 13 : TIMIKA – JAKARTA (B)

then by boat to Timika by regular flight, stay overnight at hotel Komorotame Resort in Timika.

 

Day 14

Transfer to the airport, then fly to Jakarta or Sorong if continuing to Raja Ampat

 

 

 

Food & Accommodation

There is no tourist accommodation where we are going, tents and thin mattresses will be provided, or we will sleep in village houses on our mattresses beneath mosquito nets.

Food – we will take a good Indonesian cook with us, but the options will be understandably limited eg fried & steamed rice, fresh vegetables, canned fish/meat / noodles /fresh fruit/ tea / coffee

Porters will carry our bags so please back appropriately.

Collecting

If you plan to buy carvings please bring lots of bubblewrap – there will be none there!

C

Included :
– All land transportation
– Accommodations based on twin/double share
– English Speaking Guide
– Meals as per program
— Drumming and canoe racing in Asmat

– Permits and donations
– All activities mentioned on the above program

– Chartered wooden long boat to accomplish the tour

Excluded

 

Ceremonies – we hope to see the mBis Pole ceremony, Spirit Dance, Canoe & Sago Ceremonies – we would like to arrange these in the villages further from Agats which get few tourists – it is difficult to arrange this far in advance and difficult to agree a fixed price – we will negotiate nearer the time or on the trip and then the group can decide what they would like to see – budget US $300 – $500 per person for this
– Travel Insurance
– Air fares, airport tax, airport porter
– Overweight on the flight
– Airport taxes and extra baggage charges
– Airports and hotels porters
– Personal Expenses such as phone calls, laundry, beverages etc.
– All expenses incurred due to the flight cancellations or due other causes beyond our control.

Current local airfare / way / person:

London – Jakarta – £600
Jakarta – Jayapura : USD 382
Jayapura – Timika – Agats – Timika  : USD 250

Timika – Jakarta : USD 355
** Subject to change in the future

 

 

Reading

Tobias Schneebaum’s Where the Spirits Dwell

Savage Harvest – Carl Hoffman

Society of Others – Rupert Stasch

Michael Rockefeller – Asmat

Among The Cannibals – Paul Raffaele

First contact Mark Anstice

Ceremonies & Extras

Communication with The Asmat is difficult, mobile phone reception and the internet largely do not exist where we are going.  We hope that ceremonies and feast can be organized when we are there, the cost for this can be anything between free because it is already happening or because we are very welcome to $30 – $50 to $2000 – $3000 with every possible combination. Depending on the size of the group, and the group’s interests there may be voluntary contributions to offer the community.

 

Tips

Tips are entirely optional – but a trip such as this asks a lot of the local guides and porters who always appreciate, even if they don’t expect, a tip.   Entirely optional but $50 – $100 should be plenty

 

Terrain and Fitness Levels

 

Much of the traveling will be canoe, there will be some trekking in the jungle, but nothing that a moderately fit and healthy person can’t manage.  From personal experience the locals and our porters  will be extremely  helpful

 

 

Optional Add on

 

Lake Sentani & Jayapura

 

I will arrive a few days early and intend to spend a day or two exploring lake Sentani – one the most beautiful places I have ever been to, and visiting the Jayapura Museum and tracking down artefacts for sale (some of the best things I have ever bought in New Guinea I got in Jayapura.  You would be most welcome to join and the  cost would probably be US $150- $300