We planned our first trip to Timika, the town about an hour and a half away, this weekend for a little shopping and relaxing by the pool. We had been told that there wasn’t much to do in town, but that the former Sheraton there was a great place to “get away” from Tembagapura. Ben was able to borrow a department vehicle for the weekend, so we made our hotel reservation and packed our bags. Naturally, on Friday two of the four vehicles in Ben’s department broke down, so we weren’t sure if we would have to cancel our trip or not. Luckily, that didn’t happen, but it did mean we had one of the not-so-nice vehicles, which meant no A/C and no forward facing seats in the rear. Oh well, we were still determined to go and have a fun weekend.
We left on Saturday morning, timing our departure with Diana’s first nap. Because there were no forward-facing seats in the rear (just two side facing bench seats), we strapped Diana’s car seat into the front pasenger seat. Don’t worry, since there are no air bags in the Land Rovers, it was safe to do. And she didn’t seem to mind the bumpy road and was asleep within 10 minutes. We had gorgeous weather on the way up, and had wonderful views for the whole drive. We knew it was unusual to have such long, fog-free views since the Indonesians in all of the other trucks we passed were also stopping to take pictures.
We had a wonderful time at the hotel, swimming and having cold drinks by the pool, and Diana really enjoys being in the water. She laughs and kicks her feet and slaps the water with her hands very excitedly. The video below is from when we took her swimming at the Hidden Valley pool two weeks ago. Naturally, our camera batteries ran out after about 5 minutes in Timika, so we didn’t get as many photos as we’d hoped! We had brought Diana’s pack n’ play for her to sleep in and set it up in the bathroom so that we could relax and watch some TV while she took her afternoon nap. She didn’t seem to mind her new bed, but I think was a little surprised by the echo in the room. We stayed at the hotel for dinner, and we were all pretty tired from the heat, so we went to bed early.
The next day we headed into Timika proper for a little shopping. It was dissappointing to find the DVD store closed, but our taxi driver suggested another place where we could get DVDs, at a little shopping center called….. “Diana!” That DVD store was closed too, but we’ll have an easy time remembering that place next time. We did a little more window shopping at stalls that sold local crafts and jewelry, and then headed back to the hotel to pick up our friend Jamie and head out for brunch. Of course, Ben had to change the truck’s flat tire first, which was miserable in the heat, but the reward was a wonderful brunch at the Rimba Golf Club. Wonderful food and a gorgeous view of the green golf course in the middle of the jungle. We drove back home up the mountain and collapsed. It was an adventure, and we were happy that Diana managed the change so well. The one sad thing was that the humidity and the sweating totally flattened her little Kewpie curl; we almost didn’t recognize her with flat hair. We’re happy to be home now, but will probably go back again in a month or so. We’ll try to coordinate that trip with some other folks with kids (or a nanny) so that we can possibly head out to town for an hour or so and not have to drag Diana with us.
Almost crawling
Anything to makeD smile!
Zzzzzzzzzz
You can just seethe road on the left
in the middle....
Water baby
