Spent last night on the plane to Sorong. We chose Garuda Air because we wanted to avoid Lion Air. The last few times we have dealt with Lion they have messed us up. Changing flight times or cancelling them all together with no regard to connections or time sensitive arrivals. They sent us one email saying a flight had been cancelled and a new flight was scheduled for two hours later. We were on a boat and most of the others on the boat were taking the same flight. Only ½ the group had got that email so we all went for the earlier time and lo and behold the flight had not been cancelled and was at the original time.
The Garuda flight boards at midnight in Jakarta and arrives in Sorong at the ungodly hour of 5am. Garuda got us here without much messing around. So if you want less hassle Garuda is probably the choice. If you want better departure and arrival times you would have to take your chance with Lion Air.
Once in Sorong we did not have any plans so I went for a walk looking for places to eat. Sorong is not a tourist town. Frankly other than a drop off place to get to Raja Ampat I don’t really think you would want to spend any time here. Nice enough place but not much going on from a tourist perspective. The only eating establishments I found were what I would call standard local Indonesian restaurants. These are typically small places with only a few chairs. The food is kept in a sneeze guard type cabinet used as the store front. No heating, no refrigeration, and open to the air on the back side. The food sits in bowls all day long. When you order whatever it is you want it is spooned out into a bowl and served. These are not places to eat for those of us with sensitive western stomachs. It is a recipe for spending a couple of days sitting on the toilet. This of course meant that we were stuck eating in the hotel restaurant. Not our first choice but by far the safest one.
I did manage to stumble across the Remu Market. More or less a typical local market selling fruits, vegetables, household goods, clothing and just about anything one might need. Hundreds of small shops each with its own schtick. The market is huge. I wandered up and down aisles for ½ an hour and didn’t cover any where near the entire market. This is truly a locals market, I did not see one recognizable tourist the entire time.
I ventured into the ‘hood’. I like to see how the ordinary people go about their daily life. It seemed to be a day when the kids were off school. I ran into hoards of children hanging out and playing in the street. They all wanted to at least say hi to the odd white man walking past. The neighbourhood is simple. The houses are small and built side by side. The yard is the asphalt or dirt road just outside the door. There are not very many houses that would work in the northern climate where we live. Windows with glass and doors that would keep the weather at bay are a rarity.
I spent the day seeing what most Indonesian people do. Sorong is totally different from Bali. It is a working city, tourism is not a major industry and Sorong does not put on the airs that Bali must in order to keep the foreigners happy. The people don’t have the excess we in the west ‘need’ but they seem happy anyway, going about what they need to do to live.