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Bucket List: Asia’s last frontier – Papua’s wilderness cities

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lapapua1 - Women regularly carry up to 50kg of vegetables on their day-long trek from their mountain villages to set up stall in Wamena town. They use a “noken”, a traditional Indonesian netted bag handmade from plant fibres, which they hang on their foreheads.


Credit / Copyright: LI-ANN TAN AND JON SONG

Women regularly carry up to 50kg of vegetables from their mountain villages to set up shop in Papua's Wamena town.

PHOTO: LI-ANN TAN AND JON SONG

Li-Ann Tan and Jon Song

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PAPUA, Indonesia – A friend once declared emphatically: “If you’ve been to only Bali, you’ve not been to Indonesia.”

Having spent three months in the stunning wilderness of Papua recently, we will readily add: “If you’ve not been to Papua, you’ve not seen the best of South-east Asia.”

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