The island of New Guinea , the second largest in the world, is neatly bisected down its north-south axis, the eastern portion comprising independent Papua New Guinea and the western half, Irian Jaya , belonging to Indonesia. From the towering glacial highlands of its spine to the sweaty mangrove swamps of the coast, Irian Jaya is one of the world's last great wildernesses: maps of the area still show stretches as wide as 300km without any relief data at all. Despite numerous attempts by Western explorers to tame Papua, the colossal island all but repelled them right up until the latter part of the twentieth century. On Indonesian Independence , it seemed logical that West Papua should itself become independent. After all, the capitals of Jakarta and Jayapura are as far apart as London and Baghdad. However, while the Dutch prepared the island for union with Papua New Guinea, the Indonesians, with the collusion of the US, planned to ensure that every part of the old Dutch East Indies would become Indonesian. On November 19, 1969, the UN passed a resolution to endorse an Indonesian occupation of West Papua, on the understanding that a Vote of Free Choice would be held within six years. The vote was stage-managed by the Indonesians and West Papua was ceded entirely to the Indonesians, to be renamed Irian Jaya, or "Victorious Irian". Since then, tribal villages have been bombed and napalmed, and local leaders tortured, executed or dropped out of helicopters. The cleansing, or pacification, of native people in Irian paved the way for the largest transmigration scheme the world has ever seen, with four million new inhabitants in little over a decade. An estimated 300,000 Papuans have lost their lives to the Indonesian tyranny, and 15,000 are refugees in New Guinea. The OPM (Organisas Papua Merdeka), or Free Papua Movement, is still particularly active in the jungles of the Lorentz reserve and parts of the Bird's Head; kidnapping foreigners is their means of drawing attention to their cause and common sense is your best precaution. In 2001, in an unsubtle but generous attempt to buy peace, Megawati offered the Papuans autonomy within Indonesia, and sanctioned a change of name for the province, from the unpopular Irian Jaya to the locally preferred Papua. Whether it will be enough to appease the OPM and their allies, however, remains to be seen.

However short, a trip to Irian Jaya requires more planning than any other destination in Indonesia. The first complication is the surat jalan (travel permit) that must be acquired from the police by every visitor on arrival in Irian, with signed permission for each and every one of the small districts you wish to visit. Apply for every feasible destination, as you can't add places to your surat jalan outside of the large towns. Photography in Irian is also a different proposition to other parts of Indonesia. No matter what they say, most X-ray machines at airports are not film-safe; take films out and have them searched by hand. Take great care when photographing people; in areas where photography is rare it can cause great distress, and in areas where it is common, permission and cash are expected first. Bring all camera film to Irian with you. Prices in Irian are a shock after the rest of Indonesia. There is almost no industry on Irian Jaya and everything but a few foodstuffs is imported at great expense by boat or plane from other areas of Indonesia. A lousy fleapit hotel costs twice as much in Irian as a reasonable guesthouse anywhere else; food and fuel are also expensive as they have to be imported. Chartering transport and hiring guides is likely to be the greatest expenditure: up to US$50 for a day in a canoe, or US$500 in a motorized outboard.

The majority of visitors will arrive, after an eight-hour flight from Java or Bali, via Makassar, in the capital city Jayapura , the best place to arrange an onward flight to the Baliem Valley , the highland plain that is home to the Dani tribes, and which features the most highly dramatic scenery imaginable.