Qualla: Biak

Biak: Introduction

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit RaiyaniM, CC BY-SA 4.0. Once a year in Biak, people heat stones in open fires until they glow, then walk across them barefoot. The ritual is called apen bayeren, and it is one of the set pieces of Festival Biak Munara Wampasi, the island's annual celebration of its artistic and cultural traditions. There is also snap mor, the collective catching of fish stranded in low-tide pools. There is Yosim Pancar, a friendship dance that can last until dawn. And there is the quieter life of Biak City - the biggest settlement on the island - where motorcycle taxis weave through markets, Chinese-Papuan families trace their roots back centuries, and the island's geography as a Pacific stepping stone is still visible in the fishing boats that push off each morning from the south coast.

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Image: RaiyaniM | CC BY-SA 4.0

Biak: A City on a South Coast

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. Nomadtales assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY 2.5. Biak is the administrative center of Biak Numfor Regency and the main urban concentration on an island that is otherwise thinly settled. Most villages on Biak are small - a cluster of wooden houses, a few fishing boats, a church. Biak City sits on the southern shore facing the Pa...

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Image: No machine-readable author provided. Nomadtales assumed (based on copyright claims). | CC BY 2.5

Biak: Getting Around

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE, CC BY-SA 2.0. Biak has one major airport - Frans Kaisiepo International - and one real road grid. Inside the city, the taxi is the taksi, but it is not what you think: it is a minivan that runs fixed routes, more share-taxi than private hire. The real workhorse is the ojek, the motorcycle taxi...

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Image: Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE | CC BY-SA 2.0

Biak: The Cave and the Monument

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit gbohne, CC BY-SA 2.0. On the way out of Biak City toward Bosnik you pass a World War II museum with a cave attached to it. The cave was a hiding place - a single Japanese soldier is said to have held out inside it after the battle ended. The broader context is harder to miss anywhere on the island. Th...

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Image: gbohne | CC BY-SA 2.0

Biak: Padaido and Numfor

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alistair from Montreal, Canada, CC BY-SA 2.0. The diving is what brings people to Biak if the war history doesn't. The Padaido Islands, scattered south and southeast of Biak, are as close to an untouched reef system as most divers will ever see - undersea caves, coral gardens, and a scatter of World War II wrecks sunk in wat...

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Image: Alistair from Montreal, Canada | CC BY-SA 2.0

Biak: Barapen and Ikan Bakar

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Orlando Raja Gultom, CC BY-SA 4.0. Biak food lives on its beaches. Ikan bakar - grilled fish, usually bought fresh from that morning's catch and cooked over coconut husks - is the dish to order and the dish most often served. The traditional cooking method called barapen is older and more elaborate: stones heated ...

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Image: Orlando Raja Gultom | CC BY-SA 4.0