The Beetle visited Papua New Guinea (PNG) last Christmas
\nand here is an account of Port Moresby.<\/p>\n
Getting to PNG the first time was not straightforward,
\nalthough I have since learned that it is much easier to fly
\nfrom London to Singapore – about 12 hours, and then
\ntake a 6 ½ hour Air Niugini flight (twice a week) from
\nSingapore to Port Moresby. Because last year I intended to
\nspend some time in Australia on the return leg back to
\nLondon, I flew into Brisbane, transferred up to Cairns, a
\nshort hop, and then a 1 ½ hour flight from Cairns to Port
\nMoresby. The international airport at Port Moresby is
\nmodern, has a shiny floor, a tourist office that I never
\nsaw open (on the 4 occasions I went through it) and is a
\ngreat place to people watch! Whilst waiting for my diving
\nbuddies, a week into my trip, I met and chatted (in pidgin)
\nwith a charming man from the highlands who was (seriously)
\nwearing his full traditional costume, which consisted of a
\nlot of feathers, not much in the way of clothing and
\npainted marks on the face, arms and torso. He looked both
\ndignified and quite splendid. He was the type of figure you
\nmight expect to see on a postcard, only I met him for
\nreal!<\/p>\n
Finding a budget place to stay for a weeks’ diving
\nproved a little difficult. I would have liked to have
\nstayed at the Loloata resort – primarily a place for
\ndivers, but it was way out of my budget. Eventually, John
\nand Chrissie at PNG Dive recommended the Magila Motel to me. OK, it
\nwas a little basic, a concrete based room, but it was
\nclean, safe and had a bed and a shower – perfectly
\nadequate – and was well run by a determined Scottish
\nlady, her two dogs, husband and local and Philippino staff.
\nWhat really made the Magila motel welcoming to me, and I
\nwas there alone, was that it has an outside area with
\ntables and benches and a telephone. I ate all my meals
\noutside in the shade of the umbrellas, and struck up
\nconversations with anyone else eating at the same time
\n– I was impressed by how incredibly friendly people
\nwere.<\/p>\n
The telephone was the focal point of the place and
\nattracted good natured queues. (None of the international
\nmobile telephone companies are willing to establish a
\nnetwork in PNG, so no cell phones work, with the result
\nthat public telephones are well used facilities –
\nremember those times?) As people waited, they sat at the
\ntable, drank a beer or two and started conversations with
\nanyone around, and I was no exception, being something of a
\ncuriosity, a white English female, all alone for a week and
\nonly present from late afternoons onwards. After a week, I
\nthink I must have met every single person staying in the
\nMagila, a mix of transient one night stays by people coming
\nto town from the highlands for business and returning the
\nnext day, to a former member of the government who had won
\na scholarship to study for a business degree in Australia,
\nand was in Port Moresby for a business appointment, the
\nleader of the opposition, very jolly, who seemed to be
\nlargely revered because he had won a huge amount of money
\ngambling… an Australian expat and local wife staying
\nfor a month or so on a budget, “doing a deal”
\non a timber plantation his parents used to own and lots of
\npeople who just dropped in for a beer and a rest.<\/p>\n
Most expats I met were Australian – makes sense at
\nit is so close. One regular visitor to the Magila, a wiry
\nhardy man, originally from Cornwall, but a naturalised PNG
\ncitizen (on account of having stayed there for over 30
\nyears) popped in from where he was working across the road
\nto have a beer and meet up with his mates, introduced to me
\nas local gold dealers and various bigwigs discussing all
\nmanner of business ideas and opportunities. He and his
\nvarious friends were great company and told me lots of
\nstories on how life really is, about rascals – a
\nfavourite topic of conversation, coupled with the amount
\nand latest tales of bribery and corruption – some of it
\nreally quite shocking and a lot of it chuckle type common
\nsense. While I was there last year, the local press ran
\nstories about a large and prominent building in the centre
\nthat was started three times. The first two times, the
\nbuilding contract was awarded to a construction firm which
\nran off and stole all of the money before the work was even
\nstarted!<\/p>\n
A lot of bad news is written about Port Moresby, but I
\ncan honestly say that I did not at any time feel
\nthreatened, at risk or in danger. I had a great time and
\nfelt as if I had had the chance to talk with a lot of
\npeople, all of whom were fascinating (to me, with their
\ndifferent stories) and at the same time generous, kind and
\nsincere. It’s the kind of place where people come
\ndown from the highlands or the coastal areas, looking for
\nwork; unemployment is massive, so, there are a lot of
\npeople with nothing much to do. This type of problem is not
\nexclusive to PNG, and of course, as a visitor, you have to
\nbe streetwise.<\/p>\n
There are some things for a tourist to see in Port
\nMoresby, and my favourite by far is PNG Arts. It is an
\nenormous warehouse, just crammed full of all types of
\nhandicraft, ranging from phallic shaped salt and pepper
\nshakers to masks, ceremonial daggers to picture boards to
\ntables, carved 2 metre long wooden crocodiles and more. All
\nof the items are made by local people, from the Triobriand
\nIslands (highly prized) to the Highlands, many of them are
\nproduced by co-operatives, so at least you know you are
\nsupporting the local economy. All of it was eminently
\naffordable, although there were some quite pricey,
\nbeautifully carved and intricate pieces. I spent over than
\nhalf a day just browsing around the dusty objects for sale
\nand could quite happily have sent much more time there.<\/p>\n
It is quite a magnet for the expats who come to buy
\npresents to take back when they go home. I got chatting to
\none of the men who worked there. He was a fascinating
\nCanadian man who has been in PNG for over 30 years, who
\nwent there as a bet, from his native Canada, back in the
\n1960s. He wryly told me about the bet, how all his friends
\nshould have gone with him, but one by one, they all dropped
\nout, so he came alone, and has stayed ever since, dabbling
\nin gold mining, timber and coconut plantation management
\nand ended up at PNG Art. I couldn’t resist it, but I
\nbought a whole load of souvenirs from PNG Art and had them
\ncrated up and shipped home. My friends (Padmassana
\nincluded!) were extremely sceptical and joked that I would
\nnever see them. But 5 months later, 2 large wooden crates
\narrived by parcel post, incredulously delivered by a man
\nwho said he’d never handled anything from PNG before!
\nIt’s a great place, and sadly, it was very difficult
\nto find souvenirs in Rabaul or Kavieng, so I was glad that
\nI had made the visit there and had something to show and
\ngive to my friends from PNG.<\/p>\n
Other things to do in Port Moresby include a trip to see
\nthe Houses of Parliament, there’s some botanical
\ngardens, although I did not visit them, some WW2
\nremains.<\/p>\n
Discus this article and give feedback in our online forum<\/p>\n
The Beetle visited Papua New Guinea (PNG) last Christmas and here is an account of Port Moresby. Getting to PNG the first time was not straightforward, although I have since…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","css_class_manager_body_classes":"","css_class_manager_use_in_post_loop":false},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[47],"class_list":["post-1568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-main-article","tag-march-2004"],"yoast_head":"\n