Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea (PNG) was one of the more fascinating stops on our world travels. In our research, we read many differing views on what it was like to visit (some good, some bad) so we didn’t really know what to expect. We knew the country has been inhabited for 50-60,000 years with many different tribes, languages, and over 800 dialects in the country. We knew it is one of the least developed countries in the world. We read it was a “glimpse into the past.”

When we landed in Port Moresby, the capital and their biggest city (which isn’t very big by modern standards), we were immediately surrounded by friendly, welcoming people who were as helpful as they were nice. This proved to be our experience the entire time we stayed. During our visit and explorations in and around Port Moresby we saw a rich, vibrant culture steeped in tribal traditions.

One of our first glimpses of tribal traditions was a tribal council member at the airport in traditional dress. His tribe, the Huli Wigmen, are from the country’s highlands. However, we quickly found out that aside from various holiday celebrations, people in PNG dress in modern clothes.

Being the capital and biggest city in the country, Port Moresby definitely has an expensive side to it. The costs of hotels and tours are surprisingly high. They apparently cater to business travelers (as there aren’t many tourists) who can afford to pay a lot. Port Moresby’s downtown and it’s affluent surrounding housing is along a peninsula with a nice beach.

Up the street from the beach was a man selling betel nuts which are hugely popular all over the island; people chew the seed like chewing tobacco to make them alert and give them a buzz. It also stains their teeth red.

Bill tried a betel nut and found it to be very bitter.

We went into a downtown shopping center to check it out. One of the first stores we went into featured part of a tribal costume for the men who wear very short tutu looking skirts. They come in all sizes for all size men. 😉

Despite the obviously wealthier and industrial downtown Port Moresby area, in just a short drive away we saw a village that shows the unfortunate conditions that many people in the country must deal with.

The houses are built on stilts over the ocean water.

We stopped by the Boroko market to look at the local handicrafts and art.

Artists hang and sell their paintings along various streets in Port Moresby.

On our second day, we drove up into the mountains overlooking Port Moresby. This was as far as we could go from the city without hopping on an airplane, as there are no roads that connect different sides of the main island, and the many other smaller islands. Exploring those areas will require another visit.

All throughout the island are roadside stands where people sell all kinds of good, but mostly food and drinks.

We visited the War Memorial cemetery where many Australians and Papua New Guineans who fought and died in WWII are buried.

We also stopped at the Adventure park that not only has some rides, but PNG’s national orchid garden and bird sanctuary.

Outside the park a kid tried to sell us this baby Wallaby for $12. Obviously we couldn’t take it…but it was so darn cute.

This totem was carved out of a single tree trunk! The alligator is the spirit guide of that particular tribe.

We learned there are more unique varieties of orchids only found in PNG than in all other countries combined. They’ve won international contests and are very proud of it (as they should be).

This is a tribal drum which was used to beat signals to other tribes very far away to request a meeting in a neutral place.

We also learned that there are so many different animals that are only found in PNG, including their many varieties of Birds of Paradise. They feature one of the birds on their national flag. Unfortunately, at the time of year we were there (January) they’d lost their special feathers used for attracting females during mating season. They are still spectacular looking without them.

Several varieties of Birds of Paradise have long curved beaks. When they ate, they picked up the fruit with the tip of their beak and then had to fling it in the air to catch it in it’s mouth.

This bird has an iridescent patch of feathers that change color in the light. This yellow patch turned turquoise blue in another angle (as seen in the picture below it).

This multi-colored one is called the Magnificent Bird of Paradise.

Peter holds up feathers that fell out of a Bird of Paradise’s head and tail after mating season.

More varieties of birds only found in PNG.

This one is part vulture (head) and part parrot (body).

PNG has the world’s largest pigeons. They are the size of a large chicken. Peter said their meat was delicious.

The size of this birds feet are ginormous!

We’d never heard of tree kangaroos until this moment. In the center of this picture you can see the shadow of one sitting on a high branch.

There are about 3-4hidden in this picture.

This is a close up of the “Goodfellow” tree kangaroo. Amazing.

Another variety of tree kangaroo. A bit scary looking.

At a road side stand we saw people selling “mudmen” masks from the Asaro tribe in the eastern highlands (near Goroka). Only made by this tribe, the masks are made of mud and crushed rock, and are part of the traditional battle costume. The legend is that the tribe was in battle with en enemy tribe and forced to flee into the Asaro River where they hid in the muddy banks. When the enemy saw them rise covered in mud, they thought they were spirits and fled in fear. Apparently, the mudmen could not cover their faces because the people of PNG (at that time) thought the mud from the Asaro river was poisonous. So they made masks from pebbles that they heated and water from the waterfall.

New housing being built on the outskirts of Port Moresby.

Just down the road from the new housing development are houses like these.

Another village with houses built over the water.

A better view of all the houses built on stilts over the water.

A village with downtown Port Moresby in the background.

These decaying car/truck/bus frames half covered by dirt could be seen all over the place.

The primary industries on the island are oil drilling and mining operations. The picture below being part of an oil company. These outside corporations are paying a few individuals gobs of money, but then bring in outside workers because they don’t make any investments to train people on the island to do the work. And when there are no more resources to extract, they leave the people of PNG with huge areas of poisoned, unusable land. It is really, really sad.

A young boy was collecting water from a puddle caused by a heavy down poor the night before.

These are the type of trees that tree kangaroos live in.

We kept seeing families convening under their houses to keep cool on hot days.

A bridge connects a village separated by a river.

Pictures of PNG from the air.

Port Moresby from the air.