Papua New Guinea: a travel diary

if you want to know more or see all the photos visit:

05.10. 2014 Port Moresby (PAPUA NEW GUINEA)

At three in the morning, while the disco in our hotel was in full swing, the DJ was shaking the walls of the whole building, and the various "Jersey Shore" characters were starting to head back to their rooms after a night out dancing, we, backpacks on our shoulders, in a taxi driven by a young Sikh from Punjab, set off for the small international airport of Cairns!

Let the adventure begin!

Three hours of flight and we land on this wild island. A little scare at immigration when the kind policewoman wants to see our visa. Visa? We don't have one... I had studied the matter so much online and had understood that we didn't need one... panic... everything is resolved when we explain that we're tourists and not there for business... and there's a two-month visa in our passport... even free of charge!

Within a few minutes we reach the Wellness Lodge in Boroko, on the outskirts of Port Moresby. Sinclaire, one of the guards, offers to escort us on a little tour of the area. The backdrop is very "African": red roads, tall palms, old abandoned colonial buildings, colourful little shops selling everything. The natives are stocky, black, with big noses on heavy bodies, hair as frizzy as black cotton candy but of a disarming kindness.

Everyone had warned us, but whether it was the reassuring presence of our bodyguard or the sincere greetings of all the people we met on the street, I never felt either uncomfortable or in danger... on the other hand it's also true that many approached us but were discreetly held back by Sinclaire, besides the fact that all the little shops were protected by high fences and metal bars.

06. 10. 20143 Mt Hagen (PAPUA NEW GUINEA)

[Stefy]: "Wake-up at 04.45 in the morning to head to the airport... from there we had the flight to Goroka... or rather... we thought we had it... at check-in we discover that there's only one flight to Mt Hagen! Ok, we'll take that one! In the queue we notice we're the only white people; on the plane the hostess asks us if she can do the safety briefing in Pidgin (the local language)... We take off... below us the lush green of this spectacular country spread out like a carpet, banana trees, coffee plantations, palms... all in abundance... An hour and a half later we're in the Papuan Highlands... we climb down the ladder and a little man tells us to take our luggage directly from the small plane... how strange... besides, nobody has ever checked our documents...

Fortunately, waiting for us is Caspar, our guide in PNG, our guardian angel for these ten days of adventure! Within a few minutes we're on board a PMV (Public Motor Vehicle), one of the thousand we'll take from now on... We couldn't believe it, I don't think I've ever seen such a dirty van before!

The guesthouse is painted lilac, the rooms fairly big, only the sheets are a bit dirty... we immediately ask for another room... they're all free anyway... soon we discover we're always the only guests in every place we'll stay...

We're here! Finally we go out to discover this new land! Caspar introduces us to his mother-in-law who, after a nice handshake, as if nothing had happened, pulls a bone out of a pocket and starts sucking on it again... We walk a long stretch on foot. The children stop to look at us in surprise, sometimes almost frightened, but after a smile from us all the barriers fall...

[ continues at: ]