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Papua New Guinea - Land of the Unexpected

Part 10 - Around the World 06/2015 - 02/2016

By Beyond All Maps - Portraits of our Planet by Thorsten Mehret

August 31^st, 2015

If you don´t mind sitting several hours in a boat without seats and shade in the soaring sun, sharing your place with a scorpion, if you don´t mind sleeping on a mat on the floor in a leaf house and using pit toilets, if you don´t mind having several days dry crackers with peanut butter for breakfast, moulded toast for lunch and tinned tuna with rice for dinner, if you don´t mind having no shower for 4 hot and humid days and afterwards sitting for 5 hour with 14 people in a 9 seater the last row occupied with luggage, if you don´t mind to spend for all this 1 star comfort 5 star prices, if you don´t mind all of this………well, than Papua New Guinea offers you a stunning cultural experience beyond anything you have seen or maybe even dreamed about before.

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Papua New Guinea - Land of the Unexpected

Meeting the Tour Group

PNG was the only country on my trip I decided to visit with an organized tour as most sources I checked did not advise to travel independent in PNG due to safety reasons and a non existent independent travel infrastructure. Well, it´s hard to judge but I also met a few independent travelers who had a good time, so it´s not impossible. Due to very high prices for everything that is somehow tourist related PNG is definitely no classical backpacker country, accordingly the average age of the classical tourist in PNG seems to be way over 40.

After some research I found with Global Drift a small Cairns based tour operator with a nice tour and small tour groups. My focus was the Mt. Hagen sing sing festival but the Sepik river as part of the 8 day tour sounded promising as well.

I met Ken from England already in my Backpacker the day before. Betty, Roni, Glen and Tyler from Australia, Kyle from the States and our guide Ian I met at the airport. All were experienced travelers and 4 of them had done tours with Ian before. A good omen I decided and was not proofed wrong the next 8 days.

The first section of the trip brought us from Cairns to Port Moresby and further to Wewak (with a stop in Madang). The second from Wewak to Mt. Hagen via Madang, Lae and Goroka.

The Sepik River

A 5 hour bus ride from Wewak on a relatively good tarred road, brought us to the starting point of our 3 night Sepik river experience. The Sepik river is one of the biggest rivers in PNG and local villagers have lived along the river for many millennia. The tribes along the river are well known for their extraordinary carvings and crocodile cult including a ritual to cut crocodile like structures into the body of young men.

I was a bit disappointed that our boat was a normal glass fiber one and not a big dug out canoe as mostly used on the river but I was already told that in PNG nothing is fixed and everything can happen. It´s as they advertise it “The Land of the Unexpected”

Along the river are many small villages. The water level was very low as the rainy season did not bring a lot of rain. Therefore we also could not go upstream as usual on those trips but made our way downstream.

One of the many villages along the river

A first stop for lunch brought us to a surprisingly tidy village with a stunning spirit house.

It was a long, hot and tiring boat ride with some nice scenery. It was close to sunset and our boat driver said: “just 20 more minutes to the village”. When we arrived the village well over 1 hour later it was pitch black and even in the village there was no light except of some people wandering around with torches. I don´t have to mention that the next days “just 20 min” was the immediate standard answer from the tour members if somebody asked how long it will take. So we found our running gag quite early on the tour.

Our torches revealed that we were watched from countless eyes but people were a bit shy in the beginning as not many tour groups come to that section of the river. After dinner and with some light (the only small generator in the village was running now) Ian started to asked some kids to take pictures of him with the camera, looking together at the results. It did not take long, the ice broke and we were all surrounded by the villagers.

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The next day, we spend some time visiting the village, having a nice refreshing deep in a close by waterfall, watching some stunning cultural dances in which half of the village were involved and the other half watched and went to a crocodile hunt during nighttime.

Kids having fun - and we were told not to swim in the river because of the crocs

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As this area is not visited often by tourist it was a very nice and authentic experience and we all agreed that it was good to stay for 2 nights in one village, instead every day in another village as it helps to familiarize better with the villagers thus getting a better insight.

One the way back we stopped at the village of our boat driver and local guide. It was planned to visit the village on the first day and when we arrived all villagers gathered at the river bank, waving at us and obviously had prepared themselves for a welcome ceremony. Unfortunately it was already getting dark and we had to proceed to our overnight destination promising we will return two days later, which we did.

The welcome ceremony was amazing and they really had fun while performing it. When we left a couple of hours later there was another ceremony and after everyone of us got a gift like a carved boat, a walking stick, or a hat the villagers sat down in a long row towards the river bank and we had to make our way between their legs. Boaahhh, did I pray not to stumble accidentally over one of their legs, falling right into them. That would have been embarrassing ;-)

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Sweaty, dirty and probably quite stinky after 3 nights without a shower, we made our way back to Wewak in a small bus like tinned sardines. The shower in the hotel in Wewak was the best I had for a long, long, long time.

Mt. Hagen

“Expect the Unexpected” - When we stood up very early at 05:45 to catch our flight to Lae and further on to Mt. Hagen we were told the plane did not arrive in the evening the day before as planned and therefore will not arrive and start before 10:00. Bad news as we would miss our flight to Mt. Hagen. Ian was checking for alternatives but there were none, meaning we would miss the Mt. Hagen Sing Sing. In the airport we heart that the flight to Mt. Hagen was delayed as well considerably and we hoped all for the best. And fortunately we just made it in time to catch the delayed Mt. Hagen plane. Man was I glad, as the sing sing was the main reason I came to PNG.

Mt. Hagen is the second biggest city in PNG and it is a dusty and dangerous place. There is no reason to come here except for the sing sing once a year. Nevertheless we had a short stop in the market and although it was a dull looking place and we were told to watch our wallets carefully people were extremely friendly, smiled and even asked for getting their picture taken.

Mt. hagen Sing Sing

700 Pictures in half a day and I tried to limit myself as good as possible. The Mt. Hagen sing sing is a sensual overload beyond everything I´ve seen so far. 96 groups with estimated more than 1000 participants from all over PNG come together once a year to showcase their costumes, music, dance and culture. The aim of these gathering is to peacefully share traditions. The festival has been running since the 1960s and was originally about promoting peace between warring tribes. There are around 800 tribes and languages in PNG.

The entrance to the unlimited access into the show ground is quite expensive (a monthly average PNG income), which means most spectators are foreigners. The locals stand shoulder-to-shoulder outside the show ground pressing their bodies against the fence. Some of them have found elevated places for a better view.

It feels not alright that foreigners like me may do as we please while those to whom this culture belongs must stand on the sidelines. This leaves a slightly bitter aftertaste after an otherwise absolutely mind-blowing event.

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