Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020 |

# Rabaul - Wewak - Vanimo Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea / Papua New Guinea
banyalla 15:14 UTC 01 Jul 2007 | wantoks, have been to png 3 times before and read most of the current posts - it seems like most people have gone the opposite way i want to travel. basically aiming to head to png, then west papua and back to australia (prob via bali or timor leste). i'll be visiting my bro working in rabaul (fly from POM) but would then prefer a more economical / enjoyable traveling way of getting west to the border (which i hear IS open at the moment?!) than extensive air niugini flights. any ideas of how the boats travel this way - do i need to go via lae or madang? have got friends in wewak, would be ace to get straight there (have been to both lae and madang on previous travels) and then head to vanimo - which i know can be hard to do by boat... if there is any info out there would be gold! i will also post on the indonesia branch - but basically if anyone has gone the route through west papua to australia would be great to hear from you. apparently from timika its possible to fly to denpasar, but thats if timika is open to travelers at the moment? what would be the deal to get to east timor? its closer and also a destination on my list, but not sure if there are connections>? would prefer not to come back through png on the way back as this is what i did last time (and the time before, but only cause the border was shut (2003) and i never got across). obviously will have to catch some flights, and dont have years (or millions:( for this trip, but be keen to find out what others have done - if only not to make similar mistakes twice! also any updates on areas that are no go zones in west papua may help my planning! lukim yu and tenkyu tru, png ples bilong yu! |
nomadtales 08:10 UTC 09 Jul 2007 | there is a flight (daily i think) from jayapura to denpassar. not sure if this goes via timika in that direction. i know it does from denpassar to jayapura. getting to vanimo via a boat is something i haven't done, there is one but frequency etc could be an issue. from what i gather airlink is still not flying at the moment, but i think one of air nuigini's flight does go from POM to Wewak then Vanimo, so wouldn't have to go all the way back to POM if you can get to Wewak overland. | 1
yuwi 18:08 UTC 20 Jul 2007 | If you have lots of time then Pelni ships are a good option when leaving Jayapura. They operate fortnightly and one does the northern route through Sulawesi (called the Muslim route) and the other ship does the southern route via Kupang to Bali and Surabaya and called the Christian route. All classes of travel and if you can afford it take 2 berths in a A class cabin. Not so expensive. Some interesting ports. Bali-Australia is easy and affordable journey. | 2