45 Days in PNG

Here is my account of PNG while I was there from April16th – May 30th If you have any questions about specifics just ask!

Milne Bay (2 weeks total)

I stayed at Napatana Lodge (http://www.napatanalodge.com/NapatanaLodge.html) in Alotau and used it as a base of operations for travel to the outlying areas. The lodge is a great setting and definitely has the right idea trying to preserve the culture and environment with traditional building materials and food in the dinner buffet which was fantastic. The Bar is also a great place to socialize with locals and tourists alike in a comfortable environment.
I had gone out on the town a few times and checked out the options and it is by far the best place for a tourist to stay in all of Alotau. Milne bay people are fantastic and were always willing to help, and had a friendly smile for me always. Here is a report on where I went in the 2 weeks I was there.

Tawali Resort (Day trip)
- perfect for the day snorkeller or first timer like I was, and quite reasonable for the day trip (50 Kina including transport and lunch) definitely too much to stay and the people there were Honeymooners, rich Aussies or hardcore divers like the national geographic people doing a study of the ocean life in the area.

Galahi Island and the Samarai island area (3 days)

I met Jeff at Napatana my first night and he is married to the Island. A super friendly man (expat) who is working with his wantok to develop the small but beautiful and diverse island for eco-tourism purposes. I took a slow workboat to the island which was a great experience, but normally they use a dingy and pick you up. Fantastic place to stay and highly recommended! I had a great time there and only wish I had one more day to stay as it was one of the nicest places I visited my whole trip. The reef is amazing and I was fed squid, fresh fish, and traditional staples like peat peat, taro and chestnuts. The family is fantastic and organized trips to Kwato church, Samarai Island, Sasawaga passage and smaller villages around the area. Contact Jeff Kinch through Napatana lodge. cost was 310K for all the tours, travel to/from Alotau, food and accommodations... biggest cost was Petrol, well worth it.

Ulumani Tree Tops (Waga Waga) (2 days)
Warren the owner is awesome! He has the lodge to fund maintaining the property and keep the Malaysian loggers out. The hikes through the jungle offered were definitely worth every toea and the snorkeling around the ship wreck was quite dramatic. The water eels were fantastic but people need to bring FRESH fish rather than tinned or the big eels wont come, tell Warren to tell the ladies you are coming the day before and they will catch fresh fish for you and also be prepared. Contact warren through napatana, he will pick you up or you can pmv to waga waga. Cost was 200k included everything.

Sewa Bay 4 days
Went to Saidowai village (not Sibonai as in LP)I was romanced with the idea of staying with Mombi described in LP as a local activist and wanted to support the community but it never happened in that way. Here I went for walks into the local gardens, went to the local church (man they thump a bible!), hiked to see the endemic goldies bop, snorkeled, saw an octopus get speared, watched the flying fish and paddled a canoe. The family was great but a little reluctant to let me become a bigger part of the community and eat with them etc... 400k roughly

Essala (3days)
I was to stay overnight at Uluwai which is halfway from Tupi where I was dropped off, as I was told it was a 4 hour walk... it was 1 hour walk and only another 1 1/2 to Essala (told another 4 hours) so not necessary to stay there at all, also since the expat owner is new (it used to be his fathers) he has not entrusted the key to the old man caretaker like it used to be. Since the owner never showed up with the key as he is the only one with it (I had radio contact with the people at women's GH in Essala, same owner) I had to sleep on the porch. The family there was willing to take me in and were also some of the friendliest I met on the whole trip so I didn't mind due to being well prepared. They cooked my food for me and gave great company and wanted no pay... I paid them anyhow since it was well worth it. Essala was fantastic! Beautiful scenery and making connections was easier than most anywhere on the trip. Dei Dei was fantastic and I had an absolute blast there! The ride back to east cape is a tough one on the open sea since it is long and hard on the arse. Essala women’s guest house was 40k per night

Rabaul (1 week)
I went here next to get my legs in shape, and was not disappointed! Crazy bloody town with a smoking volcano only 3km from the hotel... in fact if the wind was right there was ash falling on your head right at the hotel! I stayed at the Hammamas of course and had a great time due to the owner Bruce and wife Suzy, plus having the fortune of meeting a research team that was staying there and we shared food, drinks and some adventure. I hiked the mother, 2 of the daughter volcanoes, went to Tuvurvur, the old airport at night for a barbecue, submarine base, firing a glock at the range, and various other walks and activities which are easily organized from the hotel. I at many meals at the hotel (which were good!) and drank there on my tab so the final bill was around $1100K... I lived it up a touch there ;)

Madang (6 days, 2 separate times)
I then went to Madang for my base of operations for the rest of the trip. As Andy Andy (Or USA Andy) described Madang lodge is the spot to be for a super comfortable atmosphere. Madang has some of the best shopping in PNG and the town is nice with bats everywhere! Here I met fellow travelers (such as Andy Andy) and generally felt comfortable in the environment snorkeling and getting sorted for the next stage of my trip. After meeting some locals at the lodge and chatting with my new friend Watson, I volunteered some time to the university and saw some sing sings while screen printing some shirts and meeting new friends.
Watson was from Siar Island and he helped me organize a trip there for my return to Madang after I came back from the highlands. I wanted to PMV to Goroka from here but flew due to safety concerns and eventually came back and went off to Siar Island for some fantastic snorkeling, relaxation and local history. Saimon Tewa the old man on the island is awesome and knows how to make you feel welcome but his son Len is a little dishonest and left me and his brothers stranded on an Island for almost 4 hours and lied upon return... well worth the trip though as I met some great people on the Island.

Goroka – Mt Wilhelm
Goroka was fantastic and I stayed at Lutheran guesthouse which is a perfect place to stay. In Goroka I bought plenti billum, a few carvings, went to the mt kis lookout, the museum and walked all over the city and market. Great place but has definite security issues for the traveler. My method was to bring nothing except 50kina or so in case of robbery, to which I would loose little. Never felt threatened once except for when I walked with a japanese girl who I met and helped as she was trying to walk around alone!! not smart, especially since she had the usual massive camera and wallet rammed full of 100k notes. From there went to Mt Wilhelm as I wrote as a reply to Andy Andy “When I left you in Goroka I had the craziest PMV ride to Kundiawa ever with being stopped no fewer than 5 times to let progressions of contesters by going down the road with their spears waving, traditional dress, bows cocked etc... I actually make quick connections on the PMV and was set up quite well for the crazy ride to Kegsugl. I ended up staying at the much cheaper east Kege guest house since I was a single traveler and it was a great place to stay. I then hiked up to the lakes with all my stuff (should have hired a carrier!!!) and then rather than spending the extra day in the cold rainy lakes I trucked it all the way to the top the next morning and then all the way back to East Kege... in total about 12hrs of walking and 1000m up then 2000m down... sore from that bit! I never had altitude problems until the way down which was strange but was only a headache that went away once back at the lakes level.”

My guide was named John and was fantastic and I paid 100k for the trip which was more than fair in my opinion. Contrary to what I had read here, East Kege is actually about 1km from the start of the trail and Betty’s is within 100m but even better is a new place that opened up right at the start of the track that is the cheapest, newest and best situated at 40k per night. They are new and not really known and once they have a name for themselves will likely jack up the rates since it is a nice place... look for it on the net soon under mt Wilhelm adventures. From here I would have liked to walk to Madang, but was too sore!! I would have needed a few days recovery and due to time constraints decided on leaving via PMV... wish I would have waited though since after being led astray by airlink I likely would have arrived in only 1 day later.

Wewak and the Sepik
When I met Andy Andy in Madang he told me all about his Sepik adventure and I was sold. I contacted Amos well in advance and organized a similar trip with him. I went to Wewak on a Lutheran ship which was great as I got to see the views, sun go down, and get some sleep for 103k. In wewak went to wewak guest house which was as described a little rundown but really quite ok. For the second night I went to Ralf Stuggen’s place as it was close to where Amos lives up in tower area. Ralf’s place was a treat as he is a fascinating old man with carvings everywhere and still is an amazing resource of knowledge. I ate with him, read his books and just relaxed in the temperate climate and beautiful scenery around his place which had some of the nicest jungle of the trip. I even worked on his electrical for a free nights stay on the way back through. I followed the same rough route as Andy Andy except I never went to Swagup and headed straight for Wagu on the first day. After a great day there and relaxing after the LONG trip from wewak I felt a little ill and so started my bout with Malaria... my fever spiked to 104 and I had the hot sweats, cold chills and explosive uncontrollable diarrhea that comes with it. We then went to Ambunti to the doctor and since they had no blood slides left gave me meds for both food poisoning and malaria as it could have been either.... besides I was on anti-malarials! I fought through it as best I could and saw raggiana’s bop, went crocodile hunting, went to 2 different haus tambarans and various villages, bought a few carvings, went on the campaign trail (vote Johnson box 17!) but for the most part had to relax allot to keep the malaria at bay... let alone the trips to the pit toilet. It is amazing the feeling you get once you are squatting helpless with malaria over a pit toilet in the middle of the night while mosquitoes bite your arse, flies are everywhere flying out of the pit and your only company is the massive loo spiders that feed on those flies... All in all a great trip and I paid the same prices as Andy Andy but I felt ill for most of it tainting the fun. After my return to Wewak I went to Muschu Island to kill a day and it was a fantastic decision! Muschu has the most beautiful sand, people and scenery in the whole area and it was a great place to recover, swim, walk, drink coconuts and watch the sun go down. George there is fantastic and really is an amazing man, as well as his entire family.

Then it was back to Moresby to relax again and deal with the malaria after another attack! Quinine is the strongest drug I have been on as it makes you deaf and have loud ringing in your ears... it is good to be relaxing back in Canada fully recovered but I will never forget the PNG trip... The people are amazing, the natural beauty stunning and a cultural experience unlike anywhere else in the world.

just go already

Andy

Wow, wow, wow! One of the best trip reports ever, should be at the top of the page/FAQ. Suggest YOU help do the next version of LP Guide to the area......... Heading for Alotau (on a boat) later in the year, will add in some of your suggestions. Tenkyu tu mas.

Hey mate, great to hear you had a fantastic trip. lots of adventures. makes me want to go back again.

Great report ! Looking forward to go to Milne Bay next august as part of my PNG trip. Will definitely stay at the Napatana Lodge. Sounds so nice. Thanks mate.

Globetrotters.be

Hi Andy, great trip report! You really managed to pack a lot into a short time. It's really good to hear about your adventures after we parted company. We'd been wondering. Sounds like it wasn't all sunshine and lollipops, though.... Crazy that you got malaria. I guess it makes sense that it'd appear after the haul from wewak to ambunti; we felt pretty awful ourselves at that point, and an anyone's immune system would be pretty shot after 24+ hours with no sleep, baking for hours in the midday sun in a canoe from Pagwi to Ambunti. Anyhow, after hearing your stories about Milne Bay and Rabaul, we'd hoped to head there ourselves after finishing the Bulldog. But we couldn't afford the airplane tickets to Rabaul, and there was some nationwide secretaries' conference in Alotau, so everything was totally booked up. With only a week left in the country and not much money or energy left, we decided just to bump forward our ticket to Cairns by a week, and ended up spending a great few days cruising around Queensland in a cheap campervan, fighting off the various afflictions we'd picked up bushwalking.

Take care of yourself, and I hope you've seen the last of your malaria. Hello from Kristina.

-Andy

Hey Andy - a great trip report. Thanks for taking the time to record all this for us. I have printed your report and put it in my LP for reference when I go to Alatou.

PNG is such a wonderful place, and it can be explored and enjoyed to the full by just taking a few simple precautions as you did.

Cheers,

David

No worries I had gotten lots of guidance here from people like yourself David so it is only fair :)

Thanks Andy it was fun meeting you and Kristina and I had also wondered about your trip, now in Sweden I guess? ha ha! Take care

We just got back from PNG too and I second the recommendation of Ulumani Treetops Lodge in Wagawaga. It was really clean, nice and comfortable, great value for the money, and Warren was great.

Seriously impressive trip report and by any stretch of the imagination a bit of an epic. Its great to see a positive splurge of trip reports in comparison with when I was doing my planning a year ago. I seem to remember you commenting when I wrote my trip report and its good to see so many people who use this Papua New Guinea section putting information on the site on their return as PNG is far from straightforward so the more info people have the better. I too loved my time at Bruce and Suzie's at Rabaul - they are a fantastically amusing couple.

James

Hey kip, you're back!!

I'd love to read your report immediately, but I can't, I'm at work... but I can't wait!!

I'm still in my plannings, got the LP now and the reading can begin! Can't wait to start my trip...

May I come back to you with further questions? Laszlo is on his way again... ;o)

greez from switzerland
hägar

just drop a line