Madang, Goroka & Alotau Sept 12

My husband and I visited PNG in September this year. We traveled from Cairns to Port Moresby with Air Niugini and had a connecting flight to Madang that day. We should have had 2 hours to connect but due to the late arrival of our Cairns flight we did not get to the domestic terminal until about 20mins after out plane was supposed to depart - but all was OK as we found that all Air Niugini flights seem to be delayed. We had arranged transfers through our travel agent and arrived at our motel Madang Lodge without any real problems. The staff were very helpful and our room was very nice. The restaurant is a little tired (a window fell out one afternoon whilst we were having a drink) but the meals were very nice and a good price. We walked into town via the coast and back via the main road. After having traveled extensively through Asia I expected to find bottled water fairly easy to locate but this was not the case in PNG. We did find water in the local supermarket eventually. I took money out of the Westpac bank in Madang - it was a long wait but certainly worth it - the staff understood my request and the exchange rate was much better than what I got in Cairns. Although the Lonley Planet guide talks of tours that can be organised we found that to be very difficult. Certainly the local PMV's were there to use but no specific tours could be arranged during our short stay. We were there just prior to Independence Day and attended a free Sing Sing at the local school. We were the only white people and that brought us some attention. A few people came and spoke with us. After about 2 hrs an older lady said I should look after my things and not long after that some young children started to gather around us - we moved and they followed so we decided it was time to head back to the motel.
We wanted to take the PMV to Goroka and asked reception about this. They arranged to take us to the Market (the morning we left) and put us on the PMV. There was a fight whilst we were waiting for our PMV to fill up and our driver left the area until things had calmed down. We paid 50 Kena per seat and actually paid for a seat for our bags - which turned out OK as we got the seat to ourselves (I am 175cm and my husband over 2m so the extra leg room was good to have). I am so gald we did this as it let us see a lot of the country side. We stopped at most of the markets on the way - which was good to stretch the legs. We dropped off and picked up passengers along the way - all in all about a 7 hr trip. The driver took us up to our motel in Goroka - Pacific Gardens. Some issues with our rooms - we had booked months in advance but for some reason they had downgraded our room and put us in 2 separate rooms. We sat in the very nice bar waiting for this to be sorted out - we moved rooms 3 times in the 2 days we were there - rooms were OK but not as nice as Madang. The Festival was amazing. On our last day one of the motel staff (who had the day off) took us on a guided walking tour of the area - really enjoyable - we tried to organise a tour but once again these appeared to not really be available. We spent a night in Port Moresby at the Lamana Hotel - once again very nice and the food was superb - transfers etc all ran very smoothly. Unfortunately Alotau was a real let down. I suppose it was how I anticipated PNG might be before we arrived but with how things had gone up until arriving in Alotau my expectations were rather high. We went their to go fishing and had chosen the Driftwood Resort for this reason. There was no one to pick us up at the airport. I spoke with one of the other operators picking up passengers and they happily dropped us off at Driftwood. We went to reception and they were not expecting us - when we were finally taken to a room there was a very large hole in the floor boards just outside the door and the beds were not made. Eventually we were taken to another room - which was quite nice really. Well once again no tours - even though my husband had emailed the resort about fishing it was not to be. We went into town and changed our flights to come home early. We visited PNG because my husband was born in Goroka in 1963 and he had not been back since 1967 and I had been told how beautiful it is. I really enjoyed Madang and Goroka and mostly people were friendly and helpful - I think if we had more time the locals would have been glad to show us around - people we met wanted us to come and stay with them. We did not go out at night and dressed to fit in (no flashy clothes etc) and were always aware of our surroundings. There are problems there but if you are cautious you will love the people and the surroundings.

Hello together
That brings back memories. I also came along that sing sing at Madang. And when I read about the fight, I knew that I was sitting in the same PMV that day. Yep, I'm the one who got that front seat, but got out two hours before Goroka (keep on forgeting the name of that town...). Glad I didn't make it to Alotau in the end. Lost my time somewhere in New Ireland...
Have fun on your next trip, René