PNG

Hi,

I am planning a trip to Papua New Guinea, however have been advised against travelling to this country due it being too unsafe. Can anyone advise whether this is infact the case, or just an exaggeration.

The main reason I want to go to PNG is to do some trekking, especially the Kokoda Track. My initial idea was to go late December/early January, however I have read that this is the middle of the wet season. Can anyone advise whether this time of year is generally ok to travel and trek in PNG. My other option is late March/early April.

Thanks a lot.

Hi David,
I just got back yesterday from my third trip to PNG last week - its a beautiful country and an excellent place to travel.
If you use some commonsense and listen to local advice (people are very friendly and will warn you if there is likely to be trouble) then PNG is totally fine to travel in.
The wet season varies depending on where you go in PNG. It really rains most of the time - so its not like the wet dry of Australia the wet season is just the wettest season...which is somthing to see in itself!
If you are interested in walking for the sake of seeing some countryside rather than an epic trek then I reccomend going to Crater Mountain wildlife area - its near Goroka eastern highlands and has some awesome (and strenuous) walks out of a few villiages where you can see bat caves, bird of paradise display trees, casowaries and other things if youre lucky.
If you ask for information at the Bird of Paradise hotel they should be able to give you details.
Anyway - yes go ! you'll love it.
Cheers
Mutrus

My husband and I were in PNG for the Hagen show a couple of weeks ago. I will cut an dpaste my travel tips for the Highlands region. We didn't do any trekking and since we travelled as a couple we had a good safety scheme, if you scroll down a couple of pages you will find my earlier post.

Mt. Hagen
We were there for the annual Hagen show, which was awesome! There is no need to go through a tour operator like most foreign tourists did-and were grossly overcharged. We were only there for one day and paid 20 Kina each for a badge to go into the “tourist enclosure”. There weren’t any seats, though a few stools were provided on first-come first served basis. Some tourists climbed up to the grandstand where the officials sat to grab some photos-no one minded. Otherwise, you stand at the fence. You can also see the show for free by standing around the fence perimeter, but it is very crowded out there. After all groups enter the showground, parade around and do a short performance in front of the grandstand, they all position themselves within the field and anyone with a badge may go in for a close-up look. Performers are not allowed to solicit payment for photos or videos, police mingled about to enforce this. The show is no longer a competition-probably after too many fights used to break out over the results. Nowadays, all groups are paid for their performances
We were the only independent travelers at our hotel and they provided free transport to the showgrounds and back. We stayed at the Highland Park Motel, formerly Hagen Park. It is basic but clean, safe and friendly and well-located right downtown. There are TV’s in the rooms with only EMTV-local channel and hot showers. The room was 140 Kina less 10% “Internet booking” so we paid 126 Kina. Breakfast was not included. They offered either a full breakfast for 20 Kina-eggs, bacon, cereal, toast juice, or a cold brekkie for 10 Kina. The following day, we had breakfast in a Kai bar for 13 Kina for both of us-boiled eggs, sausage, dough balls and packaged cold drink. We only drank water or used ice in hotels. Dinner at the Highland Park ranged from 20 Kina for chicken or beef stir fry-very good and filling to 40 Kina for steak or seafood. We chose not to go out after dark for safety reasons. While in the planning stages of the trip, we tried to book the Highlander, but it was full (tour groups) but Damien was very helpful about getting us into the Highland Park Motel. The assistant manager of Highland Park Motel is Micheal Holdings, a very friendly, helpful man. They provide free transfers to and from the airport. Email: autokim@global.net.pg

Goroka
We stayed at the beautiful Bird of Paradise Hotel, which is only a 5 min walk form the airport. We booked it on the Flagchoice website for a 10% discount. www.flagchoice.com.au Local PMV’s to the J. McCarthy Museum and market leave from opposite the airport 50 toea. There is a good artifact/craft market in front of the police station and prices for bilums are pretty good here. The only drama I heard of here was from an older Swedish woman who had a camera snatched out of her handbag in the market by a teen rascal. A passerby chased him and got her camera back-lucky for her! We also watched from our balcony as a crowd of people chased an escaped convict-who was eventually caught. Food was excellent at the Bird of Paradise and given the exchange rates-not too expensive. Dinners include a salad bar.

Also check out the question and answer session by imorgan on the 30 August.

hi to everyone!

i'm a new user and am very happy to have found this stuff! i'm writing from italy and believe me, no one here has been to Papua New Guinea. This information is really precious!

i'm planning on heading towards niugini in January and my LP guidebook dates back to 1998 therefore my main question is on travel safety. my boyfriend and i have travelled to other countries and we believe that the most important thing when travelling is to bring respect, treating all with equality (too many times we've seen tourists treat the people as inferior beings). i have read your interesting articles and would like to be further enlightened by quanantambu and anyone else who has anything to say about the fact that it's better to go trekking without women? What about me? Prisoner in my room while he goes exploring?

Please someone help me understand...

I would rate the Kokoda track as one of the best things I ever did in my life, right out there in the wild
I would recommend hiring a guide and doing it with a company

I did the Kokoda trail in October,just as rainy season was about to start. It rained a couple of hours every day. I seriously recommend not doing it at the height of rainy season. It can be dangerous ascending and descending steep areas in the mud. I slipped several times, once about 20 feet, but landed on my backpack.

It is crucial to bring a local guide. Mine was Oscar for the kokoda trail motel, near the start of the trek. He was fantastic

I walked the Kokoda Track this Sept/Oct with a really professional PNG company who looked after us all the way. At no time did I feel unsafe. We only had 1 woman in our group and she wasn't treated any differently to the men. All of us had a great time.
Only at the Port Moresby end did our guides become more wary of possible dangers from Rascals. Nothing eventuated, but I suppose incidents must still occur.
The people in the villages were friendly and welcoming, although shy, while our guides were great people(mostly from Kokoda Village). Interacting with them really made our trip special. Add to this the war history and its legacy and the physical challenges of walking the Track and I had an experience that I'll never forget. If you're thinking about walking the Track do it!( Just don't do it without a guide)
The Png company that I went with can be found at;
www.kokodatrail.com.au<BR>Not only did they look after us, but I was impressed with how they looked after their guides and staff.

J

Hi guys,

I am interested in doing some traking in Feb/Mar 04. So woul appreciate if anyone still looks for a companion. I will stay in Karkar/Madang in Feb.
Comming also from Europe I can only approve what duna mentioned earlier.

Not all parts of PNG are dangerous. Port Moresby and Lae, as the biggest towns in PNG are not so nice. But if you are coming to this country to check out the culture, why would you want to spend any time in a city? Milne Bay in the eastern tip of the country is idyllic with many islands to visit, excellent trekking, diving and snorkling. You can get around cheaply by boat and there are plenty of budget places to stay. This applies o other places in PNG. The new Lonely Planet guide will be out next year but meanwhile, check out the www.pngbd.com (the PNG Business Directory is one of the most informative) and out Milne Bay website: www.milnebaytourism.gov.pg Aioni, Gretta

Hello,

I'm intending to do the Kokoda Trek later this yeaer. When reading reports and talking to some of the tour organisers it seems to be a very unsafe place for walking. I was thinking of going on my own or with a mate. And we were thinking of hiring a guide through a local agency. Has anyone done the trek recently. And can give some advice on safety and hiring a tour guide (if necessary).

Thanks
Ingmar

"And can give some advice on safety and hiring a tour guide (if necessary)."

It's safe with a guide.

A guide will help smooth out any difficulties. I don't normally like using guides but in PNG it helped. I was trekking on Karkar Isalnd near Madang and having a guide got us out of some potential trouble with some local lads. Otherwise, I found the country relatively safe.

Hi all

lots of good posts here so I'll tag my TT notes here again. Like many places where people struggle to make enough money to get food to fill their bellies and feed there children, there can be trouble. As long as your are sensible and pay for guides to accompany you everywhere you minimise this risk and if worse comes to worst and you do get robbed just give them everything. We had no problems on our holiday with the people in general being quite detached and uninterested in hassling us at all.

Hi All

We did a three week trip in June 2006. Info is a bit hard to get for some things and the LP guide is getting a bit outdated so here are the notes. Our trip was great and covered a south-north transect of the country to get a good feel for its variety. First in Port Moresby and doing the Kokoda Track, then flying to the Highlands (Goroka) and trekking Mt Wilhelm, last was catching a PMV to Madang for some snorkelling on the beach. With another week we would have been tempted to head up the north coast to the Sepik or maybe down that coast towards Tufi to give us a really good look at the country.

Port Moresby and Kokoda
Nothing to do in Port Moresby. If your into snorkelling/diving you can spend a day or two at Loata Island. In town the Ponderosa hotel is apparently not very good. Hideaway Hotel was good value and very secure with the courtesy bus happy to do airport or town transfers as part of your stay. The Weigh Inn is closer to the CBD and also has a courtesy bus but the rooms in this hotel tend to be noisier. Note that PNG Arts in town had an amazing collection of souvenirs from all over the country at prices no dearer than at the actual locations. Getting your souvenirs here is a hassle free pleasure.

A large range of tour groups do Kokoda Treks with a wide range of prices. like most competitive businesses there tends to be a basic differentiation between those seeking to be lowest cost providers and those seeking to provide niche products worth paying extra for. If you want the absolutely cheapest its difficult to go past some of the professional looking local-run tours such as Kokoda Trekking or Kokoda Spirit for about $1500. For these rock-bottom budget options you need to provide your own tent and sometimes even bring/organise and/or help cook your food so clarify exactly what you get for the money. I would recommend paying just a couple of hundred more for an Aussie-led tour so that there is someone from your culture who leads. There are a few culture differences between Aussies and locals and having a guide from your culture certainly makes it a bit easier. PNG Adventure Trekking or No Roads where excellent Aussie led value-priced companies that seemed to be doing good things about rubbish and using locally living porters etc. Here is a summary of the companies I researched.

Executive Excellence $5500 All the bell & Whistles for executive teams wanting that corporate bonding experience.

Kokoda Trek & Tours. Perth -Based Frank Taylor. $3500. The historical guru of the trail who runs a professional tour. Includes looking at the north coast Japanese positions. You pay here for the historical expertise but the Nikki George led tours of PNG Adventure trekking (see below) seem to provide a similar and cheaper alternate.

Adventure Kokoda $4500 with Aussie guide or the sister budget company option Kokoda Expeditions $2500 that are led by locals. These seemed expensive without any apparent “niche” product to justify the costs?

PNG Adventure tours. $2500-1800 depending on numbers. Led by expats Pam Christie and Nikki George. These tours represent a good budget option with Nikki having good historical battle knowledge. We met Pam and Nikki in Port Moresby and they seemed to be good people.
.
No Roads $1500-1800 led by Peter and Andrew from Melbourne. www.noroads.com.au We used these guys and they were fantastic. As a recent entrant they have a very competitive prices to gain market share. They carry out all rubbish and buy as much supplies as possible in PNG and employ locals from villages along the trek to ensure the tourist dollars and benefit stays as local as possible. The crew we had gave us five star service for budget prices - well done and absolutely amazing. They did all the cooking and cleaning and also provided the tents that they put up and down!

Kokoda Trekking. $1650 organised by ex-pat Gail Thomas. Seems to be a good budget option led by local guides. The crew seem well equipped and looked after. Includes RUSTYS BUDGET options. Liaises with Pam Christie if you want an ex-pat led tour

Kokoda Spirit $1800 Another budget local led option with well kitted out crew.

Hints on the trek
Share a personal porter with 2-4 others to carry most of your gear. It makes it much easier and enjoyable for you and gives a job to a local. You only need 2 pair shorts and two T-shirts/light shirts for the whole trek as day gear. wear one set and wash it at the end of the day to get the sweat out (otherwise the dried salt chafes you the next day). Then wear the other set the next day as the first dries out as it hangs off your pack. For night times have one set of long sleeve shirt and long pants to put on. If it gets cold you can just pile on you day clothes for those few hours. We never got cold enough to wear our lightweight polar fleeces. AT night even a lightweight sleeping bag was often too much. Maybe just a cotton inner sheet and a light blanket that you could also use as a wrap over your shoulders if you get chilled around camp.

I’d recommend a Kokoda fly-in and walk-out to Owers Corner because of the following. By walking from Kokoda 1. you chronologically follow the battle history as it developed, with the Japs pushing the Aussies back which is what the climatic struggle was all about. 2. If Kokoda Valley is filled with cloud then your flight gets delayed. Its more comfy spending any delay time waiting in Moresby when your all nice and clean at the start of your trek If a Kokoda delay became an overnight affair then you might even miss your connection if you were flying home the next day but if its a delay flying in then you can make up that time over the trek and be guaranteed to walk out on time. 3. From Kokoda you very quickly walk up to where its high and dry and quite cool. The altitude then gradually decreases over the next few days and the heat and humidity build up but by this time you have had a few days to get slowly used to it. Starting at Owers must be a hot humid culture shock that would really knock you about. Near the Owers end it was also much muddier and there is also a lot more river crossings so that you boots get soaked - better that all this mud, water and sweatiness is on the last day or two, rather than the first day or two that would then be followed by the ascent to higher cooler climates where you might be all damp and chilled.

Goroka, the Highlands and Mt Wilhelm

The town market sells second-hand western clothes that can include items such as polar fleece jackets, down jackets etc at very cheap prices. Bird of Paradise Hotel was excellent value at K220 double. Lutheran guesthouse K60 each was spotlessly clean and in a nice location but the rooms can be noisy and we experienced rattling water pipes that came on at all hours as the water header tank on the roof got topped up. This was so annoying we ended up going to ‘the Bird’ the next night so check to see if the pipes are still noisy with this being worst for room 6 on the back wall.

Note that Norman Carver/PNG Highland Tours no longer operates. Goroka Trek & Tours (Anthony) gtt@pngjapan.com.pg & www.pngjapan.com.pg is attached to BOP hotel offered a range of well priced tours including a Wilhelm option for K1250. Steve Tendi in Mt Hagen runs New Guinea Expeditions pngexpeditions@dg.com.pg and can run local tours in that area for fair prices. Paradise tours is another company doing tours from Hagen.

This is a fantastic walk to a beautiful mountain that takes you up through lovely forests, alpine meadows and glacier carved lakes - well worth the trip. Many tour companies seem to charge incredibly high prices for this such as PNG Trans Niugini Tours for US$950 just land component from Hagen. The best value seems to be dealing direct with Betty from Bettys lodge at Keglsugl right near the trail head. Betty and her crew where fantastic and treated us like family. She can organise all the food and the porters etc. Email is Betty_higgins_lodges@yahoo.com.au or call/fax 675 5451567 to her Mt Hagen office where she goes weekly to get the messages. Betty will do an all inclusive package for about $600AUD each with pick up from Kundiawa or if there is more than a couple of you she can arrange a vehicle and driver from Hagen or Goroka. The drive up to Kundiawa from Hagen or Goroka is about 2 hours and then its about another 3-3.5 hour drive in a high clearance four wheel drive up to Keglsugl - only a few vehicles go as far as Bettys so dont just turn up at Kundiawa and hope for a lift or you might be stranded. Even if you dont wont to climb the mountain, Bettys is a nice place to spend a day or two doing some day walks. The Lodge costs k150 for bed and three meals. The overnight hut on the lake is now K50. After doing Wilhelm there is an option to walk down towards Madang rather than take the Highway through Goroka to get there. This walk talks about 4 days and can also be arranged through Betty or also Pam Christies PNG Adventure Trekking that do Kokoda treks.

Madang
The Cultural bureau was hopeless and now charges K5 to see the display. There are three snorkel/dive resorts in town. Madang Lodge on the SE of town that is beautiful and great value but lacks the dive opportunities of the others - as shown by the fact that there is no attached dive shop. It faces the open sea with the swell crashing into the 2 metre high jagged limestone coast that makes it difficult to get into the water since the stairs down past this crashing swell no longer exist. In town is the Madang Resort (www.mtspng.com) with a range of rooms from Executive K485-450, Deluxe K350 and Standard at K200 with a discount of 5% per night applying after the second night to a maximum of 40%. Attached is the Nuigini Diving Adventures who were a great bunch of friendly guys. Masks and snorkel were pretty expensive to hire at K17 for half a day and to get out to the offshore inlands costs K22 return. Habour cruise is K90 halfday or K160 full day but for a half day do it in the morning since its 3 hours whereas the afternoon is only 2 hours. You can buy cheap gear in the Popodena(?) department store on Modilon Rd coming into town. Jais Haben Resort west of town is in a nice spot and is associated with Aquaventures PNG who do similar diving deals. One advantage from Jais haben is the ability to do snorkelling right on the doorstep which saves on some boat transfer fees. The CWA guesthouse was clan and with friendly staff and in a great location for K55/110. They have a good information folder for tours and activities in the area. Balek sulphur spring is right on the highway 10 km south of town and its no real problem getting a PMV there, but its very difficult to get back since nearly all PMVs come into town full. Through the CWA you can get them to organise a local driver to take you out rather than use the quite expensive tours of the Madang Resort. The turtles and eels are fun to feed but very fussy - its bananas for the turtles and meat for the eels or else they are not interested.