Tari

Anyone been to Ambua Lodge in Tari and that area.Also tours in Lae area? Got a quote from an agent but seems really expensive. like 6 days for $5000Aus

Way too much.

Ambua lodge is fairly pricey. It is a great place to stay if you can afford it. Why not contact Trans Niugini Tours direct and enquire about rates and transfers.

For Lae, contact Lae International Travel. Ph. (675) 472 1000, ask for Chris Black. They should sort you out for a lot less.

If you can't afford Ambua, the nearby Warili Lodge offers all the same activities/attractions without the luxuries and the high cost.
It's less than a km away from Ambua but charges a fraction of its price.

Thank you so much. we will look into this. All we need really is a bed and food.Had a bad experience last Easter when the guide got us lost with no food and kl to travel etc. So we are being extra careful this time.thanks again

Bed & food were definitely OK at Warili (but obviously not luxurious!), and I found their guide whom I used for birding very friendly and knowledgeable, too. Guiding was also cheap.

That's nice to hear Laszlo. I'll be staying 4 nights at the Warili Lodge in august and was a bit worried. Do yo have similar experience or any objective reviews about the Kumul Lodge in Enga, Hotel Poroman (not the HAUS Poroman) and/or the Butia Lodge at the Trobriands ?
Thanks for the input.

Globetrotters.be

Didn't stay at any of those places, sorry.

Hi Torremans,
I stayed at Kumul Lodge in Enga for 3 nights in September 2006. The guides are excellent for birding, and the forest magical around there. However, it was a bit more jaded by too many tourists compared with Enga Experience, which we had stayed at for the 3 previous nights . If you are interested in birds and nature, Kumul is fantastic, but I wouldn't recommend it so much for a 'cultural experience' as the Enga Experience. Also, it was the only place we stayed at where we were bitten by flies at night. I wore insect repellent all over me to bed, and that was successful, but my friend only sprayed her ankles and wrists ("entry points"). Sadly, she forgot they could also enter around her waist, and so her torso was a shocking conglomerate of bites in the morning! The food was fine .. quite good really, and sitting on the balcony watching birds of paradise eating fruit in front of a cloud - shrouded Mt. Hagen (the mountain, not the town) was wonderful. The staff were fine, but rather apathetic at times (compared with other places such as Haus Poroman and the Enga Experience). You get the impression they are sick to death of tourists. However, some of the staff lit up when given the opportunity to share their knowledge of orchids and birds. The staff said it generally takes a week to dry washing up there because of the cold damp weather, so washing was taken to Mt. Hagen by the boss. They don't have a washing machine / drier on site. The linnen was clean, but badly stained. While we were there, one guy made a 'boo boo' and replaced the hot water drum with a new one (a kerosene ?diesel drum), but neglected to wash it out properly. Sadly, there were kerosene / or diesel droplets coming out of the shower, so we couldn't use it for a couple of days. I had a cold shower, while my friend took advantage of the offer of a hot tub of water brought to our room. There is no heating during the day, but in the evenings kerosene heaters are brought to the rooms. Kumul lodge is run by people from a particular clan / village, and you get the impression that some people have jobs there simply because they are members of that clan.

What is the purpose of your visit?

Thanks for your replies.

The main pupose of my visit is to attend some cultural performances.
I'll be a first time visitor to PNG and will be there between august 3 and 20. This period covers a timeframe that allows me to witness the Enga sing sing (and that's the main reason why I stay at Kumul Lodge), Hagita high school show in Alotau, Mt Hagen cultural festival and (hopefully) some performance at the Trobriands.
Apart from that I enjoy nature, so I wont mind being between the Birds of Paradise with the mountains in the background.

Globetrotters.be

My View on the Warili Lodge is unfortunately a little different to Laszlo's - you may want to look at what i wrote about it on a month ago on this site titled PNG info 2 - Whilst i found the price of accommodation/food not astronomic by png standards I found Stephen who ran the place deeply untrustworthy - two greeks who were staying at the same time with me had a ferocious argument with him about his astronomic tour prices (His transfer costs can be ridiculously high and even to see a few huli wigmen doing a mini show he was trying to get 300-400 kina out of everyone + on my bill he tried to charge 300 kina service fee as he described it for arranging everything - so basically he tries to supplement his income by charging Ambua Lodge prices for his tours - so my advice would be if you stay there be very very careful and make sure you know exactly what you are paying before you do anything otherwise you will end up feeling very very ripped off.

James

Well, Stephen charged me 40 Kina for the room and 20 Kina for food, and got me a guide for some 15 Kina/day.
The latter was payable to the guide - I actually paid more, as he was great!
Never got him to arrange transport, tours or dancing - I am not the tour-taking type, and can find my own transport.
I found all the above charges VERY reasonable.

We spent almost a week at Warili Lodge and was extremely well treated by Stephen and his staff and guides. It´s casual and simple but absolutely the place to stay at when you are in Tari.

Roads can be in terrible conditions and cars are very rare so it is very important to agree with Stephen what is included and not in the price you get - however, we did not have any argument and we would say that "dogs only attacks people who are afraid of dogs".

The culture up in Southern Highlands are something very different and most enjoyable if you have the right attitude and integrate with the locals.

Ambua is only 10 minutes walk up the hill but to be honest - we have difficulties to accept their prices and we are not in their market segement. Use your money and do other interesting things in PNG instead - there are lot of absolutely unique things to explore in this country.

If you are interested you can have a look at our reports and photos from our 4 weeks in PNG .

You will have a memorable time there, for sure!!

Best regards

EvAnders

I stayed in Kumal Lodge for 3 nights in Sept 2002

The birding there was top notch - Max was the guide there

If you check out the guestbook you'll see Bruce Beehler stayed there - he did one of the major bird guides for PNG

Your best place for Astrapia BOP methinks - & a sicklebill! I also had the thrill of getting a spot of a bird he'd never seen before

I didn't think the food was great, but enough of it - & my abiding memory is the rats in my room at night - used to pull the sheet up over my face & bark like a dog ;-)

The other thing to do is pull back the curtain at night & get a load of the insects on the other side of the glass. Never seen anything like it.

Lots of Astrapias (including Splendid) at Tari too - I also saw Brown Sicklebill there.

Oops sorry - I meant Ribbon-tailed A!