Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020

What should I do?

Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea / Papua New Guinea


Hello!
after 9 months travels... im finally off to PNG! never been there before but it's sort of dream... got informations mainly from the new LP (couldnt find the old one in 9 months) and the posts i've read in here.

i face a sort of crucial decision and would be very glad to hear some advice.

i'm flying from jakarta to jayapura on wednesday, where i want to cross the border to png. my flight back home departs on august the 28th from KL (flight will expire, cannot be delayed).

im not sure which option makes more sense

1) leave PNG from the same border and catch a flight back to KL (over jakarta) OR

2) make all the way from vanimo to port moresby and get a prebooked pngair flight to darwin, from where i would take a bus all the dirtway to darwin (which i always wanted to experience) in order to catch a flight back to KL / singapore...

personally i prefer the second option as it doesnt include backtracking. if i know that i need to go all the way back im not sure if i dare to go far (and i dont want to fly too much inside of png)

but on the other hand, travelling seems to go slowly in png and there seem to be hell of a lot of beautiful things to enjoy in png. 3 weeks PNG might be very short for this distance bzw. condition (wanna fly only if I have to...) and the fact that there's a lot of unpredictable things doesnt make it easier

what do I wanna do? definitely a sepik tour, see the countryside, visit villages, not so much trekking (insufficient equipment), culture, a little bit beaches, but i'll do surfing&snorkelling in other countries (level/costs), historics

what do you think, which option would you recommend?

thank you
penso

As far as i am aware neither Airniugini nor Airlines PNG have ANY flights to Darwin. If you choose to enter Australia in order to go to singapore or KL you will have to go to Cairns or Brisbane.
you could go back to Jayapura - Jakarta - KL
OR
Port Moresby - Brisbane - KL (much more $$$)

1


thanks abitofeverything

what i wanted to write is
get a prebooked flight to CAIRNS (not to darwin)

so option 2) is;
access from jayapura, in less than 3 weeks to port moresby, fly out to CAIRNS, bus to darwin, and fly to KL (or singapore)...

actually what im going to do only depends on the next answers... hope to hear sth...

2

Cool,
I'd say option 2 (Moresby - Cairns - Darwin - KL) sounds good. Darwin is a personal favorite of mine.
Enjoy PNG - its a great country.
Cheers

3

Option 2 sounds like a cool plan. Flights from Cairns to Darwin are not that expensive considering the distance involved.

4