Anyone visited Papua New Guinea?

[PattayaBoy]

Hi, just looking on awsome holiday/travel destination around and want more info on Papua New Guinea, I know I can google it, but nothing better then hearing from someone who went there.

 

So anyone been in PNG? How was it? Would you recommend it? Safe? 

 

I go travel with thai gf.

 

Looking forward to hearing from you :)

 

thx

[worgeordie]

I have been there ,but it was 40 years ago,like stepping back in time,

natives queuing at the bank,arse grass,stone axes,and all the paraphernalia, 

bird of paradise feathers,that was Mount Hagen,it was reputed to be quite

dangerous then, most houses in Port Moresby had high fences topped with  

barbed wire,to protect them from the "Rascals", as criminals were called.

 

But we never experienced any problems,you had to report to the police

whenever you went out of the main towns,but i suppose like most places

in the World things have gone down hill,just pleased I visited when I did,

like so many other places,would not like to return as they will have changed

so much,and not for the better.

regards Worgeordie

[lazygourmet]

Raja Ampat Islands on the Indonesian part of the island is a beautiful and less sensitive of the beaten path destination.

[PattayaBoy]

I have been there ,but it was 40 years ago,like stepping back in time,
natives queuing at the bank,arse grass,stone axes,and all the paraphernalia, 
bird of paradise feathers,that was Mount Hagen,it was reputed to be quite
dangerous then, most houses in Port Moresby had high fences topped with  
barbed wire,to protect them from the "Rascals", as criminals were called.
 
But we never experienced any problems,you had to report to the police
whenever you went out of the main towns,but i suppose like most places
in the World things have gone down hill,just pleased I visited when I did,
like so many other places,would not like to return as they will have changed
so much,and not for the better.
regards Worgeordie

Google tells me its bit touristic place now but still pretty much authentic deal

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

[PattayaBoy]

Raja Ampat Islands on the Indonesian part of the island is a beautiful and less sensitive of the beaten path destination.

Nice bit different experience to PNG
Its looks like quiet beach hols.
Where PNG would be beaches + imense local culture.

Thanks I never knew that place

Just how do you get there?

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

[keeniau96]

Been a long time since I was there for a week to visit a mine up in the mountains. Stayed several days in Port Moresby hotel (forgot the name, it was very forgettable). Advised not to go outside at night but took a very wild taxi ride to another hotel a bit up in the hills. Vehicle was a small pickup with a truly wild and reckless driver, apparently just out of the bush. Had the good fortune to be there for the indepencence day celebration which had a huge gathering of groups from the various tribes. Very colorful and happy crowd with abundance of grass skirts, tattoos, ritual body paints. Yes, the mud men were there, just like in the brochures.

 

Cannot recommend the place unless you really want something extremely different.

 

[mcfish]

Some of the best fishing on earth.. Big things with sharp teeth

Sent from my SC-01D using Tapatalk

[PattayaBoy]

Been a long time since I was there for a week to visit a mine up in the mountains. Stayed several days in Port Moresby hotel (forgot the name, it was very forgettable). Advised not to go outside at night but took a very wild taxi ride to another hotel a bit up in the hills. Vehicle was a small pickup with a truly wild and reckless driver, apparently just out of the bush. Had the good fortune to be there for the indepencence day celebration which had a huge gathering of groups from the various tribes. Very colorful and happy crowd with abundance of grass skirts, tattoos, ritual body paints. Yes, the mud men were there, just like in the brochures.

 

Cannot recommend the place unless you really want something extremely different.

 

Thx

Need to research more on safety

https://www.safetravel.govt.nz/papua-new-guinea

Looks like no go

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/papua-new-guinea/safety-and-security

[masuk]

Check with medical travel experts as most of the place is highly malarial.  There are some drugs which can be safely taken to lessen the effects of an attack.  Others such as Larium as best avoided.

 

The usual rule is not to go out at night, a) mosquitos,  and  raskols.  Both can be deadly.  

 

See if Lonely Planet has a current edition.   They are usually spot-on with good advice.

[Thaibluebear]

I lived and worked there for 12 months back in 2013. It's lawless and basically unsafe. Yes, very beautiful but you would need security  -which is the second biggest industry after O&G.

[maoro2013]

Lived there  for 27 years until two years ago.

 

The World Bank rates Port Moresby as one the most dangerous cities in the world.

 

Do not venture out at night unless you know exactly where you are going, and never on foot. Choose venues with security and where you can park your vehicle in a compound.

[PattayaBoy]

Beautiful place but after looking at safety ....NO
NZ better.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

[gandalf12]

I spent a year in Hela province in the Southern Highlands. Amazingly beautiful. More of a lost world but it is dangerous.

I would not really recommend it unless you really are heavy into extreme adventures.

[Saladin]

You might find it interesting reading on Google about the Trobriand Islands (part of New Guinea) - like nowhere else on earth.

[Argus Tuft]

3 hours ago, lazygourmet said:

Raja Ampat Islands on the Indonesian part of the island is a beautiful and less sensitive of the beaten path destination.

Stunning yes and have spent time working there myself - but the OP is asking about Papua New Guinea.

Raja Ampat is in Indonesia.  Two different countries, no matter how geographically close they may be

[gandalf12]

1 hour ago, Thaibluebear said:

I lived and worked there for 12 months back in 2013. It's lawless and basically unsafe. Yes, very beautiful but you would need security  -which is the second biggest industry after O&G.

You weren't by any chance on the LNG project at Hides were you?

[Lokie]

Here this may give you a bit of an insight; 

Ross Kemp has been to some dodgy places and in some dodgy situations in filming his series Extreme World, on more than one occasion coming under live fire when doing documentaries with the military in Afganistan etc They went to P N G and here in this 6 min clip tells a bit about it

 

- You would be nutz to go there unless you really had to for some reason

 

 

[ghworker2010]

visit the lonelyplanet thorntree url

[tifino]

Brother lived/worked there (ANZ Bank Port Moresby) for 5 years.  As I was in Darwin over the same period, it became a regular visiting trip...

Never really got tooo far out of the P.M suburbs, as thje further you were out of town, the more dangerous it was to be out there..... thanks to Rascals.

 

If you liked the adventure of riding in the front seats of a Thai or Malaysian  bus, then try sitting in the front seat of a KingAir, as you burst out of the low clouds, skimming near the bushy hilltops, as you approached the city's airport!!  I always insisted on bagging the front seat (mainly for the legroom)

 

Ela Beach, had a something like the same shape as some parts of Patong Beach - sans the bars and pretty girls (unless you were in to the black marys)

 

The olny (or biggest girlie bar in town, was the pink pussycat, not far from the centre of town/not far from the ANZ. But, once again, the black Marys were a good reason not to enter...

 

Scuba diving seemed a very popular past time, although those many WW2 wrecks, especially that large freighter in the bay Nth of town, was saturated with sharks

 

There's an impressive hill, West of town overlooking with a complete view, of everthing, but beware the Police cars/4wds screaming up the hill road, on their regular hunt for rascals in the Hills, even sooo close to the city.

 

The Government house is quite impressive, but once, we were out photographing from a look out about 10km away (and we were almost arrested, suspected of being spies, because were we taking photos of their Govt building...

 

One time, we had left the car down by the road, for a photo walk up into some hill, when we spotted rascals approaching...

They luckily went straight for the car. We were smart enough to not intervene, and waited until they stripped the car clean. Lost all reamining cameras, video tapes of the trip, amongst other things...

 

Security for white people in town is a specialist thing.  We had this mad crazy peacock feather wearing warrior dude, who was locked, nightly, into the compound (like a guard dog)

 

 

great place!!!

 

Edited October 18, 2016 by tifino

[DSJPC]

a fantastic experience but be ready for a real culture shock!...I was in PNG on a ship in 1979...visited ports in Lae, Madang and Wewak on the east coast...was perfectly safe back then...at least I thought so!...I would avoid Port Moresby, but if u fly, that's the only alternative...

 

recommend a trip up the Sepic River in a dugout canoe to visit native villages...

 

if scuba diving, keep an eye out for the sea-going crocodiles that roam far out to sea...we visited a native village where a native boy showed up missing a few days before...they knew there was a huge croc in the area, found him, killed him, cut him open, and sure enough found the kid inside!!!

 

have fun!

[Thaibluebear]

1 hour ago, gandalf12 said:

You weren't by any chance on the LNG project at Hides were you?

No I wasn't but went out there. I was the Country Training & Compliance Manager of G4S

[Asiantravel]

 Like worgeordie I was there a long time ago also (30 years) with my work at the time and was sent up to Mount Hagen and the coffee plantations in the  Western Highlands.  

  Mount Hagen  is quite high up at 5,500 ft. The scenery was beautiful and there was a wide range of exotic and colourful wildlife and you would even see the locals dressed in their traditional warrior costumes.

But I’m sorry to have to tell you that today Mount Hagen is regarded as a very dangerous place because the traditional bows and arrows have been replaced with guns. The Highlander  hotel which is the main hotel in the town which used a look over the parkland and the towns coffee market now has a corrugated fence all around it.

Yes I felt safe all the time but when I was there but those were different days and there were very few incidents of armed hold-ups on the remote roads as there are now.

[KarenBravo]

Port Moresby went to hell once the Aussies stopped supplying a police force.

[lungnorm]

Yes I visited Papua and Bouganville a few years ago for work. I could not get out of the place quick enough. It was like going back to the stone age. The locals are always high chewing betel nuts the police from another Island (Honiara) had no control over the locals. It was the worst 3 months of my life.

[Aussieroaming]

5 hours ago, PattayaBoy said:

 

Nice bit different experience to PNG
Its looks like quiet beach hols.
Where PNG would be beaches + imense local culture.

Thanks I never knew that place

Just how do you get there?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
 

 

 

I grew up there, went to school there...Lae, Madang, Goroka etc and it was a paradise. Went back there for work a few years ago and it is pretty rough compared to what it used to be. Plenty of better places to visit and it isnt a cheap place to holiday

[Aussieroaming]

and i agree much better to visit off the beaten track in Indonesia

[Mousehound]

I regularly visited my parents there.  Mostly Port Moresby.  Sadly it is one of the most dangerous places I have ever visited and that includes Sudan.  I felt safer walking at night in Harlem than Moresby.  My folks house had ribbon wire and electric steel shutters over doors and windows a s well as an underfloor panic room.  I never went anywhere without an axe or machete.  I enjoyed my time there but can't recommend it, and definitely not a place to take a family.

[soc]

l spent 5 years there in the 70s & as one poster has said, it was then a paradise.

Although there was isolated murders, robberies & rapes.

They particularly targeted white women.

However l would not go back, even for a visit now.

A very dangerous place. Comparable to Venezuela.

And IF l really had to go, then l would definitely NEVER take a female with me.

Very hard to protect your women against packs of would be rapists.

l personally know of a couple that were BOTH raped.

All the criminals now have guns AND they will use them.

Forget about PNG, OP. There are many less dangerous places to visit.

[jobin]

Like a few other folks here, i was there way back when, 1962-3.  Almost entirely in the Western Highlands bush.  The mission station i lived at was on one of the walking routes up Mt. Wilhelm but we never saw any hikers. It was truly a step back in time as the locals had very few clothes, as we know them, and depended on the forest for 99% of life's needs, including the daily dress, which was exceedingly tiny. The females went bare-breasted and all wore clumps of leaves round the arse. Life was simple but short. 

If you choose to go, i suggest only to the north coast with Madang as a base.  Much safer than Moresby and easy air transport to the various highland towns. Some diving etc near there, maybe a boat to Rabaul.

[sandemara]

I worked there for 7-8 years for the Aust Govt and the PNG Govt after Independence. I was lucky enough to travel allover. The  country is spectacularly beautiful; coastline or inland mountains. Fishing is fantastic, scuba diving or snorkel was fun. People mentioned Madang, Lae, Wewak. I'd include Rabaul, Manus Island, the Trobriands. There are gorgeous island systems right around the coast. The further out of towns you could get, the friendlier and hospitable the local residents were. Lovely people out bush. Stay away from big towns. The drive from Lae (north coast) up to Goroka and Mt Hagen (highlands) was always different and exciting. Beautiful country. You could always expect to bump into a tribal fight somewhere along the way. I was also lucky enough to do a trek through villages in the Star Mountains, along the border separating PNG and Irian Jaya, and stayed for a few weeks in a mining camp atop one Mountain that was still proving assays of gold, copper and other precious metals. It eventually became a huge mining venture. You  looked down on clouds along the escarpment; only jet helicopters could work at the height to transport crew, etc. If you're at all interested in anthropology the country is a treasure. Every valley has its own unique culture and language (3, 000 distinct languages). Most PNG natives are naturally multi-lingual. They represent a high of proportion of interpreters working at the UN and other international organisations. Artefacts, music, arts and crafts skills are sensational.  However, tremendous health and social problems exist. In New Britain STDs affected 4-5 people in any group of10 in my time there. One absolutely beautiful Miss PNG winner (Papuan) got pregnant during her 'reign', at birth the baby was deaf and blind due to STDs. This sort of thing discouraged unrestrained fraternisation An artist friend of mine married an attractive petite highlander girl and brought her down to P/Moresby. Over six months she became despondent and unwell. Her loving husband (who had committed to a program to westernise his darling before taking her back home to the UK - did all the cooking etc for her, etc) took her to see a doctor. The doctor advised him to allow her to get back to her normal highlands diet or else watch her slowly die. Her normal diet comprised about 15-20 kgs of taro and sweet potato per day. Essential for trekking up and down mountains to gardens, neighbouring villages back home.  Rape was so common in the country police did not bother keeping statistics. HIV is a growing problem (homosexuality was acceptable lifestyle; women menstruated and attracted evil spirits, disease etc so many men slept together - apart from women - much of their lives). Stabbings, spearings and localised violence was common due to the need for 'payback' as a means of face-saving.  During WW2 most alllied and Japanese casualties resulted from the environment - disease, insects hygiene problems etc.  A member of the US Rockefeller tycoon family on a sailing adventure in waters between northern Australia and PNG fell victim to cannibals after his boat foundered on a reef in a remote southern area during the 1980s. These aspects of PNG life make it a special place. And should be kept in mind by  prospective tourists. A fantastic country.