Photo Gallery: Randam exotic photos of Papua New Guinea Highlands

The third city in Papua New Guinea, Mount Hagen City!

Photos Credit: Howarig Traders/2015.

Travel: Would you go backpacking alone in Papua New Guinea?

By Bart Napierala 

WOULD you go backpacking alone to a place that has a reputation of being notoriously dangerous like Papua New Guinea?

In spite of the bad press and information I was given, I took the risk, and I had an absolutely wonderful time up there. Quite frankly, I have rarely experienced such hospitality!

The key to success was making friends from this amazing country before I started travelling. Hanging around Cairns for a few weeks gave me a chance to meet the right people to start planning my adventure. In Papua New Guinea, I spent one month in total: one week in the capital, Port Moresby, then two weeks in The Highlands, and the last week in Madang Province. Once I met friendly Papuan, I could always rely on someone recommended while on the road. Port Moresby, being avoided by tourists likes a plague, I found to be a great place. Unless you have someone local to hang with, you will enjoy its laid back atmosphere. Roaming around colourful, busy markets, or using PMV buses full of music, locals singing in Pisin language, or explaining to curious people around what is a reason of your visit, are simply exciting! If you overcome your prejudice to betel nuts and try to chew a few with your newly made friends, you will become a 100% Papuan.

Bart with local highlanders wanted to do thing the villagers do everyday. He was taking a pig to the near bushes for feeding. In the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, pigs are integral part of their life - it is a source of meat/protein, it is used to make peace or compensation and it is used for bride price payment. In today's economy, pig in the Highlands is a good sales for cash. This pig would cost an average of PGK500.

The Highlands, discovered barely sixty years ago, offer other attractions as well. Once getting to the village, you automatically become a member of the tribe. As walking alone in the capital might be a bit risky, there is no fear in walking by yourself in a village. You will be always assisted by autochtohons, who will show you the best of the village and explain whatever you wish to know about their life. An amazing tropical forest with its birds of paradise and plenty of breath taking walking tracks are just the cherries on the top of an already wonderful experience!
Those who love a real adventure will find a fifteen hour long trip by crowded PMV bus from Wabag to Madang really fun. Constantly changing varieties of stunning landscapes watched from a window, and heaps of opportunities to chat with talkative passengers, make it definitely worth experiencing.

The writer playing with host kids and the puppy. 

After the fascinating, albeit cold, Highlands, Madang town and Province with their tropical influence, beautiful beaches full of sparkling sand, jaw dropping reefs and bays, was a welcome change. I found instantly the reason why the town is considered a pearl of the South Pacific.

The writer chewed betelnut (buai), an hobby activity most Papua New Guineans do.

The trip to Papua New Guinea was the best one I have done in my life. I guess, if I had taken an organized trip, I wouldn’t have met so many authentic people on my way, and possibly wouldn’t have experienced so much. The trip gave me a chance to learn not only about Papuan life and disincentive cultures, but about some of the problems they’ve been facing. Papua New Guinea is an amazing place with beautiful people, and I cannot simply wait to visit it again. It definitely does not deserve the bad reputation it has received from todays media.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions regarding this travel.

Bart Napierala, bart.napierala@gmail.com

The highlander host family for the writer.

Mt. Hagen Cultural Show will be bigger and better this year - 2015

 By Peter Solo Kinjap

 THE 2015 Mt. Hagen Cultural Show is set to come alive in the third week of August on the weekend from 15^th to 16^th. The annual event will bring alive some of the dying cultures such as the Kurware Cultural dance by Gaim Engawal tribe from Lower Kaguel in the Tambul Nebilyer District, Western Highlands Province. Gaim Engawal’s Kurware cultural dance have died out some years ago but in recent months it was revived to stage its first show at the 5^th Melanesian Festival of Arts and Culture in Mt. Hagen between 28^th June to 11^th July last year. The second appearance after some of years of desertion is going to be at Mt. Hagen Cultural Show,” Show Committee Executive Officer Gabriel Kuntina said.

Muyen Cultural dancers from Kandep District in the Enga Province. The group was one of the eye catching cultural performers at the last year’s (2014) Mt. Hagen Cultural Show at Rabiamul Oval. They will be performing their unique dance this year at the upcoming Mt. Hagen Cultural festival in August. Photos courtesy of Max Mal

Mt. Hagen is the third largest city in PNG located in the fertile Wahgi Valley where the World Cultural Heritage listed Kuk Archaeological Site was discovered some 7,000 years ago continuous land cultivation and possibly 10,000 years time span. At Kuk, the evidence of digging ditches with wooden tools were from 4,000 BP to present time.  While in Mt. Hagen city, you will also find the following: World renown Baiyer River Bird Sanctuary since 1968, the Ancient Scared Sites of Amb Kur (Female Spirit) and Kor Wop (Male Spirit) - rituals ceremonies including offering pigs and making scarifies to the Spirits , Ambuaswasa Stone Cave (believed to be the longest and deepest cave undiscovered), Yuku Rock Shelter (plant microfossil analysis revealed cave occupied from before 14,200 BP to recent times), Mt. Giluwe hiking (highest Volcanic Summit in the Oceania region, one of the 7 Volcanic Summits in the World and the dwelling place of New Guinea Singsing Dog (NGSD).

The Provincial Headquarters building being under construction in the centre of Mt. Hagen city which will host the 2015 Mt. Hagen Cultural Show. Pictured by Peter Kinjap.

If you are backpacking for Mt. Hagen Cultural Show coming up in August 2015, you know you are visiting an exotic Ancient country!

Muyen Cultural dancers are from Kandep District in the Enga Province and are one the eye catching cultural performers at the last year’s (2014) Mt. Hagen Cultural Show at Rabiamul Oval. They will be performing this year’s (2015) Mt. Hagen Cultural festival in August. Photos courtesy of Gabriel Kuntina (2015 Show Committee Executive Officer).  

Mt. Hagen City at a prime elevation of 1,677m above seen level, it is linked by both land and air transport. 

By airplane from Port Moresby, you have three (3) different choices to choose from three (3) different airline companies when making a booking – Air Niugini Ltd, Airlines PNG Ltd and Mangi Long Ples. Depending on the flight each airline company has, you have a chance to compare their prices and seek if they offer special flights which mostly they do. Depending on the class of air travel services and the type and size of aircraft, you will have a quote from the most cheapest to the next cheapest airfare.       

Kurware Cultural performers from Gaim Engawal tribe with their first appearance after many years of near extinct. Hairdress for Kurware dancers was sold at K3, 000 for one. Gaim Engawal is the only tribe in the Highlands to have performed this dance. They will be performing in July at the 2015 Pacific Games in Port Moresby.  Photos courtesy Gabriel Kunitna of WHP Division of Commerce, Tourism and Culture.    

The fight from Port Moresby to Mt. Hagen takes approximately 45 minutes to an hour. Upon arrival at Kagamuga Airport in Mt. Hagen, you have three (3) choices of land transport to take you to your destination – public transport (PMV) a bus service from operates from 7am to 6pm every day, private hired vehicles/Hire Cars as troopers/station wagons and Hotel/Lodge pick-up mini-buses available at the airport. The cheapest is the PMV transport, similar to Taxi Services in other cities. 

 Mt. Hagen is connected by road, the Highlands Highway (the longest highway in the country), to Madang, Lae, Goroka, Chimbu, Jiwaka, Wabag, Mendi , Tari and Kikori. 

Hagen Central Women's Welda Cultural group. It is one of the most popular traditional dance and the icon of Mt. Hagen Cultural Show. They will be performing in the 2015 cultural event at Hagen Show. Photograph courtesy of Gabriel Kuntina.

Sili Muli Cultural dancers at Mt. Hagen Cultural Show last year 2014. They will be performing again this year at Kagamuga show ground. Photo courtesy of Gabriel Kuntina. 

For your accommodation in Mt. Hagen, you have three (3) classes (types) of accommodation to choose from – modern furnished Hotel Rooms, semi-modern with local architectural design Lodge Rooms and a typical highlands village Homes with friends and wantoks. Costing for each class of accommodation varies from one to next. The cheapest is spending your days with local villagers in their homes. You receive a friendly Melanesian Welcome and meet exciting highlanders who proudly welcome first-time visitors as their friends and immediately call them their wantoks.        

In each class of accommodation you choose, cost of the meals ranging to the class of accommodation.  Your stay with villagers at their homes is coupled with a highlands traditional dish and you are part of them for dinner and breakfast at a minimum cost.

Sili Muli dancers from Enga Province. The photo was taken last year at Rabiamul Oval. They will be performing at the 2015 Mt. Hagen Cultural Show. Image courtesy of Gabriel Kuntina.

Colourful traditional dancers from Tambul. They will performing at the upcoming 2015 Mt. Hagen Cultural Show. Photograph courtesy of Gabriel Kuntina.

Western Highlands Department of Commerce, Tourism and Culture Program Manager Gabriel Kuntina in his office at Mt. Hagen. Pictured by Peter Kinjap. 

This year’s (2015) Mt. Hagen Cultural Show is planned to be bigger and better ever. The show organizing executives are saying it will be a feast of rich cultural festival and an agricultural show with displays of varies food crops and related. The show committee said there are more cultural groups registered and more will be hired to participate. They are also inviting farmers to display their varies produces to be staged on stalls. They are preparing early so that they secure enough funding for the show. Western Highlands Provincial government had allowed K200, 000 for the show. The show committee is sending out letters to various corporate sponsors for the show which would cost about K2 million to host.     

Maldi Cultural dancers from Tambul Nebilyer District. They will be performing at the 2015 Mt. Hagen Cultural Show. Photo courtesy of Gabriel Kuntina.

Backpackers (and/or photo-journalists) are encouraged to contact in advance for a cheap accommodation and escorted tour.

The misty mountains of Lufa

THE misty mountains of Lufa in the Eastern Highlands Province are welcoming for both international and local visitors alike. The weather is cool, not so hot, not so cold. People used to say its the world's best weather you will ever find anywhere in the world on the earth. In Eastern Highlands Province, every year round in September there is a Goroka Cultural Show. 

For this year 2015, Eastern Highlands Province is set to showcase its very colourful yet the biggest Goroka Cultural Show 2015 ever from the 11th Friday September 2015 to the 13th Sunday September 2015. If you are coming to Goroka Cultural Show 2015, then its a very cool idea to take a few days off Goroka town before or after the Goroka Cultural Show 2015 and spend some days or hours at Lufa, near the misty mountains with the locals breathing the cool and naturally moderated breeze. 

Be a local with the Lufa villages for a while. The Lufa misty mountains will welcome you with a so cool breeze from the mountains. Its is always so beautiful up in the PNG Highlands and Eastern Highlands Province gives you the best weather in the world as it separates the coastal areas and the highlands.  In the photographs below, Aimos Joseph Akem (with cap), a young man from Enga Province decided to spend some good time with visitors and workmates at Lufa. The background of the first photo is the misty mountains of Lufa, Eastern Highlands Province. Welcome to the highlands of Papua New Guinea!

Aimos Joseph Akem (far center in cap) with workmates and visitors having a time out with locals at Lufa, Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea.

Aimos Joseph Akem (right with cap), a young man from Enga Province with his good driver in Goroka, Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea.