Monday, February 28, 2011

Madang Papua New Guinea



Sunday, February 27, 2011 – Madang, Papua New Guinea

Regular morning activities as we docked around noon. Exercised; worked and ate!

Madang is the capital of the province, on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. Evidence of human settlement extends back 12,000 to 15,000 years ago. Shells, salt, clay pots and wooden bowls, stone axes, feathers and even women were traded from one part of the area to the other. The traditional costumes include bamboo frames decorated with cockatoo and parrot feathers. The ship backed into the dock –which was not large or long – and we were greeted by band playing the same song over and over. The most interesting player was banging on the end of rubber hoses which must have been cut in different lengths for the different notes. And they were colorfully dressed and it was wonderful – even in the rain!
There were 22 vans for the Highlights tour alone.

We were on the North Coast Scenery and Culture tour. We drove 20 miles north of the city (which took an hour due to the road conditions and pot holes. There is evidence of an early German settlement in this area where after WWII large coconut plantations were established. We drove past a cocoa and coconut research station and to the Taledik Vocational School – both primary and vocational. They only learned of our visit the day before, but they were prepared with nine young girls performing two dances to modern music. They had just cut the large grass plain and had set up benches for most of the group.

Can you imagine our 17 minivans holding 10 people each arriving to your remote school and tramping across the grass and school property to sit under trees to watch you dance? I am sure we were quite a sight for them to see – old and young, using walkers and canes and with so many cameras and videos! They made coconut leaf necklaces and skirts for their costume earlier that morning and threw rose petals and fresh flowers over us as we entered a section of the yard. It was touching. They were genuinely glad to see us, and I mean “see” us. We were definitely an anomaly to them. They do not have electricity or telephones in that region.

We continued back down the road to a small village and were again given a very warm welcome. The chief (in his loincloth – the real thing) blew his conch shell, the medicine man had his herbs in the bowl, the dancers, both male and female, danced and the musicians performed, and the other family members wanted to shake our hands and talk. There was a black sand beach and approx. 20 people were downstream fishing from the shore. There was a volcanic eruption in 2005 on the nearby island of Manam; the whole area is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire and has created crater lakes, smoking volcanic cones and beautiful black sand beaches.

They spoke English and Pidgin English - there are over 170 languages and dialects in this region of 240,000 residents. They wanted to know all kinds of things and kept hugging us and smiling and laughing. They had absolutely nothing to sell. To me, that was a sure sign we really were the first visitors to their village. As we left, they all hollered out to us and waved goodbye.

We crossed several one lane bridges, probably built by the Americans during WWII. The coconut trees and cocoa bushes and cows and tall grass…small villages with people waiting for the local transport (we saw just one vehicle that could have held a few people pass in either direction), tables set up as if for a flea market and areas where blankets were spread on the ground with the local produce for sale. It would have been interesting to stop but we were traveling in a caravan and our guide was a University student in Tourism and was not quite ready to deal with tourists. We tried to help her along with many questions but she was timid, with a friendly smile. We had our itinerary but a lot of the practical information was missing.

We headed back in to Madang and stopped at the Museum and Cultural Center. What a place! It had all kinds of masks (HUGE – over 6 feet tall!) and carvings and benches and “stuff” I needed a few hours to figure out what it was. And we had 15 minutes!!! OHHH. And no photos were allowed and there was no book on the museum. The gift shop had one of whatever they had so whoever stopped there first, got the best pickings. Definitely worth a return visit. To put it in perspective with reference to WWII, the Japanese government had a poster at the visitors center asking for any information of any Japanese remains – 670,000 Japanese died in this region.

The drive through town had us pass the airport and hospital – where a lady from the ship was discharged for internal bleeding; not the place I would prefer to have to disembark the ship so we pray she gets to Port Moresby (the largest city) and then back to Mexico in good health. The trees were filled with bats/flying foxes. There was an overgrown German cemetery. And the Coastwatcher’s Memorial, which has a beacon visible for 25 km. It is a reminder of those who stayed behind enemy lines during WWII to report on Japanese troop and ship movements. The shops were closed and the locals had set up blankets near the port so we could buy some handicrafts. That was good fun and they were as friendly as they could be.

It was getting dark and a security officer appeared by our side – he stayed with us until we had entered the secure port area. Several people stopped us and asked us to exchange Australian money for US dollars and for quarters to a dollar bill as they cannot exchange change/coins. Kina is the currency: 2.50 = US$1. The world’s largest moth and butterfly live in Papua New Guinea. (We found a butterfly on the promenade deck of the ship – a stowaway!)

The ship had an American BBQ on the Lido Deck with the Amsterdam orchestra and all the fixings of home. What a contrast from the world outside our ship! We heard the people had gathered in small boats on one side of our ship and people were throwing t-shirts and coins overboard and the kids were diving for them.

It was a sail-out I will never forget. The people were lined up all along the banks of the small channel and they were taking pictures of the ship –we could see the flash from their cameras. And if there was a vehicle, the car lights would flash on and off at us. And then the ship turned the large spot light on them up and down the entire coast and there were hundreds of people out there! And they were hollering goodbye and we could hear them! And we hollered back! It was really quite touching.

The entertainer was Glenn Hirsch, comedian. And to give another view on the day…onboard with us until we reach Hong Kong, we have the Princeton Tailors – charging $450 for an unlined man’s jacket to $1000 for a bespoke suit.

“We may run, walk, stumble, drive or fly, but let us never lose sight of the reason for the journey, or miss a chance to see a rainbow on the way.” - Anonymous