Kainantu Cultural Centre (post by Bill & Liz)

Kainantu has a cultural centre that displays some local handiworks, such as weaving rugs. Pottery is also made on site, although pottery is not a traditional craft, it is a skill that the local people have taken up to create income. The pottery available to buy includes teapots, mugs, vases and other pottery type items. We bought a teapot, mug and a vase.

Here are some photos of the cultural centre which show traditional artwork on the doors and carving on a pole.

Gold 'n' Coffins (post by Bill & Liz)

Signs like this are not common in Australia!

You can walk in and choose your own coffin with a viewing window!

Before you move into your coffin, you can deal with the roadside gold merchant. This man will buy your gold for cash and when he has collected enough gold, he will sell it to a bigger dealer.

Kainantu (post by Bill & Liz)

Kainantu is the nearest town to Ukarumpa. It has shops and a market for all your shopping needs. It is on the Highlands Highway, where the road splits to go to Goroka or Lae. To our Western eyes it is quite a messy place.

Kainantu shopping precinct:

We visited several shops, the Cultural Centre and the market. We feel very conspicuous walking among the local people and they have no inhibitions about staring at the white strangers.

The market had separate areas for bilums and clothing and there was some undercover fruit and vegetables with sellers sitting at tables. Others were sitting on the open ground with their produce on a plastic sheet in front of them.

Kainantu market:

Clothes shopping!

In PNG, if you need more clothes, the place to get them is at second-hand shops. Most of the clothes come from Australia, so there's some familiar brands there. Well, on Saturday, me and a few friends took the public transport to Kainantu and went shopping. I picked out so many things that it was getting heavy carrying them around the shop! The clothes are a good price and I ended up with 11 articles of clothing and paid about $13 total! The thing that I was most chuffed about finding is a Kathmandu brand fleece jacket for about $1.50. I'm not sure how much they cost in Australia, but I know that they are so expensive that it has always put me off buying them.