Port Moresby

Since I have been in Ukarumpa recently, I have had to fly through Port Moresby, staying overnight there. As I travelled from the airport to the guest house where I was staying, I took some photos of various Port Moresby scenes.

Some parts of Moresby look a bit like the scenes you see while travelling on the train line to Melbourne:

Other areas look quite different – lots of green grass.

Port Moresby adventures – Luxury Hotel

We were at the airport very early on a Saturday morning, all checked in, with our boarding passes, and I was having a doze while waiting to board our flight, when suddenly my doze was interrupted with an announcement that our flight to Buka had been cancelled and rescheduled to 4am on Sunday morning. They had already taken our luggage off us and everything, so we were told that we were to go to the arrivals area to pick up our luggage again.

Since we were only in transit in Port Moresby, we didn’t have a place to stay for the night (the previous two nights we knew we had to stay there and had bookings for accommodation), so we went to the Air Niugini customer service desk and spoke to them. They put us up in a hotel for the night, since it was their fault that we had to stay another night in Moresby.

Oh, it was so exciting! We got to stay in a fancy hotel and we were excited by everything, including the free toiletries (shampoo, conditioner, moisturiser and body wash). Air Niugini paid for our lunch and dinner there too. The three of us wanted to be together, rather than in separate rooms and requested that, but since Air Niugini was paying a certain amount for each of us, they added that up and gave us a room that was worth that value, so we got a really nice room. They called it a ‘suite’. It had a widescreen TV and cooking facilities. There was a sliding door that went out to the swimming pool area.

Here is the pool and dining area:

We really enjoyed our two meals there, and I was happy to be able to see the last quarter of a Geelong AFL game after dinner.

We had a HUGE double bed, plus they put in an extra bed too. The double bed was really more like a triple bed, as it fitted 3 pillows along the top. I had never seen a bed that big before. Here’s a picture of it.

This is Mariela and me relaxing on the couch, posing for the photo.

You can see the widescreen TV, lounge, dining table and kitchen in this photo.

This night in the hotel was a huge contrast to what our living situation in the villages over the next two weeks would be!

Port Moresby adventures – Parliament House

After going to the Botanical Gardens, we headed to Parliament House. While we were waiting outside the Botanical Gardens for the right bus to come, a van belonging to the Botanical Gardens came out and offered us a ride. It was a cargo van and just had a driver and passenger seat, so the three of us were sitting on the floor in the back of the van, with only a rear window. It felt rather funny! Here’s a picture of me in the van:

The Parliament House was architecturally designed and it incorporates several traditional building styles into this fancy modern building. Here are two pictures of the main feature of the building.

We went inside and had a tour. Photos aren’t allowed to be taken inside, so unfortunately I can’t show you those things. We saw a display of gifts that had been given by other countries to PNG, including a chair that had been given by Australia. There was a very large wood carving, which had sections of carving from different areas of the country. We also saw displays of insects that had been mounted. There were moths, butterflies, beetles, stick insects, cockroaches and more. PNG has the biggest moth and biggest butterfly in the world.

We also sat in the Parliament viewing platform and saw where they hold Parliament. Everything that is spoken is simultaneously translated into the three official languages: English, Tok Pisin and Motu. Members can wear headphones and choose which language they wish to listen to.

Outside, the grounds were pretty too. We saw the busts of the Prime Ministers of PNG, and I think this one below is of the current Prime Minister, Sir Michael Somare (my apologies to him if I am wrong!)

Part of a crocodile mosaic:

It was quite a busy day with going to the Botanical Gardens first, then the Parliament House, plus doing a little bit of shopping at a market too. I was glad to be able to put my feet up at the end of the day!

Port Moresby adventures – Botanical Gardens

On our way to Buka we had to stay at Port Moresby for two nights, so we had a whole day to kill there and we decided to go and see a bit of the place, since there was three of us single ladies and we’d all only been in Moresby by ourselves previously and it’s not wise for single women to go round Moresby alone. We started by taking a PMV to the botanical gardens. It was a bit of a scary ride for me as the sliding door of the bus was open the whole trip and I was sitting opposite it. I was worried that if we turned too sharply, I would fall out the door!

Picture that I took from the bus:

The botanical garden was PNG style, not really classy, as evidenced by the dirt and leaves on the top of the shadecloth in the picture below.

However there were lots of nice plants and flowers, especially orchids. We were shown around by one of the security staff there, and we were even taken through to sections that said ‘No entry – staff only’. There were also animals in enclosures there too, including the bird of paradise, which is often hard to see in the wild. Some of the other animals/birds we saw were: cuscus, crocodile, cassowary, wallaby, hornbill, tree kangaroo

Here are two pictures of orchids and one of a tree kangaroo.