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  • Bakermen go PNG

    Road to Wewak

    3. maj 2019, Papua Ny Guinea ⋅ 🌧 28 °C

    In the morning after breakfast we drove back to Pagwi. On the way back we actually met the first and only tourist in the area: once Albert saw him he was excited to tell us that he saw a “Whiteman”. We started talking to him. Turned out that he was a British dude with nothing but a backpack, a hammock and an inflatable canoe. Which is somewhat crazy given the fact that there are crocs all over and he had nothing in between him and the lake apart from an inflatable canoe. He was travelling down Sepik river for 3 months (!) which is not only dangerous for the crocs but also the tribes. Albert always mentioned how dangerous the other parts of Sepik are “because of rascals” and apparently in the other parts of Sepik they were saying the same things about everybody else, including Albert’s villages. He told us how one night he was sleeping in his hammock when a fully grown 6m crocodile was standing next to his hammock. We asked him for travel tips and funnily enough he first mentioned Iran where we had gotten the tip to go to PNG in the first place. So he came up with Mongolia. He bought a horse there and went for 3 months through the country. “Crazy whiteman” was Albert’s comment shaking his head once we left him.
    In Pagwi we first visited a crocodile farm. We then hung out at a “guesthouse”. Basically, you could sleep in this place but calling it a guest house would be a bit too much. In Pagwi there was actually one little shop which was also on the water and you got there with a canoe. We put our luggage in the car and drove back for 3-4 hours to Wewak.
    In Wewak it turned out that Albert had forgotten to actually book us a guesthouse. After going to a few guest houses that were all full we ended up in the “Airport lodge” right next to the airport. So this was a weird place: it looked like it used to be somewhat modern is quite run down by now. It had a rooftop restaurant which was destroyed and thus not open. PNG women were working here but also some really big Aussie women with the weirdest skin you can think of. It did not look healthy. We spoke to her later, apparently she was the owner and had left the house to her daughter while she had gone for treatment (probably for her skin) to Australia. After coming back after multiple years she found the house completely broken and stolen. Now she was building it up again.
    We took a bus to Wewak which was an experience in itself. You sit with way too many people in a van and always have to get off once somebody wants to get off. We were of course the only white people in the entire city and thus got some weird looks. In Wewak we walked around the market and then kept going to a more luxurious hotel that Albert had told us about: In Wewak Boutique. We were starving for some Westerner food. The restaurant was not yet open so we just hung out on a balcony with access to the internet for the first time in days. Once the restaurant opened we entered and had a pretty good meal with proper food and even smoothies.
    We wanted to go back afterwards but the restaurant didn’t let us, apparently it is too dangerous to go outside in the dark. We tried to call a taxi but there is no such a thing in Wewak. The security from the hotel ended up calling the police and the police guys themselves gave us a ride to our hotel. On the way we had to stop for cash. These were two fun guys, we gave them a bit of tip and once we arrived in the hotel went pretty much straight to bed.    Læs mere

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  • Bakermen go PNG

    Chambri Lake

    2. maj 2019, Papua Ny Guinea ⋅ 🌧 25 °C

    In the morning after breakfast we geared up and drove with the canoe roughly 1-2 hours through shortcuts to Chambri lake.
    The first stop of the day was Aibom pottery village. We had a hike through the village and got to know about their pottery techniques. Also they showed us some of their crops. It was nice to finally have solid ground below our feet again. Afterwards, there was of course a mandatory stop in the spirit house. Also, Albert had gotten lunch with us. We ate it here and took a little nap.
    We kept going to Kamanibit village which is located directly on Chambri Lake. This is a comparably big village. After checking in at the spirit house we went for a few hours through the village. Also here there is proper ground. We arrived at the local elementary school and checked out how the kids were learning there in the classrooms. They had pretty decent text books that were usually sponsored by the Australian government. Their classes included regular English and Maths but also “making a living” or “personal development”.
    After coming back to the canoe we went back to Kanganamun which again took us 1-2 hours. Back in the house we hung out, had a “shower” and dinner.    Læs mere

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  • Bakermen go PNG

    Kanganamun

    1. maj 2019, Papua Ny Guinea ⋅ ☁️ 32 °C

    We woke up and had breakfast. We prepared and got into the canoe to explore the area. We first went around Kanganamun which is a beautiful village with really nice huts and an over 300 year old spirit house.
    First we went to a village called Palimbe. We got there via some shortcuts through reed and swamp. The first stop was the spirit house. Every village in the area has a spirit house (or “Haus Tambaran”) which is basically where all the guys hang out and chill all day long while the women work. The tribes around Sepik river also had their specialties: women in their view to them are dirty especially during their period. The guys basically live alone and the women only once a day bring them food and take care of all the annoying things.
    The kids grow up with them until they turn 14: then, boys move out to the spirit house and get their crocodile skin during a crazy ceremony. Basically what happens is that somebody takes a razor blade and makes hundreds of cuts on the boy’s back until it’s bleeding as hell. They would do that multiple times within a month on each spot so that they get scars all over their back which looks like crocodile skin. After a month in the spirit house they become officially reborn as men and move to their dad’s place.
    Once we arrived we had to put off our hats, next to women not being allowed to enter probably being the only enforced rule here. In the spirit houses the guys pretty much just create art and carve woods. Two guys performed a little concert on some kind of a wooden drum. We checked out the local art: mostly wooden carvery and masks that looked super crazy. We hung out with them and bought a few items, Lio got a massive mask with straws coming from the sides.
    Afterwards, we went around the villages and ended up in the spirit house of Kanganamun. This definitely is the most impressive one being several hundreds years old. Not much has changed since then. In the 20th century the Germans came to the area and taught the tribes how to handcraft proper floors and some basics in medicine. But that’s pretty much it. We had a nap here and Lio shopped some more art.
    We went for lunch back to the house and returned next to the spirit house. A few guys were carving new canoes for their children. During wet season the villagers do that because it’s a lot easier to carry the logs around (basically, just make them float over the water). And also, there’s pretty much nothing else to do during that period as you can only hang out in the houses. It takes 2-4 weeks to create a canoe. We were chilling the whole afternoon with the guys in the sun while they built their canoe. In the meantime, some guy climbed up the palms to get coconuts for us that we ate and drank. The vibe was really chill and the guys did enjoy our Spotify playlists a lot that we put via the UE Boom.
    In the early evening we went back to the house and had dinner. This time, a few fishes that the women had caught during the day on the nearby lake together with some sort of local pancakes made out of palm trees. Albert instead grilled a turtle that he had gotten from the women that day. He ate literally everything which was really disgusting. Lio and me tried as well, tasted somewhat like chicken.
    Afterwards we had a “shower”. So the villagers use their river for everything - literally. They fish their food from there, they use it as transportation, they use it as their toilet (remember, the toilet just went straight to the river) - as well as their shower. Basically you either jump from a tree in the river or just get in and wash yourself with a little bit of soap. The bottom is of course really muddy.
    This whole situation was even more disturbing, because just after that, when it was finally dark, we went for a tour to catch crocodiles. Equipped with nothing else but a spear, a canoe, some sticks for moving forward and flashlights we left the house together with the neighbor and his kid. The little kid and Albert started imitating crocodile noises to spot crocodiles. Just after a few minutes a few meters away from the house (where we just before have had the shower) we stopped for the first time. Lio and me weren’t sure what was happening but apparently the guys had seen something. We got closer to some reed and suddenly the man went with his speer in the water and pulled out a fucking baby crocodile. He threw it alive into the canoe and the little kid grabbed it and kept it in his hands from there on. They wanted to use it as a bait. Now the kid did some things to the croc so that it makes some noises so the bigger crocs could speak up. We caught it just a few metres away from where we had just showered in the river.
    We kept going through the wilderness. The silence was only interrupted by jungle and animal noises as we went through swamp, reed and jungle forest. A few times we spotted the noises of crocodiles. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to actually catch a big one. They were going for crocodiles of multiple metres of size - with only a canoe and a spear. After roughly two hours we returned. The little crocodile was released again to nature and we went to bed.    Læs mere

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  • Bakermen go PNG

    Road to Kanganamun

    30. april 2019, Papua Ny Guinea ⋅ 🌧 29 °C

    As our flight left at 05:50am we had to drive with a boat to Kavieng very early morning. This time our flight went via Hoskins and Port Moresby to then reach Wewak. We arrived in Wewak 11am among an Aussie military unit that had training in the area. Again, the luggage drop was just a park bench where the employees would take the bags.
    Getting out of the airport we got picked up by our new guide, Albert, and his nephew. We fueled up the car and continued to the supermarket to do grocery shopping. After some problems with withdrawing cash we actually managed to do so in a bank. He was in PNG for months already, only travelling via missionary flights and only sleeping for free in churches.
    We took off to Pagwi, the drive took around 3-4 hours on the most horrible road. On the way we stopped at a few street vendors to buy, well, betelnut. In Pagwi we hopped on Albert’s canoe to visit Sepik river villages. You would probably rather describe it as a tree log. It was roughly 10m long and not even 50 centimetres wide. It had a motor and in the middle they put two amazingly chill chairs for Lio and me.
    We drove with the canoe to Kanganamun, the village where we would stay for the next few days. We didn’t take the regular route but went via shortcuts that were accessible only during the wet season. In that period all villages are flooded by the Sepik river so you can go through the middle of the jungle with the canoe and don’t have to go through the mainstream. On the flipside it means you always have to be on a boat or in your house and it’s more dangerous. The reason why the wet season is more dangerous is because when everything is flooded the crocs could be literally anywhere: below the house or in the reed that we were just passing. While in the dry season the crocodiles are usually hanging out only in the river, now they can get close to where people stay. Still there are only a few fatal cases (apparently).
    We arrived in Kanganamun around sunset. The entire village was flooded with water and you had to go around with a canoe. The houses were obviously prepared for that and built on pillars. You access the house by stopping with the canoe just next to the house where they built a little pier from where you go directly from the canoe to the steps of the house. Our house was a little hut, inside there was basically just a table and a few mats with mosquito nets on the floor. During the wet season there are relatively less mosquitos, which still means that there were more mosquitos we had ever seen in our lives. People basically constantly clap with their hands on their skin to get rid of them. Albert warned us that from the white mosquitos we get Malaria. Once that happens we are in for a horribly painful day trip to the next hospital.
    There were cats walking around everywhere, once even a cat right next to our beds ripped a mouse. The toilet was outside, a little hole from where everything would fall directly in the river.
    Albert prepared the dinner which was usually very basic pasta and rice. Afterwards we went to sleep. There was basically no electricity and service at all. The neighbor had a little solar panel that would charge 10% of your phone if you gave it to him for the entire day, so it was pretty useless. After it was dark, there was not much to do apart from reading Lio’s Lonely Planet about all of Papua and Solomon Islands or playing Sudoku.    Læs mere

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  • Bakermen go PNG

    Nusa Island Resort

    29. april 2019, Papua Ny Guinea ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Etto had left back to Sydney before breakfast already, when we woke up we first had breakfast buffet. There was this parrot that would always eat your fruits during breakfast. The restaurant was just next to the water under some kind of Palapa.
    The day consisted of much, this time more luxurious, chilling. So first things first, Lio got an ocean wash to his denim shorts, apparently the first one since Ilha Granhe. Afterwards we rented some SUPs from the resort and paddled to the island next door for a hike. On that island there were still bunkers, weapons, artillery, shipwrecks and other WWII relics, so we checked them out. Just when we arrived on the other side of the island it again started pouring like there is no tomorrow. We still wanted to go the full circle, so we ended up getting soaked again. Finally back we took the SUP and went back to the hotel to chill once more.
    After lunch we went for a snorkeling trip to look for the shipwreck again. Again, no luck in finding it. Also the locals didn’t seem to understand what we were asking them the whole time. After an hour we cut our losses and paddled back to the hotel. In the afternoon Tim went with the Aussie guy and his girlfriend to another surf break relatively nearby.
    Back in the hotel we chilled, had dinner at the buffet again and went to bed.    Læs mere

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  • Bakermen go PNG

    Road to Nusa Island

    28. april 2019, Papua Ny Guinea ⋅ 🌧 29 °C

    Today we checked out after breakfast, geared up our luggage to the boat and took off.
    We drove to another island where also Lio initially had requested a guest house. Turned out that the guest house was closed and heavily run down. We stopped there and went to a lagoon that was within the little island. The vibe was pretty chill. We crossed the island by foot which took roughly an hour. On the way, the guys showed us some nice huts, communities and schools. It was still pretty small and apparently most people were related to another. According to the guys, a common pitfall in these regions is if you make your neighbor pregnant because then your parents want you to marry that girl. Also, on that island was apparently living an expat family from the US.
    After the hike we got picked up by the banana boat on the other side of the island. From there we drove another 3 hours back to Kavieng, the first hour we had already completed by getting to the island. During these 3 hours suddenly the weather turned mad. At first just a little bit of wind and waves, suddenly it was raining like there is no tomorrow. We obviously didn’t have any kind of roof on that banana boat so we just got completely soaked. And this kept going for 1-2 hours.
    When the rain stopped we were just about to arrive in Nusa Island resort. We arrived there completely wet. Nusa Island is an island just in front of Kavieng. The resort is for PNG standards super luxurious, you have proper toilets and showers which is crazy. After being in the wilderness for a while we were super happy to arrive at that place. Also, for the first time we had seen some white people again: an Aussie guy with his British girlfriend.
    We checked in and had lunch, a burger and nice fruits. We hung out in the bungalow and surroundings for a little while. Etto and Lio went snorkeling in the afternoon, just in front of this island there is a plane wreck just 10m away from the shore. They didn’t find it though.
    In the evening the hotel made a really nice buffet. It was the first proper food we have had in awhile.
    Nusa Island Resort was super chill. You had a luxurious bungalow, a hammock just in front, it was directly next to the ocean and on a tiny island with a jungle. Quite awesome, so we mostly listened to music and just chilled. As there was at least sometimes Wifi, we could also connect to the outside world again.    Læs mere

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  • Bakermen go PNG

    Clem's Place

    27. april 2019, Papua Ny Guinea ⋅ 🌧 29 °C

    We woke up and after regular breakfast the plan was to visit another little island and go Spearfishing. We threw our gear in the boat and reached the island which was only a short boat drive away. Apparently, when the wind comes from a certain direction and it’s not raining sometimes you get service on that island. That didn’t hold true for the day.
    The island was a really nice remote place, we could find a lot of shells and coral. We got back on the boat and anchored a few metres away from the island, jumped in the wanted with spears and looked for especially crayfish. After 2 hours we had gotten to quite some fishes (Etto got a few at least) and even more crayfish. While Etto and Lio were still in the water Tim got taught how to drive the banana boat which was fun.
    Once the other two guys got back on the boat Tim drove the boat back to our island. On the way, suddenly a huge amount of dolphins appeared next to our boat, probably 20 or so. We were driving back home and they were swimming and jumping out of the water next to us the whole time, literally just a few meters away from the boat. When we stopped and tried to go in the water with them however they disappeared, once we started going again they returned.
    Back at Clem’s place we had a well-deserved lunch, vegetables and the fish we had just caught. Basically, Clem’s place is just about fishing, surfing, snorkeling, spearfishing and chilling. That’s what you do there the whole time.
    The afternoon consisted of going strolling, snorkeling and surfing again. At first we tried wakesurfing behind the boat. It was more of a mixture between wakeboarding and wakesurfing though because the boat didn’t make a good enough wave to get pulled behind the boat without a rope. We stopped at the surf break to take a few waves.
    We got back and went strolling and snorkeling. In the evening we ate the crayfish we had spearfished in the morning, chilled and went to bed.    Læs mere

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  • Bakermen go PNG

    Clem's Place

    26. april 2019, Papua Ny Guinea ⋅ 🌧 28 °C

    We woke up and got some breakfast from Clem’s wife. We always got tea, marmalade, bread and fresh fruits. After breakfast we geared up the boats with snorkeling, fishing and surf equipment.
    We got on the boat and first drove to a surf break. We obviously had it only for ourselves and Lio, the sons/cousins of Clem and me went surfing. It was a nice point break that was actually barrelling at times.
    After two hours we got back on the boat, put out the fishing rods and started catching some fish, mostly skipjack and yellowfin tuna.
    On the way back home we stopped close to the home island to go snorkeling. In WWII there was a pretty big war between Japanese and Australians/Americans in this area, so you can find many plane and shipwrecks in the area. Next to the island there is a 100m long Japanese war shipwreck only a few metres below the surface. We went in the water and could actually see it quite well even without diving equipment.
    Reaching back to the island we got some lunch, fresh vegetables and guess what, fish. After lunch Lio and Etto went for another snorkeling session on the other side of the island. Tim could see that he was already sunburned from the surf session thus he rather stayed indoors and took a nap.
    When the guys returned we went for another boat cruise to catch some more fish. When getting back we played some games in the common area and got dinner - fish of course once again. We eventually went to bed. As there were no lights or anything after 7pm, basically we could as well just go to sleep around 8pm.    Læs mere

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  • Bakermen go PNG

    Road to Clem’s Place

    25. april 2019, Papua Ny Guinea ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    After this insane day, we woke up in paradise right next to the sea and had breakfast provided by the village.
    Then to our surprise it turned out that the guy who was supposed to meet us in Buoana Station, the head of the tourism bureau of Papua New Guinea, was actually in town now. Again, he only walks barefoot around the country and it had taken us quite some drive by car and boat to get here and there was no service anywhere around, so now there was no more surprise why we had missed him the other day. We met him and realized he was batshit crazy. They called him the “Snake Man” because he lived with his 5 sons and his wife in a single room with his 3 snakes.
    We gathered in the village at a little corner and he started performing a snake show for us. It started with his 4 older sons arriving and playing traditional music and then continued with him and his little maybe 5 year old son arriving and both pulling out a little snake out of their mouth. He then went to the bushes behind him and pulled out a big ass snake and started doing his show. He put the head of the snake in his mouth, danced with the snakes together with his little sons and just did some random stuff with them for about half an hour.
    After the show it was time to say goodbye. We packed our baggage, got back into the boat and drove the 3 hours back with the boat with only a little peeing break in between. Our asses hurt like crazy, there was obviously no proper seat. Arriving back in Lae we got into the car, drove to Etto’s previous hotel to get our bags and continued to the airport. Now it was time to say goodbye to Defol and the remaining porters. There was still a bit of uncertainty around this whole flight booking but we turned out to be able to board the plane. We made it through security which was basically a guy, who had a two-second look in the backpacks of every second person. We took off around noon.
    First we had a stopover in Hoskins which was basically just dropping a few passengers without leaving the plane. Then we had a stopover in Rabaul which included changing the plane and finally made it to Kavieng. During the flight you could see archipels. There was one white person approaching us, an Aussie pilot that lived somewhere in PNG with his wife and kid. Basically as soon as you see white people here they approach you because it rarely happens. In Kavieng the luggage drop was basically just a park bench where the airport employees would carry your bags. Two sons or cousins from Clem were picking us up with a van from the airport. As they realized we wanted to go surfing but they didn’t have any surfboards at Clem’s place, first we needed to go get them at some other place. After some drive around we made it to the harbor and entered the banana boat to take off to Clem’s Place.
    So again, to showcase the remoteness of this place, how you get there: take a flight to PNG which is already a pain in itself, then take another flight with 2 stopovers to Kavieng which is crazy remote. Before Kavieng there is a little island called New Hanover which is super remote, basically just a jungle. But then, Clem’s place is actually on a tiny island just before New Hanover. It’s right at the Bismarck Sea.
    We were driving with the boat for 4h with Clem’s son, cousin and wife. We had an awesome sunset before it got dark. Closely before we arrived in the middle of the dark a fish jumped on Lio into the boat. Getting to Clem’s place was then tough: because of the tide the boat couldn’t reach the beach. We basically had to walk in the dark for 100 meters over the reef with starfishes all over while the other guys were carrying our luggage. Once we made it we got into our little bungalow and had dinner: fish with vegetables. We were obviously the only people on the island.
    The bungalow was pretty much the only thing on the island, there was a little common area where we usually hung out and had breakfast, lunch and dinner. The toilets and shower, if you may call them like that, were basically just water pipes and holes. There was again no service around, so a few more days of disconnection were awaiting.    Læs mere

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  • Bakermen go PNG

    Buingim Village

    24. april 2019, Papua Ny Guinea ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    In the morning we had our breakfast before we said goodbye to Anton and took a car back to Lae. This time we only had a pick up and we had to sit on the loading area of the pick up with roughly 10 people. The others sitting, we were standing while holding tight to the front of the car and putting disco tunes. That was quite a fun ride. Also we made a stop at a river that was apparently the most rapid one within PNG although we don’t know if this info is verified. After a few hours drive we eventually got back to Lae, in between of course stacking up our Betelnut inventory.
    On the way to Lae we stopped by the airport. During the hike Lio had found that our tickets for the next flight were issued for a wrong day. Turned out that we had booked for a completely different day, probably due to UI issues on the website of the airline which looked like a complete scam and didn’t really work properly. After some negotiation with the people at the airport however they reissued a ticket for us for some verbally negotiated price.
    We dropped all the porters in Lae in different areas of the city and then went to visit Defol’s boss in the tourism bureau. There obviously wasn’t much to do in the tourism bureau but meeting some people and doing the remaining payment. When we handed over the money Defol started doing pictures of this. He posted that on Facebook with “bringing in the foreign currencies'', that was hilarious. So we took another selfie together holding roughly 2k€ in cash.
    We couldn’t yet continue with the rest of the trip for some - until today - unknown reason (something with the boat we think). So while Defol was taking care of whatever it was, we went with his boss to the yacht club next door and he invited us for some burgers. This definitely was the only regular food we found during our two weeks in Papua. The yacht club was a little club of Aussie expats working in the military base. On that day there was the ANZAC day so military parades happened especially in the morning. As said, there was a big war during WWII in that region. Aussies fought against Japanese and since then there is this military base and military cemetery where they had the ceremony.
    After a few hours we were finally off for a 3h ride on a little banana boat heading to Buingim Village. We were a total of roughly 10 people on the boat.
    To explain what you need to do in order to reach this village: take 3 flights to reach PNG, from where you take a flight to Lae, from where you have to hike, from where you have to drive 100km with a boat because roads do not exist any more. You do need to commit to reach this place. And we were the first ones to ever do so.
    We obviously put music on the boat but closely before we arrived in the village Defol asked us to put it off. We were a bit surprised because we had literally zero expectations of what would be coming now, Defol had not communicated anything to us. We thought we were going to another random village saying hi and sleeping. We had already questioned why we were still going: driving on a boat for 3h just to overnight for a few hours to then return to the airport again didn’t make much sense any more. Luckily, we couldn’t be more wrong.
    Arriving in the village, the whole village of >1.000 people was waiting for us, dressed in local costumes, singing local songs, dancing local dances. It was unreal, like Christopher Columbus must have felt when he first arrived in South America. The tribal elder officially welcomed us while the whole village was singing to an orchestra of people using shells as flutes (!). After getting out of the boat and the official welcoming, the whole crowd led us singing through the village to the “village square” where they put three chairs for us in the middle with a wide circle around where the village people would stand. Next to the chairs with shells they created big letters saying “feel at home”.
    This whole procedure took 1 hour, until we sat on the chairs and the whole village in a radius of 50m around us. It was unreal and we could have imagined that this was now the part where they would put us over a fire and eat us, like in some stupid movie. There are still quite some cannibal tribes in PNG after all and the way this trip was being set up was not exactly official (we had just written some guy on Facebook). Instead, they started a show for us with each part of the local village performing their traditional tribal dances and songs, 15 tribes of each 5 minutes. It’s called Sing Sing. The whole village was singing to these dances. We were completely overwhelmed. Defol meanwhile took pictures and videos for us.
    After the last group finished, the village people came closer and Defol held a speech again that he would like to support the village and try to bring tourists. We were again the test case, the first ever people to experience this. We held a speech afterwards that Defol translated. How was the village chosen in the first place? Apparently it’s the village where Defol’s mother is from and where his sister is living.
    After another hour of being nice with the people, taking pictures with them, talking to them, buying some shell bracelets, we went to a buffet with awesome fresh fruits. We continued with the boat to a little lagoon where we could “shower” and/or chill in the ocean. The lagoon directly ended at the beach, it was a great spot for sunset. We went to the beachside in the village again where they had prepared a crazy dinner with vegetables, rice, a little meat and many fruits. Meanwhile we were talking to the tribes elderly about what to make sure to take care of if they want to bring tourists (like avoiding mass tourism to preserve their unique culture and staying eco friendly). Also they told us that their local water pipe was not working any more so half of the population of the village currently didn’t get fresh water. What was also funny is that their local language was very close to German. The weekdays for example are the same as in German (Montag, Dienstag, Mittwoch, …).
    After speaking for hours, they brought us first to another washing place (basically a little pipe that ended above a little creek) and then to the sleeping place. Now, this was another weird story: we arrived at a little hut that was basically only a roof with banana leaves and no walls, like a Palapa. In the middle they had put more leaves to make it a bit softer and we started unpacking and putting our sleeping bags. Lying down in our sleeping bags we realized that the remaining 20-30 people were not going to leave now but waited next to us until we fell asleep, literally 2-3 metres away from us and watching us fall asleep. This was the second situation where we thought now we might get eaten. They kept discussing tourism in their area and we actually made it to fall asleep and did not get eaten after all.    Læs mere

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  • Bakermen go PNG

    Hike to Boana Station

    23. april 2019, Papua Ny Guinea ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    We woke up early again, had our regular basic brekkie. The whole village was already awaiting us, we said goodbye to everyone and started hiking. Past the school of Monacassat (Anton called it the Mossad), over the cane bridge and then a crazy hike up the mountain for 2-3h with heavy humidity, rarely have we had that much of an exhausting hike. We kept going until we reached the top where we had a little break with music and dance. We continued going until we reached another little village where they climbed up some trees giving us fresh oranges. From there we continued to a high school and then always up the hill. Now it was heavy sun, Tim had put his sun protection burka including Etto’s longsleve shirt and a T-Shirt below the cap as additional protection for the head. Lionel passed out along the way because it was so exhausting and there was no shade in sight. On the top there was a little hut where we got a lunch and ate sugar canes, they were actually quite nice. We also took a nap as the previous part was so exhausting.
    After the break we continued to hike and decided not to go the extra crazy route but the regular one. On the regular route we passed two creeks with natural pools where we could cool down again. Etto along the way found a spider that was bigger than our full hands.
    We reached Boana station where 2 days ago we should have met the tourism chief after a total of >40km with big elevation gains. Kids were playing football and the vibe of the village was super chill, we first got some beers in some “pub” which was a run down house with one bench and a few beers they sold. We drank beers and had dinner at the house of one of the porters. Afterwards Defol brought us to our guesthouse. Obviously there has never been internationals staying in that place but only locals travelling.
    Funnily enough, Anton, who said he would join us to Lae where he had work, decided not to go with us to Lae after all. It looked like this guy was just very poor, he asked the owner if he could stay in a free bed in the guest house that night. So this guy from one minute to another decided to join our super exhausting hike for 2 days barefoot to then decide again from one minute to another that he would rather walk back to his village. Looks like he doesn’t have too much to do after all. After a quick shower in the garden we went to bed.    Læs mere

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  • Bakermen go PNG

    Hike to Monacassat

    22. april 2019, Papua Ny Guinea ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    We woke up at 6 am before sunrise. When we woke up finally we could see where we had slept overnight: in the middle of nowhere, there were basically just a few huts, a little school and else just jungle. It was a beautiful morning with blue sky and you could have a great view over the wilderness. We had some chocolate bars and a bit of milk powder with Müsli for breakfast. We got our luggage prepared (mostly gearing up and getting water ready) and started to hike. Where we started the hike there was no more road, this was the last place you could possibly reach with a car and actually even most cars would have problems getting there.
    We walked to a little village where we had a little stop and talked to the villagers. Most of them joined us afterwards to climb up the mountain to visit more villages.
    Now, how did we get here: as Defol didn’t want to bring us to the Black Cat Track he offered us to alternatively bring us to a few other villages and do another hike. He had the idea to in the future bring visitors to the area because back in the days an Aussie soldier in WWII, Peter Ryan, was hiding from the Japanese in this area for several months. There are other very famous military tracks where the Aussies had fought in WWII and he saw an opportunity to bring more people to this region as currently there was nobody at all going there. We were the first ones and basically we were the trial candidates for this.
    The tour was not set up yet however so basically it was just us with Defol and a few locals exploring the area and talking to local communities that have never seen tourists and visitors and especially no white people. So we have been the first ever foreign visitors to the area and the villages. Defol joined the hike with the porters and then in each village held a speech talking to the communities trying to get them to accept visitors in the area (and basically not chop their heads). For that reason, we were bringing a porter from each of the communities we were passing.
    So when we went to the mountains and passed through more villages, we made a stop in each village and talked to the community leaders to get them on board for the plan. In the first village we reached a church that was having a service. Most of the area was of Lutheran religion and some of the elderly still remembered the German missionaries that had come there to convert them. When we walked into that village EVERYBODY came and wanted to shake our hands, hundreds of people.
    It was funny that every village we passed, 20 more guys would just follow us and hike with us, at some point maybe 50 people were joining us creating a massive caravan.
    We continued to the village where Peter Ryan was hiding from the Japanese for more than a year. The village welcomed us with a big self-made sign drawn on cotton thinking we were Aussies and a dance from kids with arrows and bows. Usually we arrived in these villages a lot earlier before Defol as he wasn’t the fittest any more. We continued for hours and hiked a total of 17km that day, finally arriving at a river around 5pm. The river had fast rapids and the little cane bridge was broken. We fixed it, balanced over it and then got our baggage off and jumped in the river. We felt the freshest ever in our lives. We felt so sweaty, hot, humid, exhausted that day and the river had the perfect refreshing temperature.
    Afterwards we got changed again and continued to hike to a little village where we would sleep: Monacassat. Also these guys had never seen Westerners. We had a little hut in the middle of the village that somebody else had freed for us and the whole village came to greet us. We got some fresh ananas and oranges. Again the hut didn’t have anything in there so we slept on the floor. In this one we even all had our own room. We were still talking to the village people again for a few hours before we had a quick pasta. This was the time when we figured that Lio and Tim had even forgotten to bring cutleries, so we had to get innovative.
    Especially Lio bonded with a guy called Anton who, well, was a bit special. In this village the village clown Anton was clearly the Entertainer, he liked us and said “he would join us to go back to Lae” the next day, to be continued later. Afterwards we went to bed.    Læs mere

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  • Bakermen go PNG

    Arrival in Lae

    21. april 2019, Papua Ny Guinea ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    We arrived in an overnight flight in Port Moresby at 5am. We fucking made it to Papua New Guinea. At the beginning we tried to get an earlier flight to Lae, but obviously the locals weren’t able to make this rebooking happen, although we got close. Check-in had just closed when we got there for the 7am flight.
    Instead we used the additional time to go to Poolside, a crazy brunch place next to the airport with a great view over the sea and runway and a super awesome breakfast with the best passion fruit and ananas we have had so far. We arrived there just before sunrise and had a nice table directly with a view to the runway. Tim had a swim which was a wise decision as this was the last proper shower we had for a while thereafter. Finishing up, we took the 9:50am flight to Lae and landed at 11am. In Lae, Etto, who had arrived the day before, and Defol, our “guide” that we had gotten to know via sending a message to a random person on Facebook, picked us up with a 4x4. Some porters were joining us so there were like 10-12 people in the car.
    So how this trip has gotten into place was the following: we had gotten to know this crazy German teacher in the desert in Iran who apparently visited PNG in the 90s and had told us awesome stories about it. Doing our research, we found the Black Cat Track that is close to Lae and we wanted to hike. It’s an old hike from WWII where Aussie and Japanese soldiers had a big battle. It crosses rivers with heavy rapids and all along the way there are war relics like plane wrecks or weapons. Unfortunately, in that hike recently some people were killed by local rivaling communities and some people had gotten their head chopped off. We still wanted to hike it and thus started texting random people on Instagram and Facebook because no official sources would offer this trip. Defol ran this Facebook Page “Morobe Province Tourism”. He back in the days did more prominent tours in Port Moresby and he invited us to come and bring us to the mountains. We were actually his first ever group visiting the region. Planning happened via E-Mail and we had randomly transferred a huge amount of money to some guy from Facebook. Usually response only happened once every few days because the people setting up the trips usually lived in villages and only had access to the internet once back in the city. So we were happy when we realized that there was somebody waiting for us and this was not all a complete scam.
    We went to Lae where we had a snack, bought some food in the supermarket for the track, left our bags in Etto’s hotel, had a last proper toilet and then drove into the wilderness for roughly 5 hours. We went offroad pretty quickly and the nature was beautiful.
    On the way we made a few stops to chew betelnut. Betelnut is this snack they put in their mouth to then chew it and bite on mustard that they dip in lime. They do it so long until it turns red and then spit it out. It has a similar effect like cocaine on them and that’s the reason why they all have black and dirty teeth and a red disgusting mouth.
    Arriving in the first village in the middle of nowhere called Boana Station, there was supposed to come the chairman of the national tourism bureau in order to officially welcome us. However this guy doesn’t take cars and just walks through the country and there is no service anywhere around, so obviously these guys didn’t coordinate to actually make that happen. Originally also some kind of newspaper reporters wanted to report about that but they were neither able to coordinate that as well. Still we made a stop in Boana Station which was surprisingly organized and well set up. It was also the last time we had phone service for the next few days.
    We continued and arrived at 7pm in the dark in the middle of nowhere. We got out of the car and walked a bit further to reach the village where Defol showed us the “room”. It was a little hut with nothing in there so we slept on the floor. In the evening the whole village came to welcome us as they had never seen a whiteman. They wanted to make a fire below our house (which was out of wood?!), so we made a fire and then had a chat with these guys for a few hours before we went to bed.
    They told us how their community is set up with the community leaders, the elderly and church leaders and they were chewing betelnut the whole time. So Papua New Guinea is a country with many distinct tribes that have fought against each other for centuries, only somewhat recently they are trying to create a Papuan identity. The Sing Sings (described later) were for example introduced to make the tribes dance together with each of their local traditions instead of fighting against each other. There are over 300 languages spoken and they can’t talk to each other. Also, only somewhat recently they created a Pidgin language that was understood by more widespread Papuans. It has similarities to English. Having so many local tribes means also that there are very different cultural traditions. They were all crazy in different ways. In the highlands there are still quite some cannibal tribes. The tribe around Lae was known for once a year burying out their dead people, dressing them with their old clothes and hanging out with them for a day (!). That’s also why PNG was pretty long not colonized by Europeans because the first missionaries that entered the island were all eaten and the tribes created a reputation of being batshit crazy.
    So the village women prepared a chicken for dinner but we only ate potatoes with ketchup and drank water with purification pills. You can’t drink any water here so we needed to bring these pills that purifies the water. Lio and Tim obviously didn’t know anything about that but luckily Etto knew and had taken enough. Otherwise we had been in deep shit by now (like, literally). Food wise all of these tribes here live self sustaining, they don’t buy anything in supermarkets. So it’s a lot of vegetables and for special occasions also meat from animals that they hold. But definitely fewer than in Western society. The supermarkets were actually really expensive: we bought a few pasta and rice cans with very basic supplements and got rid of 100 EUR.
    Afterwards we went to bed already impressed with what had happened that day.    Læs mere

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