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Timmie

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    • Bakermen go PNG

      Buingim Village

      April 24, 2019 in Papua New 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.      Read more

    • Bakermen go PNG

      Hike to Boana Station

      April 23, 2019 in Papua New 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.      Read more

    • Bakermen go PNG

      Hike to Monacassat

      April 22, 2019 in Papua New 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.      Read more

    • Bakermen go PNG

      Arrival in Lae

      April 21, 2019 in Papua New 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.      Read more

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