Day 39: Papua New Guinea
We got up around 2:30am this morning for our very early flight to Papua New Guinea, packed up a little carry-on bag each, and left our luggage at the hotel in Cairns. It’s so great travelling with next to nothing – you really don’t need very much! When we arrived at the airport, it was empty! We were the only dorks who arrived at the suggested time before our flight! When the check-in counter finally opened, we checked in, had some breakfast, and got on our flight.
We arrived in Port Moresby, and went to check in for our next flight, which is when we hit a little glitch in our plan: our onward tickets had been suspended by the airline! Basically, when Rachna had purchased the tickets online, the airline had double-charged her credit card, so she had called the credit card company to cancel the second charge, but this resulted in the airline suspending the valid tickets as well. Rachna finally got someone to unsuspend the tickets on the promise that we would tell the credit card company that it was not a fraudulent charge! Phew – who said a little stress didn’t make you stronger! We spent what remained of our 8-hour layover in a café, waiting for our next flight, thankful we had a next flight to wait for.
Flying over and landing into Kokopo was spectacular – the view of mountains, the ocean, the palm tree forests, the islands – it felt like we were landing in a dream. Kokopo is a little town in the East New Britain island of Papua New Guinea (PNG). The island is surrounded by volcanoes, one of which (Mount Tavurvur) is active. The town of Kokopo actually flourished after a volcanic eruption in 1994 devastated most of nearby Rabaul, which used to be the main town in the area.
We were picked up at the airport by the hotel shuttle, and we met a nice 75-year old man on the shuttle, who had moved to PNG and lived there for 40 years with his wife. He had so many stories to tell us about his life and experiences – it was so interesting! When we got to the hotel, we checked in and got to our room, which was pretty basic at an exorbitant cost, but that was the cheapest one in the town, considering we were here for the National Mask Festival. Luckily, our cheapo hotel was the sister hotel of a resort hotel 5 minutes away, so we took the shuttle and went over there for dinner.
The resort was beautiful, with fabulous amenities, a lounge, bar, and restaurant, and huge traditional masks everywhere. Dinner was great, and we spent some time there and talked to the manager, who helped us plan out and book things for our short stay here. We took the shuttle back to our hotel to sleep, and decided we would only sleep at our hotel, but do everything else at the resort, and get the best of both worlds!
We got up around 2:30am this morning for our very early flight to Papua New Guinea, packed up a little carry-on bag each, and left our luggage at the hotel in Cairns. It’s so great travelling with next to nothing – you really don’t need very much! When we arrived at the airport, it was empty! We were the only dorks who arrived at the suggested time before our flight! When the check-in counter finally opened, we checked in, had some breakfast, and got on our flight.
We arrived in Port Moresby, and went to check in for our next flight, which is when we hit a little glitch in our plan: our onward tickets had been suspended by the airline! Basically, when Rachna had purchased the tickets online, the airline had double-charged her credit card, so she had called the credit card company to cancel the second charge, but this resulted in the airline suspending the valid tickets as well. Rachna finally got someone to unsuspend the tickets on the promise that we would tell the credit card company that it was not a fraudulent charge! Phew – who said a little stress didn’t make you stronger! We spent what remained of our 8-hour layover in a café, waiting for our next flight, thankful we had a next flight to wait for.
Flying over and landing into Kokopo was spectacular – the view of mountains, the ocean, the palm tree forests, the islands – it felt like we were landing in a dream. Kokopo is a little town in the East New Britain island of Papua New Guinea (PNG). The island is surrounded by volcanoes, one of which (Mount Tavurvur) is active. The town of Kokopo actually flourished after a volcanic eruption in 1994 devastated most of nearby Rabaul, which used to be the main town in the area.
We were picked up at the airport by the hotel shuttle, and we met a nice 75-year old man on the shuttle, who had moved to PNG and lived there for 40 years with his wife. He had so many stories to tell us about his life and experiences – it was so interesting! When we got to the hotel, we checked in and got to our room, which was pretty basic at an exorbitant cost, but that was the cheapest one in the town, considering we were here for the National Mask Festival. Luckily, our cheapo hotel was the sister hotel of a resort hotel 5 minutes away, so we took the shuttle and went over there for dinner.
The resort was beautiful, with fabulous amenities, a lounge, bar, and restaurant, and huge traditional masks everywhere. Dinner was great, and we spent some time there and talked to the manager, who helped us plan out and book things for our short stay here. We took the shuttle back to our hotel to sleep, and decided we would only sleep at our hotel, but do everything else at the resort, and get the best of both worlds!
Flying into Papua New Guinea
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