Goodbye, Australia

Day 45: Travel day

Today, we bid farewell to Australia. We packed up, had a quick bite, and then decided to run around doing a couple of last-minute things (like buying more art!) before going to the airport to catch our flight to Bali via Darwin. We landed at Darwin with about 4 hours to pass and luckily the airport had free internet so we could get some stuff done (like post some really old blogs)!

Then we got our flight to Bali and got a cab to Ubud, our base camp for the next few days. When we arrived in Ubud, it was bustling with tourists – I mean bustling. And this is supposed to be the “quieter” area away from the real tourist spots! Ack!

It was fairly late, and when we checked in to our room, they upgraded us to a deluxe because they had no more standard rooms left. Our room was amazing! It was a little bungalow with a balcony facing a massive statue of Ganesh, and a private gazebo overlooking a rice paddy! The architecture and all of the furniture and art were so beautiful! 

We walked into town to grab a bite to eat but everything was closed, so we opted for an ice cream bar and a bottle of water. It was night when we arrived, so our flashlights came in handy, however Gaurav stepped on a poor little frog (whoops!), as the rice paddies are full of them at night. It was a little traumatic for Rachna, but the frog was still alive… kinda. Now, sleep! Tomorrow, we explore the area and plan our stay here! 

Our bungalow (we saw it in the daylight the next day) 

Getting things done

Day 44: Our last night in Australia

Today was a “get things done” day. We had a long list of things we had to get done before leaving Australia, so we started on our list by first heading to the post office to send back all our winter clothing, since the rest of our trip will be in Southeast Asia, and we won’t be needing them anymore! Afterwards, we grabbed a quick bite to eat, rested a bit, walked around town, and then found a place with an internet connection and booked a couple of things.

Our next destination is Bali, Indonesia, and one of the requirements for entry is proof of departure. After our experience trying to get into New Zealand, we didn’t want to get caught in that trap again, so we booked our outgoing flight from Indonesia! We also looked up some things we wanted to do, but figured we would arrive in Bali and look for a hotel on our own instead of pre-booking one online – wish us luck! Once our computer battery gave up, we grabbed some dinner and then went back to our room and prepared for the next half of our trip. Nothing much to report today!

Art collection!

Day 43: Leaving PNG

This morning, we got up and sadly shuttled off to the airport to leave PNG. We had such a beautiful time here, but it was so very short. There’s a sort of melancholy leaving a place you love. There’s always that hope that you will come back, but there’s also that tiny little voice that says “what if we don’t?”, and you wonder if you will ever have the chance again. But on the other side, it’s so wonderful leaving a place with sadness because it means you really had a great experience there.

Thankfully, when we arrived at the airport, our tickets were still unsuspended (phew!), so we got onto our flight, and bid farewell to Kokopo, Mount Tavurvur, and all the beautiful people we had befriended in the last few days. We will truly miss them.

We arrived in Port Moresby with 8 hours to pass, but having heard about the high crime rate in the city, were unsure whether we should venture out of the airport at all. We finally decided to grab a hotel shuttle and spend a few hours at the Holiday Inn to grab a bite to eat. At the hotel, we called up a family friend who lives in Port Moresby and luckily, aunty was at home and free to come meet us, so she came and picked us up with her driver and second security vehicle!

She took us around Port Moresby to various art centres, where we had a look at the beautiful tribal and traditional works. Then she took us to their home and we spent a wonderful few hours getting to know aunty, as she told us all about her life, her family, and her two sons in Toronto. Around lunchtime, uncle came home and we all ate together and had great conversation! It was so natural and we felt as if this wasn’t just the first time we were meeting, but that we had known each other forever. They were so warm, helpful, and accommodating, and it was great to spend some time at “home”!

After lunch, aunty’s driver took us to an art store where we made our first major art purchase for our collection! We won’t tell you what it is but it is awe-inspiring! You’ll have to come visit us at home to see it in person! With very little time to spare until our flight, we rushed to ship the item back to the US (a cost that was more than the purchase itself!) and crossed our fingers that it would arrive in one piece!

Then we hurried over to the airport to check in and, seeing we had a couple of extra minutes to spare, asked the driver to take us to one more area where we bought another piece of art to bring home with us! In a matter of about one hour, we made two major art purchases, and were very excited to be starting our art collection in this way! 

We made it back to the airport in time for our flight, and headed back to Cairns, still wishing we could stay back in PNG for longer. We arrived in Cairns and grabbed a cab to where we had left our luggage, hoping they would have a room available, since we didn’t book anything for our next two nights here! Unfortunately, they were fully booked, but they sent us over to another hotel that had two rooms left! The first room went to a guy who arrived with us, and we bargained with the guy to give us the room at a better rate (which he did, phew!), so we checked in, dropped our stuff off, and went out to grab a bite to eat. We went out to a local lounge, listened to some live musicians, had a few drinks, and made our way back to the hotel to sleep. 

What is our first piece of art?!

Tribe friends!

Day 42: Our last day

This morning, we got up very sad that this was going to be our last day here. We really wish we had booked at least a few weeks in PNG because we haven’t even scratched the surface of all there is to see here. There is so much beauty and so many things to do that we are really regretting having such a small amount of time here. Sigh.

So we had breakfast at our hotel and then shuttled over to the festival grounds to see more of the performances. We saw some pretty amazing tribal groups perform, including the Goroka Mud Men, the West New Britain tribe, and the East Sepik tribe. The Goroka Mud Men came creeping out of their area, bows and arrows in hand, and large scary clay-mud masks on their head. These Mud Men are known to be extremely stealth as they hunt for their prey! When they had all come out, they showed us how they could make a fire with elements from nature in under 45 seconds!

When they crept out, the West New Britain tribe came out chanting and singing loudly, while the performers did their warrior dance. Apparently, the tribe used to invade nearby villages, kill the rival tribe, and bring them back to their village to feast on – yes, that’s right, the tribes here used to (and some still do) practice cannibalism! They were so coordinated, it was amazing!

Once they had performed a few dances, they left, chanting, and the East Sepik tribe came in singing their traditional songs in colourful outfits with their faces brightly painted in yellow, pink, and orange. This was the first tribe that had men and women performing, and it was beautiful!

The whole event was exactly what we had been waiting to see. It was so spectacular and beautiful and coordinated and intense – we loved every second of it. We had been hoping to sneak in some snorkeling time this morning, but when we saw the tribes beginning to perform, we opted against it.

After the West New Britain tribe performed, we went over to talk to them (we figured we’re not meaty enough to be meal-worthy, haha!) and they were all so excited to befriend us that they dressed us up in some of their traditional pieces and wanted to take pictures with us! They even gave us their phone number and told us to keep in touch! It was so cool – we just made friends with a PNG tribe!

Unfortunately, of the nine tribes that were supposed to perform, those three were the only ones that showed up! So we went back for lunch, and walked over to the market, where sellers sat with their fruits, veggies, and tobacco lined up beautifully along the path. When we went back to the festival grounds, it started raining again! Thankfully, though, the rain subsided a bit, and the same three tribes performed again, along with one more tribe that had arrived during the break. The funniest thing was while our new friends from the West New Britain tribe performed the second time, their tribe leader started waving at us during their performance and pointed to us telling the other tribe members that we were there! After their performance, we went to say bye to them and they wanted to take pictures with us again! They were so nice! We will definitely call them at least once to keep in touch!

Since no other tribes had shown up, the festival wrapped up for the day. So we went back to the resort and had a drink and early dinner with a couple from Los Angeles that we had met and gotten to know in the last few days. Then, the shuttle picked us up to take us to the final event of our trip: the Bainings Fire Dance.

The bus ride took us on a remote road up into the middle of the forest in the pouring rain where one tribe performed the traditional Baining Fire Dance – a sort of coming of age ritual. A large group of men sang and drummed while men dressed in huge masks ran through a huge fire lit in the middle of a small field. It was haunting and mystical to see only what was lit up by the fire, and to watch these masked men run through it with their bare feet. They even carried two huge pythons, which they would then cook and feast on the next day at the festival grounds (we won’t be there for that)!

Once the ritual had almost come to an end, we shuttled back to our hotel, where we were told we had been shifted back to a basic room (not our original room, oddly enough). Boo. We were somewhat disappointed, but we packed our stuff up and went to bed. Early flight out tomorrow. It’s all ending too soon, but we really feel like we created a little family here and we know we will definitely try to come back here as soon as we have the opportunity – and next time, we’ll spend a lot more time! 

Boyna Tuna (thank you), Kokopo! Yaoura (see you)! 

Goroka Mud Med

West New Britain Warrior Dance

Colourful East Sepik performance

Betel nut and mineral lime

West New Britain with the tambuans

 Bainings Fire Dance

Tribes and rain...

Day 41: National Mask Festival

This morning, we woke up around 3:30am, got ready (still no working shower) and took the shuttle to Ranguna Beach where the National Mask Festival kicked off with the traditional Kinavai event. We arrived at the beach and set up our seats under a blanket of darkness, and waited for the dawn to come. All the people from the surrounding villages were out with us, too! The little kids were excited, and everyone surrounded us, waiting in anticipation. Before dawn began to break, we heard them: the two tribes chanting and drumming as they sailed from Matupit Island and approached the shore. In the boat were many men and a tambuan or dukduk – a man dressed in tree-like-looking garb and mask. The two tribes reached ashore at two different spots on the beach and basically competed in their chants. Finally, they approached each other and competed in chanting and dancing on the beach for a short period of time. We were told that the significance of this ritual was to celebrate the arrival of the tribal Micronesian people on these islands.

After the ritual, we shuttled over to the resort for breakfast, and then headed to the festival grounds in the intense heat. There, each tribe came out and sang traditional songs while they danced with their masks on. The masks were pretty cool, and we really enjoyed seeing the different tribes and their variety of masks. At the break, we found out that the second half of the Kinavai ritual was happening in a remote area in the mountains so we asked Valerie, our hotel guide, if the shuttle could take us there (only three of us went). When we finally found the location, it was pouring rain and we had basically missed most of the ritual. We did catch the end of it, though, where the tambuans and dukduks all lined up and shell money (considered equivalent to the Kina – the local currency) was thrown at them. We couldn’t quite get an answer as to the significance of this ritual, but I did find out that women were supposed to keep a fair distance, as this was a ritual for men.

Since we had missed lunchtime, we went straight to the festival grounds and waited for the rain to stop. While we waited, someone in one of the stalls turned up some music and all the kids (and some adults) started up an impromptu dance party in the field! It was so nice to see everyone having so much fun! Life can be so simple and they showed us how to be carefree and happy, just having a great time dancing in the rain! Next time it rains, turn up the music and start dancing.

Sadly, the rain didn’t stop, and the rest of the day’s events were cancelled due to the downpour. So instead, we went back to our hotel to find out that the shower still wasn’t working and that we were being shifted to a (much much nicer) room at no charge. Yay! We finally showered and then went over to the resort for dinner and drinks. Afterwards, we spent some time relaxing in our nice new room before going to sleep.

Earlier in the day, on the ride back from the second Kinavai ritual, we saw a man walking on the street get soaked by a car driving by through a huge puddle… and the man just laughed! Back home, that man would probably have been cursing the driver of the car. That one little event really made us think about our automatic reactions to things. We have so much compared to most people in the world, so why are we so easily angered? Today, before you react to something, just stop and think for a minute, and see if it’s serious enough that you will remember it tomorrow. Because the words you say in anger are like nails in a fence: you can remove them but they will always leave a mark. Remember: we are better off than 80% of the world’s population – that’s something to be thankful for every day.

Kinavai ritual at dawn

Dukduk

Tribal mask

Performance of traditional dance

 Dancing in the rain!

First day in Papua New Guinea

Day 40: Harbour "Cruise"

This morning we woke up, got ready (our shower isn’t working), and shuttled over to the resort to grab our morning boat tour around the area. We had breakfast and then went down to the water to meet our guide, Kiapen, and boat driver, Albas, for our "cruise". The boat was a little fisherman-like motorboat, and since we were the only ones who booked for today, we climbed in for our private tour!

The boat took us out onto the water, and we were introduced to Mount Tavurvur, with smoke bellowing from its open crater. Kiapen told us a lot of history about the area, the villages, and the peoples’ experiences with past volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. We passed by small fishing boats and waved at the fishermen, and also saw remains of shipwrecks and caves from when the Japanese invaded Papua New Guinea and were attacked by the Australians. The boats from that era still remain sunk here, so we could see wrecked and drowned ships all around, as well as some old, rusted cannons.

We found out so much interesting history about the area, which was really amazing to learn. For example, one of the now-dormant volcanoes used to be an island on its own, but it erupted some years ago and basically connected itself to the mainland with a 150-metre new piece of land! We also sailed over an area where there used to be an island but due to a massive earthquake, the island collapsed and sunk leaving behind two tall pillars (known as the “Beehives”). When we looked into the water, there it was, the island underneath our boat… I mean, who knew an island could collapse and sink? Just nuts.

Then we sailed by what was left of the town of Rabaul. Very few things survived the eruption, and Kiapen showed us where things used to be – it was a tragic site to see black ash where there used to be a thriving community.

We made our way along the black coast and reached natural hot springs that were so hot (because of the nearby volcanoes) that the water was actually boiling beneath us. We got off the boat and walked on the black ash sand there, being very careful to try to avoid the ever-moving boiling spots. It was really amazing to be walking in hot springs caused by volcanic activity! Then, a man came walking by out of nowhere selling Megapod eggs (more on that in a minute) and we bought one and he boiled it for us in the boiling volcanic waters!

After spending a while there, we went over to the base of the volcano, where the ash-sand was so soft, our feet just sunk into it when we stepped off the boat. We walked around there for a bit and then went over to our next stop: a place where Megapod birds lay their eggs and bury them in the volcanic ash (which is warm so it serves as an incubator). Knowing this, men come from nearby villages and dig out these eggs – their bodies entirely covered in ash – in order to sell them at the market in town.

Finally, we hopped back into the boat and went over to Pidgin Island, where we snorkeled the coral reef there right off the shore of the island. This was probably the biggest highlight of the cruise. The coral there was like nothing we had ever seen, better than the Caribbean. The millions of fish and water creatures in millions of colours blew our mind away. The Great Barrier Reef had nothing on this. This was what we had been wanting to see! It was so utterly amazing to see all of these colourful creatures just swimming around us, watching us as we watched them. We found lots of “Nemos” who were absolutely stunning. Unfortunately, our camera died soon into our snorkeling expedition, so we had to memorize the beauty of it (not that we would ever forget it)!

Our snorkeling time came to an end too soon, and our cruise time was over, so we had to go back to the hotel. We were so sad to be leaving the coral reef and vowed to try and come back before we left PNG. On our way back, a manatee (we think) came up and dove in the water right next to us in the middle of the ocean! So cool!

We had lunch at the resort and then asked our hotel to drop us off at the Warwagira festival – a traditional song and dance festival – happening close by. Sadly, we arrived just as they went on a several-hour break, so we went back to the hotel and passed some time before going back to the resort for dinner.

So far, we’ve made quite a few friends here, and it’s only been a day. The staff here are so nice and so friendly, and we have already been getting to know them and a bit of the language. We only have such a short time here, but we already feel like we are creating a little family! Tomorrow, the National Mask Festival begins!

Fisherman next to the active volcano

Volcanic hot springs (where we cooked our megapod egg!)

 Black ash where the men dig up megapod eggs

 We found Nemo!

A little glitch in paradise

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!

 Flying into Papua New Guinea