Papua New Guinea

Friday March 5, 2010 Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
Yesterday was a sea day, so I didn’t do a blog post. We had a rather lazy day only getting up at 9 am. It was beautiful, hot & sunny and I spent the afternoon beside the pool while Dun had a nap on our balcony. I’m as red as a cooked lobster. It was formal night again so we donned our best clothes to head out for the evening. I’m afraid I relented and deposited $40 at the ship’s casino. We hit the sack rather early as tomorrow is a long day in port.
We pulled into port around 5 am and it was 7:30 before customs cleared the ship. It was overcast with fine rain, hot & steamy .From the water, all you can see are hills and lots of old boats are in the harbour. Papua New Guinea is located at the equator and is north of Australia. English is widely spoken although the region has many dialects. Today’s tour was independent from the ship and was organized by Marilyn Friedman from Scotland who is part of our cruise critic group. There were only 15 of us registered which made for a great individualized tour. Before leaving the ship we coated ourselves with insect repellent. We decided to forego the Malaria pills due to the side effects. Hopefully we won’t regret this decision. We left the ship around 8 am to total mayhem and disorganization by the harbour authority. Tour buses were lined up for several miles and only a few were allowed near the ship at a time. It was about 9:30 before we got underway but the wait was well worth it. All the places we visited were outside the city but the drive there was a real eye-opener. There was squalor and garbage everywhere. The smell of stench with the heat is not good for a weak stomach. Dozens of people were packed on the backs of trucks and tent markets along the side of the road were plentiful with everything from live chickens to dope. To me it appeared like thousands of umbrellas with nothing but people and garbage beneath them. People had no shoes and were walking in their bare feet and many children were naked. Oh how we complain, we should all see how some people live and then count our blessings. How fortunate we really are. We traveled along the water’s edge to see the stilt villages where appx 10,000 people live in little huts built on stilts. Our first stop was Bomana War Cemetery which is about 20 minutes outside the city. What a site to see. The cemetery is maintained by the Australian government. There are about 3900 graves in total of which about 600 are unknown soldiers from the UK, Canada, Australia & USA from WW 11. All the headstones face west where the sun sets. There is a hero buried in every grave. Our next stop was at a local primary school. Unbeknownst to our tour guide, the school headmistress had arranged for all 1500 students to be dressed in their school uniforms and students from different regions of Papua were dressed in traditional dress and the later performed dances. A stage was set up under the trees and we were all given chairs to watch the performance. We were then asked to introduce ourselves to the students and tell them where we were from and describe where we lived.. When the children returned to class we were invited to visit the class rooms. They were many buildings of classes, with no glass windows. The children sat on the floor (no individual desks) and they were barefoot with their sandals lined across the wall. The teacher had a small desk but no chair. The average class was 45 to 50 students. What a wonderful visit we had. We showed the kids on an atlas where we lived. From here we visited the parliament house. It was a beautiful building and the surrounding gardens were lush with flowers and tropical trees.. We were unable to go inside as parliament was currently in session. From here we stopped at Schwimmer Drome, which was an unsealed American bomber aerodrome during WW2. After the war it was forgotten and became overgrown until a local villager started digging up weaponry and other war paraphernalia which is now displayed for others to see. It remains in an overgrown forest area where the local villagers live. When we arrived, we were treated to traditional native dancers and then we were given fresh coconuts of which we drank the juice, fresh mangos, pineapples and bananas before we left for our next place of visit. This turned out to be the botanical gardens where there are thousands of orchids. We didn’t stay here long as it was getting late in the day but what a memorable day this has been. Tonight as we were eating our evening meal we left port and we will be sailing the Strait of Torres. We will be a sea for the next two days before arriving in Darwin. Sheldon has begun drinking green tea. This is no joke; he was drinking it tonight from a wine glass!!!Wonder who he was trying to fool. Well we are off to the evening show before calling it a night.