Oct 4. We arrived at anchor off Vanimo, Papua New Guinea (PNG) at noon and awaited the clearance. Vanimo is a small village on the northwest side of PNG near the border with Indonesia and the main industry is logging, primarily for exotic woods. We were told that we were the first passenger ship to visit, however Peter, the staff historian, said he had visited previously on another expedition ship, but such visits are extremely rare. Representatives from the local bank came on board for us to exchange US$ for PNG Kina. Our visit was quite an event for the locals and I think we were the attraction. Over 1000 villagers were at the beach to greet us, shaking hands and saying “Good afternoon, Welcome, Thank you for visiting”, etc. There were broad grins everywhere and the red lips, gums & rotted teeth were evidence of their betel nut chewing habit. There were costumed dancers greeting us on the beach as we stepped into the water from our Zodiacs. We piled into the “best available” transportation (read un-air-conditioned vans with plenty of duct tape keeping the seat covers together) and headed for the Vanimo Beach Hotel where we had some interesting dance performances. The big hit was a group of men in the traditional dress of fancy headwear and wearing nothing else than a penis gourd held on with a band of pandanus twine. It was pretty lively and everyone enjoyed the show. We were supposed to have visited a local village, but there was a death there today and the welcome ceremony there was cancelled. We went to the beach area next to the village to enjoy the water, have fresh coconuts opened to drink the milk and swim if we wanted. The only toilet was a crude wood outhouse with a block of wood with a handle covering the hole – no seat – and there was a bit of newspaper for toilet paper. Most people either held it or went for a swim. As we drove along the road, at every village we passed all the residents ran to the roadside to yell “Hello” and wave with big smiles on their faces. At the beach we could have visited the village, but that required wading through a waist deep trough in the water with a current. Some went, but we valued our cameras too much to chance it. Besides, we’ll visit several even more remote villages in the next few days. The locals enjoyed coming up to us and talking and all thanked us for our visit. Linda Bailey got some SP, the PNG brewed lager and it was very tasty, particularly on a hot afternoon. It was, however, quite comfortable in the shade with the light breeze.
For dinner we joined Linda & Chris and Sheila & Ken for “Hot Rocks” where whatever meat you choose is cooked by you on a dense flat rock heated to 450 degrees F. The rock retains the heat for a long time so you can cook as well as you choose. Rib eye steak and veal chops were the choices we all had, but everyone had a lobster tail as well.
I’ll try to post some photos when I get some time to mess with Photobucket.
