I describe myself as an ‘independently poor and fiercely independent’ individual. When asked about my race, I say ‘human’. When asked about my age, I say ‘Quite old, or ‘really, really old’. Given these peculiarities of my personality, I am always wary about traveling in a group and wonder if I will be accepted as one of my fellow tourists, most of them many years younger than me. Thus, with much trepidation, I decided to go to Papua New Guinea (PNG) in August of 2023, to see the Tribal Lands, a tour led by Mark Steadman of Wild Frontier. Nicole joined us as our local tour guide, and was very knowledgeable about her country, spoke many languages and had fresh ideas that I have seen missing in other trips.

Why PNG? Many years ago, when I was a mere child, I came across some writings by Margaret Mead, and I was intrigued and at the same time, I was hooked. I had planned to take this Tribal land trip in 2020, which included the Mount Hagen Festival, before the pandemic stopped the world from living, certainly before I became this old. Unfortunately, I had to wait until recently to be in one of the most unique and exotic places still left in the world. Fortunately, I had the best tour leaders and the best fellow tourists; while I haven’t traveled as much as some of my fellow travelers had, I couldn’t have asked for kinder or more caring individuals. Wherever they travel to, and while our paths may never cross again, I wish them the best.

Our tour began in Port Moresby, the capital of PNG and ended there. I had to get to Port Moresby, two days before the others, so as not to miss going to Sepik River. Since my diet is also a bit peculiar as I don’t eat meat, eggs, or chocolate, and don’t drink coffee or alcohol, I was a bit worried but need not have. Mark made sure that I gained weight during this trip, feeding us all sorts of savory dishes, which included fish, shrimp, prawns, spring rolls, not to mention flavourful pineapples, papayas, bananas, roasted sweet potatoes, avocadoes, tomatoes, and many types of greens, all from the backyards of the sustainable farmers. The aromas of fresh ginger!!! I met so many children and adults who had basically nothing, yet they made up for the lack of material goods with their kindness; the support of the community was obvious everywhere. I drank plenty of coconut water, fruits such as pineapple and bananas, vegetables like taro, and sago were plenty, these all came straight from the trees and lands and then the pulp from the inside of each of the coconut shells became my dessert.

Everywhere we went, places such as Pagwi, Wewak, or the village of Kanganamun, which we reached by motorized canoes, there was always something new to see and wonderful vistas, flora and fauna were before us at every turn as if to welcome us, the visitors from UK, USA, Sweden and other places. The travel down the Sepik River, visiting and talking to the Crocodile-men of Yatmoul, examining the markings and deep cuts on the men for their initiation ceremony---I often felt I was on another planet, something perhaps J. R. R Tolkien would have imagined. This included the beautiful, artfully decorated Spirit houses.

On the delicate subject of toilets, much as I have a toilet phobia, the basic homestay was absolutely wonderful. I can sleep anywhere, and simple lodging on the woven mats, made from plant material, and delicious food was what I enjoyed the most.

Children, in beautiful costumes and face paintings, accompanied us and danced. For me, the flight to Mount Hagen from Wewak was almost hilarious. I met many wonderful, curious tourists at the airport where we all waited for our flights. The festival itself was colourful, to say the least, and no picture can do the activities justice.

My favourite part of this journey was the stay in the Simbai Village, a cleverly designed, completely organic huts on the mountains with privacy for each of us. I didn’t want to leave this village. The traditional village is what I have always longed for and I was so happy to be there and only wish I was there for few more days. The village does not have roads for cars or other vehicles, and the strip where our plane landed was about half an hour of walk to the village. The villagers came to greet us and did ‘sing-sing’ for us.

I also enjoyed the visits to the two schools. Children, everywhere in this world, are the same--- happy and curious about strangers. I saw several albino children in one of the communities in the Simbai village and the whole village seemed to care for them. The men of the Kalam tribe wear green headdresses made from green beetles, their noses are often pierced for the initiation ceremony.

Since plants are my passion, I loved the orchid gardens, small farms, the sugar canes which I craved and were given to me as gift, and the fauna consisted of the beautiful birds, small pigs, and other mammals which were abundant. One pig was roasted in pit, in a ceremony called ‘mumu’ along with vegetables such as sweet potato, taro and spinach like greens, stuffed inside bamboo stocks and cooked by the villagers for a feast, was enjoyed by all. Even though I don’t eat meat, the whole environment was festive. The pig was wrapped in banana leaves, cooked on hot stones, which are placed inside a pit.

Our trip early in the morning to see the birds of paradise will always be memorable for me. Another was a meeting with some of the women in this village. This was Nicole’s idea; the women felt they couldn’t speak freely when men were around, so they asked her to arrange a meeting with the female tourists. I thoroughly enjoyed this visit which took place in the kitchen of our guest house and the village women who spoke to us through Nicole were gracious and I believe they enjoyed meeting us.

For the Mount Hagen festival, an annual event, we were privileged to watch an event solely created for a few tourists and we met many tribes. We saw the preparation for the festival, and some of the tribal men painted my face and gave me some suggestions as to what would look best on my brown skin.

After this most colourful festival, I thought everything else would be just totally blah. I was so wrong! East New Britain, where we went, is a big island. Rabaul, the earlier capital was buried and destroyed by a volcanic eruption in 1994 and a new capital Kokopi was created. We had a marvelous lunch at the Rabaul Hotel and talked to the owner, who showed us the damaged statue and told us about the visit by the British royalty. We went to the hot springs and then enjoyed a very lovely dinner while watching the sunset. Next was a trip to the Duke of York islands and the water was so blue and green, crystal clear with white sandy beaches and much green foliage all around the islands, I wanted to bring my yoga friends and do a meditation retreat. On one of these islands, we had the most delicious meal prepared by our host and the plates were woven from green coconut leaves! No forks or spoons but the most wonderful food. In the evening we went to a fire dance festival in Baining village.

For me, this whole trip felt magical, enchanting and indeed too short and my only wish is that I could have stayed longer and go back to Papua New Guinea in future.