Bomana
War Cemetery
National
Museum and Art Gallery
National
Parliament House – modern
building, traditional design
Botanical
Gardens
Motuan
villages – built on stilts
over the water
PNG
Art – huge artifact and
handicraft warehouse
National
Cultural Commission Gift Shop – artifacts
and handicrafts
Hiri
Moale Cultural festival, Ela Beach - September
Ower’s
Corner – Kokoda Trail Memorial
Sogeri
gorge – 40 minute scenic drive from Port Moresby
Sogeri
Station - colourful
Sunday market
Crystal
Rapids swimming hole, Sogeri
Varirata
National Park, Sogeri Rd
Loloata
Island – snorkelling, diving, fishing
Goilala
District – walking trails, rivers, mountain tribes, short and scary
mountaintop airstrips
Amber’s
Inn - Boroko commercial
area (budget)
The
Ponderosa Family Motel - Gordons
residential area (budget)
The
Gateway Hotel - Jacksons
Airport (mid-range)
The
Shady Rest Hotel - Boroko
(mid-range)
The
Crowne Plaza Hotel - Town
(luxury)
Airways
Hotel - Jacksons Airport
(luxury)
Port Moresby
The National Capital
District is an enclave of urban and semi-rural land excised from the Central
Province to accommodate the national capital, Port Moresby. The city itself
is rapidly expanding towards the boundaries of the District and it is only
a matter of time before Central Province will be under pressure to hand
over more land to allow the city to grow.
Port Moresby is a
sprawling modern city with a population approaching half a million. Most
of the residents are urban poor. The city is located in a rain shadow and
experiences long dry spells. The water supply comes from the Sirinumu Dam
high above on the Sogeri Plateau, and much of the city’s electricity supply
comes from the same water as it barrels down through hydro-electric power
stations in the Sogeri gorge.
Port Moresby city
was established in its present location to take advantage of the excellent
harbour. However apart from its sea port and international airport, Port
Moresby is largely cut off from the rest of the country. There are no overland
road links between the capital and other PNG cities. Only recently a highway
link with Kerema in the Gulf Province was established and there are supposedly
plans to push this road through to the Highlands, but don’t hold your breath.
There are no passenger
shipping services between Port Moresby and anywhere else, so basically everybody
comes in and out by air. This is one of the reasons why such a large squatter
population has built up over the years; people arrive from the provinces
seeking their fortunes and then can’t earn enough money to buy a ticket
home again. Port Moresby is like a giant lobster pot: once people get in,
they can’t get out again.
Daily life in Port
Moresby is similar to any other Asian/Pacific city of comparable size. There
is a good bus network which carries commuters to work and children to school.
The roads around the city are in reasonable condition (mostly tar-sealed),
and traffic flows quite well. Driving in Port Moresby is a little frustrating
(failure to give way is the most common fault) but still 1000% better than
Bangkok or Rome.
Port Moresby has
half a dozen large markets where fresh produce is sold, and large supermarkets
which sell local and imported goods. Every street corner has a small kiosk
or canteen where basic necessities are sold. Betel nuts and cigarettes are
sold on the side of the road just about everywhere, although street selling
is discouraged by the city administration and police vehicles regularly
stop and chase street sellers away.
In
general the city is safe for visitors to move around by public transport,
hire car or on foot. Unless you stand on a street corner waving money in the
air you are very unlikely to be attacked and robbed. However certain parts
of the city are frequented by pickpockets and con men or scammers and it is
often a good idea to take a local person with you as a guide when moving around
the city. See our advice on Personal Safety in
PNG. Although visitors in Port Moresby must be careful, I don’t want to
over-rate the issue as I have lived and worked in Port Moresby for the past
5 years and never once been threatened, held up, or even pick-pocketed. (There,
now I’ve said it, it will happen tomorrow!!!)
Shopping
and eating.
The best places for
visitors to shop for groceries, clothes and general goods in Port Moresby
are:
-
Steamships Downtown Plaza (a supermarket, food court and some variety
shops)
-
Super Value Shopping Centre, Hubert Murray Highway (supermarket, variety,
sports store, bakery, fast food and liquor)
The
best duty free shopping is… well, there isn’t any good duty free shopping
in Port Moresby. There’s a small outlet called CHM Duty Free at the airport
but it mainly sells souvenirs. It would be a good idea to buy your electrical
goods, liquor and perfume at the inbound duty free in whichever country you’re
going to next.
The best places to
buy handicrafts in Port Moresby are:
- Handicraft street
stalls outside the main gate of the Holiday Inn (this is the best place
to buy basketry and street artist paintings: always ask for the “second
price” after thoughtfully considering the first price given).
-
Tabari Place handicraft market at Boroko – a good selection of wares.
-
PNG Art (the largest artifact warehouse in PNG, located on the freeway
on the way to the airport – a large range of carvings and crafts from
all over PNG, very good prices , but not much jewellery or modern art
-
Beyond Art – a handicraft and local jewellery shop in the building opposite
the Crowne Plaze Hotel, downtown. A nice all-round selection at reasonable
prices.
-
On the last Saturday of every month there is a big arts and crafts market
at the Ela Beach International School - don't miss it if you're around at
the time - you'll see stuff for sale that you won't see anywhere else. The
market starts at 8am and finishes by 11am so be early.
The
best places to buy souvenirs and books about Papua New Guinea are:
- Holiday Inn
bookshop
-
Gateway Hotel bookshop
- Crowne Plaza
Hotel bookshop
- Gordon and
Gotch Bookshop, Gordon Industrial Area (opposite High Tech Officemart)
The
best Chinese food in Port Moresby is at the Roundhouse Restaurant in Boroko,
the Magi Seafood Restaurant in Boroko, and the Fu Gui Village Restaurant in
Gordon. The best Indian food is at the Tandoor Restaurant downtown. Indian
and Chinese food is also good at the cheap but smoky Café 168 underneath the
Plaza Guest House in Waigani Drive.
The best full buffets
are at the Poolside Restaurant at the Airways Hotel overlooking the airport
(my favourite spot) and The Café at the Crowne Plaza Hotel downtown.
The
best takeway pizza is at the Ela Beach Hotel, downtown and the Rattle N Hum
Pizzeria at the Gateway Hotel near the airport. The best barbeque chicken
takeway is at Big Rooster outlets (they have about 10 shops around the city):
they also have fish and chips. Pasta is available most places but don’t ask
for lasagne unless you like it cold in the middle.
And
don’t bother looking for hamburger joints: PNG is a McDonalds-free-zone.
Seeing
the sights.
You
may be just passing through, but a tour of the Port Moresby city sights and
local attractions will be very worthwhile. The best way to do this is to hire
a car for a day or take a guided tour. We do not recommend hiring taxis because
many of them are so unroadworthy they are unsafe, and they are frequently
seen abandoned on the side of the road with an empty gas tank or jacked up
with a wheel missing because drivers fail to carry spare fuel or spare tyres.
Ecotourism Melanesia
offers escorted tours of Port Moresby and surrounds by private car.
Port Moresby best
buys: street artist paintings.
Our favourite spot: Poolside Restaurant (Airways Hotel)
Central
Province
Despite being so
close to the national capital, Central Province is very underdeveloped.
The two main highways running north (Hiritano Highway) and south (Magi
Highway) from Port Moresby are in poor condition and really don’t offer
much of interest to visitors except a very bumpy scenic drive. The coastal
areas of Central Province are dry and not particularly arable. There are
some farming areas and a few rubber plantations but on the whole the village
people are reliant on income from relatives working or running businesses
in Port Moresby.
Inland from the
arid coastal areas are the fertile highlands of the Goilala District,
which form part of the Owen Stanley Range, the backbone of the island
of New Guinea. There is no road access to the Goilala District; the communities
are serviced by light aircraft landing on hair-raising mountaintop airstrips.
The two "stations" in the Goilala highlands where accommodation
is available are Tapini and Woitape. Tapini has a high school and the
district headquarters and a guest house run by the catholic church. Woitape
has a mountain lodge in a beautiful valley by a river suitable for gentle
rafting or "inner-tubing", and a network of mule tracks established
by missionaries which are ideal for easy hiking.
A 40-minute scenic
drive up the majestic Sogeri Gorge from Port Moresby brings you to the
start of the famous Kokoda Trail, at Ower’s Corner. There is a war memorial
there and you can walk the first part of the trail for an hour or so just
to say you’ve had a go, even if you don’t do the whole gruelling 3-day
trek through to Kokoda Village in Oro Province. The Sogeri plateau is
a cool and green alternative to sticky Port Moresby, and the local Kokoda
Trail Motel is a rustic but relaxing getaway.
Offshore, not far
from Port Moresby is Loloata Island, a watersports resort with excellent
scuba diving facilities and rave-reviewed reef and wreck dive spots.
Our
favourite spot: Woitape Lodge
