Day 28- 10/30/22 - Alotau, Papua New Guinea

 After a 3 year gap, we found ourselves back in Papua New Guinea.  This time it was at a new port called Alotau located on Milne Bay which was the site of a famous 1942 naval and land battle that was a decisive early defeat for the Japanese.  We arrived a bit ahead of schedule and we were let off of the ship slightly before 10am.  We were greeted by a troupe of native dancers.  It was very hot and I had a great chat with Freddy, a HAL front office officer that we had sailed with a lot on the Maasdam and Volendam. I thought she was going to cry when talking about the Maasdam.

There was a temperature check and a port clerk dutifully recorded my passing temperature on his list.  We went outside the port gate and found the tour company, Alotau Tours which was recommended to us by Abby (another passenger) and also by John Hocknull, our PNG guest lecturer.  Ben, the owner, was very personable and easy to talk with.  We secured a couple of spots on a 1/2 day cultural and sightseeing tour for $120 for the two of us.  We boarded an older Toyota 10 passenger van and waited for the other participants to join us.  Fortunately the van was air conditioned.  

We left the port area and headed out away from the town on a relatively rough road.  We used Bailey bridges to cross some rivers and forded others when there was no bridge.  Eventually we arrived at the "fishing" village. We were greeted by children who performed a welcome dance and we were invited into their village demonstration area where there was more dancing.

While standing and watching the demonstrations I asked Ben where the fishing boats were since this was a "fishing" village.  He smiled and said, "We learned that tourists weren't interested in visiting a fishing village.  But they will visit a cultural show.  So I pivoted my tours."  He's a smart businessman!

Soon a man demonstrated how they shucked coconuts and then provided one per couple to sample the coconut milk (which I love).  Then I asked him if he would crack a coconut which he did and shaved some fresh coconut and served me.  A lady who was narrating the process was totally stunned that I liked to eat coconut.  She then narrated some other demonstrations.  It was interesting that in their culture, they really didn't need iron utensils to cut and skin the various vegetables.  Perhaps the coolest thing was watching a fellow make fire in under 2 minutes using only a stick rubbed on another piece of week.  He was clearly faster than any contestant on Survivor.

After the cultural show, we retraced our route back to town and toured a couple of markets and the memorial to the Battle of Milne Bay.  Given that it was a Sunday, the markets were smaller than usual. As we were driving back to the port, we spotted Erik & Marilyn walking back.  We had the driver drop us off and we met up with Erik and Marilyn who had walked to town.  We went together and visited a couple of grocery stores and at a bakery we enjoyed some treats.  Mine was a real doughnut and Angela had battered fish and Marilyn had another pastry.  After a relaxing time we walked back to the ship.

At the port entrance I spotted Ben and we stayed behind to talk with him and thank him for a good tour.  He said it's been tough to rebuild the business after Covid.  He's got all of his family involved.

Tim, Ben, & Angela 

Back on the ship, I spent time downloading my pictures to my iPhone and sipping iced tea to rehydrate.  I was so hot I skipped dinner and we went to the 7pm show featuring the Step One Dance Company and the Billboard Onboard artists performing the show Off The Charts.  It was good.  Afterwards, we made it back to the Lido for some dinner just before they closed

After dinner we retired to the stateroom and watched the movie, Dream Horse, which was very good. Following that we started watching the Broncos/Jaguars football game from London, England.  It was 11:30pm for the game start, and true to form, I fell asleep with no memory of having watched the game.