Papua New Guinea.......in a word beautiful

Papua New Guinea.......in a word beautiful.....in a few words, a strange backwards place. The trip to PNG was to say the least an adventure and for was actually quite enjoyable minus a few moments.

The travel was actually quite a bit longer than I was expecting made even worse because the travel to and from site was split up over two days. The trip up there was great, I got to spend a night in Cairns which I will talk about in another post. The drive from the airport to the site was really amazing and took just over two hours. The road drops over 2500 m in elevation through the jungle along a few ridges and down the valley. I had never seen jungle this dense or lush. From a distance the trees looked alot like broccoli, especially when they were bunched together. I actually had a great driver who picked me up at the airport, Charles. His english was better than my own with very little accent and he was quite knowledgeable about the area. He was also not in such a hurry that he wouldn't stop so I could take a photo.


Jungle Photo


Another Jungle Photo


Typical Dwelling of a local villager.

The site was what I expected. My room was nothing special (in camps they never are) but it was quite clean and they had same day laundry service which came in handy. After a day working in the field I definitely needed a new set of clothes. My body basically did nothing but sweat from the moment I stepped out of my room in the morning and then back into the room in the evening. I couldn't tell you what the temperature was but I think it was more from the humidity than the heat.

The night I arrived one of the contractors who has a permanent camp had their weekly BBQ which I attend. The food was great, and the beer was even better! What added to the tastiness of the beer was the fact that it was free. It was good to get a nice meal to start the trip because pretty much from that point on it went downhill steadily up to the point when I decided to just have peanut butter and jam on the last night. Even though I didn't like it the New Guinean's sure did. I have never seen a group of people eat as much as they did. Which was fine by me because I wasn't going to finish. I should complain that bad though, I think the fact that I have been eating out at so many great restaurants lately played into it a bit.

I was actually quite lucky in the timing of my trip. I was able to see the bloom of a jungle flower, yes I admitted that I was lucky to see a flower. Apparently this flower only blooms for a few days once a year and then the pedals quickly fall to the jungle bottom. Some of the guys on site were really excited to see this flower. I guess this shows you how long some of these guys have been away from a big city (if ever). Anyway here are a couple of photos, the slang name is "fire of the jungle" (or at least that is what I was told).





I would have to say that my first trip to Papua New Guinea (likely of many) was a positive one. I think that trips like these make you realize how high your standard of living really is. I know that the places I visit are usually going to be very remote and not representative of the local living but I still think that I am able to learn something about the people from each place that I visit. The one thing that is for certain no matter where I go; each of these people would do just about anything to be Canadian and be born into a situation with the same advantages on life that I have. It always makes me recognize how lucky I am when I think about that.

Cheers,

Rick

PS: I forgot to write about the pineapple plants. I saw some HUGE pineapple plants (8ft tall) and although it is still early in the season (harvest in january) you can start to see the fruit being developed.

Next Stop Tabubil

Tabubil which is pronounced just as it looks, Ta-boo-bill, is the next airport I will see on this trip. I am flying in for a brief site visit to a mine in Papua New Guinea. I am leaving Brisbane this afternoon flying to Cairns where I will spend the night and catch an early morning charter to Tabubil in the morning. I will leave the site on Tuesday and return to Brisbane Wednesday afternoon.

Everybody is thankful that the trip could be organized so that it didn't overlap with Lisa's stay at all. I told the office manager here that if I wasn't in Brisbane on the 30th I was giving Lisa his address and that she wouldn't be armed but she wouldn't need to be.

So far the trip continues to be fantastic. I switched to a nicer hotel/apartment this week which is also in a different part of town for me to explore and new restaurants to try. The VP is down here as well and staying the same hotel so he has been taking me to all his favorite restaurants (and picking up the tab as well which is a nice bonus).

I don't expect to be in contact while I am away, the only internet access is dial-up and the phone lines are unreliable. If you get a chance send me an email and let me know what you are up to.

Cheers,

Rick

Finally Wrote Something......

Hey guys,

I have learned one thing about Australia already, communication with Vancouver is going to be a lot tougher than I thought. The time difference is a real drag. It should be ok for weekends but when people are working it sucks. Here is a quick rundown of some key "communication times":

Before Work - Australia 6am = Vancouver 1pm
Lunch - Australia 12pm = Vancouver 7pm

If I can't get a hold of someone at either of those times or for some reason I get busy during those times I pretty much lose any chance of reaching Vancouver. For those that know me and much I enjoy talking on the phone realize what a blow this is to me personally.

Time zones also screw with my sports. The games are already over when I wake up or going on during work hours which make watching them (if I can find a T.V. with the game) or even following them online difficult unless I am slow at work (3yrs, 4mnths, 26days since the last slow day).

Enough of the negative though. This place is great! I can't wait for Lisa to get down here because I am sure that she will love this place as well. I am still running somewhat odd hours (wake up 5am, sleep 8pm) which limits what I can do after work so it was nice that I got a chance to do some exploring over the weekend.

Friday night there was a Semi-Final (which is actually the quarter final, don't ask me why they call it a semi-final) in the AFL, Aussie Rules Football. A guy in the office (Matt) had a BBQ because his team was in it. I went over and enjoyed the food and quite a few beers which combined with the late kick-off time (8:30pm) and my strange hours resulted in me passing out on Matt's couch a halftime. In wouldn't have been too bad if I wasn't sitting in a room full of 20 people I didn't know. I didn't exactly represent Canada to the best of my ability. Apparently there are some photos floating around but I haven't got my hands on them yet. I will be sure to post them once I do.

Thanks to my early bedtime Friday I was able to get up early Saturday and tour around abit. I have posted a bunch of photos below from my travels below. I took the "City Cat" which is a ferry that runs along the Brisbane River and traveled to either end of Brisbane. I kept the video camera rolling for most of the trip. Unfortunately the files are way to big to post of the webpage so you will have to wait until I get back to see them. Also I don't have my editing software on this computer.

On with the pictures:


This my hotel (until the 19th). Looks good enough from the outside but cleaning has this difficulty remembering to lock my door after they leave. It took 3 days of me filing complaints for them to start doing it. Unfortunately I couldn't get a room in another hotel nearby or I would have left.


This is the a portion of the City Center or CBD (City Business District) taken from a road bridge over the river. The city is a nice blend of old and new buildings.


A few places to amuse Lisa when she gets down here.


I thought this was a cool looking tower......reminded me of Batman for some reason.


This is Eagle Street Pier, which is across the street from the office. I would like to live in one of the highrises in the background (if Lisa allows it of course) but this area is slighty out of price range (kinda like Coal Harbour in Vancouver).


This is an overview of a boardwalk that runs along the river in an area called Southbank. Imagine the Seawall design for year round nice weather. This area is directly across the river from the CBD.


Buddist hut along the Southbank boardwalk.


Cliffs across the river from the CBD. They run climbing along these cliffs so there is one reason to come visit Pete and Mits....

Well, it is getting close to dinner and people are squawking at me to hurry up and finish so we can go get a beer. I guess that means it is time to go......oh by the way I am heading to Papua New Guinea on Saturday for a few days. That should be an adventure.

Cheers,

Rick

Here We Go!

Ok, so the Australian adventure has finally started! I arrived in Brisbane yesterday and it took me about 30 minutes to realize that Lisa and I made the right decision to move down here.

Lisa and I will try to use this blog to keep everybody up to date and hopefully entertained with our life in Brisbane.

Unfortunately I am in Brisbane by myself right now, Lisa will be arriving on the 30th of this month and then we both travel back home on Oct. 6. We have a few minor things to take care of when we get home (birthday, Christmas, packing, visas, wedding) and then will travel back to Brisbane the first week of January.

Not much to report thus far, spent most of yesterday struggling through jet lag. I am sure things will get very interesting shortly.

Cheers,

Rick