Again!

Since the middle of last year, I have travelled to PNG 3 times spending close to 3 months in total. It's always been work related, so I haven't had much in the way of tourist experience. On the first trip we travelled out of Port Moresby to the start of Kokoda Trail in the Sogeri.

Most of my time was spent in the Datec PNG office, the Royal Papua Yacht Club and the Lamana Hotel. As great as these places are, it can get extremely boring on long trips lasting over a couple of weeks.

Lamana Hotel is where I stayed on all my trips and it's a great little hotel. It has no recreation related facilities like a swimming pool or even a gym. The Double Deluxe rooms are clean and neat (at least those facing the car park away from the resturant and lobby section). If you prefer a quite, good night's sleep on Friday and Saturday nights, make sure you ask for the rooms away from the resturant and the Gold Club section. The parties here can go on loud and all night. The food at Lamana is ok, especially the buffet lunch on weekdays.

The Royal Papua Yacht Club was my usual Friday night hangout, because work colleagues at Datec PNG were members and it's the only place they'd go on weekends. The first thing you'll notice about the place is the lack of locals in the crowd. Maybe the locals aren't very interested in yachting. Most of the crowd are either expats or new migrants from Australia or NZ.

The club though is a very good place for a few drinks and dinner if you can get in. I am not sure if you can simply walk in, because I was always accompanied by my Datec PNG work mates. They were members and I understood that you had to be a guest of a member to be allowed in.

I am due to leave for PNG again sometime this weekend for another 2 week stint.  

PS: For more pictures from my PNG trips, check my flickr page here: http://flickr.com/photos/ssp/sets/103887/