Camping at Koitaki Country Club (Part 2)

The first part of my post about our Koitaki Country Club camping trip was just enough to show most of the pictures that I took there during the first day; and I did not want to bore you with too many pictures shown at once in a single post. Hence, I decided to write a part 2 of what went on in the second day of the trip.

This scene is what greeted me the next day. I had actually woken up in the wee hours with a slight feeling of being cold from the cool breeze that usually results to a build-up of mountain dew. The thing I did not bother to bring was my favorite blanket, which was actually not necessary because my tent has a door cover that I could zip up in case the weather got really colder.

I did zip it up and slept like a log.

In the early morning, crows flying back and forth with their loud callings loitered the place. I thought that it would be nice to record a video of them flying around while the crickets fine-tune the hum of their peculiar chirping sound in the background. 

The next day, we still have a lot of firewood left for cooking. The person in the red shirt was chopping firewood into smaller sizes to make it easier to start a fire. Others just stood there in admiration of what I can say an impressive display of Boy Scout skill. 

The morning dew has moistened the firewood, making it difficult to burn. But this guy is not backing down that easily and in a couple of minutes later, he seemed evidently happy to have made the fire.

Great! Now, if I could only find where I kept my 3 in 1 coffee.

Cess boiled a pitcher of drinking water and Malou poured in 3-in-1 coffee to the cups. Some were still asleep in their tents but I reckoned I would much rather rise up early to witness sunrise from this hill. If I get lucky, I might get to see a nocturnal animal retreating from an overnight spree.

While the sun has not risen up yet, the misty fog enjoyed the liberty to emblazon the horizon with blinding spectacle, stretching from where I stood and far beyond those mountains. You can see that the fog has made things less visible.  On times like these, an air traffic controller will divert incoming airplanes to the nearest airport or advise them to stay aloft until it is clear to land.

Or before they run out of aviation gas.

These tiny mounds are probably an ant nest. It’s a good thing to examine the grounds properly before setting up the tent, because the last thing we ever want to see in the tent is an army of crawling angry ants.

Cess and Malou prepared something more appropriate for breakfast. I helped by grilling up the eggplants which would be made to tortang talong later on. We had some leftovers from last night and Cess had fried them after the eggs were done. Everyone ate his or her share of breakfast in silence without qualms, I guess that’s because it's either the foods tasted great or it was just the morning dizziness.

Here’s Paul showing me a big bug he got out from his tent. I’m not sure if it was a giant mosquito or just a mayfly, but it’s an interesting bug to see. Actually, all bugs are an interesting sight to see.

As long as they remain tiny.

After having our breakfast, we went down to see the restaurant. I looked back and took one last shot of our camping spot. It’s nice to see how surprisingly small our tents were from afar. By the way, it’s a lot easier to walk down than to climb up. And if there’s some kind of an empty drum, I would so much like to lie down in it and ask someone to roll it down the hill.

Just kidding.

Here’s Malou with some kids. The restaurant has some washrooms where the guests can freshen up. You’d be allowed to take a bath if you wanted to, but I opted not to and did that in the house a few hours later.

There is a large pool at the back of the restaurant. I noticed that nobody was taking a dip. It was probably due to the warning sign that said, “Sharks have been spotted in this pool, they come out when they smell pee.”

Yikes!

The restaurant has a distinctive ambiance like that of a ranch and it looks wider from the inside. Even if you come with a busload of people, there is still enough space for everyone.

In one corner, this sign says, “Captain’s Corner.” I’m not sure what that means but this table is probably reserved to someone worthy of the Captain status.

As in Captain Hook, Captain America or Captain Barbell.

There are many tables in the lobby and there are some tables in the enclosed area as well. I believe that the ashtray on the table offers an obvious hint that this specific area in the restaurant is cut out for guests with smoking habits.

The foods are listed on the menu in this corner. The T-Bone Steak is around $25.00 USD. It’s a bit pricey for an average earner like me but it’s worth the price for all these amenities. On a side note, food servings in Papua New Guinea are generally more than enough for one’s regular consumption.

Although secluded, there is a mobile phone signal in Koitaki. In fact, we never had problems with uploading our photos from last night. There’s a large satellite antenna sitting outside near the restaurant but I’m not sure what was that for.

I guess I must upgrade my ability to ask.

If you’re not wary of horseback riding, like I do, you can try and ride one of these horses for free. If it’s your first time, you can say that to these staffs and they will guide you accordingly. Here’s Cess’ daughter being lectured on by one of the staffs as they prepare for a galloping-ride around the meadow.

My late uncle Alex used to have three horses in his A & J Farm, where I worked for a very long time. Compared to these, his horses were smaller and skinnier. We used to ride those horses around the farm. When he learned later that the horses were getting thinner from malnutrition, he sold them out immediately. A move that, I believe, was wise since nobody from us knew how to properly care for a horse.

Horseback riding is a fun activity because it somehow lets you experience one of the oldest mode of transportation known to humankind. Equestrianism is the proper term for horseback riding and people have been in this practice since 3,000 BC.

On the way home, there is an open market near the Koitaki Country Club. We stopped by and bought some fresh vegetables. I bought some Ampalaya sprouts and some other things that I already forgot. 

It’s a good thing to buy from them not only for the reason that they sell fresh-from-the-farm produce but also for the fact that it supports their livelihood.

That’s all for our camping trip. Until next time!

Camping at Koitaki Country Club (Part 1)

Camping is best done together with our family, but if we don’t have our immediate family to share this refreshing outdoor activity with, our closest friends or fellow OFW’s will do just fine.

Koitaki Country Club is the only place that I know of in Papua New Guinea where an expat can spend a night out in a tent and enjoy the feeling of being in one with nature and become temporarily disconnected from our  usual busy lives.  The photo of me above is taken in one of the open fields in the areas within the club.

Except for the car on the far left, all of these vehicles are from our group. I went with the grey SUV on the left. Our belongings have made up most of the space in it thus, we were left with a very little legroom to wiggle around. Some of the Filipinos that I went with were cracking jokes all the time during the entire trip and it somehow made the occasional bumpy roads less noticeable. The establishment behind is the restaurant with a balcony overlooking the entire fields.

This is the pathway going out to the gates. Back in my younger days in the Philippines, we used to play baseball in an open field like this in the afternoon; looking at this picturesque view seemed to remind me of those days. If your place has this kind of road, you wouldn’t want to walk on these during the summer or the rainy seasons. It might get dusty if it was totally dried out by the summer heat or muddy during a heavy rain.

If you remember a scene from The Terminator 2, where the "Liquid Metal" robot was poured all over with liquid nitrogen, his feet were sticking onto the road as he walked over to the T1000 robot, which was played by the younger version of Arnold Schwarzenegger. From that scene, one can probably surmise the difficulty of keeping up a regular pace while walking on a muddy terrain.

Here’s an interesting billboard that you won’t miss to see if you happen to walk up to the restaurant. It has all the reminders that a first-timer guest should know for one’s safety and what’s not to do.

There’s a pond in the middle which is probably man-made to encourage the arrival of wild birds. Walking over the bridge are my friends from a different workplace. That pond bridge is nice, but I reckon it would look nicer with people waking over it so I stayed behind and snapped this photo just when they’re about to cross it.

The three colourful houses on the far right are the guesthouses. You can stay in one of those for K250 or K350; that’s about $79 and $110 US dollars. We were on a camping trip so we didn’t take one except for these friendly couple in the picture who booked one for an overnight stay because they tagged along their children with them.

Our camping spot is up the hill behind the houses.

This particular camping spot that we chose was on  top of the hill. The dusk was fast approaching so we hurriedly unpacked our things. This bag is mine and I only put emergency things in there like a bug spray, toiletries and a solar rechargeable lamp. I also brought the tent that I wrote about in one of my post last year. The green thing is a yoga mat. I figured it was more practical to bring one than an inflatable bed.

But it was not as comfortable.

The tent with a blue and orange colour is mine. It was super-easy to setup, all I need was to pull some strings up and it was standing on its own. I got this from a bargain sale at City Pharmacy for only $14 USD. The couple in the middle is Paul and Cess and they were setting up their own tent, which was really bigger. Unlike mine, their tent has an extra space for visitors apart from a private room.

Hmn, visitors, that I didn’t expect.

The management of KCC was thoughtful enough to consider placing a picnic table on top of this hill. It was a nice gesture. Just a suggestion to the management from this young blogger, I think that it’s also nice if there's a big umbrella or a shade of some sort to shield our foods from rain if it happens suddenly. But anyway, this table and the fireplace nearby are of the trivial things I am thankful to have around.

Thanks to the Koitaki Country Club management.

We camped nearby these two cylindrical water tanks. Here’s Cess preparing to cook our dinner on the designated fireplace. The people at the back are OFW’s from a sister company where Cess is working at. I think that another important aspect of camping is being able to experience cooking food in a primitive way. Here, the management has supplied us with firewood for a minimal price.

It’s fun cooking foods this way if you don’t mind the billowing smoke going to your direction every once in a while.

All of our tents were standing before the sun has set.  I was expecting the temperature to be cold but that wasn’t until dawn. But generally, it was slightly less warm in Koitaki than it is in POM proper. It was probably because of the higher winds that were constantly sweeping by the mountain skies.

On the few selected locations are these solar lamps mounted on a movable pole. It provides enough light for a certain area only, say, a good 2 meter radius underneath. We were given two but only one lighted up by itself when darkness came. 

The most economical application of solar power by far is through streetlights. I like the idea of having my own solar lamppost someday.

Just before the sun has set, we took the time to grill up pork meat and hotdogs. These would be added to our menu for the night. 

Someone from our group was kind enough to bring a hammock and attached it in between these trees. It looked nice from where I was sitting at because it seemed to complement the sun setting down from the horizon.

I swung my camera around and found two pairs of horses grazing around. If it were not for the houses nearby, it was easy to imagine that we were in some kind of paradise, with all those wild animals roaming around freely.

To give you an idea of how high this hill is, this is what the houses looked like from the top.

Before the night fell, I went down to see the other sites in the club. I ended up standing before a seasoned picnic table in between an old tree and a solar lamppost.  I kind of envision this area as a perfect place, aside from the comfort of our bed, to skim through the pages of an X-men comic.

X-men? Yeah, I know, I’m old.

When the night came, a blanket of total darkness covered the place. I switched on my solar power lamp to see how my tent would look like from the outside. The skies didn’t yield many stars on that night and judging from the amount of humidity, it felt as though a rain would come.

That begs a question, how does one know if it's going to rain without looking at the clouds? Long ago, I’ve read somewhere that if you can smell the scent of a flower from a distance, there’s a good chance it will rain.

I had smelled our dinner from my tent.

Here’s Jake, Malou, Cess and I. While the others were sitting next to the table, we were seated at the back of Paul’s pick up truck because the table could only accommodate so much. It did rain a little but disappeared quickly.  The night was filled with laughter from the funny stories everyone was sharing.

As the night grew deeper, we began to pipe down a little. The fireplace gave off waves of heat, keeping us warm from the slowly falling temperature. The firewood burned off slowly and we decided we’d just let it burn to discourage snakes that may happen to come around.

Here’s what the inside of my tent looked like in the night. At 9:30pm, I was already feeling sleepy. Perhaps because I was a bit tired from the office or because the sight of my tent was inviting. I told them I’d hit the sack and went straight to my tent. To keep my tent ventilated, I let the door open but kept the mesh on to prevent mosquitoes from coming in.

These are all about what we did on our first day in Koitaki Country Club. On the next post, I’ll continue about what we did on the next day.

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

A Men’s Day Special and a Tent Review

A week before the Father’s Day, many storeowners in Port Moresby have probably thought of this as a good time to ramp up sales while disposing off slow moving items. The idea manifested itself through a barrage of promotional gimmicks offering big discounts on selected items.

Of the particular targets whose marketing strategists have in mind for the special occasion are men in general and a more socially acknowledged title for such promotion is “Father’s Day Special.”  But I somehow feel that such title is restrictive on its sense and is just specifically aimed at enticing all fathers alone.

It was probably one of those widely approved, yet hastily thought of millennial catch phrases and I think that this, in particular, has a downside of potentially alienating married men who haven’t had the luck of producing offspring.

Therefore, to appreciate married men of all sort, childless or with children, legally separated or not, divorced or still counting years, this young blogger shall refer to this event as “A Men’s Day Special” instead.

During such occasions, shops are full of surprises indeed. I bought this tent for K50 ($16 USD) at City Pharmacy, which is just next to our office. The regular price is probably around twice the amount. I have misplaced a small paper that is attached to its bag. It has its brand name of Chinese origin, which I find too verbose to remember.

I’ll edit this post up once I found that piece of paper.

This tent has frames like that of an umbrella which is visible once spread out. As much as possible, I refrain from buying things that I have no need for the time being. But I got some friends from other companies who were planning a camping trip to Koitaki and it was probably wise to buy a tent ahead of the schedule. It was one of a kind, to say the least.

I have never slept an entire night out on a camping site away from the safety of familiar sleeping quarter. But during my younger days, I used to sleep out the nights close to rice paddies on the harvest season if you could count that as camping.

The tent did not come with an instruction manual so I had to sit down and figure this thing out for a while. There is a string that went to the bottom of the frame and was knotted at the end. I thought that if I pulled it all the way up, it might do some wonder.

And it did, to my surprise.

Just like that and the tent is set in an instant all after literally pulling some strings up.Some tents are not so hard to assemble after all.

There were plenty of grounds in which our cute tent could be tested and an ideal location was our parking area but I did not want to risk looking silly so I set it up on my bed instead. A 1-Person tent has a standard size of 7x5 feet but I think that this one is a bit smaller. There is a tiny window at the opposite of the door and a mesh to screen off bugs.

The screen mesh alludes to the idea of having the tent fortified with basic protection against malaria or dengue-carrying mosquitoes buzzing around the camping area.

The door has a sufficient opening to which I could comfortably go in and out.

It can be zipped up from either sides. Similarly, there is a mesh to filter off insects when you decide to snug in.

Here’s the view from the inside overlooking the, uhm, grandiose view of my study table.

Looking forward to that camping trip.