Picnic in Pacific Adventist University

Our itinerary to Pacific Adventist University involves waking up early, sealing off our foods in a picnic bag and heading out to the route that usually traverses the vastness of Port Moresby’s uninhabited landscape under the shades of a dusky morning. The starting point of which antedates from what I regarded as a usual Saturday night dinner in our accommodation comprised of me and just a few co-workers.  I sometimes refer to this dinner as an impromptu congregation of sleepy managers.

Surprisingly, when someone asks, “Who wants to eat a sweet corn?” Almost everyone will cheerfully agree and will say “yes” to “Tara sa PAU.” (Let’s go to PAU)

True enough, the main reason as to why we find it enticing to visit PAU is due to the nature of their produce comprised primarily of fresh-from-the-garden vegetables, and of course, sweet corn. Before we move further to discussing the intricacies of measuring vegetable freshness, which is by the way, an interesting thing to do when a refractometer is at hand, let’s just go and check out the road to 14 Mile.

This is the entrance to PAU. If all goes well, you are sure to arrive here in just about 10 to 15 minutes of driving from Gordons. On quite a few occasions that I’ve been here, I have gotten used to counting the varying number of guards manning this gate. But for security reasons, this young blogger will choose to keep it a secret.  Upon reaching the gate, it is mandatory to roll down the car windows and inform the guards of your destination to which they will suggest cheerfully that you take the road on the right side.

Choose the “right” road and you’ll never get lost in PAU. Sounds right enough.

Floating in the air are dust particles perturbed by the sweeping motion of the passing vehicles. The road to the market area is paved but is yet to be cemented. While it’s too tempting to keep the windows open and let the morning breeze freshen us, the passengers of this undertaking, it is best to keep them closed if there are other vehicles in the lead that go to the same direction.

If the volume of the cars parked in this area can speak for itself, it would have told me that we had arrived a little too late. On the bright side, it was nice to know that a lot have come to visit PAU which is a good thing for the local community.

The drawback to arriving late is that all of the freshly harvested sweet corns for the day are already sold out by the time you have arrived. Anyway, here’s an interesting thing that I found in PAU. My guess is that, this is a station for washing vegetables. Those two circular shelves might be manually rotated by hands and the vegetables on them would go through the running water coming from that suspended hose.

I was actually observing how those automatic sprinklers were keeping the plantations irrigated but the sight of this gigantic yellow backhoe raising itself sideways and rolling one of its metal tracks at a time is an equally amusing sight to see. The technique is an apparent attempt by the driver to rid the machine of the hardened mud that got wedged in between crevices of the caterpillar tracks. It was a success, by the way.

Green leafy vegetables as well as edible flowers like the pumpkin flower in particular, are marketed here for a much lower price. For example, a pile of leafy sprouts tied in a bundle is sold for K1.

If the majority of people that go to PAU are aiming for sweet corn, I am more attracted to a big possibility that I can always find bitter gourd sprouts here. Well, not really always but if one has to rate its availability to some degree, I would say, it’s about ninety percent of the time.

Kaukau or kamote is K10 a pile. I can’t say if that’s a bargain but the pumpkin on the far side is only sold for K1 each. Recently, I have come across an easy way to eat pumpkins. The recipe is simple: slice it to smaller portions, remove the seeds, wash the slices, sprinkle with seasoning like salt and bake it in an oven until its texture becomes soft enough to eat.

Easy enough right?

This particular table has on it some necessary ingredients for making pinakbet. What’s pinakbet, you say?  

From Wikipedia 

Pinakbet (also called pakbet or pinak bet) is an indigenous Filipino dish from the northern regions of the Philippines. Pinakbet is made from mixed vegetables steamed in fish or shrimp sauce.^[1] The word is the contracted form of the Ilokano word pinakebbet, meaning "shrunk" or "shriveled".^[2] The original Ilocano pinakbet uses bagoong, of fermented monamon or other fish, for seasoning sauce, while further south, bagoong alamang is used. 

These are the typical vegetables that can be found in a Pinakbet recipe.  Photo Credits: Glorious Food Glossary) 

And here’s what a Pinakbet is supposed to be when it’s done. This is actually a Dinengdeng Sa Patis At Alamang by Luweeh’s Kitchen but the recipes and the way it is cooked is very much similar to pinakbet.  Photo Credits: Luweeh's Kitchen Tokyo

Here’s another variant of pumpkins found in PAU. Both of the elongated and the spherical in form are sold for the same price. There are also young coconuts that have been partially skinned.

When you’re done shopping vegetables, it is safe to assume that everyone is welcome to roam around the fields that belong to the school provided that one is keen on respecting the area. What I mean by that is that the visitors must at least know and maintain civility when visiting the place.

 It is not always that we can convince Levi to go with us on a picnic trip. He prefers to rest on Sundays.   But anyway, here he is, sitting on a bench that is close to a pond. I believe he was pointing at some birds flying around when I took this photo.

PAU is home to some naturally occurring wildlife and most of which are birds. In this photo are different diversities of life that have once co-existed with one another. This is the first time that I’ve seen a bird’s nest, a wasp’s nest and an ants’ nest being so close in proximity to each other in the same tree.

The bird’s and the wasp’s nest are abandoned. I’m assuming that, by some nature way, these three must have found themselves embroiled in a fierce battle against each other; and the ants had won in the end through their sheer number alone. 

The buildings around the school campus are usually bordered by big trees such as this.

These bush fowls skimming the area are a bit used to human presence. I tried and took a photo of them in a stalking manner: by that, I meant that I had closed-in the gap that extend from me to them by progressively switching between tiptoeing  and pausing like a statue until I got close enough to scare them away.

The place is so spacious and it’s easy enough to avoid bumping into each other. From not so far, our attention was attracted by a familiar scent. Perhaps Levi and I had a keen sense of smell, for when we looked for the source, we found ourselves looking at a huge tree and under which we also found these two bushes of Sampaguita.

Pinoy In PNG would like to specially give our thanks to these Sampaguita plants which had helped us greatly in locating this forlorn tree. It was a perfect place to eat the food that we have packed earlier.

Because of our unwavering commitment to keeping our environment clean, we have packed our food in food containers. We did not use disposable utensils that will contribute to pollution. We also brought our own water containers and a couple of drinking glasses.  They are all safely returned to the comforts of our home.

No tetra-packs or disposable plastic bottles were used in this picnic.

Nice Places To Visit In Papua New Guinea

This particular post is like a summary of the nicest places that I've visited in Papua New Guinea. The list is in any order and I'm hoping that this will get updated with new stories from my recent visits if time permits. Whether you're staying here for holiday or working here, you may want to take time and see them. They're worth a visit.

FB Page: Port Moresby Nature Park

Port Moresby Nature Park

"POM Nature Park was formerly called the National Capital Botanical Gardens. There is little literature on how it was changed, but perhaps the existence of wildlife such as birds, kangaroos and some other types, along with the different diversities of plants necessitates for a name change that is more befitting to the place."

Photo Credits:  Loloata Island Resort Website

Loloata Island Resort

"Surprisingly enough, the voyage doesn’t take that long and it ends shortly at this long wooden structure that serves as a footbridge for travelers. Each pole was installed with LED lights that I guessed, would look exquisite at night. At the end of this footbridge was an arc to welcome the visitors. "

Lealea Beach

"It was windy but mild, more like a breeze that didn't leave a sticky sensation on the skin. The sky was cloudy and there seemed to be a notion that rain would pour anytime. The water was resting not too far away from the beach so bringing a volleyball with us could have been a good idea."

Pacific Adventist University

"Our itinerary to Pacific Adventist University involves waking up early, sealing off our foods in a picnic bag and heading out to the route that usually traverses the vastness of Port Moresby’s uninhabited landscape under the shades of a dusky morning. "

Adventure Park

"There is a pond with enough water to float a yacht located in the center of the park. These paddle boats moored to the shoal can be rented for a minimal price. I actually thought it would be much easier to get across the other end of the park by way of this boat rather than walking around the pond, but I figured I hadn’t been in a boat since 1999 and I was a bit thalassaphobic."

Koitaki Country Club

Camping at Koitaki Country Club Part 1
Camping at Koitaki Country Club Part 2

Unfortunate Things May Also Happen

My life in Port Moresby and in Papua New Guinea in general is fruitful and at most times, peaceful. In the workplace, the majority of the people we meet are locals. While we may sometimes experience a dose of verbal indignation from an irate person, a big bulk of the people we meet are generally polite and courteous; in fact much more courteous from where I come from.

While I try as much to keep this blog free from any negative issues, perhaps today will be an exemption.  Almost 99% of the emails I received from the readers of this blog were leaning to know much about the safety of the expats living in this country. My reply to each one is almost the same and pretty simple, “Whatever nice or positive things that you may have read from my blog was all true.”

How about the negative stories about PNG? Well, I cannot provide a direct answer. It is my stand, from time to time, that PNG is a peaceful place to live in. It’s even better if you can learn to trust your gut and find a way to use your common sense at all times.

But to all those who are asking if I have had a bad experience myself, the answer is yes. Although it happened a long time, I still carry the effect in me. But I have long since forgiven and forgotten the people involved.

In 2011, during my first two weeks of living here. I remember it was quarter past seven in the morning and I was having a conversation with a co-manager in our car park while waiting for the car that would bring us to our place of work.

On my shoulder was a bag with my troubleshooting tools in it. My colleague was also holding a bag of packed lunch. A car went inside our car park (the gate was always open before) and parked to where most of the company cars are. We are new managers back then so for us, a visitor's car and a company car is somewhat indiscernible. 

As soon as the car was parked, out of it came three men. I was not sure if a driver was left in the car because we were not looking at it really. We did notice the three men: one of which is a bit older than the two. The other two were just young men. They approached us and stood a little close behind me which I ignored for thinking that they were our staffs.

One of the young men snapped my bag from shoulder. My bag has a clip that you can press easily so the strap can unsnap quickly. I presume that he had pressed that because my bag was in his hand in an instant. As I turned around to see what had happened, I saw my bag in one of the young guy’s hand. My initial reaction was to wonder why and  I looked at his face to find an answer. I wasn’t sure if he was smiling or not but it looked like he did, albeit more like a Monalisa smile.

So because of that, my first guess was that he was a staff of this company and was just playing with me. With that in mind, I held his arm that was holding my bag with my two hands and told him “My bag.” He wouldn’t want to let go and that trace of smile had disappeared from his lips. From there, I began to suspect that something was not quite right.

My suspicion that things were not going well was confirmed when the other young man pulled out a long knife (they call it here bush knife) from his trousers (I had no idea how he was able to hide it there) and held it high above his head.  I remembered his words were “Uh! Uh!” Like he was trying to tell me to forget the bag.

The eldest of the three pulled out what seemed to be a revolver from his pants. As soon as I saw it, my mind was signalling a red flag. It was asking me to either fight or choose flight and in that situation I must soon decide right away. I must have chosen the latter---unaware that I was making small steps backward. The guy holding a bush knife confronted my colleague and tried to snatch his bag from his hand. My colleague refused to give it so he and the other guy ended up in a tug of war. It was tense and time seemed to be moving fast.

I could not utter a word, perhaps because of the adrenaline rush. That time, everything seemed to be in a fast forward state. Everything boils down to quick decision making. If I could talk then, I wish I could tell my colleague to just release his grip on his bag. Just let it go. But I couldn’t and I was hoping that he would soon realize that.

The guy with the gun started walking towards me. They say that desperate times call for desperate measures. Perhaps out of desperation, I turned around and thought I should just run. But I felt someone had held my shirts before I could even do so. I was told to stop and not to run. It was repeatedly said in a loud voice. I looked back to see where the voice was coming from. It was her, from another colleague. She was telling me not to run. Frankly, I did not notice that she was there. My best guess of what could have happened had I not been prevented from my futile attempt to run away from the situation, was that I might have taken a bullet on my back. The guy responsible for scaring me away with his gun was  beginning to close in the distance between us.

From there I began to calm down and maybe, I had accepted my fate. I slowly sat down on the ground in a squatting position. I held both of my hands up as soon as I felt the coldness of the gun's nozzle rested on my head. The guy pointing the gun at me was saying “Walet kam! Walet kam!”

Let it be my point that I was very new in PNG, so I did not quite understand what he was telling me. The female colleague knew about that so she told me in Tagalog what the raskol (what they call rascals) was telling me to do, “Bigay mo raw wallet mo!”  At the same time, she was talking at them strongly,  on the verge of hysterics in the midst of the commotion, “Kisim bag blo mi na karim go! Kisim bag blo mi na karim go!” In English, “Take my bag and go!”

The guy pointing a gun on my head seemed to be a cool-headed guy. He was not shouting at me but was speaking in a loud voice. “Mobile fon kam!” He was not hurting or touching me either. I took my wallet out and gave it to him. My driver’s license was just 2 day old when it happened and I actually tried and asked him to spare my driver’s license. He said “No! Mobile fon kam!”  I gave him my cell phone too.

 I looked out to where my other male colleague was having a tug of war on the bag with the other raskol. I saw the guy raised a bush knife and swung at him so my colleague let go of the bag and ran fast across us up to the rooms upstairs and locked himself in. I guess his guardian angel was at work because the blade had missed him by an inch.

He did not pursue him upstairs because we were on his path so he just took my female colleague’s bag. After getting our things, they ran back to their car. I was told later on that day that before they left, they were able to hold up another expat who happened to be there and was a witness to what was going on. He was just visiting his brother who was also working with us. 

The person in charge of our security in the company has gathered our written statement the next day and the company had reported the matter to the police.

I was really thankful to God because none of us has gotten hurt during the hold up. The incident has at least changed me to become more reliant on common sense.  The aim of sharing my story is not to taint the beautiful image of PNG but to serve as a reminder for everyone to practice safety because, like any other countries, misfortunes can also happen here.

A Quick Visit To Port Moresby Nature Park

I had been looking forward to visiting Port Moresby Nature Park for quite a long time and yesterday, I was finally able to do so. POM Nature Park was formerly called the National Capital Botanical Gardens. There is little literature on how it was changed, but perhaps the existence of wildlife such as birds, kangaroos and some other types, along with the different diversities of plants necessitates for a name change that is more befitting to the place. The new name, together with the upgrades in the park, had somehow, proved to be a success.

The park is just around 15 minutes of travel by way of car from our place. It could have been shorter if I did not account for the time spent on occasional traffic that happens in the intersections.

The road to Gerehu, to where we were heading, was quite wide; and I believe this is the Waigani Road. Generally, in Papua New Guinea, the sky is always clear albeit sometimes speckled with cumulus clouds that seem to behave like migratory birds that flock to only one direction. I also notice that the clouds that we see around here tend to appear closer than where they are. Perhaps this is the effect of being situated near the equator.

When I was a kid, I thought clouds were made up of cotton candies. I promised myself that one day, when I got to fly in an airplane, I would stretch my arms out the window and would eat as much of clouds that I could gather.

It has since remained a promise.

Here’s Tobi, our driver, spraying a bug-repellent lotion on his arms. This is the main entrance to the Nature Park. Out of courtesy, I was not able to take a photo of the reception where we paid for our admission fees. Taking a photo of someone or something private without asking for permission is generally frowned upon. However, the lady guard the receptionist are polite and friendly.  

After paying for our admission fees (which were very minimal and reasonable) I was asked if I wanted a map. “Why, yes please.” For precautionary measures against what I think of as an impending mosquito bite, a canister of Aeorgard is also available for sale at the counter for a competitive price.

This portion of the park is for kids as evidently written on the notice. On the right side is a bigger replica of the map that we were holding. There seems to be a slide and a clean tunnel under which the kids can crawl in and out on either sides.

Here is a post with sign boards that point to varying directions. We actually tried and ignored the map in my hand hoping that we’d get lost in the process. There’s nothing more exciting than finding ourselves lost in the heart of these uncharted jungles but these sign boards were too effective and they were everywhere.

Just kidding. We were actually thankful for these because they helped us a lot after getting confused and lost track twice.

I’m not sure what kind of plant this is but I like its flower. The juvenile flowers in the same branch don’t have the same protruding white petals like what this one has.

Hi there little fella!

We were surprised to see these giant bats hanging so close to where we were standing. They were wide awake during that time and were making a lot of squeaking noise.  If you try and zoom in, they all look like a mini version of Count Dracula hanging upside down while trying to cover their faces with grey capes.

I noticed that there was something especial with this sculpture. If you have noticed that too, I believe you have a sharp eye as well. On the right side of the bulletin board says “When the buying stops (of Cuscus), so does the catching and killing.”

That’s logically correct. I love that the phrase is simple yet emotionally effective. I wonder if I can construct one with the same degree of effectiveness. How about,  “What’s the use of a cage when there’s nothing left to catch?”

On the way to the middle of the park, we went past these upright poles with baskets perched on top. I’m guessing that these were probably an earlier version of today’s modern lamp posts.

This tree might look like an average tree in this picture, but it was quite big in the real thing and there were more of it around the area.

The trails that we found halfway into the park are made up of these blocks which are quite reassuring on rainy days. The pattern could also easily expose anything that would crawl on it.

Like a hopping kangaroo perhaps?

What I love about this place is that it seems to remind me of my favourite movie, the Jurassic Park. Similarly, the trails that converge around the park are clean and classy. The workers and staffs wear nice shirts that match the park’s theme and are well groomed.  The plants are of different diversities and are well taken care of. All of the animals being kept (that I saw) seem to be healthy and well fed.

By going here, I have pretty much experienced how it’s like in that Jurassic Park. Ha!

The trails that go around the park are endless. The colours are strongly dominated by green. Despite the sun was up and it was quite hot, my hat was a big help and the gentle breeze of fresh air was gently soothing. I figure that the trick to “enjoying the park” is not to rush through the tour but to take small steps and relish the experience.

Just when you think that you’ve reached the horizon, you’ll be greeted with another landscape that is equally mesmerizing. While I fiddle with my camera, I have kindly asked Tobi here to scout ahead and see if he could find out where they were keeping the legendary Paradise Bird that I had not yet seen personally.

But the scout has returned with reports of a negative sighting.  Yet we did not lose hope and marched through the horizon.

Our renewed campaign has led us to this place—a small shelter in the middle of nowhere. While I am not sure about the significance of this arch in the aesthetic aspect of the park, I believe that this area is a good venue for conducting bridal ceremony.

Oh, hey! That's me. 

After regaining our strength from a temporal rest that the arch has provided us, Tobi and I have ventured out further and ended up face to face with an array of fine-looking orchids.

Orchids that I have never seen before. I always wish that if I ever own a house, I will build a greenhouse next to it where I could plant all of the orchids that I could collect.

Here’s an orchid I found there that looks like a bird with its wings spread. Cool huh?

Beyond the orchid’s lair is where the wild life are kept in a confinement. This is where they keep some Wallabies. I have previously thought that like Pandas, there is only a single kind of Kangaroo.

I was less accurate on that part.

I’m not certain if Wallabies can grow really big but for the time being, I can safely assume that these Wallabies have already reached maturity.

Here’s the entrance to a Tree Kangaroo’s enclosure. There are two doors for every entrance; one of which should only be opened at a time while the other is closed. This is probably to ensure that none of its inhabitants can go out and mingle with another specie... or get eaten by a lion.

Just kidding. There are no lions in Nature Park.

Here’s what it looked like in the inside. It looks like a giant aviary with its own habitat. The confinements are in sequence with each other and the double doors lead to the next confinement.

I’m not sure what these Tree Kangaroos are looking at but they sure looked as though they were playing pranks on the land-dwelling kangaroos beneath them.

Hypothetical conversation between two Tree Kangaroos in a cartoon-like induced dialogue.

Kangaroo1: Hey mate, with your eyes closed, I bet you couldn’t hit that ol’ Kangaroo with this twig.

Kangaroo2: What? That big thug over there?

Kangaroo1: Yep.

Kangaroo2: That fella’s fillin’ up this place like an elephant. Gimme that stupid twig and I’ll pitch it down with my tail.

Kangaroo2 drops the twig and hits the ground.

Kangaroo1: Nope.

Kangaroo2: I hit him. Look!

Kangaroo1: Nope.

The land-dwelling kangaroo being mentioned is this big chap, who seem to be oblivious of what was going on around.

After moving to another area, we ended up looking at this aviary where these parrots are just resting on the ground which is interesting because most parrots that I have come across are a fan of wall climbing.

This is a Southern Crowned-Pigeon. Its name was probably derived from the way the feathers on its head are arranged like a crown. I guess this shot has failed to get the best angle to depict its crown.

This is PNG’s national bird, the Bird of Paradise. This is what I’ve been meaning to see in person. Too bad they were pretty far from where I was peeking at that’s why they were just about two tiny tad in this picture.

Here’s another interesting bird which they call Papuan Hornbill or Kokomo. It's beautiful but I can’t tell if it’s aggressive and will have attacked me if it were not from the glass that separated us. The moment I entered this viewing area, this cool bird just jumped down from where he was at and swiftly moved very close to me.

Here’s what they call Muruk. I’m not sure if it’s an ostrich or a cassowary but I am more inclined to believe that it is the latter. For the purpose of this discussion and to avoid further confusion, we shall just refer to it as Muruk.  These birds are really big but are unable to fly and if you look at those feet, they are solid and sturdy. I’ve read elsewhere that Muruks are great sprinters

This area is the rainforest part of the park where it is densely populated with trees and plants. The temperature around this place is humid. All of the Muruks are kept in this area. I have not found the areas where they keep the snakes and crocodiles but I was already a bit tired and hungry from walking around. Perhaps I will check them out on my next visit

The shadows from the congregating trees cast upon the entire carpet of verdant grassland. As such, the temperature around the park is relatively lower than the average warmth being felt throughout the city.

These particular trees seem to look like molten vanilla chocolates that have dripped from the skies and have instantly solidified into trees upon contact with the ground.

Next to the reception is the Nature Cafe which looks like a mini-bar. They have interesting sets of food that you can choose from but since it was already 12 noon, I ordered what was on the list under lunch menu.

 I ordered the Chicken-Salad with egg for the whole group. By the way, the group was comprised of only two person: that would be me and Tobi. Yey!

And that small car on the left is our transport. The car park is quite spacious and reasonably secured. Those tall trees also provide a sufficient shade to keep our vehicle from getting too hot.

Until next time.