Highlands trip (again)

Work took me to the city of Goroka in the Eastern Highlands Province of PNG for three days this week. The capital city of EHP, Goroka is around 400 kms north of Lae. Surprisingly, most of the roads have been re-sealed, which made travelling more pleasant and enjoyable. However there was always a feeling of uncertainty that something might surprise you along the way, after all the highlands highway isn't called the playground of bandits for nothing.

Midway between Lae and Goroka is the Yonki Dam which is the biggest of its kind here in PNG. The dam provides electricity to many parts of the country. Many villages were intentionally flooded and wiped out of the map permanently to give way to the construction of the dam.

Bad taste. After driving for hours through never ending hills and mountains, you are amused by the sight of this government building with very weird architecture not to mention bad taste. It sits right in the middle of nowhere in a village called Henganofi. To those of you who are in Japan, why does this building remind me somehow of Fujiya (the cake shop)?

A typical market scene in PNG. A sweet potato market in the outskirts of Goroka. As I have mentioned in my previous post, in PNG, women do most of the back breaking work such as tending to the farm and selling their produce while men sit around and chew betel nut. Now, aren’t you glad you were born elsewhere?

Buti pa ang fruit may passion….. A trip to the highlands is not complete without a trip to the local market where everything is field fresh and dirt cheap! I couldn’t help but buy heaps of my favourite passion fruit – it was more like hoarding actually.

Downtown Goroka. The city is pretty much spread out and there isn’t much to see around. The same scene is repeated all over PNG; betel nut stained pavements, heavily guarded shops, guard dogs, people sitting around doing nothing, etc. In Goroka the only thing I enjoyed aside from the climate were the cheap fruit and veggies in the market.