There is something inherently intimidating about Papua New Guinea’s capital Port Moresby and I think it’s a combination of the “rascal factor” &m standing out in the crowd as a “dim-dim”, or white fella, in this country of dark skinned & fuzzy haired people.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is one of my favorite places – it has some fantastic diving and an amazingly diverse & incredibly rich interior. However the country is very much in the developing nation category and is likely to be so for a long time to come given it’s strong tribal nature, poor administration, endemic corruption and minimal infrastructure. But it really is one of the last frontiers and a fascinating place to visit, once you have got through Port Moresby that is!

Moresby has a pretty bad reputation, principally because of the random and occasionally very brutal nature of the rascal gang attacks. The basic problem is a general lack of employment opportunities in the country, so Port Moresby tends to attract people from far & wide as it’s the seat of the national government and it’s administration that soaks up a hugely disproportionate amount of the national revenue.

Unfortunately people don’t find the pot of gold they are looking for and with an unemployment rate of around 60%, they turn to petty crime.Tales of car jacking, rape and the occasional murder make the situation seem pretty grim, and the “dim-dims” & wealthy locals are relatively easy targets – so all the hotels, businesses & housing compounds have high walls with razor wire.

The biggest growth industry was security guards until “big oil” came to town chasing the large reserves of natural gas in the highlands area to the northwest of Port Moresby.

When you talk to expats who live in Moresby however, you get a slightly different perspective and although they can all relate stories of near misses or people they know who have been attacked, they all seem to get on with life regardless and so I wondered if it’s really as bad as it seems?

Apparently the violence is a lot more serious for the locals than it is for the expats, because the expats who are held up or robbed are rarely harmed – just hand over what you have and that’s it.

Whereas with the locals serious violence is usually associated with the robbery – the reality being that if you rob an expat and don’t harm them, no serious follow up occurs by the Port Moresby police. But if the raskol hurts an expat, then the police have to be seen to do something.

The locals however get no help from the police….

I arrived in Moresby on Sunday on my way to Tufi (www.tufidive.com) where I will be based for the next three weeks as I commence a book project with the resort there – check out my diving blog for more information if you are interested in diving

As the flight to Tufi was early on Monday morning I had to stay overnight in Moresby and had booked a room at the Ela Beach hotel, near the downtown area. I felt I should at least have a walk around and see the beach but had been warned about carrying anything of value, as it could be the catalyst from an encounter with a rascal….

So after leaving my watch, wallet and DSLR in my room I headed off with my point & shoot camera to see if I could survive a walk along the beach!

Rascals, or raskols as they are called locally(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raskol_gangs) , operate from the squatter settlement camps such as “six mile” near the international airport. But they don’t walk round with a sign on their backs indicating their profession, so to the untrained eye it seems that everybody is a potential rascal.

The thing that always strikes me about Port Moresby is the way that people seem to sit about everywhere. I noticed this on my first trips to PNG, which had been organized so that we would arrive soon after lunch and catch the onward domestic flight in the afternoon.

However this required a short walk from the international terminal to the domestic terminal, much of which appeared to be lined with potential rascals sat about watching the dim- dims and their expensive camera bags!

In actual fact I have never had a single problem either at the airport or when I have had to stay over in Moresby, but then again I had never left the safety of the hotel…. then when I was here three months ago, in transit to Milne Bay, I was taken out for a meal in the downtown area and was surprised at how normal everything seemed to be, apart from the security guards outside the restaurant.

Walking along Ela Beach did feel a bit scary, mainly I think because people look at you, rather than completely ignore you if you were doing the same at Sydney’s Bondi Beach!

The attention adds to the tension (paranoia?) and 45 minutes later I am back at the hotel feeling like I have survived a close encounter with the Taliban!

Conclusion:Well I have to say that Port Moresby is not my favorite place, particularly now that hotel rates have gone from ridiculously expensive to downright extortion. But was I actually threatened or really scared, no…. but that is not to say that something could not happen but leads to the general conclusion that a little caution goes a long way!

When I first came to China on business about 6 years ago, like most first-timers, I was somewhat startled by what is eaten by the Chinese…. it seemed that anything & everything could go into the enormous variety of food dishes available here.

I later learned that there is a local saying that the Chinese eat anything with legs on, except the tables & chairs…

I met up with a friend the other night in Beijing and over dinner we ended up discussing the Chinese preferences in their meat, fish & poultry dishes and it became very clear that what would end up in petfood in the west is considered by many here to be the very best parts of the meat.

To prove this to me, the next day he took me to the eastern suburbs market - a huge sprawling area where it appears to be possible to buy everything that is available in China…. but we were not looking for army surplus boots or pots & pans, the meat & fish area was our designated target.

Well… I can tell you that it’s not a place for the faint hearted or vegans!

Literally every part of a pig, sheep, cow or bull seems to be available and my visit started with an encounter with the pork area where I was confronted with a very discerning shopper selecting a large quantity of pig’s intestines.

A little further down the aisle was the not so little piggy who went to market and never came back…

Apparently roast pig’s head was very popular a few years ago and there were a number of restaurants in Beijing that specialized in serving it.

Before moving on my friend tastefully positioned another nearby pig’s head so that I could take a posthumous portrait.

Prior to entering the beef area I paused to admire a fine collection of pig’s tongues – another highly sought after delicacy.

The beef area had a range of meat cuts and cow & bull organs and appendages, the first to catch my eye being a pleasing array of freshly skinned tails.

The next culinary ingredient surprise was the bull’s penis area….

I am assured that a soup made from this delicacy is not only delicious but just the job for a flagging male libido and, in the rare event that it did not do the trick, fried or grilled bull’s penis is guaranteed!

As you can see the bull’s penis specialist was delighted to show me his selection….

From the beef area we entered the lamb & mutton area and were greeted by a brace of sheep’s heads complete with their full compliment of brain matter….

Next was the poultry area and the interesting fact that chicken feet are the more highly prized part of a chicken and fetch a much higher price than the breast or leg.

This is apparently  because most Chinese believe the taste of the feet is much better than the rest of the chicken and there is a strong belief amongst Chinese women that eating chicken feet will make their skin smoother & nicer!

However, I have since been corrected (thanks Eileen…) that it’s a delicacy because of the way it’s cooked, with the texture working well with chilli black bean sauce. 

The fish market area has  a large array of fresh & sea-water fish and it was very interesting to see how the fish-heads are more highly sought after than the fish bodies and apparently fetch a 40% premium.

There was an unusual assortment of fish internal parts that I neither recognised or, at that point suffering from organ & appendage overload, cared to ask about….

Finally got round to updating the blog after being back in Australia over Xmas. It was a bit of a shock to leave the Sydney summer and arrive back in China in the middle of winter because it’s really cold in Shanghai with temperatures down below freezing. I know that’s not cold compared to some places – but for somebody calibrated to warm climates, it’s damn cold!

 The cold weather has brought out a new variant of the well known Shanghai pajama – a heavy duty, lightly quilted winter version! I was quite taken aback when I had my first sighting while wandering around the old part of the town near where I live.

 

I was even more surprised when I realized that the winter version could also be used as part of a tag team when popping out for some groceries from the market!

 

So you can imagine my amazement when later the same day I saw a very dapper individual using a very nice pair of tartan blue winter pajamas as part of his routine to engage with the opposite sex!

 

And I was simply speechless when it appeared to work!

 

Maybe I should buy a pair….or two!