come if you want to come

Sometimes when I am feeling both bored and in a generous mood, (VERY occassionally) I will surf the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree ... see if (now that my travels have stalled) I can offer some advice etc for people about places I've been, things I've seen, stuff I've done.

I love going to check questions on travelling in PNG - invariably about how 'dangerous' it is or isn't to come here. One character call Mississippi1234 just lives to bag out PNG and how rough it is here ... his statements includes comments like "This Country is NOT tourist-friendly ... Some will say that the RED color you see on the ground everywhere is spit from chewing the Narcotic betel nut but what you are looking at is B L O O D".

A few weeks ago someone asked a question on LPTT about the possibility of travelling independently in PNG & (after Miss1234 put in his ten cents) I responded as follows:

Wow. I am from PNG. A young woman. I have travelled solo through the middle east, central Asia (incl Afghanistan), Indian sub-continent, China, South-East Asia, Europe etc etc ... and travelled independent, mostly by foot or hitching etc ... I KNOW hard travel, especially with this hard passport from PNG.

I have ALSO travelled independently in PNG - it IS possible. Everywhere, people will look out for you. The dangers are real, but there is a converse side to this - for all the raskols, there are many more normal people who are just getting on with living their lives.

mississippi1234 says there is 'no social system' and he could not be more WRONG!! This country made up of a thousand language systems dictates that people create intricate communical and public social relationships in order to maintain their smaller familial ones. PNG is an anthropoloigists wet dream precisely because of its multi-layered social systems ...

I think the dangers are real ... but as an intrepid traveller myself who has been to other no-go-zones in the world, I've found some universal truths ... one of which is that you must know yourself - if you're one of those people that has the ability to understand your instincts and to trust in people, then other people will trust in you and take care of you. Its not about being brave or stupid or foolhardy - its that taking a trip to PNG is taking as trip into yourself and into mankind. And those trips are not for the fainthearted and are not for the lazy. It takes hard work - hard work keeping an open mind and energy to keep going when in a challenging environment. But the rewards and the ride are experiences you can't replicate in more tourist-friendly destinations ... that's probably because hoofing it 'independently' in PNG requires travellers, not tourists.

Come if you want to come.