General Information - Papua New Guinea

 

The following is an email from Trans Niugini Tours in regards to general information about PNG, the safety aspect for the guests and weather conditions.

 

From:Daniel Mera - Trans Niugini Tours/PNG
Subj:BIRDING TOUR NEW GUINEA

" Dear Klaus,

In response to your queries are as follows:-

1. General information on PNG can be obtained from our informative web site at http://www.pngtours.com if you have not already visited our web site.

2. CRIME SCENE - since you are not far away from us, I'm sure you must be up-to-date with what's happening here from the media and may be through your Embassy etc. Media exaggeration on PNG, especially the Australian media has done great damage on PNG and it is thought by many to be an unsafe place to travel to. The events reported by the media takes place in our capital city, Port Moresby, however, they take place only in one part of Port Moresby.
Businesses operate normal in other parts of Port Moresby when such activities are reported. These incidents do not affect the travelling public, flights operate normal, international travellers come in and go out of Port Moresby without encountering any problems when such incidents are reported in Port Moresby.

Other centres in the country are not affected at all. For example, areas such as Kiunga, Tabubil and Tari where your group intend on visiting will not be affected in any way. We assess every situation very closely and are safety conscious for our clients. We do not recommend people to travel to areas where we feel safety is a concern.

In general, unlike other county's and big cities around the world, PNG do not encounter major problems like shooting and killing in, terrorist and guerrilla attacks etc. In other major cities around the world, such activities are a daily event and does not attract the media or the travelling public's attention as it happens every day and becomes a normal part of life.

Whereas places like PNG, whenever an incident occurs, minor, compared to other countries is targeted by the media and their exaggeration only makes PNG to be thought by many as a unsafe place to travel to, which in reality is the complete opposite.

As you realise, PNG is a developing country and like other developing country's, PNG has it's own problems. Travelling with very reliable operators like ourselves with over 25 years experience in travel in PNG, there should not be any reason to fear.
We take every precaution for our clients and avoid visiting trouble spot areas. We assess every situation very carefully and update our clients accordingly well before entering the country.
When they are in the country, they learn the truth and prove our advise and information provided are true and prove for themselves what they have heard or seen on the media to be wrong and they enjoy their trip.

We do stress to our clients not to attract trouble by walking around in the nights, not to wonder into isolated areas by themselves, not to expose cash in the public, not to leave personal belongings un attended etc. As anywhere else in the world, always expect the unexpected, common sense precautions should be taken.

3. Weather wise, travel is good all year round with our tropical weather pattern, dry and wet seasons. Wet season is from October to April and dry season is from May to September. This however is now changing and becoming unpredictable. This could be caused by the global warming.
But generally, during wet season, it rains in the evenings and sunshine during the day making travel good all year round.

I hope I've answered your e-mail to your satisfaction.

Please do not hesitate to contact us should you require any additional information.

Kind Regards."