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Monkey-headed bats, rainbow-painted cannibals, boys riding sharks in pristine waters and butterflies as large as dinner plates...this is Papua New Guinea.
When I was little I read about all the great explorers and came to the devastating conclusion that every part of the globe had been explored already. I didn't want to follow in other people's footsteps. But I had to resign myself to the fact that the world was covered in footprints - even the moon had dirty big moonboot marks all over it. I had totally missed out. Or so I thought. There are still some elusive pockets of the planet which are yet to be disturbed by a human voice. Papua New Guinea possesses these pockets aplenty in its mist-shrouded highlands. This country is the original lost world.
It has some of the world's most amazing animals including a giant echidna, the enormous Queen Alexandra butterfly and bats with wingspans well over a metre long. The people are just as exotic with startling costumes and a dubious heritage cannibalism. While the missionaries have effectively married this culture with values more aligned with the modern world this place is what I have always dreamt of exploring.
What makes the country even more inaccessible is the high cost to stay there - in spite of being a developing country, so its transition into the tourism trade will be less than swift.
Here's to intrepid travels and unseen places.
When I was little I read about all the great explorers and came to the devastating conclusion that every part of the globe had been explored already. I didn't want to follow in other people's footsteps. But I had to resign myself to the fact that the world was covered in footprints - even the moon had dirty big moonboot marks all over it. I had totally missed out. Or so I thought. There are still some elusive pockets of the planet which are yet to be disturbed by a human voice. Papua New Guinea possesses these pockets aplenty in its mist-shrouded highlands. This country is the original lost world.
It has some of the world's most amazing animals including a giant echidna, the enormous Queen Alexandra butterfly and bats with wingspans well over a metre long. The people are just as exotic with startling costumes and a dubious heritage cannibalism. While the missionaries have effectively married this culture with values more aligned with the modern world this place is what I have always dreamt of exploring.
What makes the country even more inaccessible is the high cost to stay there - in spite of being a developing country, so its transition into the tourism trade will be less than swift.
Here's to intrepid travels and unseen places.
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