Travels in New Guinea

The importance of betel nut in PNG, especially on the Sepik, cannot be overstated. As Mathilda, the woman who hosted us in Korogu village, mentioned, betel nut is the first thing people exchange and it is used to cement relationships. How often we have seen people giving and receiving betel nuts. Without realizing it at first, our relationships with people changed and deepened when we started buying betel nuts for our travel companions and hosts. People would say: "Gut pla pasim"and "Em meri/man gut pasim," which mean "They are kind people" and "She/he is a kind woman/man". Betel is used to settle disputes or make amends. One is expected to give a chicken, a branch of betel nuts and 10 or 20 kinas to settle a personal issue, but, if the dispute is between families, the cost is higher and a pig and a bushel of betel are expected with money. Betel is also an important part of the funeral ritual. Big branches of betel nuts are hung in the ...

"... He's closer to a ton than half a ton, but we don't get to put him on a set of scales, so that is just an educated guess... We had one of our smaller tour boats out the other day, and Scarface was swimming alongside, and he was well over haaalf the length of the boat, which, ladies and gentlemen, makes him fiiiive metres long." It was a surprise to me that, in the five weeks Nadya and I spent paddling down the Sepik and exploring its backwaters in Papua New Guinea, we only once saw a crocodile (that wasn't in captivity): a log of a creature, basking on a mudbank on the far side of the river. Yet we heard of crocodiles and saw images of them almost every day. A skull of a monster crocodile resided in the Middle Sepik's oldest and most venerated Haus Tamboran in Palembai. Carvings of crocodiles decorated the supporting pillars of all spirit houses. Our hired paddlers talked of going on croc hunts at night, and crocodile steak was on the menu for dinner whe...