Papua New Guinea

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Why PNG?

Since I got my job at Ericsson as a Network Engineer I was promised there would be lots and lots of travel. After sitting on my behind for a year, and seeing all of my colleagues jet-setting all around the globe, my number came up. I'd been bugging my manager for an assignment for so long, that when the prospect of PNG came up, I couldn't say no.

-Yes, the Australian government has issued a warning when travelling to PNG due to high crime rates (muggings, high profile kidnappings, and recently 12 prisoners escaped from a maximum security prison!).

-Yes, there is a lot of malaria due to those pesky mosquitoes.

-Yes, they force you to work long, long hours in PNG. One colleague had to work 15 hours EVERYDAY when he was here. No weekends. No sleep. No life.

-Yes, you can't really go anywhere except travel from the hotel to work and back.

-Yes, travelling to PNG meant that I would have to spend my birthday alone, or maybe with a kidnapping Papua New Guinean Cannibal (actually I take that back as everyone I met here is really nice!).

-Yes, I would celebrate Australia day in not-Australia and have to cancel my birthday BBQ bash.

All these factors were making me dislike this prospect, but the urge to learn more in my job and get my frequent flyer miles up was too good a deal to say no. (Plus the fact that I was pretty much forced to go and "no" was out of the question).


The flight

At Ericsson we have a travel agent that books our flights and chucks some little fee on top to do so, but I don't care as I'm not paying for it! The travel agent booked my flight from Melbourne to Cairns, a one hour stopover, and then Cairns to Port Moresby, the capital of PNG. (PNG = Papua New Guinea if you haven't caught on by this stage lol.) (lol = laugh out loud if you're really that stupid.)

After being dropped off at the airport by my parents and "It's Complicated" girl I realised this was the first time I was to travel overseas by myself. Ooh the excitement, but also the agonising suspense of what was waiting for me on the other side...

It was a rather painless 3 hour flight to Cairns. I fell asleep as soon as we took off but only snoozed for less than an hour. I flew with Qantas which definitely helped my points tally, but the usually on-the-ball food was this time utterly feral. Beef rissoles tasted and looked like dog turd. Yummo! The in-flight movie was the same, and looked like it was directed by dog turd. "Love Happens" starring Jennifer Aniston and some guy with a bum chin. It was a crappy love story that was badly written, and the acting was crap. The emotions they tried to instil in you weren't that of love but that of disgust... For the whole movie I was hating, until the end which nearly made me cry. Damn that movie! It somehow drew me in....

Arriving in Cairns was a weird experience. The international terminal was awfully dead. All the shops were deserted, and the shop attendants were just sitting outside of their respective shops talking to each other. It was such a depressing scene. The early 90's decor also added to the dreary feel of the place. I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

Finally my flight to PNG let us board, and before I knew it I landed in the hot, humid city of Port Moresby.


Day one

I got a Visa on Arrival. The cost was 500 Kina ($250AUD). Thank God I got through customs easily! I spotted my bag very easily as it was a gift given to me by the beautiful Maricor for Christmas, and is a distinctive beige/khaki colour with brown borders.

Once I stepped out of the airport and breathed in my first outdoor PNG air, I saw my driver waiting for me holding a sign saying "Ericsson". I felt like one of those guys in the movies. I asked his name, and it sounded like he said "Tom" so that's what I'll call him. Whether he is Tom or not, that is what I shall call him as I don't want to awkwardly ask him again.

Firstly his driving style annoyed me. He stayed in 3rd gear for ages even when practically stopping! His under-revving really ticked me off, and the metal rubbing sound of the steering hub wasn't the most pleasant sound. That aside, he was a very nice, friendly guy. As we drove out of the airport I saw a nice old man smile and wave at me. This was the first of many. Everyone here is so nice and friendly and always waves, smiles and says hello. Maybe this is just because I'm a fob tourist, but still very nice gestures!

First impression of Port Moresby (PoM) was that it didn't seem as densely populated as the Philippines. Not much traffic. Not many people filling the streets. No tall sky scrapers or tall buildings at all (except for a couple of hotels). Although it was nice as everything is green because at the moment it is the wet season, every year from November to May (although it hasn't rained too much since I've been here).

My driver Tom (?) dropped me off at the hotel where I checked in and carried my bag up a couple of flights of steps to my 2nd floor, garden/pool facing room. How sweet of him to carry my good looking 18kg suitcase. After dumping my stuff and sussing out the room, I ordered him to drive me to the closest supermarket (by "ordering" I mean "asking politely").


The Supermarket

We arrived at a place called RH Hypermarket. Not Supermarket. Hypermarket. The hyper implied it was greater than super. This was not the case. As we drove into the parking lot there was a guard directing traffic. He was quite the entertainer acting like a military man doing over-exaggerated gestures pointing in any sort of direction. This was all done with a serious face. How cute. How psycho. Continuing on through the carpark I saw a bunch of what I guess were a bunch of cool PNG guys, one of which was leaning up against a car. Not his back leaning on the car, but forward facing. As I looked down I saw a pool of liquid darkening the bitumen below the car's wheel. Yes, oh yes, he was peeing on the car. Whether it was his car or not will always be a mystery to me.

Upon entering the Hypermarket I noticed a few Filipinos around, and also a few other foreigners and somehow felt a bit more comfortable. Tom (?) decided to get me a trolley and said he would push it around for me, and that I could take my time.

My shopping list:
-Mi Goreng
-Devondale milk
-Prawn chips
-Mamee noodle snacks
-Ham
-Salami
-Bread
-Up and Go
-5 x 1.5L bottles of water
-Butter
-Honey Weet Bix
-24 x sandwich bags

All of the prices on the rack were very confusing. For instance, the price for the Up and Go said "12 for 12K". (By the way, $1AUD = approx 2 Kina.) So I grabbed 12 thinking this was the bargain of the century. Later on at the counter I found out that for the 12 that I got, it cost $31 kina! I said "screw that" in a nice way and only bought 3.

They Hypermarket reminded me of something you'd fine tucked away in Footscray market. Sort of with that dirty/dusty feel, and the ugly racks, etc. There were quite a few Aussie products which was good, and they even sold Black & Gold products. Oh wait, now I know... The Hypermarket reminded me of Franklins at the old Werribee Plaza.

Overall I spent about $50 on supplies which would hopefully last me at least a week before I need to stock up again. If I didn't buy anything normally the guys here spend about $40-$50 per day on food! That is nearly the whole $67 per day allowance they give us, and I wouldn't be able to save anything at all!

We returned to the hotel where I filled up the fridge and pantry with my loot, and unpacked my gear. I wanted to feel like I was at home, so naturally I just messed up the place a bit as my room was (until my dad cleaned it up for lazy ol' me) messy as.

I had a 1 hour nap before having to go into the office right away at 10pm. Little did I know that I was in for a big first night, and a 10 hour shift with barely any sleep!


First night on site

Now, this is my first project and I'd always thought I'd go on my first project buddying up with someone more experienced. Since I was here by myself I didn't know what to expect. What would they ask me to do? What if I don't know how to do it? What if I mess up? Yowzers!! Heading to PNG I knew I had my team back in Australia to back me up as they'd be online during the day, but my first night was a night shift, and everyone would be sleeping! I prayed. I prayed hard!!! It ended up working! =]

I set up my laptop and braced myself for the worst. As I connected to the routers and switches, it seemed that the work I had prepared for had already been done. Now, you see, I was confident of the worked I prepared for as it seemed rather straight-forward, but now that I saw that it was all done I was left in the dark! I hadn't prepared for anything, neither did I have a clue of what was to be asked of me. Thank God he helped me rip all these commands and knowledge out of my scared little butt.

We, Ericsson, were upgrading a network for Digicel PNG a mobile phone operator similar to Telstra. All the Ericsson guys seem to be nice as we're all on the same side, but the Digicel guys seem to want to blame problems on Ericsson and the relationship is strained at best. When one representative of Digicel came in, a Russian bloke by the name of Rashyd, I crapped my daks. He's a very erratic guy who jumps all over the place, asking everyone for status updates, and do this, do that. When the pressure was on me, somehow I just kept up and did everything he asked for. It just came out of nowhere!

As the night progressed things in the network turned sour. At 6am, when it was time to go, everyone's calls started dropping. Dropped calls means no one can make any calls, meaning Digicel can't charge them, meaning they're losing money, meaning they get angry at Ericsson. Instead of leaving, we had to jump back on for another couple of hours to try and fix things. On a side note it was an awesome feeling to have the power to shut down this whole mobile phone network with a few commands typed in with my humble fingertips.

After the first night I went back to the hotel and just crashed, knowing I'd have to work 12 hours the next night...


The Hotel

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