Road less travelled (4): Papua New Guinea (1) - getting there
I have been lucky enough to visit a few countries that not a lot of people visit, mainly for my work. I thought it would be a good idea to share these experiences with you guys. After Eritrea, Somalia and North Korea, now a little write-up on Papua New Guinea; some other countries that are on my list to be included in this series are: South Sudan, Iraq, Bhutan and perhaps a few others.
OK, I have a confession to make: I haven't been to Papua New Guinea.... yet! - I'm actually on my way there right now. Papua New Guinea - let's call it PNG for short from now on - is new on my list of countries visited. That list is growing and counts 75 countries at the moment, but that is still a little under 40% of all the countries in the world, so I still have some ground to cover.
Since it is taking me over 30 hours to get there, I thought of writing a post on me getting there. Now it just happens that my grandfather travelled to Papua in 1953, so I thought it would be interesting to compare the two travels to see how things have changed. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of info on my grandfather's travel, but I'll include the little I know.
The total time spent in the plane for me is around 16 hours, unfortunately connections are bad and I'll have to spend a whole day in Singapore. The first leg of my flight is in an Airbus A350, then from Singapore I'll fly directly to Port Moresby, the capital of PNG.
My grandfather flew in a Lockheed 749A Constellation. That is one sexy aeroplane though, that Lockheed! The routing of the plane would most probably have been: Amsterdam – Rome – Beirut – Basra – Karachi – Bangkok – Manila – Biak, and the flight would have arrived 3 days later. The country was called New Guinea at that time, and included both PNG and Indonesia. Papua New Guinea only became independent in 1973.
Lockheed constellation, photo: airliners.net
Airbus A350: photo: airliners.net
Crossing the equator was a real happening in those days, with a special ceremony for first time crossers, and my grandfather also received a special certificate, proof of him crossing the equator. In the text of the certificate the wind gods of Aeolus, Boreas, Eurus, Notus and Zephyrus are honoured. It also states that 'the owner of the certificate is considered a trusted air-traveller' and that from now on he can count on the special honours of the wind gods. I'm sure I will not receive a similar certificate this time around....
It's interesting for me to compare my grandfather's travel with mine, and I'll update you on PNG once I get there...
*my grandfather in Papua:
source: Family archives
@Ultrabiker
Travel
Road less Travelled: Eritrea –-- Somalia --- North korea
Cycling
MTB back garden ride
The toughest MTB race on earth
Crocodile providing MTB support
Top 10 MTB stage races in the World
Winecraft - Wine Barrel Projects
Bench --- Lounger --- Table --- Wine glass holder
Very very cool story. Old school cool.
Thank you @programmingvalue! Am glad you liked the ‘old school’ take on it
Well... I think there will be a lot of story to compare between 3 days and 30 hours trip. Hey maybe if you want another kind of certificate, make sure you reach the border of indonesia and PNG, I heard that one side is probably give a certificate for reaching the zero kilometer 😁.
Will wait for the second part, enjoy your time and I'm quite sure that you've already have the certificate of Malaria free vaccination😆
Congratulations, Your Post Has Been Added To The Steemit Worldmap!
Author link: http://steemitworldmap.com?author=ultrabiker
Post link: http://steemitworldmap.com?post=road-less-travelled-4-papua-new-guinea-1-getting-there
Want to have your post on the map too?
Resteemed by @resteembot! Good Luck!
Check @resteembot's introduction post or the other great posts I already resteemed.
A certificate for crossing the equator! Never heard of that before and is an interesting tidbit. "A trusted air-traveller" ha.
I look forward to seeing what you do in PNG. That is one rough place I hear. Port Moresby is one of the most dangerous cities in the world I read someplace.
A tidbit back for you. One of the Rockerfeller's died there eaten by a cannibal tribe in the 1960's I think it was. He was canoeing around and met the wrong tribe.
Thank you @izzynoel! I was reading that they stopped handing out these certificates in the ‘60s when air travel increased. Do you know they still have a ceremony for crossing the equator when you are on a boat!?
Oh really a ceremony... why not. But nothing physical like a certificate. I bet one of them is worth money these days.
It was Michael Rockerfeller who got eaten in 1961. Here is a link to read about it. https://nypost.com/2014/03/15/how-a-young-rockefeller-died-at-the-hands-of-cannibals/
And thank you for the Rockefeller titbit!