Alotau PNG

Our first port of call was Alotau which is in the Eastern coast of PNG. There were several tours on offer and I selected the Cultural Festival tour while Warren went on the Milne Bay tour which was looking at where some of our service personnel were stationed in WW 2.

I was leaving first, my tour was at 9am and I had to be at the cinema, fifteen minutes beforehand on deck 7, our room was on deck 5 so not that far except the we didnt know where the cinema exactly was but we figured we could find it as the ship wasn't that big.

Only had a few minutes wait when we were taken off the ship from deck three and invited to get on an island bus. The buses were air conditioned by having the windows open. We travelled around the coast and into a gated area.

There were markets set up under the shade of trees as it was getting rather warm by then, we saw dancers getting their makeup and costumes on as we drove in.

 These kids were all boys aged from about six to fourteen, it was quite a fierce warrior type dance.

A couple of kids were sitting front of me, they were about six and seven and their grandmother was one of these ladies. The young girl said that she had done the dance but not today.

These dancers were there when the ship docked and were still there when I came back from my tour two hours later. Buses delivered people out and then it was just a matter of waiting to catch a return bus when we were finished.

I bought a sarong as I loved the colours and also a tea towel that I want framed. Stall holders would chat but they weren't pushy which was nice.