Elad’s blog

The first thing that strikes you at Madang is the birds. Specifically, the lack of any. And to be precise, the bats.
The city is just full of bats. During the day they sleep on the trees (which makes all the trees look like huge bat colonies) and during the morning and evening hours they fly to the jungle to feed, which causes the sky to be filled with huge herds of bats, very clearly visible in the dim evening light.

According to Lonely Planet Guide, Madang is one of the most beautiful towns in the pacific. I, however, got a different impression. Though the city does have an amazing location - you can see the ocean almost from every place and every location, with a few tropical islands in the background (well, not really background. You can reach them by just 15 minuts cruise in a small engine ship, what the Papuanians call a dinghi) - it looks like it needs a good cleaning, and the streets themselves can definitely benefit from some dusting, as most of the cities in PNG.

The main attraction above the water here is the artifacts market; below the water there are some nice dives, including a planewreck - an old american B52 bomber (during WWII Madang was a japanese base. This B52 tried to bomb it, but got hit in one engine and was abandoned. The four crew members sweemed to the beach only to get instantly shot by some japanese soldiers that lacked the concsiousness for intelligence and/or war treaties necessary to keep the prisoners alive). I visited this wreck, so I can testify that seating at the pilot’s chair, playing with the steering wheel and looking at the old machine guns and all the ammunition that is spread all over the seafloor does give you a somewhat strange feeling.

In Madang I was the guest of Mama Alice, a phillipine woman that lives here and grows up - together with her husband Jack - a variety of children: hers, his, of both, or just from unknown origin. This Alice has a weakness for Phillipine Fish dishes. The evening I arrived I helped her to make fish-filled spring-rolls and Samosa (the indian version of Sambusak, only deep-fried). She also sundries fish (1 kg salt with some water - cover the fresh, clean, fish and leave for an hour; then dry in the sun. It can be kept unrefrigerated for several months, and tastes accordingly). She also uses a unique most recommended spice - just mix some dry chilly pepper (the dangerous kind) with salt and pure lemon juice on top of it. Excellent on almost anything, especially white rice. It is also worth to mention the Banana Chips she makes (just peel, cut, and deep fry the Bananas. Very simple, very sweet).

On the way I visited a village called BilBil, whose residences specialize in pottery, and a small river with some sulfur springs on its middle - very clear water, very strong sulfur smell, and a small film site: the burial shots of the Robinson Crusoe version from the 1990’s were shot here.

At the night I had quite a shocking experience. I woke up to discover a rat in my room. As Arik and Ofir can surely testify, a rat in the room is one of my very thick red lines. I went over the rest of this night on a chair at the living room, where I also slept the following night.

At last I got to see Yam and study a bit more about the Yam festival which I missed. Yams are very thick elongated roots, somewhat similar to patatoes. They are traditionally grown by males, and can reach length of up to a meter or so. Once a year the men harvest and compare their yams; whoever managed to grow the longest, thickest, yam of the year becomes chief and can marry many many women, until next year. Yes girls, it is exactly as it sounds - want to come and see all the men do the annual comparison of their Yams?

This entry was posted on Monday, July 25th, 2005 at 5:57 and is filed under Travels, Papua New Guinea. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.