Port Moresby

Port Moresby began as a Motu place. The Motu and the Koita people lived along this dry coast for centuries before Europeans arrived, in stilt villages over the water such as Hanuabada, which still stands on the harbour edge. Each year the Motu sailed in heavy double-hulled canoes called lakatoi on the Hiri trading voyages, carrying clay pots west to the Gulf coast and returning with sago, the starch that fed the home villages through the dry months. The trade tied the coast together long before any map.

In 1873 Captain John Moresby of the Royal Navy surveyed the harbour and named it after his father, an admiral. Britain declared a protectorate over southern New Guinea in 1884, and the port became its base. Papua passed to Australian administration in 1906, and the neighbouring north-east of the island had a separate administration until the two were joined as the Territory of Papua and New Guinea after the Second World War. Missionaries, traders and colonial officials built the small European town that is now called simply Town.

The war changed the place. In 1942 Japanese forces bombed Port Moresby and tried to take it by sea, a plan that was checked at the Battle of the Coral Sea. They then pushed overland along the Kokoda Track from the north coast, and Australian and Papuan troops held them in a hard campaign in the mountains. The Allies used Port Moresby as a base for the rest of the war. Many Papua New Guineans served as carriers and stretcher-bearers on the track and are remembered in Australia as much as the soldiers they helped.

Self-government came in 1973 and full independence from Australia on 16 September 1975. The government built a new administrative district at Waigani, inland from Town, with Parliament House and the National Museum as its landmarks. Since then the city has grown quickly as people move from the provinces looking for work, faster than housing and services can follow, which explains many of the pressures visitors are warned about today.

For a visitor the history is easiest to read in three places: the museum for the pre-colonial world, Bomana for the war, and Parliament House for the independent state. Each is a short drive from Town, and each is safer and clearer with a driver who knows the route.

Port Moresby has no single walkable centre. It is a set of separate districts joined by a few main roads across hills and a dry coastal plain. The old core, Town, sits on the western side of the harbour with hotels, banks, the cathedral and a few cafés. Ela Beach and the sea road curve east from it, and the yacht club sits on the water nearby. This is the area where most visitors sleep, and the one with the most secure hotels.

Inland, Waigani is the government district. Wide roads, guarded compounds and a lot of grass make it look more like a planned town than a capital. Parliament House, the National Museum and the Nature Park lie here, together with the shopping at Vision City. It is quiet by day and empty at night, and every visit is by car. Boroko lies between Town and Waigani and is where the banks, shops and the general hospital sit; it is an errand district, not a sightseeing one.

West of Town, on the shore, is Koki. Its market has long been the place where fish landed from the harbour and vegetables trucked from the hills are sold, and it shows the working life of the city better than any museum. It is also the area where the safest plan is the plainest: go early, with a driver who waits at the entrance, buy something small and leave.

Beyond these lie the larger residential suburbs and informal settlements, where much of the population lives. They are not visitor areas, and travel advisers recommend avoiding them. Hanuabada, the old Motu village on stilts, is one of the settlements with a long history, but it is not somewhere to walk in without a local introduction.

The airport, Jacksons, is north-east of Town, and the road between them can slow to a crawl at rush hours or after rain. Hotels here make the transfer part of the booking, and that is the pattern for everything else: your bed, your car and your meal are arranged by the same people, and the map matters less than the phone number of your driver.

Port Moresby has a serious crime problem, and it is the first fact any responsible guide has to state. Armed robbery, carjacking and assaults occur, including against foreigners, and several governments advise their citizens to exercise a high degree of caution or to reconsider travel to parts of the country. This deep dive cannot substitute for your own government's current advice, which changes, and you should read it before you book.

What visitors do about it is a routine rather than a mystery. They stay in a hotel with 24-hour security and a compound. They travel only in a car arranged by the hotel or an operator, with the doors locked and the windows up. They do not walk between places, hail taxis or take public minibuses. They go out in daylight and are back at the hotel before dusk, and they eat dinner where they sleep. They carry little cash, keep phones and cameras out of sight, and save the hotel's security number before they leave the room.

The same routine has a benefit: the day becomes simple. A driver who waits at each stop lets you visit the museum, one market and the cathedral in a morning without navigating anything. Operators who have worked in the city for years know which roads are safe on a given day and will change the plan if something happens. Ask them what the current situation is, and take their answer seriously.

Health is the second part of the picture. Malaria is present in the lowlands and dengue occurs in the wet season, so take medical advice before you go and use repellent. Tap water is not for drinking. Local hospitals are stretched, and serious cases are evacuated by air, so travel insurance with evacuation cover is essential rather than optional.

None of this makes the country closed. Many visitors pass through Port Moresby safely every week on their way to dive resorts, Highlands festivals or the Kokoda Track, and the people who host them are proud of their country and generous with time. The message is to plan around the risk, not to ignore it.

Papua New Guinea is one of the most culturally varied countries on earth. It has more than 800 languages, spoken by communities that often live in separate valleys, islands or river systems. Tok Pisin, a creole language that grew from Pacific pidgin English, is the common language; English is used in government and schools, and Hiri Motu, a simplified form of the Motu language, is spoken in the capital region. A few words of Tok Pisin such as gude, tenkyu and nogat wari are always welcome.

Identity in the country is tied first to a clan and a home place, often called the wantok system after the Tok Pisin for one talk, meaning those who speak your language. People in Port Moresby usually come from other provinces, and each group keeps ties to its home village and obligations to relatives. This explains why the city has so many small neighbourhood groups and why visitors are best introduced by a local host rather than arriving alone.

The visual arts are the reason most visitors come to the National Museum. Masks and shields from the Sepik River, carved canoe prows from the islands, and bilums, the string bags that women weave from plant fibre and now from wool, all appear there. Each region has its own style, and each object tends to mark a rite, a family or a piece of land. The museum's labels give some context, and a guide adds more.

Music and dance are part of the same tradition. The kundu, a hand drum shaped like an hourglass and covered with lizard skin, accompanies dances at festivals across the country. Sing-sings, the group dances in full paint and feathers, are best seen at the shows in the Highlands, but the Hiri Moale Festival in Port Moresby offers a taste of Motu tradition each year around Independence season.

Christianity is widespread, and church attendance on Sunday shapes the calendar: shops shut, streets are quiet and people dress neatly for services. Respect for land and custom is strong, so ask before photographing people or entering villages and beaches, and take your guide's advice about fees. Betel nut chewing is a common social habit and leaves red stains on pavements. Do not spit it in cars, shops or hotels.

Food in Port Moresby is a mix of home cooking, market produce and hotel menus. The staples of much of the country are root crops: kaukau, the sweet potato, along with taro, yam and cooking bananas. On the coast, sago is eaten as a starchy paste or in pancakes, and fish from the reef and the harbour is cooked with coconut milk. In the Highlands, pork and vegetables cooked in an earth oven, called a mumu, is the celebration meal.

For visitors the practical options are three. Hotel restaurants serve grilled fish, steaks, curries and salads at prices that are high for the standard, but they are secure and reliable and are where most dinners happen. Cafés and food courts, such as those at Vision City in Waigani, offer noodles, rice dishes and sandwiches in air-conditioned rooms. Market stalls, such as those at Koki, sell roast corn, bananas, pineapple, coconut water and simple cooked fish, and are best taken with a driver at your side.

Coffee deserves its own line. Papua New Guinea grows arabica coffee in the Highlands, and it is one of the country's main exports. The cafés in town and the airport serve it well, and packed beans make a good gift. Check the export rules for your destination before you buy large amounts, and buy from a shop that gives a receipt.

Food safety follows a simple rule: eat things that are hot and freshly cooked, peel fruit yourself and stay away from raw salad or ice of unknown source. Tap water is not for drinking, so use bottled or filtered water and ask the hotel about ice. If your stomach is troubled, drink oral rehydration and see a doctor if it lasts more than a day or two.

Drinking follows the security rule as well. Beer, mainly the local SP Lager, is served in hotel bars and licensed restaurants, and the rules on sales hours vary. Do not walk between venues after dark and do not accept drinks from strangers. Ask the hotel to send a car for any evening outing, both there and back.

Port Moresby itself is dry and scrubby, but the country it serves is one of the richest places on earth for wildlife. The island of New Guinea holds a large share of the world's bird species, including more than thirty kinds of birds of paradise, tree kangaroos, cassowaries and many kinds of orchid and butterfly. The Nature Park in Waigani shows some of these in a small setting, and it is the easy place in the city to see how much variety there is.

The coast east of the city has reef and small islands. Bootless Bay and Loloata Island are used for day trips and snorkelling, and further along the coast are diving areas that draw visitors from many countries. Book them through a resort or a licensed operator, check the weather, and ask about crocodiles and currents before you enter the water. Most people swim only in hotel pools in the city.

Inland, the hills near the city have cooler forest at Varirata National Park, which has lookouts and bird walks. It is reached by road in one to two hours, and the state of the road and security conditions vary, so go only with an operator who knows them. Beyond that lie the mountains of the Owen Stanley Range, which the Kokoda Track crosses from the south coast to the north.

The Kokoda Track is a walk of about ninety-six kilometres through steep, wet forest, which trekkers usually complete in six to twelve days. It requires a permit, a licensed guide and good fitness, and it is a serious undertaking, not a day trip. The southern trailhead is at Owers' Corner, a few hours from Port Moresby by road, and operators can arrange a short visit to the start without doing the whole track.

Most visitors who come for nature use Port Moresby as a gateway. From here, flights reach the Highlands, the Sepik, Milne Bay, Madang and New Britain within an hour or two. Treat the capital as the place where you sort your permits, bags and connections, and see the wildlife where the country is at its best.