My holiday started on the 14th of June 2023. Booked on Qantas flight from Rockhampton in Queensland to Brisbane overnight and to Port Moresby. Landing at Jacksons’ airport went through customs and waited for the Stanley Hotel Courtesy to get on the bus en route to one of the newest hotels and after checking in at the hotel reception, went to buy a bottle of water. As I headed to ask someone for directions to the shops stopped on the second level, and was admiring the Glass Stairs when the security saw me come over and told me that the hotel was owned by a Chinese Businessman and that the design of the glass stairs was actually a dragon-shaped all the way up to the top floor.

Stanly Hotel Port Moresby Papua New Guinea

Day 2 3 and 4. I was supposed to travel by Airlines Papua New Guinea to Alotau Milne Bay Province but due to the cancellation of my 2-day flight, I had to find another accommodation and was lucky enough that the airline put me up at Airways Hotel. At the front reception area was a gift shop with a couple of beautiful PNG carvings.

Gateway Hotel Gift Shop with the beautiful artifacts

Airways Hotel gift shop with art display. Don’t get me wrong I love this country for I was born on the remote island of Milne Bay Province. Waiting for the next flight is exhausting. All the planning and budgeting before the trip is way overrated. Limited travel money and ending up to have extra expenses were not part of the plan. Friday came it was the day to travel to my province, excited, and things were looking up but nobody could have predicted what we were headed for. Milne Bay Province like many other provinces in PNG has rugged and high mountains and tropical so it rains constantly. Heard that it had been raining for months and a little sunshine did nothing to clear the fog and clouds as we approached Alotau there was no way the pilot could have landed the plane and the final decision was to turn back wondering who was going to be paying for our accommodations. As we were waiting for our luggage the announcement was made that the airline was not going to accommodate us, it was a cause of nature so we dug deeper for another extra expense.