Well Traveled

"Well Traveled", I used that term in the post below. Mike, my husband, asked me to define it.

Well now, what did I mean by "well traveled"?

Mike reminds me that an impressive number of travelers we met in Papua New Guinea had been to both Antarctica and the Amazon before exploring Papua New Guinea. They were obviously well traveled.

We met an equally impressive number of travelers who had been to more than 100 countries and were members the Century Club of Travelers. And yes, they were obviously well traveled.

And there was that solo traveler, a flight attendant with a major American airline, who told us she and colleagues were competing to see who could travel to the most countries within a set period of time. Their criteria for being able to say they had "been" somewhere was to do two of the following three: drink a beer, spend US$100, have sex.

The charming flight attendant told us she had drunk a lot of beer and spent a lot of money in her quest to win the competition. And yes, she was obviously well traveled.

Am I well traveled? I've done my share of traveling but I haven't yet been to Antarctica or the Amazon. Membership in the Century Club will surely remain beyond my reach in part because I tend to go back to places I like. And I'd never do well in that flight attendant's competition as I like to travel slowly enough to savour a place.

So I'm not sure if I'm well traveled but I certainly know I like to travel well. And that doesn't answer Mike's request to define "well traveled". Comments would be helpful here.

Three of the 1000 Places

Visitors to Papua New Guinea tend to be well-traveled. One of the genuine pleasures of living there was meeting people who had been to the world's most exotic and exciting destinations. They almost always placed Papua New Guinea at or near the top of their best travel experiences.

Many of those travelers seemed to have enough experience to write a book like the New York Times best seller: 1,000 Places to See Before You Die--A Traveler's Life List by Patricia Schultz. Widely available in bookshops, gift shops and travel supply stores, this book sits on the shelves of countless active and armchair travelers.

As you probably know, the popular book lists and briefly describes a wide range of not-to-be-missed places from around the world. I count 189 places in the United States, forty-eight in France, twenty-two in Australia, eight in Fiji and an impressive three in Papua New Guinea.

Those three places in Papua New Guinea are: Ambua Lodge, Sepik Spirit and The Highland Sing-Sing Festival in Mount Hagen..all are on the classic Mount Hagen Cultural Show itineraries.

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Night Skies

There's a full moon tonight, reminding me to check and see if there might be one during our Mount Hagen Highlands Show itinerary.

It looks like we'll be ahead of it. The itinerary ends on August 21 and the full moon is on August 28. So, we won't have moonlit nights but we will have starry ones.

I'm looking forward to those black velvet and diamond night skies. I'm not an astronomer, not even an amateur one, but I do enjoy a night sky unpolluted by artificial lights from cities, highways and ski slopes.

By the way, I saw on the Internet that there will be a lunar eclipse visible in the Southern Hemisphere on August 28. Travelers who plan to spend time in Australia after Papua New Guinea may see it.

Mount Hagen Highlands Show Tour -- August, 2007

A new year brings a new project. I have been asked to escort a group of travelers to Papua New Guinea and the itinerary is la creme de la creme of Papua New Guinea itineraries: The Mount Hagen Highlands Show Tour--August 9 to 21.

Yes, we're going to the Mount Hagen Sing Sing and the land of the Huli and the Sepik area and, and, and.... Yes, it's going to be a trip, a memorable trip.

This blog is intended to inform travelers about travel in Papua New Guinea with emphasis on The Highlands Show Tour. I will write it from the perspective of the escort, a different perspective than most travel blogs.

Thanks to Greg Stathakis for tapping me on the shoulder and suggesting the time is right for me to escort this group. Greg has been taking travelers to Papua New Guinea for twenty-seven years. He is escorting a group to Papua New Guinea in May and I am honoured to escort his August Mount Hagen Highlands Show Tour.

On with this blog. I'm new to this form of communication. I thank Susan, my friend and fellow adventurer, for nudging me along on another learning curve.

The itinerary for The Mount Hagen Highlands Show Tour, images and bilums full of comments and observations will follow.