In the town centre I met Mr. Huanjo's son, a fellow about my age. He asked me what was up, and I expressed an interest in both getting some more money and also perhaps checking into flights to Vanimo. We walked along the other downtown street(and actually the only one that is paved), to the Air Niugini office. A large woman sat behind the desk. I inquired about the flight to Vanimo. I knew what my price roof was, and suddenly a barrage of clicking keys hit me as she delved into the price structures to get me a fare quote.

There was the weekend fare, which she was willing to give me, at about CDN$130 for a round trip, which was far below my limit of CDN$200 - I accepted. The flight was leaving in the afternoon for Vanimo, so I had a few more hours to chill in Wewak before the plane arrived

I relaxed along the beach with Mr. Huanjo's son, whose named I never did get. He had a few things to do, but did not seem to have a full-time job or be a full-time student; although perhaps he had already attended college. He said he had things to do in the afternoon, but not now, so we wandered around town, I bought him some ice cream and eventually we headed to the airport and took a nap under some palm trees. Ah, the Melanesian lifestyle - a pace so laid back you have to wonder why anyone would want to try and enter the rat races of other parts of the world.

There were two other Europeans on the aircraft, as well as some more missionaries. The missionaries are easy to spot, as they all seem to dress the same, have very little luggage and all seem to be over 50. The two tourists were Italian and Swiss, and paid little attention to me.

The flight - 45 minutes, along the coastline, where only a dirt road connects the communities of Wewak and Vanimo. I would learn later that there is an initiative in place to pave the road, but its completion is still far in the future

Touching down, I grabbed my backpack again, and looked out into a large pristine bay - with crowds of people wandering around, as well as some Asian faces driving around. Apparently the towns' major business is a logging firm run by Malaysians. I spotted the shuttle to the Vanimo Hotel, one of only two places in the lower area of town(the two European tourists headed for a guesthouse perched on a hill, which they seemed to have trouble finding), and took a room there. It was under renovation, but I was happy with my windowless air-conditioned little room with hot water and a television playing MTV Singapore endlessly. It shocked me that perhaps only 30% of the music on MTV was actually Asian, the rest were American Superstars as well as European pop groups who were probably too awful to make any real money back home and thus shipped off to this continent in hopes of the label making a little money back from their investment. Again, I crashed hard, sleeping until late morning.

It was my intention, then, to visit Jayapura via Vanimo, and return here for a flight back to Wewak and then Port Moresby the same day. Vanimo, though, is a wonderful treat for beach lovers - as it is a tiny peninsula between two massive bays, both lined by endless, pristine, clean white sandy beaches.





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