1. The find of the year
Despite so many things being so hard to come across or find in PNG. You would not believe some things you might come across, whether it is clothing, books, food and any other item. Things that you think you would never find. When we had arrived in Wewak, for lunch we headed into town to do some food shopping and to get lunch. In one shop, I thought I was seeing things, I couldn’t believe my eyes. There in the refrigerator were Bundaberg Ginger Beer bottles. I started shouting in unbelief and in excitement. At first I thought they would be really expensive, but they were only 3 Kina each, which is $1.31AU! So I brought one, with plans to return to that shop. Then at another shop, there meat pies were imported from Aus too. This was a service station quality, but still a pie from Aus. It was 5 Kina. So we went down to the beach to have lunch before going for a swim. I tell you a pie and ginger beer on the beach in the tropics, oh man.
So later in the weekend I walked into town to grab a box of Bundaberg Ginger Beer to take back to Mt Hagen. I approached an employee at the shop and talked to him in Tok Pisin. The guy was so helpful, he went out the back and grabbed a box for me and took it to the manager to get a price. I thought even if I have to pay 72 Kina (3K x24) I would still get it. But he knocked it down to 62.50K ($27.38AU). So I paid for the box and walked out with 14kg’s of Ginger Beer. I carried the box all the way back to the MAF compound about 2-3 km’s in the hot sun. Timon and I were hassled for money by one guy in the process. By the time we got back my arms had almost fallen off. Come Monday morning, the box was able to fit on the plane. So it was an awesome find and to get it all the way back home to Mt Hagen. There is Schweppes PNG made Dry Ginger Ale or homemade ginger beer, but the Bundaberg is in another league of its own.
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Wow! Sounds like a lucky find, that’s cheaper than back here!
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June 23rd, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Yeah, but unfortunately we don’t get paid in Aussie dollars but in Kina.
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