The World Awaits: travel tales to inspire your wanderlust
Where does your wanderlust lead you?
To Melbourne’s cafes or the vast deserts of the Empty Quarter, a New Zealand vineyard or the pavements of New York… what’s your neighbourhood?
Join travel journalists and editors Kirstie Bedford and Belinda Jackson for inspiring stories and inside information from across the world.
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The World Awaits: travel tales to inspire your wanderlust
EP 118 Papua New Guinea with musician David Bridie; Lonely Planet's 2026 hotlist & safe wifi connections
Four kilometres from Australia, Papua New Guinea is our closest, and also our least explored neighbour. As PNG celebrates the 50th anniversary of independence from Australia, Australian musician and composer David Bridie talks about his connection with PNG, which spans four decades.
A founding member of Not Drowning, Waving, David first visited PNG in 1986; he is now an initiated Tolai man, returning more than 40 times, for work and to visit friends who've become family in Rabaul, Bougainville and Manus Island, as documented in the film Abebe; see davidbridie.com
Come for the fishing, diving and birdwatching, stay for the incredible, varied cultures, some only first touched by contact with the outside world in our lifetimes.
Also, the places you need to be going in 2026, thanks to trendsetters Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel in 2026 and for our tip this week, how to stop hackers targeting you on holiday, thanks to Saily SIM cards. See lonelyplanet.com/best-in-travel and saily.com
Finally, Kirstie checks into the Hotel Indigo Melbourne Little Collins, and we're both hoovering up Hong Kong classics at Atlas Dining in South Yarra. See https://ihg.com/hotelindigo/hotels/ and atlasdining.com.au
David's recommendations include:
Baia Sportfishing baiafishingpng.com
Walindi dive resort, Kimba walindiresort.com
Kumal Lodge (birdwatching) facebook.com/kumullodge989/
Visit us at https://theworldawaits.au
Welcome to the World Awaits. Travel tales to inspire your wonder mask. Welcome back to the Wilderwaits. How are you? Oh, how has your week been, Kirsty?
SPEAKER_00:Oh my god, such a good week. I was fortunate to stay at the newly opened Hotel Indigo Melbourne Little Collins. So the hotel has such a great vibe and it's in an amazing location, right near the gorgeous block place with its European-style cafes. And it's part of this new Jewel Hotel project that took eight years to come to life. And it's now home to Hotel Indigo and also the Holiday Inn. So you go in via Little Collins and it's it's just very discreet, um, you know, to get in there and you go up a little lift and it opens up to just a sea of vibrant blue, which is was uh designed that way as a nod to Melbourne's blue street size.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, super cute. It but it's all part of the larger Melbourne walk development right beside Mecca. So um, which I which I think is just fascinating because it's actually created a new laneway. What did you think of it, Kirsty?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, loved the location. It's such a great location and it has a really luxurious feel to it. So, but it's just really super cool, so not sort of stuffy. So this is the thing about when you go and stay in hotels, you just get the vibe, right? It's just such a great way to kind of get a sense of it. And I I just loved it. I felt it felt really comfortable, but really luxurious. We stayed in a suite that had this huge terrace. So uh you could easily fit like 20 people on it. That's how big it was. Um, and um, so you go into the room, and then um it's it's such a beautiful room, massive um bathroom with um uh walk and wardrobe, and you can sort of it's got a doors that you can sort of slide it off because you know who wants to have an open toilet in their in their suite, and then you walk in through past past the bed, and there's a little sitting area with a beautiful luxurious sort of armchair, and then you go outside to this terrace, and you can just sit out there and you know, have a vino and watch the uh the beautiful lights come on on the city skyscrapers, and it was it's so pretty and so lovely. Uh so yeah, you got everything in there that you need, you know, all your amenities and everything. And um then we had dinner at the restaurant called Fern. It's led by Daryl Hand, and it's a modern Melbourne dining concept, and the food was just, I have to say, the food was really exceptional. Uh I had and a really nice feeling in there too. Again, all the blues everywhere, um, beautiful design, very luxury feel to it. I had uh black and white sesame prawn toast with Yara Valley caviar to die for. And then I had, as a main, I had barramundi with cauliflower cream and skull island prawns. And for breakfast, the great thing about breakfast is they do have a beautiful little buffet, but you don't have to just have the buffet. There's a la carte available as well. So um, and and of course, lots of amazing places to dine around there. So, yeah, I loved the hotel. I would absolutely go back again in the heartbeat, and I would recommend it. Um, and also this week I had another exceptional dining experience. So um, yeah, in in Melbourne. So that was Atlas Dining in South Yara. So we were both there, Belle and I, and this one's run by head chef and owner Charlie Carrington. And the concept here's always been that he has a changing menu every few months. It's kind of what he's famed for. So we but when we were there, we had a taste of Hong Kong and um Belle was there too. And oh my god, how good was that food, Belle?
SPEAKER_01:It was so delicious. Um, yeah, I thought that was interesting. Charlie said that you know, the concept of the food is like so if he goes traveling in, I don't know, uh, Kyrgyzstan, he's gonna cook a Kyrgyzstan menu. But he hadn't, um, he's actually been to Hong Kong about nine times, and he said he hadn't done a Hong Kong menu yet, but he he said it was one of his easiest because Hong Kong food is is one of his favorites. And I have to say, he brought it all the tea smoked duck, yum, the wagyu beef, oh my goodness, was that clay pot rice? We were like animals. We kept saying, I'm so full, I'm so full. What in between? Absolutely stuffing our faces. We were just hoovering it up, and I absolutely loved the frozen mango that was pressed into the shape of a moon cake because honestly, when by the time dessert came round, I was like, Oh, I'm so full. I can't eat a whole, you know, very solid moon cake, but it was a it was a frozen mango and it was just delicious. So we absolutely hoovered everything. I think Atlas is a really interesting Atlas dining is a really interesting place to go to.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, totally, absolutely was. And that food was just exceptional. And um, the French champagne wasn't too bad either.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, absolutely. Um, it you know, it just reminded me about how good Hong Kong is. We're going to travel there all the time, either staying, either going to Hong Kong itself in its own right or as a transit stop-off. And um, it really is the most exceptional city for eating. Did you know, Kirsty? Fun fact, that there are 79 restaurants in Hong Kong with Michelin star ratings. And that's going, that's going from literally on the street eating, because the street eating is phenomenal, right up to those stratospheric absolute wallet busters. It is an exceptional food scene. And hopefully we're going to have a bit more on it and give you a where to eat list in the coming weeks.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and I love that how you you find these um Michelin-starred uh restaurants as um just street food eateries, because how how cool is that? I mean, you don't have to have pay an absolute fortune to have that sort of experience. Right. Well, this week we are actually chatting about Lonely Planet's best place to travel in 2026. So every year, Lonely Planet's team of writers and editors come up with the 25 must-visit destinations and 25 essential experiences around the globe. This is so cool. So it's um expert predictions of what you should be doing for the year ahead.
SPEAKER_01:I do love this list. Um, it's always fascinating because you see, if you have been traveling to those places or you know, it suddenly opens up new areas. Um, some of them are feel like favourites though for 2026, at least for Australians, because South Australia's Ikara Flinders Rangers are named in the Top Places Hot list. And also you've got Melbourne's food scenes on there, yay, as we've just been saying. And Victoria's Bathing Trail is also included in the 2026 Top Experiences Hot list. So, as you might have noticed, you can barely turn around without heating a bathhouse. But the jewels really are centered around, like Victoria's very lucky in this sense because of its geothermal waters that are uh subterranean, so and they're heated below the crust. And then so when they come up, we've got this delicious, really healthful water. And it was all really kicked off, I think, by the OG, which just happened springs in central Victoria. And then the minute the peninsula hot springs on the Mornington Peninsula refined it. So I did add Albert to that list, which is right across the road, and that taps into that same aquifer that the peninsula hot springs shares. And if you're on the Great Ocean Road, the Deep Blue Hotel in Wardenbull, which has hot springs on its property.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and keep an eye out for the Phillip Island um new hot springs that are opening soon, apparently. They the the date does keep moving a little bit. Um, I'm also not surprised that the Flinders is there because um I was there a while back and we did the Arkaboo walk where you walk about 24,000-ish steps or about 10 to 15 Ks a day, and um, which doesn't sound like a lot, but oh my gosh, you know, it's hilly and really steep to the point where, you know, so in some of it, we were literally crawling up um cliffs, uh, the side of cliffs on our hands and um with our hands. Um and but the highlight has to be, of course, that view of the 17 kilometer Wolpina Pound, which is just remarkable. And the sheer scale of it, you just it's one of those things in life that you just have to see to really believe. So others on the list of the 25 best destinations where Flinders came in fourth were Botswana, which topped the list, and that was followed by Peru.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, you know, I love Peru. Um, I I travelled through there on train and not just any train, I was on uh the Hirin Bingham, which is Belmont's luxury train that takes you from Cushco up to Machu Picchu. Um, I remember the bar on the way down, like every on the way up, everyone was really stressing about the altitude. On the way down, the band was playing in the bar car and everybody danced all the way back to Cushco. It was fantastic. And then, and also the Andean Explorer, which goes from the white city of Arequipa, absolutely, like it is the most beautiful city in Peru, to um across to Lake Titicaca and then to Cushco, which is when you you know then jump off to go to Machu Picchu. On that list as well is Jeju on the um in South Korea, beloved by honeymooners. And fifth on the list is another place very close to my heart, which is Cadiz in southern Spain, um, which is there with uh Liberdad in Sao Paulo in Brazil. Look, if you have haven't been to Cadiz, it is just the most magnificent Andalusian city on the southerly tip of Spain. Literally, throw a pebble and you'll just about hit Morocco. So, unlike its neighbour Seville, which so many of us have been to, it's not really on the trail for international tourists. But the Spaniards love Cadiz. They love it and they love it hard. And with really good reason because it's a beautiful coastal city. It's got a fantastic ice cream scene, which I have to say, Spanish ice cream, yum yum. Um this the tapa there is the tapas is fabulous seafood tapas, and there's loads and loads of history. Possibly the most famous site is the Cape of Trafalgar, which is where the bound what we know as the Battle of Trafalgar actually took place offshore here in 1805. It's funny that it's always associated, I think in my head anyway, with London and Trafalgar Square and Horatio Nelson, who defeated the French and the Spanish fleets, naval fleets, actually here in southern Spain. So Cadiz, put it in the world.
SPEAKER_00:I need to go, yes, I need to go there. Um and sixth on the list was Sardinia. So anyone who's listened to the podcast would know that my love of Sardinia. So we cycled for about 210 kilometres around the south um a year ago, and it was so quiet. And uh it's actually the location of uh one of the newest blue zones, which is a place called Toluda, which we cycled through as well. And that's blue zones are the places where people live the longest and healthiest lives. And you can see why, because this the way they live is just really back to basics. Everything's grown on the land. Uh, it's a really slow pace of life, good, strong sense of community. And when you cycle through there, there's just, you know, stunning everything from stunning Mediterranean beaches to medieval villages and vineyards and gorgeous, quaint little towns. And we ended at the town of Pula, which is my favourite, favorite um little town in, I think, at the moment in Italy. I mean, oh my gosh, this this um gorgeous little, quaint little town with um beautiful restaurants and um really easily walkable and and cycle, you can cycle around there too. So I am I'm just dying to go back there. I might have to um yeah, make another make another plan to go back there. Maybe I'll go to Spain first and then Sardinia.
SPEAKER_01:You can absolutely do that. I would thoroughly recommend Southern Spain. It's um yeah, just phenomenal. So uh also on the top 10 list, Dunisia. I am super pleased to report to see it there because I think it's one of those places that just you know is constantly overlooked. And I do love North Africa. I was there in March, so I consider myself ahead of the trend. And look, I think it's totally worth it for the Mediterranean beaches. But for me, it was the oases in the Sahara and the cave hotels. If you had to stay in one place, I would make it Doriat Jeep, which is in Tatooine. If you skip back to episode 96, you can hear all about um my adventures through this little gorgeous country, which I invest which I visited with in traffic travel. And the top experiences in that in the experiences, the top two were hiking and wild camping in Tajikistan and going on a cultural food tour through old Dubai. I'm um I'm actually a bit bummed that when I was in Central Asia in um uh in Turkmenistan and uh Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, of course, Tajikistan is probably the least loved little sister of the five stands. So it's really it's really interesting. It's one of those, you know, Lonely Planet likes to put some wild cards in there, and I think that that is one of it as well. Um and the cultural food tour through old Dubai is is great because it blows the myth that Dubai is just all about glitz. You know, it's a it's a city that has a fascinating history and traditions from people that were until recently nomadic. And I mean, uh uh Dubai and Abu Dhabi have amazing international food scenes, but this lets you go, you know, you don't have to be eating at all of the Michelin star restaurants. You do actually eat on the street. And the street food in Dubai is fantastic and it's super varied. So what do you think? What do you think of Dubai, Kirsty?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I love it. It's great. It's uh yeah, I absolutely loved it. I love Dubai and I love the um old town wandering through there and yeah, the juxtaposition of of the old and the new obviously is just what makes it um really fascinating. So yeah, no, I loved it. Also stay in a train carriage at Kruger National Park, South Africa, and spend the night in a rear cun in Japan. I've done that last one. Oh my god, amazing experience. We stayed in one at the top of the Ear Valley, which is uh in Shikoku Island. So it was amazing. It felt like we were on the top of a mountain, which we probably weren't, but um it is very mountainous, obviously, that valley, and so pretty, just stunning. Um, and it's such a great way to feel connected to the culture in a really genuine way. So we yeah, that I loved it.
SPEAKER_01:And also on that list of experiences, you could track desert elephants in Namibia. I'm so here for that. Look for Jaguars in the wetlands of Iberia in Argentina, or watch a Flying Cholitas match, which is between um professional female wrestlers in Bolivia. So we will put a link to the full list in the show notes. This week, my guest is musician David Brighty, who is the founder of uh the world music group Not Drowning Waving. He first went to Papua New Guinea as a 24-year-old, and he has returned more than 40 times.
SPEAKER_00:Amazing. He sounds fascinating, Del. So, um, I mean, obviously you'd want to interview him, but what uh what specifically made you want to have a chat now?
SPEAKER_01:Well, I was actually interviewing him for Paradise, which is Air New Guinea's Inflight magazine, because it's the 50th anniversary of the independence of PG from Australia. So when David first went to PG, he met a musician called George Telec. And in 1990, they collaborated on the on their first album, Tabaran. So, fast forward to today, he and Telec, now Sir George, were asked to perform that their that album for the 50th anniversary celebrations. And when they started rehearsing, everybody started adding their own bits and pieces and basically created a whole new album which they have released called Malira. So David's talking to us about um, you know, those those times that he has experienced in PNG recording with local musicians, and he's actually been uh initiated into a tribe in PNG. It's absolutely fascinating to take a listen. David, welcome to the show. We're so excited to have you on the world away.
SPEAKER_02:Wonderful to be here. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01:Now I have to start off right at the top with your connections with PG. When most Australian kids were going to London or the US in the eighties for their year abroad, you went to Papua New Guinea, and I'm wondering what made you choose our closest neighbour, but also in the other sense, our most remote?
SPEAKER_02:I think, yeah, look, because it was our closest neighbour, but so different from my life in the suburbs of Melbourne. It was a sort of so played in band Not Drowning Waving. Mark Wirth was a filmmaker whose father was in the Navy in Manis Island, uh the naval base up there. So Mark spent the first 15 years of his there in Papua New Guinea. He would regale me with tales about adventures in Papua New Guinea, and that enthralled me. I thought that sounds like such a fantastic place. I even remember as a kid having a Jacarand or Atlas, and at the back it had this section of flora and fauna from Papua New Guinea, and it just grabbed my attention as being, wow, this would be an amazing place to go. I was aware of the connection that Australia had both with the war and colonial history and with the Kieps. So I thought, well, let's over there England and America can wait until later.
SPEAKER_01:And how old were you when you first started travelling there? And when you got off that plane, what was your first impressions of PNG?
SPEAKER_02:It was 24 when I first went to PNG, and we arrived in Port Moresby and had this wild first night drinking duty-free gin on Ella Beach. Uh, and we also were staying right near. There was a rugby league game. Football ground was in Barocco, so we stayed there and we that was all happening. It was a Sunday afternoon, I think. The next morning we flew up to Wewac and went and stayed at this guest house run by this eccentric German man named Ralph Stuttgart, and then we went down to the Seapik River the next morning. So I was 24, this is 1986. And so, you know, with my first trip overseas, I was in this village on the Seapik River within a day and a half. I was just fantastic. Lots of mosquitoes. But the river, I mean, the Seapik's this mighty, you know, it's like the Nile or the Amazon or the Mississippi. It's this big Aqua Highway, and so many villages along there, and the artwork was astonishing in these big house tamarans. I was there with a few friends, and all of us were just gorking at everything because everything was new, every smell, every sound, every visual, both an actual world and the people and the dwellings. I was in a constant state of amazement.
SPEAKER_01:And it's also a really remote so much of it is really inaccessible now. But in the 80s as well, especially places like the Seepik River, are almost inaccessible even today. How did people receive you when you first started travelling in PNG?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, they were like Papua New Guinean people, Melanesian people in general, are really hospitable. And we were just young kids, so people were really nice. Sometimes people think it's weird. We were sleeping in these old nuns rooms on wooden slats or on a concrete floor. It was pretty spartan and we were making it up as we went along. But I think what we found is if you stayed in a place for a little bit longer and you got to know people, the hospitality really came out. People were quite going anywhere for one night, it's kind of oh, one day or something, everything's new and you're not sure what's going on and they don't know what to make of you. We were young, so and of course, you know, later on, after many, many trips, sometimes, you know, when you had more money you can stay. There's some wonderful hotel accommodation and and resorts and uh which is kind of an easier way of doing it. But I I that first trip, we went to the Seapick, caught a boat from Wewak to Medang, woke up in the morning, and Manham Island was kind of it was the volcanic volcano so that was smoking, and then we're in Madang for a while, then went up to Manus and started Ponham Island there. Heard Garamot drumming and dancing, then went to Kviang and caught a track on the back of a copra truck down the Bulaminsky Highway to Nam Namat and I went over to Rabao. That's where I met George Telleck, the singer, at Pacific God Studios. Hung out with him for a few days and the studio for a bit, and that cemented the reason why I've kept going back to this day, 40 years later. But even then I'd fallen in love with the place. Some bits were so gobsmackingly beautiful, and other bits were hard. It was a very different world, but I found it really opened my awareness about the world and thinking about things differently. And inspiring. So I yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, a 40-year relationship with the country, and so in depth. I mean, since that time, you've created incredible musical connections with George Talak, who you just played with in Melbourne recently for the 50th anniversary, because also you were travelling in PG, what it was only 10 years or so after it had become a country that was independent from Australia at that time.
SPEAKER_02:There it was quite interesting. I've been doing some music for a couple of the documentaries that were about the 50th, the amazing celebration that was the 50th year. We were there just 10 years after those black and white shots of Michael Samari and Gough Whitlam and those amazing scenes around that time. He's changed a lot since that first time we were there. It's been an incredible trajectory for such a young country.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I wanted to ask you how many times have you returned in that last 40 years? And what is it that keeps drawing you back? Is it the food? Is it the scenery? Uh clearly music is integral to it. So do you go back every gear?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I've gone back pretty much I reckon I've been there 40 45 times or something since that first time. So once or twice a year. And sometimes I'm going because I've got some really interesting work stuff, whether, you know, be recording with George, some film soundtrack work, producing things we're doing with the OneTook Music Foundation. Sometimes I go up because I've got friends there, friends that have become almost like family, especially in Rabaul, but also in Bougainville and Manis. And some of the people I met when I was there the first time. Some of them may have passed on, but their kids I'm really close with because you just that constant relationship with so I feel really blessed to uh and that's part of the uh uh attraction to go back. But I think Papua New Guinea and also the Solomons of Benamwatu have this natural beauty about them. Village life, grassroots life in Papua New Guinea, I find quite amazing. It's resilient. People are eating food from the same gardens that their ancestors going back however many thousand years still eat from. So if you're into diving or bushwalking or butterflies, or if you're a volcanologist, or if you're into music, or if you're into carvings, if you're into storytelling, if you're into history, Papua New Guinea, uh th these parts of the world have such fascination and such magnetism about them. It's not for everyone, but I always try to encourage young Australian people to go there, whether on a holiday or if to do some work, uh volunteer, or if you're a lawyer, if you're a person who works in health, if you work in sports, you know, whatever. Australian Papua New Guinea have this amazing link, and I um I've there might be a couple who regret it, but out of 198, we go out.
SPEAKER_01:Wouldn't it be great to revisit those emotions as as a young person and think, what am I doing here? How did I end up here? And hopefully, how did I get so lucky that first place that you travel? What a great experience that would be. Hindsight would be lovely. So you've said that PNG's changed a lot. How has it changed?
SPEAKER_02:When I first went there, some parts of the Highlands had only real you know, maybe 30 years that they've been exposed to the outside world. So they've gone through the whole of the Industrial Revolution in that. I remember meeting two Highlanders who were selling some beads and some carvings outside a hotel where I was staying. I got talking with them, and when they were born, when they were there was this old man, and when he he lived the first 25 years of his life before first contact, that was an astonishing conversation. It just blew my mind. This man and his wife, what they had seen and what they had lived to was astonishing. I laughed about it because that was their thing. So the Highlands was, you know, was and still is this fascinating part of the world that has only had that first quite a recent contact, which is less, you know, in the towns, the towns are all established. Hagen Goroka and uh Warburg. But phones have had a big difference there. Papua Nigeri's become more confident all the time. In phones, I'm saying and phones have got a good thing. Communication works really well with the one-took system. Sometimes it means that some languages are diluting because of the phone, the influence of, as we all know, the internet exposing some of the best and the worst things in the world. And it does tend to homogenise things. One thing I find fascinating about Papua New Guinea is the uniqueness of the number of languages, a number of different cultural groups. Moresby Moresby is like this big modern city with all this wealth and the Stanley Hotel and the highways and everything was quite this metropolis. But the gap between rich and poor is quite strong. There's a dissonance there. So that's not the good side of it, but but the good side is look at the confidence in the area that I'm OF with. The m music scene is creating its own sound, it's getting really confident. Access to equipment and gear is a lot better now. And I think that confidence in sound, that confidence is something that applies to so many aspects of Papua New Guinea life. The intelligence and the ability of the best doctors, lawyers, and writers in Papua New Guinea has grown much larger than what it was at first because the opportunity wasn't there. I mean, it's a long conversation, Belinda, about the changes in that 50 years. And it's a fascinating conversation to have with Papua New Guineans themselves. I mean, they're always fascinating to talk about, talking to an older person about what changes they've seen in their lifetime.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. And then when you travel around, do you find that it's more accessible? I mean, you know, clearly I mean it's had its own airline for those 50 years, always flying line of sight, and that's a whole different story. But just their access would have different parts of PNG opened up or have they actually closed down since your ship travelling.
SPEAKER_02:I do know that as of two months ago, the road from the Highlands down to Moresby connected through. And that was always something that was fascinating that the capital was separated from the Highlands and the North Coast.
SPEAKER_01:Long driving road trips are out then for the Wells.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, because of the Owen Stanley Rangers being so, you know, and the amounts come out of nowhere. That's why the Kokoda Trail is so phenomenal, because it's like going up and then down and it's quite rugged. And that spine goes all through the centre of uh Papua New Guinea and over into West Papua as well. Transport I think is uh Yeah, no, I don't it's not necessarily that there are roads, I know the road from Rabao to Kimby is there that used to never be. But even still, the road and the amount of rain, and of course it's a young country geologically, all the earth trimmers kind of wreck the road, so it's sometimes still easier to go by boat.
SPEAKER_01:Is that how you travel around? Do you fly between your destinations or do you find yourself doing boat trips?
SPEAKER_02:On boat trips for some smaller things. If you're in Lorangau and Manis and going out to BP on the west coast, the only way to do it is by boat. That's fantastic. I love being on boats. I love being on the back of a coconut truck or in the back of a ute. You can sit in the back of a ute on a country road around Rabaul, and Australia'd be against the law, but that's the wind in you. You gotta be you know pale skin, you gotta be careful you don't get sunburned. Because with the volcanic eruptions, you end up getting covered in dust and everything. But uh it's great sitting on the back of a ute with a eight people and everyone's talking. It's a nice community thing. The wind in your hair, and you're seeing all the natural beauty in villages because of the climate, obviously. Everyone's out it's an outdoor life, but villages on the roads or on the Seapik River and stuff, there are people everywhere. There's villages everywhere, and you're just watching life go by as people are outside a lot. Yeah, I mean New Guinea's never had an accident. And it flies in some of the most difficult terrain. If you ever get a chance to go on some of the smaller aeroplanes that go to more remote destinations, they're fantastic air trips as well.
SPEAKER_01:I I do love a small aircraft. I think there's something so exciting about them. PG, you know, it's never really taken off as a destination for Australians, but every country's got certain things that appeal to certain people. I mean, what sort of traveller would p PNG appeal to most?
SPEAKER_02:If you're into fishing, you'd go, if you'd go, because it's got the best of, you know, world's best practice for those two things. And there are a number of, you know, what's the place about is it biologs in West New Britain? It's great for fishing, and uh Kimbe dive resort there in West New Britain's fantastic. Bird watchers would love it, yeah. So that you know, in that what's the place up in Enger? I think it's called Cummel Lodge, or where you get to see Bird of Birds of Paradise. And there's a little place I've spin off New Island, just a little island called the Listenung Resort. So people go there for surfing or for uh diving. I mean, I I'm not a diver, but I love snorkeling. And uh snorkeling is my place. I actually my partner and I just came back from the Solomon Islands where we went to snorkeling and it did. But yes, in PNG there's lots of places like that. So there's that kind of market for it.
SPEAKER_01:And on events as well, because a lot of those tours uh that you go Uh, built around PG's festival scene. So you've got that whole sing sing across the highlands, which I understand was a construct. It was a way to create relationships between tribes that otherwise might not be on the best of terms. So they could showcase their music, their costumes, their customs. Uh have you, I mean, you know, as a as somebody who's been embedded in the PG music scene, have you spent much time going to festivals or sing scenes?
SPEAKER_02:I've been to the festival, which I think happens every year in August. I thoroughly recommend that. The one in Hagen and Garoka, the big Highlands festivals, they're quite big. Anger's a bit smaller, but amazing. Similar kind of thing, just a whole lot of groups coming and there's a little bit of competition and trying to outdo each other. Face paint and the beads and the decoration and these haunting, haunting songs. That's quite something. In Rabao, they have the Mask Festival, which the Tolo Wawagira, which is that's kind that's got Uno activities, ancestral activities like dance and music, but it also has bands playing at night. It goes until 11 o'clock at night. I played there once with Telek, and that's a really family-friendly great festival that happens there. That's in July, I think. With all these festivals, it's worth checking out because they sometimes shift from uh year to year. The Hiri Mawali Festival in Mooresby. There's apparently a good my favourite musicians in Papua New Guinea, Richard Moggle, has been involved in festival in Millen Bay, and it was his place. That was a couple of months ago. So that's just started this year. The Bougainville Chocolate Festival in October is fantastic. That's got music and a lot of those cow bands. I think there's a crocodile arts festival that happens all the time. These festivals for each province or each marketplace, they're becoming a bigger thing, and everyone's dreaming of wanting them to be a place to bring in people to give opportunity for their artists. But they all try to set it up as much as they can to be friendly to outsiders. They're worth heading to for sure.
SPEAKER_01:I had recently spoken to a new shark calling festival, which was happening in New Britain, which just sounded incredible. It's got ancestor connections. It's the capture in sharks, they fast beforehand and believe and the shark comes to the person and basically sacrifices itself to the village. I just thought this is so undocumented when you look for it. So many things have got thousands of years of history, but then they're also written about for the past thousands of years, and with so little documentation outside it. And I think you've got a passion about that as well, haven't you? About documenting music rhythms, instruments from PG.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, no, the shark for I think New Island was where it is on the west coast there, yes.
SPEAKER_01:Sorry, you're right, New Island.
SPEAKER_02:They've got these fire dances. When people ask me as a musician, because you get asked this all the time in interviews, what's the best rock concert you've ever seen? And I always say bindings fire dance because those rhythms were as guttural and loud, and the visuals and went from six o'clock until six in the morning, and the light show of the fire and these people. I mean, the bindings masks are incredible. And they're running through this fire. It was just like and there's no one of the things you just keep your ear and eye out for and this practice is so vital and unique. And maybe that this conversation gets back to how things are changing. Some of the songs being sung by the old people, the younger ones are not necessarily learning them. So there's a big push to try to record these songs. But these people are getting older, and even in the space of 40 years, the language has changed quickly. I'm sure some things that were practiced in 1880 or 1890 at first contact times, many of those songs will have been lost, some of those instruments will have been lost. Papua Guinea has culturally those songs like diamonds, you know, those songs, those masks and those dances, is still a lot there, but as the world modernizes, that they're the things that are in danger of being lost. So I'm I'm quite passionate, as are a lot of Papua New Guinean sound engineers and artists, to record these songs, archive them, and make sure all the information about them is documented, even to record them and perform them and stuff, because that keeps them alive.
SPEAKER_01:Are tourists then helping or hindering this process when we come in to a you know an almost pristine environment? Are we protecting it or are we bringing in our own influences to their detriment?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, I don't think tourism is a level in PNG, and it probably won't ever be at that level where that's in danger of wiping things out like it is in some other countries where there's this massive influx.
SPEAKER_01:Not even like that reggae scene that's happening down in Port Moresvie at the moment, which is very different to what some of the traditional.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, the reggae and hip-hop stuff that's happening there. It's at the black culture, so I I kind of get why that's attractive to Papua New Guinean musicians and some of the better exponents I've already introducing some of their traditional elements into this music, into the reggae or the hip-hop, but talk about things that are endangering traditional practices, a lot of other stuff brought in by Australians and British and German people back in the 1870s that have far exceed the kind of musical corruption that might have occurred. There are still some musical practices that exist that in PNG quite a lot that have these links back hundreds of thousands of years. I mean, many parts of Papua New Guinea have what the rest of the world's lost and is yearning for. That connection to its environment, the knowledge and the artistic practice that their ancestors had is something that the West has lost. Hopefully, there are some good people in Papua New Guinea who are fighting to retain these things. But there's also, you know, the appeal of the dollar and unscrupulous practice by some people's kind of but that's a fight that goes on everywhere. But I look at I hope they do win that fight because Peace still has things that I know you know, sometimes you're up there and you're sitting on an island and you're going, This is the best that the world has to offer. And that's what Peace still has, many of those places in the highlands, on the coral reefs, on the islands.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, that's a beautiful way to wrap up a gorgeous country. Look, the question I have to ask you in super travelly here, the question that everybody asks about PNG is is it safe to travel there?
SPEAKER_02:Precaution is needed in PNG because of the poverty. I've been to Papua New Guinea a lot and I'm my exposure to crime has been very minuscule. But I'm male and I'm six foot tall. I know a lot of women who work up in Papua New Guinea now and they love it. Locals will look after them. I think one of the reasons why I haven't seen as much crime is because I'm hanging with my Papua New Guinean friends. People everywhere when they're drunk. Dangerous, that's the same as being in King Street in Melbourne. I wouldn't go there at two o'clock in the morning because it's dangerous. I don't trust. To go to a country that has that grassroots and that life in the roar and all the wonderful things that PG has, you know, the flip side of that, there is that element of risk. But I feel sad when I hear of people who go to and they just stay in their hotels the time, or people who are working there and live in gated communities because they're missing out on the best parts. One of the exchanges now is you find on Sunday afternoons families are out everywhere. They go to church in the morning and they're having a picnic somewhere or they're down to the beach swimming. This community-family vibe is quite strong. There are a lot more music concerts in Port Moresby than there used to be. And there people turn up and they're great, you know. Again, don't have your wallet hanging out of your pocket or don't, you know, don't leave your phone on a table. It's the same, yeah. It's the dignity of risk and the slight risk of going to PNG is bad. How so many people don't have to go to PD and everybody's warning them before they go about careful of this, careful of that.
SPEAKER_01:The final question, which I'll knock down before I get over elsewhere, is the final question we ask, well, our guest is what is your most bizarre travel experience? And it doesn't have to be PNG, it can be anywhere in the world.
SPEAKER_02:Oh no, look, we'll stick to PG because you know the uh the cliche is the land of the unexpected and it's well earned. I go to this funeral once that was on an island in the Trobian Islands called Tawema, and it was a full moon. And one thing I found in in Papua New Guinea, when you're in the village, if when you're in a place that doesn't have electricity, when there is a full moon, it's a very different day because people are up all night, they take advantage of it, and you've got this light. And um so this the Paramount sheep had died, and so uh we were there for this big ceremony for his for his passing. But it was the happiest funeral I've ever been to in my life. There was music, there was dancing, there was laughing, chickens going off, people had been swimming at three o'clock in the morning. And it was just wild. It was just wild. It was like um it was like it was a celebration of the old man's life, but it was all it was all like he'd passed on all the knights to those behind him. They were just really celebrating it, and it was it was just uh and people in the Trobrian Islands are quite small, and their houses that they sleep in are really small. I think at about three o'clock in the morning, my partner and I were just they said, Oh, look, you know, do you want to go to bed and went and lie down? And my feet are like sticking outside of the house by about a foot and a half. Um people are drinking kind of this Yahwa, this sort of banana-infused kind of liquor that you had to go kind of careful on, uh, eating food out of banana leaves. And um, I got very, very little sleep that night, but it was just um it was just quite amazing. I was it was quite amazing. But the the you know, when I saw that question, there's so many ways, you know. I was with a a friend who started arguing with these people who were trying to hit grease him for a road tax in the Highlands, and he lost his call with them. And I thought, oh, this is not going to end well for any of us. And we ended up having sitting on the side of the road, having a cup of tea with them, and you know, people giving each other hugs and stuff. It was like, you know, uh the 20 minutes before I thought, you know, what we're gone for here. But yeah, I love that Tawema story because I I have pictures in my head of, you know, moonlight through, you know, palm trees and um through the cool ale trees and uh and just and the string band mu the string band music. And there was there was this girl who's so string bands uh halfway through the song, this girl would come in with these impossibly high harmonies, like she's just belting out, and they are higher than I've ever heard anyone sing, and it was something really joyous about it. So that'll be that's my um that'll be my bizarre, my wild experience in PNG.
SPEAKER_01:Troband Islands. So you've wrapped it up beautifully on bizarre experiences. David, thank you so much for joining us on The World Awakes. It's been an absolute joy to disappear for a brief moment to PNG with you.
SPEAKER_02:Thanks, Bunya. I really appreciate that. Thanks.
SPEAKER_00:That was musician David Brighty of Not Drowning Waving, talking about his travels in Papua New Guinea. And we'll put a link to his website and those incredible musical collaborations in the show notes.
SPEAKER_01:You're listening to The World Awaits. Subscribe through our website at thewordawaits.au So we've got five great tips about how to protect your devices on vacation from eSIM provider. Say me about staying smart and taking precautions so that you have got secure mobile connectivity. And a lot of people don't realise that their hotel rooms rooms can be compromised as absolute hotspots for digital threats. So when you are reclining by the pool, your personal data and device could be at threat.
SPEAKER_00:So uh one of the uh main reasons actually, or main um, you know, causes of this is actually the hotel Wi-Fi. So you need to make sure that you protect your connection. So um, while it's convenient, it's not obviously always the easiest, you know, the safest place because it's one of the easiest gateways for hackers. So they can actually just get in pretty easily and exploit the network and um and steal whatever information they want for your Wi-Fi. So the tip is always confirm that, make sure it's the correct network name with the hotel staff, and even better avoid public Wi-Fi. So make sure you're actually using specific hotel Wi-Fi and that it's got a secure um, you know, and affordable internet access.
SPEAKER_01:The next tip, um, which is from Salie, is use uh is is using USB charging ports. They suggest sticking to the socket. So USB ports in hotel rooms, um, you know, often you'll see them above the power um the power areas. They are fantastic for international travelers, but they aren't always safe. So um the ports can be modified and um so that malware is actually transferred to your phone via the USB cable. So it's allowing hackers to, you know, get in, check your passwords, your credit card, your location. So the way around this is to use your own charger, plug it directly into the power socket instead of using the USB outlet. And other ways for extra protection, you could even travel with USB data blocker or um a portable power blank bank instead of charging from the wall.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and this is one that people might not um think about too much. But smart TVs. So smart TVs in the hot hotel rooms are often equipped with you know cameras and mics and and the like. And um, and so therefore they're sometimes poorly secured. So hackers can actually get into them. This is scary. Hackers getting into them and um are eavesdropping and watching and capturing your login details. So um, and it always does surprise me sometimes. Quite often you go to hotels and you see someone's login information still in, still in the system. Uh, and I often think, gosh, you know, I mean, I I personally don't do that. And uh not because I didn't, um, not because I thought that someone was eavesdropping, but um, I don't know, it does just sort of feel like you are just putting yourself up at risk, really, particularly because obviously with these smart TVs, like they're saying. So the way around it is to, like I said, don't sort of log into these apps using your own personal accounts and unplug the TV when it's not in use. And also they even suggest to go as far as covering the camera.
SPEAKER_01:That's really interesting because I was watching a um, you know, an Airbnb, uh, uh, an influencer couple in Perth that had found a camera in their in their Airbnb. So it was even more brazen than that. It wasn't embedded into the TV, which is what they're talking about. Um, but it was just sitting there, and of course they checked out and reported it to Airbnb. I um, you know, I never use the like, you know, Netflix, I never put my Netflix details in only because I can never remember my passwords. So, but you know, sometimes you kind of you go, oh, I can't remember my password. I'll just click on and then I see that the last person is um already is still logged in. So the thing is too, if you go and watch, you know, some little rom com and and they're all about crime, you are totally going to ruin their algorithm as well. So that's always a funny one to um to to think of when you're logging into somebody else's account. Um another word, another thing to keep an eye out for are automatic connections. So most smartphones um you know are set to c to automatically connect to known Wi-Fi networks, but um devices can reconnect without you noticing, even when you're not in the room. So what they suggest is turning off the auto-connect for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and making sure that you've got your firewalls or your or your VPNs up in, you know, making sure that your security apps are up to date and that they are able to launch automatically if you do connect to public networks.
SPEAKER_00:And the last one is about cyber criminal groups, like they actually name one called Dark Hotel, who've apparently been known to target high-profile travelers at luxury hotels. And they have campaigns through emails where they can um, where if you click on the link, I mean, this is obvious, right? We're all we're we're all known not to click on suspicious links on our phones and our in our and our emails. But they're saying that this is um becoming really advanced with these cyber groups, that they're actually um going in and and um sending emails that are really convincing and highly personalized, so that you do click on these things. So don't don't click on any links, obviously, or download attachments if you don't know, particularly when you're on holiday and um and make sure your device is always protected so that yeah, you don't you don't get hacked because who wants to be away on holiday and get uh find out that you know you've been hacked and you've and uh you've had you've lost even more money than the money you've already spent. So um a couple of um a couple of tips there for and we will put a link in the show notes. Next week I'm taking you to Tahiti. I was the only journalist attending Tahiti's first yoga festival, and I'm going to explain why you need to plan a trip to this tropical paradise next year around the event, and also what else there is to do on this beautiful French Polynesian island.
SPEAKER_01:I don't think you need to convince me, Kirsty, but we're looking forward to it, and we would also love it if you followed us on our socials. You'll find us at the World Awaits Podcast on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Or drop us a note. We'd love to hear from our friends. And you can find us at hello at the world of weights.au if you are joy enjoying the episode. Why not give us a rating or a review? That's a wrap for the World of Waits this week. Click to subscribe anywhere you listen to your favorite pods. Thanks for listening. See you next week.
