It sure as hell is the people!
Saw on tonights news that the PNG Prime Minister took 5 hrs in the queue to get his vote, and was quoted as saying that somebody had made off with some of the voting papers, or something similar. Sounds like another shambles.
If PNG put it's mind to tourism, the place would be crawling with touristas It has so many natural attributes that it makes you weep to see them missing out on so much. The scuba diving potential around all that old WW2 stuff is enormous. The potential for action tourism is also untouched -from what I read and hear.
Have to think that the 60's may just about have been the best time ever to have been up there. I thought Madang was just about the closest place to paradise you could get in those days. The old raintrees planted by the pre WW1 german colonials were still all intact,creating nice shady streets and houses, and the old Madang Hotel was still very open plan and hospitable. But the very best spot I lived was Kar Kar Island, which in 62 didn't have a live volcano - but we found it was just warm the day we all climbed down into the crater. JC - we never gave it a thought that the thing might blow, even tho' we could see manum Is blowing its top out of the living room window.
It was a great few years.
cheers