I only spent a week in this country, but I’m just going to go ahead and assume it’s always blazing hot. While I was there I met this tribesman and we had a hard time having a discussion. Initially, I told him I thought he looked awesome and I liked all the decor. He sort of nodded as if he understood what I was saying. And then I said he looked pretty fit and asked him if he worked out…He was a bit more confused by this question.
Remember that this blog has different categories for different spots all around the world. Some of my craziest pictures are from Papua New Guinea, so search that category now! And remember at the bottom you can click “Next” to go to the next page full.
Daily Photo – And I thought I was hot at Burning Man
Okay, I saw a lot of crazy outfits here in Papua New Guinea, but none as cumbersome as this. It must have been 100 degrees outside, and all of a sudden, I saw this tribe emerge, all wearing this outfit. I don’t know what to call it. I suppose if Chewbacca had an afro, it would look like this? I don’t know if that is an apt way of putting it, but you get the idea. I really doubt these things “breathed” like a thin layer of Marino wool, either.
I have been listening, on the advice of my friend Cliff Baise, to this deep trance meditation music. It’s amazing! There are a ton to choose from on YouTube. Here’s the one I’m listening to as I write this post.
Daily Photo – Pre-teen Angst in Papua New Guinea
I’d really enjoy going back to PNG (that’s what ppl call it) and spend more time taking photos of the kids. They dress and and are made up the same way as everyone else in the tribe… so they are like miniature versions of the adults. One thing is for sure. All these kids looked tough as nails.
I came across this amazing List of Rooftop Bars in Hong Kong. I marked most of them on my personal map and will see how many I can visit and photograph while there. If you like city-photography, these are often some of the best places to go take photos!
There’s a game called Bar Golf where you go out with your friends and have a golf-scorecard. You start at Bar #1 and the oldest person picks the first drink for everyone (like Champagne, for example). The number of sips it takes you to finish is your score for that hole. Then you go to Bar #2 (Hole #2) and the next oldest person chooses the next drink. And then I assume you see how the rest of the golf game plays out. I’ve never tried it, I can’t imagine finishing the front 9.
Daily Photo – Papua New Guinea Face Paint
Speaking of rooftop bars in Hong Kong, here is a gentleman from Papua New Guinea. I’d love to get back there with my new Sony setup. I think I could be even more productive. If I recall, I was using a Leica lens here which required a bit of manual focus time. I’m pretty fast, but not nearly as fast as Auto-focus. I missed a few little expressions here and there that I would have liked to nab.
Sometimes I’m a fan of getting a local guide, and sometimes I am not. In the case of Papua New Guinea, you should DEFINITELY get a local guide. Otherwise, you may literally get killed.
Here’s a really cool map I found on Etsy. This is a link to Conquest Maps on Etsy.
All kids like to dress up a bit, eh? And a bit of face painting? It comes with the territory, so to speak, down here in Papua New Guinea. All members of the tribe paint and festoon themselves in the exact same manner, from child to adult. There may be a few variations in the decorations for the adults, but I could not see them.
I saw all kinds of natives in various costumes, but none as hot as this. To me, they look like some kind of Rastafarian Chewbaccas. It’s kind of like Chewie+Dreadlocks, eh? And it was absolutely sweltering outside. I was dressed in my Albert Schweitzer cargo shorts (not sure if he wore shorts, but if he did, he’d be wearing these) with a light t-shirt, and I was just dripping in sweat. I can’t imagine what these guys felt like in these walking carpets.
Sometimes I make strange cultural references and send people to Wikipedia… but this time, I figure why not embed it? Today’s tribe was so interesting, I thought you might like to see the history without having to jump out!
Legend is that they were defeated by an enemy tribe and forced to flee into the Asaro River. They waited until dusk before attempting to escape. The enemy saw them rise from the muddy banks covered in mud and thought they were spirits. Most tribes in Papua New Guinea are very afraid of spirits, so the enemy fled in fear, and the Asaro escaped.
They then went into the village to see what had happened, not knowing the enemy tribesmen were still there. The enemy were so terrified they ran back to their village and held a special ceremony to ward off the spirits.
The mudmen could not cover their faces because legends say that the people of Papua New Guinea thought that the mud from the Asaro river was poisonous. So instead of covering their faces with this alleged poison, they made masks from pebbles that they heated and water from the waterfall.
The masks have unusual designs, such as long or very short ears either going down to the chin or sticking up at the top, long joined eyebrows attached to the top of the ears, horns and sideways mouths.
Daily Photo – The Mudmen in Papua New Guinea
I’m really thinking about going back to Papua New Guinea and taking some photo-friends. If you’re interested, get on our Newsletter. Note we’ll have to have you sign wavers out the wazoo. It’s not the safest place in the world… but the photography there is amazing. You can visit the Papua New Guinea category here on the site if you want to see more photos.
We’re soon to announce 10 Photo Walks across Europe! Note these are all free events with great prizes… very family friendly and all cameras are welcome, from mobile phones to DSLRs. We have great prizes, all kinds of tips and tricks, and more! Want to find out first where we are going? Sign up for our Newsletter at www.StuckInCustoms.com/news
The only 1 of 10 cities we have announced is Lisbon, Portugal. That’s where we’re getting started with our tour bus for our trek across Europe! I’ll be there with the whole crew and it’s gonna be amazing. We’re actually doing that Lisbon photo walk right after our workshop there in Portugal at the Portugal Photo Adventure Page.
Anyhoo, here is the highlight video for our photo walks across the USA. Thanks again to everyone that came out for that one. This time, we’ll be doing even more Facebook Live and other online events so people can join us from all around the world even if you can’t join us in Europe.
Advice in Goroka
If you head to Papua New Guinea, you should REALLY go with a tour group or professional tour operator. I don’t usually like doing official “tours,” but it’s such a wild place that you really need some local expertise.
Daily Photo – Child in Goroka
It’s great shooting all the grownups, but the kids are even more awesome! After seeing this, it made me think I really should have done more of this.
I’ll tell you a quick story about Goroka. This is a ROUGH place… no hotels… I ended up staying in a pseudo-military compound with a bunch of rough old diamond miners. There was this one guy that ran the biggest coal mine – he was from South Africa – we would drink every night at the bar together. He had this GIANT brass pipe he would carry around. I finally asked him what is the purpose of the pipe, and he said it was so that he could hit natives in the chest if they didn’t do what he said. I was like HOLY SHIT DUDE.
We’re always making small changes to the blog. We have a couple of really fun ones coming, so get ready for those. As always, please let us know if you have any problems or issues with the blog — constantly trying to improve it! 🙂
Daily Photo – Family time in Papua New Guinea
One thing I didn’t expect to see in PNG was all the families that were dressed up together. I suppose because it is such an on-edge place that I would only see grownups. But entire families were not rare to find. Babies, teenagers, grandparents, and everyone in tow, all in the same costuming as the rest of their tribe
I’ve always seen this acronym when referring to a travel destination, and it wasn’t until I got there did I realize that it stands for Papua New Guinea! I’ve posted a lot of photos from here before, but here’s a few new ones from some of the amazing tribes there.
Daily Photo – Making friends on Papua New Guinea
And here’s another one of my favorites. Whenever I re-visit and work on these photos, it reminds me I need to take more people photos, eh?
I love how the mudman here has a little statue of himself. He really pulls it off too.
