A day to relax

Today we decided to go to the Madang Visitors Centre, upon Amanda’s recommendation, so we organised with Tommy’s Taxi (though the resort) to get dropped at the Visitors Centre (via a quick trip in town to get some supplies) and picked up later.

The Centre was similar to the museum we visited in Goroka – a lot of artifacts displayed with information boards, and history and stories. It was interesting to read some traditional stories, like about how the garamut drum first came to be used, and to see photos from early contact with German missionaries.

After wandering through the Centre for about 40 minutes, we decided to walk up the street to the Madang Lodge for a drink and a sticky-beak at this alternative hotel. It was lovely, with beautiful gardens, and I loved the canoes hanging from the verandahs of the restaurant, but mum and I privately concluded that our little room on the sea beat the pants off any other accommodation!

After checking out the gift shop and making some choices with Mum for Sam, Doug and Em, Tommy came and picked us up again, dropping Jeremy and I in town for a final checkout of the second-hand clothes shops (got a pair of Living Doll fisherman’s pants for 70 toea!!) and mum back at the resort – strangely, she didn’t want to come bargain-hunting!

Jeremy left for the flight back to Lae around midday, and Mum and I settled back to do some more serious relaxing by the pool…



Iced coffee by the pool

 

It's a hard life being a volunteer, but someone's gotta do it!

And some checking out of the resort artifacts store again, and another round of the Haus Tambaran which was full of craft and artifacts sold by local women. I preferred to buy stuff from here than the resort shop because we knew these women wouldn’t sell much, and it was probably their whole livelihood – so we managed to poke our necks into the Haus most days, coming out with a necklace or something or other each time!

 

The Haus Tambaran - the village-type artefacts market at the Resort, which Mum and I visited most days.

A book each later that night (well, close to) we decided to stroll down to the Haus Win for dinner, picking our usual table on the outer corner. Hmmm… barramundi, crab, steak??? I settled for Madang Giri Giri again (seafood in a coconut curry, served in a coconut shell) while I think Mum chose rack of lamb tonight. Going to be very hard to go back to cooking and washing up!