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Social Profile
Food & Drink: Hotel dining rooms cater for most visitors and menus in main centres are fairly extensive. The more remote the area, the more likely it is that the menus will be basic. However, increasing use is made of fresh local meat, fish, vegetables and fruit, including pineapples, pawpaws, mangoes, passion fruit and bananas. Traditional cuisine of Papua New Guinea is based on root crops such as taro, kaukau and yams, sago and pig (cooked in the earth on traditional feasts). Mumu is a traditional dish combining pork, sweet potatoes, rice and greens. The number of European, Chinese and Indonesian restaurants is rising. Waiter service is usual. Alcohol is readily available and includes Australian and Filipino beers.
Nightlife: Several hotels in Port Moresby have dancing in the evenings and some organise live entertainment. There are two cinemas and one drive-in cinema. The Arts Theatre stages regular performances. The local newspaper advertises programmes. Sing-sings, tribal events on a smaller scale than the biannual festival, are sometimes held.
Shopping: A wide range of crafts is available in shops; alternatively visitors can buy directly from villagers. Favourite buys include local carvings of ceremonial masks and statuettes from Angoram and the Sepik, Buka basketry, arrows, bows and decorated axes, crocodile carvings from the Trobriands, pottery and local art. The many butterfly farms send specimens of unusual species throughout the world. Shopping hours: Mon-Fri 0900-1700, Sat 0900-1300 (some open longer and/or Sunday).
Special Events: National Independence Day and (in some towns) the Chinese New Year are major occasions of celebration. Visitors should not however turn down any chances to go to a sing-sing, a colourful tribal gathering with dancing, singing and chanting. Colourful flower festivals and traditional feasts also take place throughout the year. The following is a selection of events celebrated annually. For further details, contact the Tourism Promotion Authority.
May/Jun Kula Festival. Jun Port Moresby Show. Jun-Aug Yam Harvest Festival, Trobriand Island. Mid-Aug Mount Hagen Festival. Sep Maborosa Festival; Goroka Show; Hiri Maole Festival (coinciding with Independence Day on Sep 16). Oct Madang Festival; Morobe Agricultural Show.
Social Conventions: Papua New Guinea’s culture still includes elements of a primitive lifestyle. There are universities at Lae (which is a University of Technology with a liberal infusion of Europeans and North Americans) and at Port Moresby. Casual clothes are recommended. Informality is the order of the day and although shorts are quite acceptable, beachwear is usually best confined to the beach. In the evenings some hotels expect men to wear long trousers but ties are rare. A long dress is appropriate for women on formal occasions. Tipping: Not customary and discouraged.
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