Crash The Wildest Parties In The World In Papua New Guinea

Talk about eye makeup! These wild guys have known the value of bright yellow, feathers and proto-sequin shiny stuff since the Stone Age.

Papua New Guinea, or PNG to friends, is home to hundreds of separate tribal communities, some very small, each with its own customs, traditions and languages – 850 tongues, in fact, and mutually unintelligible.

Barely-explored, PNG is set in the South Pacific Ocean, east of Indonesia and north of Australia. Rugged mountains, swamps, mossy dense rainforests, a long coastline, tiny market villages, volcanic fjords, rainforests and reefs, and truly wild parties. The country beckons with many mysterious species of plants and animals; a huge variety of rats, bats, kangaroo, really big butterflies, whales, manatee and more.

Paradise for photographers, PNG is an ultimate destination for idealistic, inquisitive and energetic travelers eager to explore one of the most fascinating and non-commercial countries on earth.

Headhunting and ritual cannibalism are no longer as popular as they used to be but for this untamed, exotic place, we still heartily suggest travelling with a well-experienced, specialist outfitter such as:

Colorado-based, award-winning Asia Transpacific Journeys offers two “Mt. Hagen Sing-Sing” 14-day trips this August, 2012 when over 100 tribes convene. This could be your only opp to meet the Huli Wigmen and Crocodile People. Call 800-642-2742 or surf to www.asiatranspacific.com.

Chicago-based R. Crusoe & Son. Call 312-980-8000 or 800-585-8555 or surf to: www.rcrusoe.com. In addition to receiving the most artistic brochure in the travel industry, travel to PNG with R. Crusoe and sail aboard either the 106-passenger Orion, or the 100- passenger Orion II, both luxurious, and carrying onboard experts in history, botany, biology, and geology.

Papua-based Trans Niugini Tours – www.pngtours.com gets high marks from my friend Jeannie, a fellow intrepid. Her small group were all thrilled with their trip guided by Greg Stathakis, escort to the intensely curious for 28+ years and still going strong. They got close enough to a group of tribal initiates, a widow in mourning and into the hair-raising 300-tribesmen ‘‘Tumbuna Sing-Sing.”