In one of the least-traveled islands of Papua New Guinea, you can find virginal beaches, expert-grade diving and surfing, back-flip into an emerald river, and feed a class of friendly eels.

The Highlands of PNG is the farming heartland of the country, where produce is grown and flown to the coastal zones.

Here’s a quick look at how Highlanders grow and prepare their food.

The buffalo looked calm even though four of his brothers laid bloodied at his feet. It’s as if it knew that his whole life, all the years of pasture and fattening, was meant for this moment.

There was him and another dozen left to go. This was the burial ceremony of a wealthy person, and in Tana Toraja, a region of Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, the size of a funeral has to correspond to the social status of the deceased.

See full article for photo galley.

And so life ordained that our stay in the inhospitable city of Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea would be associated (and spiced up) by a host without peer: Rob Sajko.

As a developing country, Papua New Guinea has its share of social problems. But here, no one ever goes hungry.

Street food in PNG is depressingly bland, reminding visitors that the country was colonized by the British. You can find grilled beef sausages whose flavour and texture make you think of unspeakable offals. A popular snack is bread flour: a deep-fried ball of dough with a bread centre.

We were escorted from the car by an entourage of village children who heard two white people would be spending the night in their community.

Understand that this is like learning that your neighbours would receive a visit from Madonna for a live performance in their living room.

One of the most striking sights of a town in the Papua New Guinea Highlands is the sheer number of people who seem to be doing nothing in particular.

They mill around storefronts, wander about street corners, sit clustered in markets or bus stations, either playing cards or chewing betel nut.

While we visited the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, a journalist from one of the national newspapers interviewed us. They don’t see many foreigners in that area.

And they really don’t see many backpackers. A lot of locals said we were the first they ever heard of.

The article, reproduced in a blog, talks about our experience in the country, and what needs to change for more budget travellers to see PNG as a viable destination.

When someone dies Highlands of PNG, the village gathers for days in collective mourning, called a haus krai. To attend a funeral, where the bereaved wail loudly and publicly, is a journey that tries one’s body and emotions. That’s what we learned when we were invited to grieve for a man that was recently beheaded. Listen to the report.

We added PNG to our travel itinerary on a whim. After meeting two charming ladies in Fiji, and reading the few scraps of travel info on the country, we had to see it for ourselves.

PNG is known for its incredible diving, surfing, and tribal diversity. But that’s not what attracted us.