Moving to PNG

Hi David,
me and my husband living in POM for two years and we enjoy being here.
There are more  great  restaurants , cafe's than before . Quite a lot of choices. 
My husband is working but i am not (used to work before but not in PNG ) , there are the groups on Facebook,such as
1.Expats ladies living in png
2.POM parents (for mothers and children , playing days for children )
and
3. All Nations women group (ANWG) , i am a committee member ,welcome to new members and every month ,we have special event (African days event in this month , next month , Philippina(asian day) ,share culture, guests speakers , tea party etc )
In weekend , I go for diving with Dive center (John and Kiko  run Dive centre ),
if you don't do scuba diving , you can do snorkelling , fishing etc.
And you can hire boat and have picnic in fisherman island  .
Or  hand out with new friends or coworkers at RPYC (Royal papua Yacht club ) or Edge or Naked fish at Harbour side ( behind Oil search building in town ) .
Life is actually not bad..
Safety ??  As long as you don't drive at late night (better not to go out after 11:00 pm in some areas )  , Port moresby seem normal like other cities.
The most important thing is to have a nice unit to live (high security and safe area )
We live in wind ward apartments so we always have  electricity and water (some area have frequency of short of water and blackout )

Anyway if your wife wants to meet new and  good friends ,should join ANWG.
we welcome all expats women ..

best regards,
Tin

Hi Tin,

Thanks for taking the time to reply. It sounds like there are lots of things for us to do in POM and that Lydia will be able to meet new people easily which is reassuring.  We will definitely join the yacht club and check out all the recreational opportunities in POM.

I just received my contract and our housing allowance is K4500 per week, plus utilities and a Haus Meri. I think this is enough for us to find somewhere nice? Do you think that it's realistic?

Thanks heaps,
David

PS I see that you are from Myanmar. We have good friends who are Karen. We are going to miss their cooking very much, especially tea salad and mohinga!

Hi.David..

Haha .you talk about Mohinga...don't worry ,i cook some time so we could invite you when i cook Moinga..

for your home, 4500 kina per week sounds just Ok,,, Pacific palm properties and other great unit are about 6500 kina a week.

There are new and  available flats behind  Ela beach road ( on hills ) ..Now not many  foreigners coming to POM , also new building finished recently in town so the properties market is pretty cold .
So check the good units (between 5000 to 6000 kina ) and then negotiate the price.

With children , i would suggest that better not to live  close to the ground or ground floor  (mosquitos and ants are pretty bad  )

for now .

Welcome to PNG and I could introduce your wife to my friends(they have children  same age )

Hi Tin,

Burmese food is my favourite so we would love to come for dinner of course!

We're visiting POM this weekend to see possible accommodation and pre-schools, etc for the children. My employer is suggesting Era Dorina as they say it is great for families and for meeting other expats, etc. it looks pretty good online and I think the location is good too.

Hopefully we can negotiate a good place within our budget :-)

I will definitely suggest to Lydia to get in touch with you. She's already joined the Facebook groups and everyone is very friendly and welcoming which is good as she's quite nervous about moving!

Thanks,
David

Hi Rusty, my wife and I are Americans living I pom. We were here for 18 months then home and we just got back last week.  Pom is okay.We like it here.  Shopping is good..but prices are kind of high compared to other s.p nations. Safety is always a concern.  Listen to the people here, learn where you can go safety, and make friends of the locks who will open up the local culture to you. We have found out png friends watch out for us closely without limiting us unnecessarily. When you get here feel free to drop us a line and we would show you around to the best Pisces to shop and eat.

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your response and the advice.  I definitely don't want to just live in an expat bubble but also I understand that you can never be complacent about security in POM and always need to be aware.

It's a massive move as you know and both my wife and I will want to meet and build relationships with a wide range of people and learn as much from locals and expats as we can.

Thanks again,
David

Hi Rusty,

Found your thread after doing a Google search.

I'll be moving to Port Moresby in a few months with my husband and my son (he'll be 8/9 months by the time we move).

Looking to connect with people before I move, because like your wife, i'm pretty apprehensive as well.

Dim

Dear Tin,
You sure the rental price is about 5000 kina per week. That is more expensive then Yangon Condo price.  Previous 2 years i am in Yangon and the rental for Condo A at New University Avenue is $2000 per month after that I move to Shwe On Pin at the cost of $800 per month.

Hi Dim,

Our youngest son is about the same age (born last September).  Lydia is slowly coming round to the idea - the expat community seems very friendly and welcoming and there are a lot of mums in the same position.

We have joined a few Facebook groups (POM Parents and Expat Connection in Port Moresby, etc). Check these out if you haven't aleeady. We have asked lots of questions in those groups and have always received helpful responses.

We also went for a visit a couple of weeks ago and while its daunting and a lot different to what we're used to in NZ we can see that it's possible to have a good lifestyle there and to make friends with a lot of like-minded expats.  Plus the weather is great!

If you'd like to get in touch with my wife you can e-mail her at Lydia dot lee at hotmail dot co dot nz.  If sure she will be grateful for another ally/friend when we move over!

All the best,
David

We've just been for a visit to POM  and checked out our accommodation at Era Dorina. It's PGK5000 per week which although sounds crazy is average for decent accommodation believe it or not. Works out to about $100,000 USD per year!