Bougainville

An island region in the South Pacific, part of Papua New Guinea, which fought a civil war over a copper mine, voted overwhelmingly to leave, and is waiting on a parliament in Port Moresby to let it go. Harry goes to find out whether it is about to become a country.

He and Kieran arrive with nothing booked at all — no hotel, no driver, no guide — which is the whole shape of the trip and most of its difficulty.

The independence question

• The referendum was in 2019, and 98% voted for independence.
• It is not enough on its own. The result has to be ratified by a majority vote in the Papua New Guinea parliament, which is what has not happened.
• The obstacle is resources. Harry’s reading: Bougainville has substantial copper and gold, and PNG does not want to lose them.
• The date moves. Harry opens the video saying independence is expected in 2027, and later says the region’s president had hoped for 2025 — which was the year he filmed (from video – unverified; the video gives both dates without reconciling them). His own guess on camera is a few years yet.
• Identity is settled even if the status isn’t. Asked whether they are Papua New Guinean or Bougainvillean, everyone Harry asks says Bougainvillean, and several say they don’t like the mainland government. Locals also use Bogan for themselves, which entertains Harry, who knows the Australian meaning.
• Local confidence varies. Answers to “will it happen” range from 50/50 to 60% to soon, we’re praying for it.

Panguna, and the war

• The Panguna copper mine was, at its peak, the largest in the world on Harry’s account — and it is the reason for everything else on this page.
• Bougainvilleans shut it down themselves. The mine caused severe environmental damage and the income went to multinational corporations rather than to the people living on top of it, so they physically stopped the mining. Harry calls it the world’s first eco-revolution.
• It started a civil war, from 1988 to 1998, which he says took over 20,000 lives and was the worst conflict in the Pacific since the Second World War (from video – unverified).
• The men at the crash site fought in it. One tells Harry he was a young man when it started, that it was very frightening, that all of them fought — and that they won.
• The mine is still there and vast, and is now a viewpoint rather than a working site.

The Yamamoto crash site

The reason for the trip, and the hardest part of it.

• Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto orchestrated the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. In April 1943 the United States shot his aircraft down over Bougainville in Operation Vengeance — a Mitsubishi G4M, the “Betty” — and Harry frames it as one of the turning points of the war.
• The wreckage is in the jungle and nobody signposts it. His driver was not from that area and did not know where it was; there are no directions, because no tourists come.
• The land is owned, and the owners charge. The people whose houses sit across the track asked 350 kina per person — about £70 — and Harry disputed it at length before paying it. See haggle with a reference price for why the argument was unwinnable.
• Their reference price is Japanese. Asked who does come, they say almost nobody except Japanese visitors — which is where the number comes from, and Harry works it out on camera.
• The approach is on foot through the jungle, past scattered fragments of the aircraft, before reaching the main wreckage. Harry believes he is among the first foreign creators to film it.
• Second World War material is scattered around the island generally — tanks and artillery by the roadside. Harry’s aside is that British schooling covered the European war and taught him nothing about the Pacific campaign.

Getting around

• Fly in, then take a boat to the main island; the crossing costs around 15 kina, roughly $3.
• Then it is four hours by road to Arawa, on dirt and mud, and he calls it some of the worst road surface he has driven anywhere.
• A shared vehicle is cheap but slow to leave — it waits until every seat is sold, which can take hours. Private hire is the alternative and the reason the trip is expensive: quotes ran to 1,000 kina (about £200) for that one leg, and Harry settled at 600 one way.
• A 4×4 is not optional. The road was under construction in places, and the cars that survive it are old Toyotas with enormous mileage.
• Nobody is on the roads. Harry and Kieran both remark on how little traffic and how few people they see; the comparison Harry keeps reaching for is Jurassic Park.

What it’s like

• Extremely expensive, and not because of tourist pricing. Harry is explicit that everyone is charged the same and that PNG generally is among the most expensive countries he has visited — hotel and taxi prices comparable to the UK. His explanation is the absence of any tourism infrastructure: no supply, so no competition.
• Almost no tourists at all. A shopkeeper tells him he is the first tourist she has ever seen.
• English is universal, which Harry notes with some relief. He also spends the day using the Tok Pisin for what is your name, which delights everyone he tries it on. Obs: the transcript renders the phrase several different ways, so it is not written out here.
• Betel nut is chewed constantly — so much so that Harry notes people often can’t answer him with their mouths full. His summary of the local diet is bananas and betel nut.
• Everyone carries a machete. Asked why, the answer is safety, and specifically other tribes — roads get blocked in inter-tribal disputes. Harry’s judgement, and the men’s own, is that it is not directed at foreigners.
• Visually the strongest thing in the video: water clear enough to see five metres down, no litter anywhere, and thick jungle. Harry contrasts it directly with the polluted water of more-developed places he has filmed.
• Whether it is ready is a question Harry and Kieran argue about at the mine. Kieran says it is not developed enough to be a country; Harry’s answer is that the criteria for statehood are recognition, a parliament and diplomatic ties, and that nothing in them mentions roads.

Arawa

The main town, and the base for the second day.

• A four-hour drive from the boat landing. Arriving is an achievement in the video; a tropical downpour starts the moment they get out.
• They find a hotel by asking at the door, having booked nothing, and it turns out to have air conditioning and a television — a level of comfort Harry treats as absurd luxury given where they are.
• The pizza is the running joke. Kieran rates it against the pizza on Nauru, which he had previously described as the worst thing he has eaten.
• Roadside markets on the way sell what Harry calls the two Bs — bananas and betel nut — plus coconuts, cooking bananas and local cigarettes, at very small prices.

Harry’s tips

• Take the shared vehicle if you have the time. The private hire is what makes Bougainville expensive, and the only thing you buy with it is not waiting.
• Get a guide from the area, not just a driver. The driver he hired was from elsewhere on the island and could not find the crash site; Harry says on camera, mid-argument, that this is why you get a guide. See travel with a local guide.
• Expect to pay a landowner. Sites in the bush sit on someone’s land, and there is no public-property argument to make.
• Split the payment. Asked to pay the full fee up front, Harry refused on the grounds that he had just met them and they could disappear — and settled on half before and half on return.
• Give something back. Cigarettes go round while the negotiation is running, and his verdict on the men who had just charged him £140 is that they were good people anyway.

Source

• I Visited the World’s Newest Country (Coming Soon: Bougainville) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrniA84e1ik