--- type: Video title: "I Visited the World's Newest Country (Coming Soon: Bougainville)" description: Nothing booked, a boat, four hours of mud to Arawa, the copper mine that started a civil war, and £140 to be led through the jungle to Admiral Yamamoto's crashed aircraft. tags: [papua-new-guinea, bougainville, independence, mining, world-war-two, haggling, expensive, oceania] timestamp: 2026-08-05T19:30:00Z resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrniA84e1ik video_id: YrniA84e1ik upload_date: 2025-03-20 duration: 2411 --- # I Visited the World's Newest Country (Coming Soon: Bougainville) Harry and [Kieran](/people/kieran.md) fly into [Bougainville](/places/bougainville.md), an autonomous region of [Papua New Guinea](/countries/papua-new-guinea.md) that voted 98% for independence in 2019 and is waiting for a parliament in Port Moresby to ratify it. They arrive having booked nothing at all — no hotel, no driver, no guide — which is stated as the method and turns out to be the story. Two things happen. The first is the journey itself: a boat, then four hours of dirt road to Arawa in a hired 4×4, past the Panguna copper mine that Bougainville shut down and fought a ten-year civil war over. The second is the search for the wreckage of Admiral Yamamoto's aircraft, shot down here in 1943 — which nobody signposts, which Harry's driver cannot find, and which ends in a long, losing negotiation with the people whose land it sits on. *Obs: the video carries a read-aloud eSIM sponsorship at [15:23] and a travel debit card link in the description. Neither provider is recorded here.* ## Key moments - [00:00] **The premise**: the newest country in the world, hopefully in 2027. Civil war 1988–1998 over land and resources; independence referendum in 2019. - [00:35] **Why he came** — the crash site of the aircraft carrying the admiral who orchestrated Pearl Harbor. - [01:08] **Nothing is booked.** No hotels, no drivers, no guide, stated to camera as the plan. - [02:19] A stranger at the airport helps them find the boat, having established that they have no guide and no plan. - [02:56] **The boat crossing costs 15 kina**, about $3. - [04:09] **The water is clear to the bottom and there is no litter anywhere** — the observation he keeps returning to. - [05:28] Everyone speaks English, which he notes with relief; he spends the rest of the day using the Tok Pisin for *what is your name* instead. - [06:42] **Will Bougainville become a country?** Answers range from 50/50 to 60% to *soon, we're praying for it*. - [07:12] **The transport problem, priced.** A shared vehicle is cheap but leaves only when every seat is sold; private hire is quoted at 1,000 kina — about £200 — for one four-hour leg. - [08:13] **Settled at 600 kina one way**, betel nut included, after a hard negotiation he suspects he still lost. - [10:20] **A shopkeeper tells him he is the first tourist she has ever seen.** - [11:31] The drive begins: dirt, mud and a 4×4 with over 200,000 miles on it. - [13:13] **Why it's expensive**, in his own analysis: no tourism infrastructure, so no supply and no competition — and he is clear that this isn't a tourist price, it's the price. - [13:43] Papua New Guinea generally as one of the most expensive countries he has been to, at UK prices, and his open question about where the money goes. - [14:20] **The driver identifies as Bougainvillean, not Papua New Guinean**, and doesn't like the mainland — the answer Harry gets from everyone. - [14:53] **The referendum was 98% for independence**, and the obstacle is resources: copper and gold that PNG does not want to lose. - [16:31] **Everyone is carrying a machete.** The reason given is other tribes and blocked roads, not foreigners. - [17:36] A roadside market halfway: coconuts, cooking bananas, local cigarettes — and betel nut, which with bananas he calls the two Bs. - [20:08] **Arawa**, four hours on, in a downpour. They find a hotel by asking at the door and it has air conditioning. - [21:17] **The pizza**, rated against the pizza on [Nauru](/countries/nauru.md). - [22:30] **The Panguna copper mine** — the largest in the world at its peak, on Harry's account. - [23:06] **What happened here**: locals shut the mine down over environmental damage and money going to multinationals, which started a civil war that took over 20,000 lives — the worst Pacific conflict since the Second World War. - [24:07] Independence still needs a PNG parliamentary majority; the region's president had hoped for 2025. - [24:39] **Is it ready to be a country?** Kieran says it isn't developed enough; Harry's answer is that statehood requires recognition, a parliament and diplomatic ties, and says nothing about roads. - [25:45] Roadside tanks and artillery, and his aside about being taught the European war and nothing about the Pacific. - [26:49] **The driver doesn't know where the crash site is** — he isn't from that area, and nothing is signposted. - [27:29] **350 kina per person** to pass, about £70 each, from the people whose houses block the track. - [29:14] **"They've got knives, so I'm probably not in the best bargaining position here."** He tries the public-property argument, realises he has no idea who owns the land, and stops. - [30:25] The counter-offers fail and he pays the asking price. - [30:55] **He refuses to pay it all up front** — because he has just met them and they could disappear — and settles on half now, half on return. - [32:35] Cigarettes go round while it's being settled. - [33:49] **Their reference price is Japanese visitors**, who are the only people who come. Harry works out on camera where the number came from. - [34:32] **£140 total, about $170, to see one aircraft.** - [35:41] Fragments in the undergrowth first, then the wreckage itself. - [36:55] **One of the men fought in the civil war**, from 1989, as a young man — and says all of them did, and that they won. - [37:28] His summary of the men who had just charged him £140: they may have scammed him, but they're good people — and he notes he doesn't often say that. - [37:55] **The aircraft.** Yamamoto, Pearl Harbor in 1941, Operation Vengeance in April 1943, and Harry's verdict that it was worth it. ## Pages from this video - [Bougainville](/places/bougainville.md) - [Papua New Guinea](/countries/papua-new-guinea.md) - [Kieran](/people/kieran.md) - [Haggle with a reference price](/tips/haggle-with-a-reference-price.md)