I Visited the World’s Newest Country (Coming Soon: Bougainville)

Harry and Kieran fly into Bougainville, an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea 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.
• [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
• Papua New Guinea
• Kieran
• Haggle with a reference price