Malum Nalu

I'm back home in Lae with my daughter for holidays and also to attend the opening of our Lutheran church building in Laukanu, Salamaua, tomorrow (Sunday).

We arrived yesterday (Friday) on a brand-new PNG Air aircraft from Port Moresby.

Flight delayed and a bumpy and cloudy ride over the Owen Stanley, but we're at home. Thanks to PNG Air for the safe ride on the new ATR home for Christmas.

And the flight continues on to Madang, Wewak and Vanimo...bringing our people home for Christmas...

The mighty Busu River empties into the sea outside Lae.

Descending into Nadzab with the Highlands Highway below and the Saruwaged Range in the background.

How green was the valley...coming in for landing at Nadzab yesterday with the Saruwaged Range in the background...the road below leads on to the Highlands Highway in the middle of this picture...

A lovely bouquet of flowers at our Butibam Village home.

Checking out the local market at Butibam Village.

Bumped into bro Moses "Balance" Philemon along the road and we were reminiscing about our childhood days in the village.Moses was one of the original "BMX Bandits" of Lae in the 1980s.

Sad to see that our main road through the village is gone. To think that back in the 70s and 80s, while growing up here, we had sealed roads and street lights.

Guys, what do you think about this huge Lae melon?

These beautiful flowers planted by Mum are still here to remind us of her - and Dad, Jack my nephew, Alison my big sister, and Hula my wife - this Christmas...although they may be gone...so many precious memories...

It was good to be back home again in Lae the previous weekend, from Dec 2-4 and boy, did I enjoy it.
For me, there's no place like Lae, a town where I was born and bred.
I talked a walk through my old stomping grounds in Top Town and caught up with old friends.
Here is my visit in pictures:

The first person I bumped into was an old schoolmate of my brother David at Lae International High School in the 1980s, Chris Davies, and he thought I was David...another Mangi Lae from the glory days of our town has returned home...Chris is a born and bred Lae boy who did all his primary and high school here...and sad to see it going backwards...

I stayed at Lae City Hotel along 3rd Street, where the food and service was absolutely tops, not to mention the free Wi-Fi.

Brian Bell Plaza behind Lae Main Market...Lae's version of Vision City in Port Moresby..not bad...such developments are long overdue...

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Lae Post Office

3rd Street, Lae, with what used to be the IPI Building in the background.

The new Bank of PNG branch under construction, 3rd Street.

Sign at The City Cafe, Lae City Hotel

Good morning from Lae

Melanesian Hotel along 2nd Street, Lae, is closed for construction of a New look "Melo"

Santa Claus at Food Mart, 7th Street.

7th Street, Lae, where a new shopping complex owned by Papindo is going up where Lae Fish Supply - the most popular fish n chips joint until it burned down in 1995 - used to be.

Bus stop at 8th Street.

Legend of Lae...the Wan Jin Wah shop along 7th Street is still standing...

7th Street Lae, where in the 1980s, all the high school girls and boys would hang around on a Saturday morning.

Lae Police Station along Coronation Drive.

6th Street

The Telikom Building, once the Empire State Building of Lae.

Crowd outside the old Burns Philp store along 4th Street.

Coronation Drive

4th Street, Lae, where Theatre Lae used to be.

The "New IPI Building" along 2nd Street.

Bumped into rugby league legend, Steve Malum of Siassi, outside Food Mart. He's 63 now but looking fit as ever.

This was once-upon-a-time, before mobile phones and Internet came along, one of the busiest spots in Lae where people lined for miles. The public phone booth outside the Lae Post Office is now closed and deserted...a relic of a bygone era...I'm thinking it should become a museum for those who come after us...

These potholes along 3rd Street, Lae, are an eyesore amidst all the concrete roads...just when I thought the infamous "Pothole City" tag was a thing of the past...from past experience, these will grow and spread like a cancer, if unattended to...we don't want to go back to the bad old "Pothole City" days...

Visiting the Lae WWII Memorial at 2nd Street. It was on Sept 16, 1943, that Australia took back Lae from the Japanese. A town with no past has no future. Our history must never be forgotten.