Departures (2008–…): Season 3, Episode 6 - Papua New Guinea: Without a Paddle - full transcript
Leaving the islands, the guys head into mainland PNG and drive up into the rugged Highlands with their friend Nick. They travel through Goroka, where they take part in an embarrassing ...
(wheels cogging)
(bright upbeat music)
- [Scott] What appears to be on the map
a pretty small country
has hell of a lot to see.
We're like seeking out as
much adventure as possible.
It's one of those countries
you really have to
want to go there.
This is the kind of place
that guys like Andre
and Justin and I yearn for.
You have all these tribes,
you have all these different people.
You have all this diversity.
It's just nonstop.
Every step of this world trip
has taken us further away from home,
to places we never expected to see.
Two years ago, I would
never have understood
how much this change would change me.
This is why we travel.
This is the reason that we're out here.
(cheerful music)
We've come from the islands,
back to the mainland.
And the idea is to get ourselves
up into that highlands.
(cheerful music)
We've been extremely
fortunate in being able
to hook up with a guy like Nick.
- He's been up for everything.
You know, we've been throwing a lot of
pretty adventurous things at him
and some pretty daring things.
And he's been right there
with us the whole time.
(car tires rumbling)
(bright upbeat music)
There is one tribe that
stands out the most,
of any tribe in the highlands.
And that is the Mud Men.
And exactly what it sounds like.
Guys decked out in mud from head to toe.
- We're riding their element.
This is their village.
This is where it all happens.
- In a way, I guess what we're gonna see
is a bit of a reenactment,
but it's not something that's
really totally dead and gone either.
A lot of tribes up here,
still war quite often.
And they'll still gear
up the same way today.
Head to toe covered in
mud to go to battle.
We've been told that they actually want us
to be involved in it.
So the first time around, we're
gonna watch it, observe it,
and they're gonna teach us how to do it.
- You guys keep saying that
we're gonna be involved in this.
So this is gonna be
really, really interesting.
(enchanted playful music)
Theory in this battle, long time ago,
and as they were fleeing
from this other tribe
they ran through this mud.
And as they got up the
other tribes saw them,
they got freaked out,
and they thought they
were some sort of spirits.
So every time they go into battle
they would cover themselves in mud
because it worked as a way
of scaring people away.
- It's intimidating?
- Yeah.
The very first time these guys
decided to make these masks
and dress up like this and go into battle.
The first enemy that saw them like this
they must've been scared out
of their ever-loving minds.
- [Justin] Are you
ready to get dressed up?
- Not really, but yeah.
- We'll just finish getting dressed up,
and then there'll be a dispute over a pig
from the neighboring village.
And we'll have to go into battle.
(bright upbeat music)
- Come here.
(enchanted playful music)
- I don't wanna use his, am I using his?
I dot wanna use his.
- We're getting geared up here.
- Is there a fresh...
- You gotta boxer or shorts.
- No,
I got this, that's it.
- You're free bowling?
- Hopefully not.
(laughing)
- You guys in wool underwear,
like jockey underwear.
- Yes.
(laughing)
We knew we were gonna get covered in mud,
but we didn't know
we were gonna get stripped
down completely naked.
Austin's like, okay, all
right now stripped down.
I'm like, okay, well where
do you want us to change?
Like, no, no, no, right here.
Right in front of everybody.
- In order to get dressed up in this gear
they're wrapping, you know,
all the important stuff up.
And there's like extra leaves hanging out
and the guy comes over with
a machete and I'm like, ah!
- Justin's putting on his kit.
he's a little bit concerned
they haven't put enough
leaves on the front,
so they organizing extra leaves for him.
- Then started putting on this loincloth,
and where they got the loincloth was,
they got it from another guy
and it was a hot, sunny day.
Everybody was sweating.
I think you get the picture.
- Am I blushy, and I blushy?
I feel like I'm blushy.
- I can see why they would wear the mask.
For me, it's just to hide my shame.
I don't think I'm
intimidating anyone right now.
- Your turn.
- Come on, let's see it.
- Everybody is seeing like I'm funny,
everybody's looking funny.
He's like, why is he new,
he's from this country.
Right now you're in front
of me, looking at us.
- You're right, you're right.
- I's right, yeah?
He's got to do it too, right, see?
- Do we have one more for him?
Otherwise it's an insult to the tradition.
- It looks good with
you, two guys doing it.
It's it's better.
- This will convince him to get ready.
- The intimidation factor arises
once they give you a weapon.
- I got the bow and arrow now.
- Okay, you got the bow and arrow.
- Let's go.
- I'm stripping down, I'm stripping down.
- All right, doing it.
- We're doing it, we're doing it.
- As the mud starts to dry,
it's like thicker skin.
You know, you start to feel
like you have maybe a little bit
of clothes on, not just a
leaf wrapped around your...
How you make it out there, Nick?
(enchanted folk music)
- People pay good money to
get a mud bath like that.
You know, get the full spa treatment.
- Ever since we showed up in your world
we've been rocking it.
- Ah, you guys.
- See just one of us like this.
Maybe not so strong, but because you got
all of these guys around you,
feeling strong now.
No problem, right?
You got your boys with you.
(speaking in foreign language)
the weirdest helmet is very heavy.
It's hurting my neck a little bit.
- That's pretty intimidating.
- Where's your mask voice.
- That's pretty intimidating.
- Where are ya?
- Yeah, I didn't know how
they did battle in this.
You can't even see much.
- I need a package adjustment ASAP.
- That's not my job.
I got your back, but I
don't got your package.
- [Scott] Seeing them is one thing,
but to be one of them is a
completely different story.
Helps break down some of those boundaries
of how uptight we've become.
You fall right into character.
(lighthearted traditional music)
(crowd cheering)
- Heeh! Won the crowd over.
Let's Elvis Presley this crowd up.
There's giving a couple more ass shakes
and we can call it a night.
Let's do simultaneous ass shake, ready?
On three, one, two, three.
(audience cheering)
three, two, one, shake.
(audience cheering)
- All of us was onto something.
- I can't imagine going
into battle like that.
There's way too much ass
shaking in this battle to,
for me to be involved.
- Well, ass shake goes a
long way in this place.
Shaking your ass, nobody dies.
Everybody's like, Aw!
- Well, that's our short
stint as a mud man.
Not so bad.
Kind of forget a boot downstairs.
(bright upbeat music)
Now that we've reached Goroka,
you've seen a bit of the highlands.
We're using Goroka as a staging point
to move on to the Sepik.
- What's the difference
between this one and this one?
This isn't a knife, this isn't a knife.
(knives rattling)
- All right.
Cool, done, next.
- This is why I don't
like shopping with you
because you're just in and out.
I like looking and
browsing and things like.
Why are you so intimidated?
You're the one with two
machete, I only have one.
- We're gonna need some gifts
to bring it to the Sepik with us.
So we're told from Nick that
good gifts are axes and machete.
- I need 20 meters of rope
to tie up Scott and Justin
every time they get annoying.
- Scott, you play guitar, can you?
- No, please.
- Okay, I'll go get another guitar.
- [Scott] Matches, matches, lighter.
- Let's just, say that
again, say it again.
Great harmony.
- Matches, lighter.
Ups
covery,
12th street, that's pretty nice.
- I know, I figured we
get it for the camp songs.
♪ And we're getting supplies ♪
♪ everybody is laughing at me ♪
♪ I'm an idiot ♪
We have a pretty arduous trek ahead of us.
We're heading to the Sepik and...
Sipek, Sepik.
- Sipek,
- Sepik.
Sipik, Sipik.
- Sipik
Going to the Sepik, now
I know what it's called.
we're gonna get dropped off by a plane,
and in the middle of
nowhere and take this river.
- Right now we're in Goroka.
I'm gonna fly out over the
mountain range into the flats,
we're gonna land at Ambunti.
We're gonna follow the
Sepik or Sepik River
as it winds through here.
And we're either gonna
pull out here or here.
Once we get out of there
there's not gonna be any stores.
There's not gonna be any
way to really bail out
or get ahold of anyone or do anything
except float down the river.
- Problems we're gonna run into.
This zone is big for malaria..
16 foot crocs out there, tribal disputes.
We don't even have canoes yet.
We don't really have a
guide set up for us yet.
And also we don't know where to sleep.
Hopefully all these things come together.
- I second everything you just said.
- Are you boys prime to do this?
I mean, tomorrow morning,
we're gonna board a plane.
There's no turning back at that point.
They're gonna drop us off in Ambunti,
And they're gonna be like so long suckers.
See in three days.
- We can pull it off.
- All right, this is three days of food,
actually, probably a lot more than that.
- We should have Oreos.
These are really good.
- Isn't that your supplies for the week?
What are you doing?
I know you said you're
gonna eat all the supplies
so you didn't have to carry them
but I think you were joking.
- That's why we each bought
individual parcels of food.
- We don't even know where
we're staying tomorrow night.
So it's nice to have one
more quiet, peaceful sleep.
And if anything does get
helter-skelter tonight
(machetes gliding)
(bright upbeat music)
- This is gonna be probably
the greatest camping
adventure we've done to date.
- We have all the gear we need,
but there's so many unknowns.
- This plane is gonna
drop us off at Ambunti,
And hopefully we'll find a
dugout canoe at that point.
- The only thing we know for sure
is that this thing is dropping us off,
and this is gonna pick us up about Friday.
(bright upbeat music)
- Normally when you leaves
somewhere, my thought processes
I've got my passport, I've got my wallet.
So nothing else really matters.
I can get to wherever I'm going.
And if I've forgotten
anything, I'll just buy it.
If I forgot a bathing suit, I'll buy it.
If I forgot toothpaste, I'll buy it.
(bright upbeat music)
This is a situation where
once you get out there
until we get picked up on Friday,
we're stuck with whatever we've got.
And so it's a little
bit more nerve wracking.
It's also more nerve-wracking because
we know where we're flying into,
and we know where we're flying out of.
Everything in between,
it's just gonna be a matter
of how are we gonna get there.
(bright upbeat music)
(plane engine roaring)
- This is Ambunti.
We're kind of in the middle of nowhere.
- All right, we'll see ya.
- Take care guys.
- Do you think we bit
off a little bit more
than we could chew, I don't know.
- First we got to get a
boater or going nowhere fast.
- Okay, to hire a boat,
Well, listen anything.
- It sounds like to get to Timbunke
where the planes picking us up.
It take nearly double the time
that we had allotted to get there,
which is quite a big problem.
It's probably best if
we kind of nose around
the town a little bit here
and try to ask a few
people's opinions about it.
(dog barking)
- We're certainly not in
the highlands anymore.
Temperature is right back up.
I forgot what it's like
to be down in the lowland.
- Well, it's better than hell.
(laughing)
- Timbunke is down here.
- Okay.
- And this is Ambunti.
- Okay, we go like 65 kilometers straight.
- Yeah.
- [Nick] 65 straight.
- Probably triple that.
- Double.
- triple it.
- Okay, so it has to be motorized.
- Cause there's gonna be no
way we can paddle down in time
to catch that plane.
Not even close.
- We'll be still paddling
while your flight flies
over at 35,000 feet.
- How much is it gonna cost?
- Motor is 250 per day.
That's the normal hire rate.
- Dry hire, so then now
we have to get fuel.
- How much for one drum?
- One drum is not enough.
- 23 times 44 per gallon.
- 23 times 44, a little shy
of 3000 Kina to do this trip.
- I guess it's expensive.
- Expensive, yes.
- Go to your pocket books.
(bright music)
- I can hear a plane spooling up.
Getting ready to leave us behind.
(plane engine roaring)
Come on.
Chipper up.
We're gonna make it.
We'll make it there no time flat now,
it's just gonna cost a shitload
of petrol fuel, that's all.
- Because we have motorized vehicle.
We're actually gonna cover more grounds.
So therefore we're probably
gonna see a lot more, right?
That thing is so long
you don't have to paddle like six strokes.
You'd be down to where we need
to be 'cause it's so long.
- He's welcome to stern to
the battery, like we're here.
(bright upbeat music)
- Very hot day for canoe expedition.
(bright upbeat music)
- We're lucky that we've been
able to hire a Valentine.
We know that supplies out
here in the Sepik River region
are really limited.
And that includes the
number of boats available
to people like us who
just drop in on a whim.
(bright upbeat music)
- I think if we came
here just the three of us
half of these adventures
would never have happened.
Everything we've pretty much
done is because of Nick.
- His loyalty, his affinity
to Papua New Guinea
is truly amazing.
Despite the fact that six
months ago, his father
although being extremely well-respected
was one of the victims of a fake roadblock
that pulled him over
and they then proceeded
to stone him to death.
Nick's been extremely
strong coming over that
and and being able to
still travel his country
and love every second of it.
(bright upbeat music)
- We didn't really make it to
where you wanted you to go.
We're about 45 minutes short
of when we were supposed to
camp for the first night.
Our problem is that
there's a storm coming in.
We're trying to figure it out
if we should just push
on through the storm
or just make camp here tonight.
- This is the only
halfway connected village
that we're gonna see on the entire trip.
So it was necessary to make a stop here
in order to get fuel.
It might be a wise idea to just stay here
and roll out first thing in the morning.
But if we really want
to make those miles up
then we can move on.
- Choose your own adventure.
Go on page 68 or go back to page 14.
- It's up to you guys.
It doesn't hurt to just push on.
So then the next village will have
a full five hours in the
morning to do whatever you want.
(cheerful music)
- I think we've mutually decided
that it's best to move on.
It's already opened up
behind us, there's blue sky.
So we're already tearing
off the rain gear.
We could be in good shape.
Are you kidding me?
You're awesome.
- Are you kidding, is that real?
- What? let's go, hurry up.
- [Scott] You better not be toying
with a man's emotions like that.
(laughing)
- It's empty, it's empty.
- I wouldn't ask, you don't do that.
Dirty.
- Okay, so it's a agreed.
We must get them back.
- while you're laughing, we're plotting.
Keep laughing and we'll keep bonding.
- So the longer I laugh, the
longer you're gonna plot.
- Oh, yeah.
- Okay.
- Where's the gift for yourself
(Nick laughing)
- [Justin] You're laughing up now.
(cheerful music)
- Hi! How are you?
- I'm fine.
- Your name?
- Cedric.
- Cedric?
- Yeah.
- Scott.
Okay, if we camp here for tonight
it's okay with you?
- Yeah, you're welcome.
- Thank you very much.
(bright guitar music)
- This is home for the night.
- Cedric, do you think there's
gonna be more rain tonight?
- No.
- no, it's done?
- Yeah.
- Perfect.
Right on the water.
Just the light sound of
the slow moving river.
Not a plane, not a truck
or anything to make noise.
I sleep like babies tonight.
(enchanted playful music)
We're walking from a
camp we made last night
to the nearest village.
And apparently there's
a bit of a trading depot
going on today.
- Mainly the trading will
be from the bushland people
with the river people.
- Let's go do some trading, some battery.
(enchanted playful music)
- [Scott] You don't realize
just how many people
can live in an area until
you show up in a market.
This is the one big day a
week where everyone comes in,
people living in the jungle
and meet up with people
along the river to trade
what their specialties are.
- Can we just start ours?
What do you think?
- We're gonna trade
machetes for Ninja stories.
- [Justin] Yeah.
- I don't know if they
have Ninja stories here.
We'll see what they do have.
- Both staff.
I'm awesome with the both stuff.
(bright upbeat music)
- There's a market kind of at its purest.
We're just watching everyone come down
and start trading things.
We really haven't seen any
currency change hands at all.
- [Justin] Maybe the men are out fishing.
Maybe the men are out collecting
all the supplies to trade.
But for the most part every where you look
is just women and children.
- Very little, I think has changed here
in a long, long time.
The only thing that we've seen
happen with real hard currency
is Nick who spent a, what?
50 Foyer to get some coconut.
- Yeah, I'm the only one with coins here.
- I'll show you how to properly open it.
Excuse me, can you, could
you open this quick.
( Scott laughing)
Thank you too.
That's the way.
- That's the way you do it.
You're crushing on it.
Valta, what'd you get?
- I got my little nuts.
- Everybody's been trying
to get us to eat that
and you want to just get it over with?
- No, that's one thing I can't do.
- Can we try some right now?
- Get the skin off, like this.
- Watch, that's the one, okay.
- And then, like this.
- [Justin] And then you just chew it.
- Yup.
- [Scott] Yup.
- And then it whitens your teeth.
- [Scott] Ruby red, right?
- Well, it's a habit.
Just like Americans chew tobacco
Papua New Guineans chew betel nuts.
- (indistinct)
so why do you chew this stuff?
Why do you chew it?
- We don't have toothbrushes and Colgate
or this to brush our teeth.
But you...
- So it's actually brushing your teeth,
helps to brush your teeth.
I got two brushes if you
want I can give to you.
- You see your teeth, see your smile.
See! (laughing)
- Can I spit it out?
- It's not even red enough,
you're not there yet.
- (mumbling)
Anybody else?
Am I the only one?
(bouncy music)
- Almost in the time that
Justin was chewing his betel nut
this entire market
packed up and went home.
It's really been very
little outside influence
on a lot of these people.
And the more we travel
around Papua New Guinea
the more we see that as being true.
They continue to live their
life the way they always have.
It's amazing and a real testament
to just how true they are
to their own traditions and lifestyle,
and how effective their
means and their lifestyle
has always been.
(bouncy music)
- I got a bit of a buzz
off that betel nut.
After I had, I was just
kind of looking around like,
I feel off a little bit, but it's good.
Now I'll have some of the campfire tonight
or something and enjoy it.
Freaked me out.
(bright upbeat music)
- This is what they call a Haus Tambaran.
Traditionally, a village
would build a house like this
strictly for the men and
for the boys to be in.
And the transition of boyhood to manhood.
This one's at least 20,
25 years old, if not more.
So it's due to be rebuilt at some point
'cause it's starting to go.
But as you can see, a lot of carvings
and a lot of ceremonies go on here.
There's amazing totems and paintings.
Even when I'm sitting on is this
elaborately carved crocodile.
They would have had a second level here.
And that's where the boys would stay.
In some cases for a few months
they wouldn't be allowed to
have any presence of women
or look at women until the
whole ceremony was complete.
And on a top they would have
to go through the initiations.
- I noticed you having the markings.
How old were you when
you had the market done?
- 18 years.
- 18?
- 18.
- What would they cut you with, a blade?
- Yes a blade.
It did seem like,
and then they were
putting an oil all over it
so it would scar.
- Wow.
- What does it symbolize?
- Crocodile.
- Crocodile.
That's awesome.
- [Scott] Did your father have this?
- Yeah.
- [Justin] Do you have any sons?
So your son will get the tattoo like you.
- Yep.
- What do we go through
for becoming a man?
- You have your first beard,
that's like sign of
being a man, that's it.
Staying here for six
weeks while you get cut up
for more than an hour with a razor blade
all over your body and
get that oil put into you,
then you're a man.
- So we really don't have anything.
So when did we, when
are we classified men?
We're probably not even men now.
We are still boys.
- Yeah.
(bright upbeat music)
(bouncy music)
This guy's got some items,
he want us to trade some things
he's probably carved himself.
He really has his eye on this machete, so,
and we got two of them.
So, you know,
maybe we'll find a little
souvenir for ourselves.
- We've got three of them.
- We got three.
Well, we need one for practical use.
- Exactly.
(bright upbeat music)
- This guy here has a huge house
for just him and his family.
It's wonderfully large.
(bright upbeat music)
Did you kill this?
- No, my brother in law.
- Your brother-in-law killed.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Oh man!
That's gotta be 40 plus pounds or so.
I can see why they respect
the hell of these animals
on this river.
This is all bone, all the way down.
Like our noses are just some cartilage.
And from his eyes all the way
forward is just solid bone.
One thing they did catch my eye.
Weapon for a weapon.
- which one?
- Slingshot.
Is this yours or is it your son?
- My son's.
- Oh, it's your sons.
Well, nevermind.
- If it's your sons I don't
want him to be mad at me.
- I'll look at something else.
Trade you for this one.
The machete.
Thank you.
This is actual spear.
So, usually it's somewhat of a weapon
and this is obviously a weapon,
but this is, you know,
this is more for decoration,
don't you think that.
The paint he used is all made of clay.
You can see like down here at the pots
that he had mixed over paint
up to make different colors.
So it's 100% authentic from this area.
And the machete I gave to him,
can we used for so many practical uses?
Well, we're finished here
and we're sort of making
our way down the river.
What's down river, we
really, really don't know.
- See you.
- see you.
- Thank you too.
(slow music)
- We just came to a shore
at the edge of a village called Palambei.
And a lot of the villages
are actually set back
from the Sepik River quite a bit.
So that's where we're heading right now,
is actually into the
village proper of Palambei.
We could be a pretty big distance
between this village and the next one.
So we may just have to stay here tonight.
(bright upbeat music)
Here in this village there's
two remaining Haus Tambarans.
There's one down here and
there's another one this way.
And they're both pretty impressive
and relatively decent shape.
- Is beautiful.
this is a very, very beautiful place,
but the combination of the
skeeters and the hot hot sun.
- We just need to toughen up a bit.
- I'm still enjoying it, but
I'm just not enjoying it.
- I think we've decided we're
gonna stay here tonight.
We're gonna have to make up
a lot more miles tomorrow.
We're gonna have to find
one of the leaders or chiefs
of the village and ask permission.
What's the idea with the stones
around this Haus Tambaran?
(speaking in foreign language)
let's hope the other group
cannot listen to what I say.
Because it's a big secret.
So I'll talk to you.
- There are secrets about these rocks
and each clan has their own
secret about certain rocks.
And we're about to find
out what the secret is.
(speaking in foreign language)
- Each of the stone represents
the different clans.
(speaking in foreign language)
- That once they were persons
that changed into stones.
(speaking in foreign language)
- When they went into battle,
they also brought back
their trophies of corpses,
heads, bodies, whatever and
put the blood on the stone.
And also they feed the bodies
or whatever, to the villages
to the pigs, the dogs, the
women, and the children.
And so even today, there
is skulls and bones
underneath the stones.
- Who doesn't know about this?
- All the villages, they don't know.
- The villages don't know.
- The villages don't know the story
only the council knows.
- Why can't the people in
the village know the secret.
- I know my secrets of my clan.
And the people of Bawi clan
know the secret of their
stone, the big ones here.
- There's a respect from
each clan for the stones.
We at least we know one clan secret.
- Yeah, that's right.
- This place was all covered by water.
There were no people.
And we believed that the
crocodile spirit was under
the water swimming around.
And by crocodile throwing his
tail, they build up the soil.
- Now I see why it's so important,
why they have the tattoos
and why they carved...
- Symbolism.
- Yeah, very important.
- You see, the symbolism is a key word.
It is of the crocodile.
- Yeah.
- It is the creator of the Sepik people.
- We have some people that can communicate
with these spirits.
They listen to me.
- Does the spirits think we're okay.
- As long as you listen to me.
- I'm gonna do everything you say,
'cause right now the
mosquitoes aren't bothering me.
They were bothering me before.
Now that I'm listening to you,
mosquitoes aren't bothering me.
Hey, I'm on this guy's side.
- Would it be okay if we sleep
somewhere in the village
area here tonight,
we put our tents up?
- Yes.
- Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
- All I really asked about
was what the stones were.
He was very open to tell
us the secret of his clan.
He just wanted to be very
careful that nobody in his clan
heard the secret.
It's not uncommon when we
walk into villages like this,
that we become the center of attention.
But especially when a
Councilman drags you aside
and starts whispering secrets to you,
there were a lot of sour faces
that were kind of surrounding us.
At least the secret is
safe between you and me.
(bright upbeat music)
- Guys, I just put a order
in for some coconuts.
- That's a really, really
tall tree that he's up.
And then he's really, really young.
And he was up real quick.
(bright upbeat music)
- I think that's one.
You don't wanna get that in the head.
It'll knock you out.
(bright upbeat music)
Tim is a big deal for
us, that's pretty cool.
He's just like, whenever.
(bright upbeat music)
- [Scott] Nature's bottled water.
- Jungle fresh.
- Oh, yeah.
- You don't want to drink this.
You won't like it, trust me.
- It's no good.
- No, it doesn't.
It's not refreshing.
Are you thirsty too?
- Yeah, you left a bit in here.
- That's mostly spit.
(bright upbeat music)
- He just won't seem
to go away, or will he?
Or at least the humidity won't.
- Getting a full hotter.
- We've been given permission to stay here
without anything right now.
But I think if we give a
machete as kind of a gift
for some rainwater,
would be a nice gesture.
We've been treated pretty well, I think.
(bright upbeat music)
- These bags are a lot horrible.
It's just miserable all here.
Just won't stop.
- I the morning, It's kinda like, you know
when your alarm goes off to go to work,
and you're like
I don't wanna get out
from under these blankets
that's kind of same thing
when you wake up here,
the sun comes up and it's beautiful
and everything around you is so peaceful
but you can just see
them all hovering around
the outside of your tent.
- And I thought we are
blessed with the spirits
to stay here but...
maybe they blessed the
mosquitoes a lot more.
- We need to make a couple
of lot of miles today
to try to ensure that we're
gonna still make that flight.
And I just think about it now.
You know, if we had paddled,
there would have been
absolutely no way we would
have come close to making it.
So I know we made the right decision
and we've still been able to stop
and give ourselves more
time to really experience
the Sepik River this way.
(soothing music)
- Westernization and modernization
is having a really tough time
permeating deep into this country.
The amazing thing is that unlike
almost everywhere else in the world,
they didn't accept change.
And there are very,
very few places on earth
that are left like that right now.
And that's why we're so
lucky to be seeing this.
- Lifestyle here is a lot harder
than anything I've ever seen,
but they make it work.
Just goes to show what kind
of people live out here.
There's no power, there's
no TV, there's no radio.
It's just, they live off the land.
You gotta be strong to live in the jungle.
You gotta be strong to
live in the mountains.
You gotta be strong to live in the swamps.
They are a lot tougher than I am.
- [Scott] This how the world began.
Everyone using this
river as their lifeblood.
And hopefully this will stay
the way it is a lot longer
because I think the world
needs a little bit more
of the riverside village, untouched.
(enchanted playful music)
This is the Sago Palm.
Very, very important plant.
These trees are naturally
occurring out here in the Sepik.
There's a process that they can get food
from these enormous palm trees.
And it's actually become a staple
for the diet of people who
live along the Sepik River.
This is just, this is a jungle of it here.
They've taken it down.
They've slit it open.
And now he's just sort of chopping
and mincing it all up
with like a hand tool.
They're gonna collect all this stuff up,
and there's a further
process to somehow turn this
into an edible food.
And this is probably an amazing
source of starch and fiber.
- The process doesn't end at your stomach.
I mean the rest of the
tree is used for the roofs,
for the floors, for the walls.
- The leftover is the bark.
Now that will be used for
the flooring in the houses.
- This is our glue, you can see.
How it comes up.
And if you so sticky, yeah.
You can see.
This is a new cut, so
it is for decoration.
Girls usually use for
dusting resting skirt.
- When you've completed harvesting
one of these Sago trees,
what remains?
- On the floor behind you.
- [Scott] That.
- That's it.
And you could probably
dry that up and burn it.
(bright upbeat music)
All of the inside pulp of
the Sago tree gets brought
piled up, portioned out and
then placed in this chute.
And I keep pouring water over it.
They kind of need the pulp with the water,
and that's pulling out
a sediment and a starch
that gets filtered through.
And then right down into this trough here.
- This is the Sago.
It is prepared now for eating.
When they take it home
they gonna fried it.
They gonna make all
sorts of food with Sago.
And this water, now the
government of Papua New Guinea
want to use this for a fuel now.
- [Scott] And then the leftover pulp,
which they've now extracted the nutrients
and the starch from
gets dried out and can actually
be used as a chicken feed.
So literally there would really be
absolutely nothing left at all.
Everything has gone to some sort of use.
(flutes blowing)
(enchanted traditional music)
- These two flutes,
they used to play them during
the skin cutting ceremony
and when they want to
build a new spirit house.
And after the head hunting days.
(flute blowing)
like that.
(flute blowing)
- What's wrong with your lips?
Stop slobbering on me.
Hang your bottom lip over the hole.
(flute blowing)
(people clapping)
- Like everything else,
it's a bit easier for
them than it is for us.
- All these people cannot play.
This is very hard to.
- I'm a bit dizzy now.
I think you're the better music man.
- He's our flute master.
- The flute master.
(flute blowing)
Every single place that
we go in this country,
completely different.
They speak their own language.
They have their own dance
because they have completely
different environments
to deal with.
Because of that, they've
evolved in different ways.
They've learned how to
live in different ways.
They learn how to celebrate
in different ways.
And yet somehow all of
these hundreds and hundreds
and hundreds of different clans and tribes
all over this country still stay together
as one big country.
(flute blowing)
- The route that travels down the Sepik,
we've seen a lot of kids playing
in the water and sliding,
and we thought that we had so much fun.
There are crocodiles in the
water, but the mosquitoes
and the heat far outweigh
any of that risk at all.
I think this is one of those silly ideas.
(cheerful music)
(water splashing)
- Come on Nick, your turn.
yeah, this is for the beer.
The more he waits longer (indistinct)
- This is the most
refreshing thing we've done
in a long time.
(bright upbeat music)
We're in the last closing door of a world
where you can travel around
and feel like you're an explorer.
That's the kind of
experiences that you can't buy
and that you can't find very
easily on this earth anymore.
(soft music)
It's nice to have that one
country that just shakes you up.
The opportunity is for
you to push yourself
are definitely there.
PnG doesn't give you a chance to relax.
It's absolutely shocking
how much of the country still
remains very traditional.
And it's great.
(enchanted playful music)
This is the initiation that
you are the cultural men of the Sepik.
- This is about the easiest
and the most painless way of doing it.
I will do my best and my
time remaining in the Sepik
to uphold everything that
this tattoo represents.
(speaking in foreign language)
- Tickles. (child laughing)
- Three powerful men now.
- You can fight even the crocodile too,
get into the river.
- When we go in, we
have to have a war cry.
You just scream as loud as you can.
Let me see your war face.
Is here, it is here.
(Scott yells)
Let me see yours.
(laughing)
- That's mine.
- That's horrible.
This is war.
It is like...
- Show him how it's done.
(Justin yells)
- Did you brush your teeth?
I see ya, common I see your war face.
- [Nick] That is my war face.
(Nick yells)
- There you go.
Now, let's do it.
Ready? War face.
One, two, three.
War face, a war face.
- All right, bye.
War face.
That's great, guys.
They are the men now,
they can fight until they die.
No tourists coming around
and Papua New Guinea ever.
It is very interesting for us to see
the people of Canada doing
this in Papua New Guinea.
(slow music)
- The sun is just starting
to come up right now,
we've broken camp and loading
everything back on the boat
because our plane should be showing up in
probably the next hour.
So we've got to get motoring.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
Thank you for staying with me.
We are so happy.
This is the best time that
people from the other country
come to our place and
it is very interesting
and I cannot express with my heart,
but it is thank you for coming.
- Thank you.
- Bye.
- Bye.
- We're outta here.
Come on boys.
Let's go.
Sit, sit, sit, sit, sit inside.
(canoe engine revving)
(bright music)
- How could we have done that any better?
There he comes.
He's banking around.
That's a site for so high.
That's it.
That's the last time we needed
to officially end this Sepik adventure.
- How many times did we miss flights?
- Yeah.
- So this was the one
we did not wanna miss.
- This is one flight we
couldn't miss, period.
- Valentine, we've got
to sing about Valentine.
Thank you so much.
- Thanks so much.
- No problem.
(plane engine roaring)
- Guess what?
There's no mosquitoes in the plane, wow.
(plane engine roaring)
(slow music)
- We just came straight to this country
and it came right back at us.
The trail wasn't marked out for us.
The trail was whatever
we want to make of it.
We lived an adventure
almost every single day.
Those kinds of adventures
that we have to keep doing
and keep pushing ourselves to really feel
that we're doing a
country like that justice.
Once again, we're lucky
enough to get that view
from someone firsthand,
but also as they see it.
Papua New Guinea, took
something away from him
but he still had so much pride for it.
You should feel proud because
this is one hell of a country.
We're on route to Ecuador,
and we just sort of felt like
we hadn't seen enough of South America.
And Ecuador provides
a lot in a small area.
(bright upbeat music)
- [Scott] What appears to be on the map
a pretty small country
has hell of a lot to see.
We're like seeking out as
much adventure as possible.
It's one of those countries
you really have to
want to go there.
This is the kind of place
that guys like Andre
and Justin and I yearn for.
You have all these tribes,
you have all these different people.
You have all this diversity.
It's just nonstop.
Every step of this world trip
has taken us further away from home,
to places we never expected to see.
Two years ago, I would
never have understood
how much this change would change me.
This is why we travel.
This is the reason that we're out here.
(cheerful music)
We've come from the islands,
back to the mainland.
And the idea is to get ourselves
up into that highlands.
(cheerful music)
We've been extremely
fortunate in being able
to hook up with a guy like Nick.
- He's been up for everything.
You know, we've been throwing a lot of
pretty adventurous things at him
and some pretty daring things.
And he's been right there
with us the whole time.
(car tires rumbling)
(bright upbeat music)
There is one tribe that
stands out the most,
of any tribe in the highlands.
And that is the Mud Men.
And exactly what it sounds like.
Guys decked out in mud from head to toe.
- We're riding their element.
This is their village.
This is where it all happens.
- In a way, I guess what we're gonna see
is a bit of a reenactment,
but it's not something that's
really totally dead and gone either.
A lot of tribes up here,
still war quite often.
And they'll still gear
up the same way today.
Head to toe covered in
mud to go to battle.
We've been told that they actually want us
to be involved in it.
So the first time around, we're
gonna watch it, observe it,
and they're gonna teach us how to do it.
- You guys keep saying that
we're gonna be involved in this.
So this is gonna be
really, really interesting.
(enchanted playful music)
Theory in this battle, long time ago,
and as they were fleeing
from this other tribe
they ran through this mud.
And as they got up the
other tribes saw them,
they got freaked out,
and they thought they
were some sort of spirits.
So every time they go into battle
they would cover themselves in mud
because it worked as a way
of scaring people away.
- It's intimidating?
- Yeah.
The very first time these guys
decided to make these masks
and dress up like this and go into battle.
The first enemy that saw them like this
they must've been scared out
of their ever-loving minds.
- [Justin] Are you
ready to get dressed up?
- Not really, but yeah.
- We'll just finish getting dressed up,
and then there'll be a dispute over a pig
from the neighboring village.
And we'll have to go into battle.
(bright upbeat music)
- Come here.
(enchanted playful music)
- I don't wanna use his, am I using his?
I dot wanna use his.
- We're getting geared up here.
- Is there a fresh...
- You gotta boxer or shorts.
- No,
I got this, that's it.
- You're free bowling?
- Hopefully not.
(laughing)
- You guys in wool underwear,
like jockey underwear.
- Yes.
(laughing)
We knew we were gonna get covered in mud,
but we didn't know
we were gonna get stripped
down completely naked.
Austin's like, okay, all
right now stripped down.
I'm like, okay, well where
do you want us to change?
Like, no, no, no, right here.
Right in front of everybody.
- In order to get dressed up in this gear
they're wrapping, you know,
all the important stuff up.
And there's like extra leaves hanging out
and the guy comes over with
a machete and I'm like, ah!
- Justin's putting on his kit.
he's a little bit concerned
they haven't put enough
leaves on the front,
so they organizing extra leaves for him.
- Then started putting on this loincloth,
and where they got the loincloth was,
they got it from another guy
and it was a hot, sunny day.
Everybody was sweating.
I think you get the picture.
- Am I blushy, and I blushy?
I feel like I'm blushy.
- I can see why they would wear the mask.
For me, it's just to hide my shame.
I don't think I'm
intimidating anyone right now.
- Your turn.
- Come on, let's see it.
- Everybody is seeing like I'm funny,
everybody's looking funny.
He's like, why is he new,
he's from this country.
Right now you're in front
of me, looking at us.
- You're right, you're right.
- I's right, yeah?
He's got to do it too, right, see?
- Do we have one more for him?
Otherwise it's an insult to the tradition.
- It looks good with
you, two guys doing it.
It's it's better.
- This will convince him to get ready.
- The intimidation factor arises
once they give you a weapon.
- I got the bow and arrow now.
- Okay, you got the bow and arrow.
- Let's go.
- I'm stripping down, I'm stripping down.
- All right, doing it.
- We're doing it, we're doing it.
- As the mud starts to dry,
it's like thicker skin.
You know, you start to feel
like you have maybe a little bit
of clothes on, not just a
leaf wrapped around your...
How you make it out there, Nick?
(enchanted folk music)
- People pay good money to
get a mud bath like that.
You know, get the full spa treatment.
- Ever since we showed up in your world
we've been rocking it.
- Ah, you guys.
- See just one of us like this.
Maybe not so strong, but because you got
all of these guys around you,
feeling strong now.
No problem, right?
You got your boys with you.
(speaking in foreign language)
the weirdest helmet is very heavy.
It's hurting my neck a little bit.
- That's pretty intimidating.
- Where's your mask voice.
- That's pretty intimidating.
- Where are ya?
- Yeah, I didn't know how
they did battle in this.
You can't even see much.
- I need a package adjustment ASAP.
- That's not my job.
I got your back, but I
don't got your package.
- [Scott] Seeing them is one thing,
but to be one of them is a
completely different story.
Helps break down some of those boundaries
of how uptight we've become.
You fall right into character.
(lighthearted traditional music)
(crowd cheering)
- Heeh! Won the crowd over.
Let's Elvis Presley this crowd up.
There's giving a couple more ass shakes
and we can call it a night.
Let's do simultaneous ass shake, ready?
On three, one, two, three.
(audience cheering)
three, two, one, shake.
(audience cheering)
- All of us was onto something.
- I can't imagine going
into battle like that.
There's way too much ass
shaking in this battle to,
for me to be involved.
- Well, ass shake goes a
long way in this place.
Shaking your ass, nobody dies.
Everybody's like, Aw!
- Well, that's our short
stint as a mud man.
Not so bad.
Kind of forget a boot downstairs.
(bright upbeat music)
Now that we've reached Goroka,
you've seen a bit of the highlands.
We're using Goroka as a staging point
to move on to the Sepik.
- What's the difference
between this one and this one?
This isn't a knife, this isn't a knife.
(knives rattling)
- All right.
Cool, done, next.
- This is why I don't
like shopping with you
because you're just in and out.
I like looking and
browsing and things like.
Why are you so intimidated?
You're the one with two
machete, I only have one.
- We're gonna need some gifts
to bring it to the Sepik with us.
So we're told from Nick that
good gifts are axes and machete.
- I need 20 meters of rope
to tie up Scott and Justin
every time they get annoying.
- Scott, you play guitar, can you?
- No, please.
- Okay, I'll go get another guitar.
- [Scott] Matches, matches, lighter.
- Let's just, say that
again, say it again.
Great harmony.
- Matches, lighter.
Ups
covery,
12th street, that's pretty nice.
- I know, I figured we
get it for the camp songs.
♪ And we're getting supplies ♪
♪ everybody is laughing at me ♪
♪ I'm an idiot ♪
We have a pretty arduous trek ahead of us.
We're heading to the Sepik and...
Sipek, Sepik.
- Sipek,
- Sepik.
Sipik, Sipik.
- Sipik
Going to the Sepik, now
I know what it's called.
we're gonna get dropped off by a plane,
and in the middle of
nowhere and take this river.
- Right now we're in Goroka.
I'm gonna fly out over the
mountain range into the flats,
we're gonna land at Ambunti.
We're gonna follow the
Sepik or Sepik River
as it winds through here.
And we're either gonna
pull out here or here.
Once we get out of there
there's not gonna be any stores.
There's not gonna be any
way to really bail out
or get ahold of anyone or do anything
except float down the river.
- Problems we're gonna run into.
This zone is big for malaria..
16 foot crocs out there, tribal disputes.
We don't even have canoes yet.
We don't really have a
guide set up for us yet.
And also we don't know where to sleep.
Hopefully all these things come together.
- I second everything you just said.
- Are you boys prime to do this?
I mean, tomorrow morning,
we're gonna board a plane.
There's no turning back at that point.
They're gonna drop us off in Ambunti,
And they're gonna be like so long suckers.
See in three days.
- We can pull it off.
- All right, this is three days of food,
actually, probably a lot more than that.
- We should have Oreos.
These are really good.
- Isn't that your supplies for the week?
What are you doing?
I know you said you're
gonna eat all the supplies
so you didn't have to carry them
but I think you were joking.
- That's why we each bought
individual parcels of food.
- We don't even know where
we're staying tomorrow night.
So it's nice to have one
more quiet, peaceful sleep.
And if anything does get
helter-skelter tonight
(machetes gliding)
(bright upbeat music)
- This is gonna be probably
the greatest camping
adventure we've done to date.
- We have all the gear we need,
but there's so many unknowns.
- This plane is gonna
drop us off at Ambunti,
And hopefully we'll find a
dugout canoe at that point.
- The only thing we know for sure
is that this thing is dropping us off,
and this is gonna pick us up about Friday.
(bright upbeat music)
- Normally when you leaves
somewhere, my thought processes
I've got my passport, I've got my wallet.
So nothing else really matters.
I can get to wherever I'm going.
And if I've forgotten
anything, I'll just buy it.
If I forgot a bathing suit, I'll buy it.
If I forgot toothpaste, I'll buy it.
(bright upbeat music)
This is a situation where
once you get out there
until we get picked up on Friday,
we're stuck with whatever we've got.
And so it's a little
bit more nerve wracking.
It's also more nerve-wracking because
we know where we're flying into,
and we know where we're flying out of.
Everything in between,
it's just gonna be a matter
of how are we gonna get there.
(bright upbeat music)
(plane engine roaring)
- This is Ambunti.
We're kind of in the middle of nowhere.
- All right, we'll see ya.
- Take care guys.
- Do you think we bit
off a little bit more
than we could chew, I don't know.
- First we got to get a
boater or going nowhere fast.
- Okay, to hire a boat,
Well, listen anything.
- It sounds like to get to Timbunke
where the planes picking us up.
It take nearly double the time
that we had allotted to get there,
which is quite a big problem.
It's probably best if
we kind of nose around
the town a little bit here
and try to ask a few
people's opinions about it.
(dog barking)
- We're certainly not in
the highlands anymore.
Temperature is right back up.
I forgot what it's like
to be down in the lowland.
- Well, it's better than hell.
(laughing)
- Timbunke is down here.
- Okay.
- And this is Ambunti.
- Okay, we go like 65 kilometers straight.
- Yeah.
- [Nick] 65 straight.
- Probably triple that.
- Double.
- triple it.
- Okay, so it has to be motorized.
- Cause there's gonna be no
way we can paddle down in time
to catch that plane.
Not even close.
- We'll be still paddling
while your flight flies
over at 35,000 feet.
- How much is it gonna cost?
- Motor is 250 per day.
That's the normal hire rate.
- Dry hire, so then now
we have to get fuel.
- How much for one drum?
- One drum is not enough.
- 23 times 44 per gallon.
- 23 times 44, a little shy
of 3000 Kina to do this trip.
- I guess it's expensive.
- Expensive, yes.
- Go to your pocket books.
(bright music)
- I can hear a plane spooling up.
Getting ready to leave us behind.
(plane engine roaring)
Come on.
Chipper up.
We're gonna make it.
We'll make it there no time flat now,
it's just gonna cost a shitload
of petrol fuel, that's all.
- Because we have motorized vehicle.
We're actually gonna cover more grounds.
So therefore we're probably
gonna see a lot more, right?
That thing is so long
you don't have to paddle like six strokes.
You'd be down to where we need
to be 'cause it's so long.
- He's welcome to stern to
the battery, like we're here.
(bright upbeat music)
- Very hot day for canoe expedition.
(bright upbeat music)
- We're lucky that we've been
able to hire a Valentine.
We know that supplies out
here in the Sepik River region
are really limited.
And that includes the
number of boats available
to people like us who
just drop in on a whim.
(bright upbeat music)
- I think if we came
here just the three of us
half of these adventures
would never have happened.
Everything we've pretty much
done is because of Nick.
- His loyalty, his affinity
to Papua New Guinea
is truly amazing.
Despite the fact that six
months ago, his father
although being extremely well-respected
was one of the victims of a fake roadblock
that pulled him over
and they then proceeded
to stone him to death.
Nick's been extremely
strong coming over that
and and being able to
still travel his country
and love every second of it.
(bright upbeat music)
- We didn't really make it to
where you wanted you to go.
We're about 45 minutes short
of when we were supposed to
camp for the first night.
Our problem is that
there's a storm coming in.
We're trying to figure it out
if we should just push
on through the storm
or just make camp here tonight.
- This is the only
halfway connected village
that we're gonna see on the entire trip.
So it was necessary to make a stop here
in order to get fuel.
It might be a wise idea to just stay here
and roll out first thing in the morning.
But if we really want
to make those miles up
then we can move on.
- Choose your own adventure.
Go on page 68 or go back to page 14.
- It's up to you guys.
It doesn't hurt to just push on.
So then the next village will have
a full five hours in the
morning to do whatever you want.
(cheerful music)
- I think we've mutually decided
that it's best to move on.
It's already opened up
behind us, there's blue sky.
So we're already tearing
off the rain gear.
We could be in good shape.
Are you kidding me?
You're awesome.
- Are you kidding, is that real?
- What? let's go, hurry up.
- [Scott] You better not be toying
with a man's emotions like that.
(laughing)
- It's empty, it's empty.
- I wouldn't ask, you don't do that.
Dirty.
- Okay, so it's a agreed.
We must get them back.
- while you're laughing, we're plotting.
Keep laughing and we'll keep bonding.
- So the longer I laugh, the
longer you're gonna plot.
- Oh, yeah.
- Okay.
- Where's the gift for yourself
(Nick laughing)
- [Justin] You're laughing up now.
(cheerful music)
- Hi! How are you?
- I'm fine.
- Your name?
- Cedric.
- Cedric?
- Yeah.
- Scott.
Okay, if we camp here for tonight
it's okay with you?
- Yeah, you're welcome.
- Thank you very much.
(bright guitar music)
- This is home for the night.
- Cedric, do you think there's
gonna be more rain tonight?
- No.
- no, it's done?
- Yeah.
- Perfect.
Right on the water.
Just the light sound of
the slow moving river.
Not a plane, not a truck
or anything to make noise.
I sleep like babies tonight.
(enchanted playful music)
We're walking from a
camp we made last night
to the nearest village.
And apparently there's
a bit of a trading depot
going on today.
- Mainly the trading will
be from the bushland people
with the river people.
- Let's go do some trading, some battery.
(enchanted playful music)
- [Scott] You don't realize
just how many people
can live in an area until
you show up in a market.
This is the one big day a
week where everyone comes in,
people living in the jungle
and meet up with people
along the river to trade
what their specialties are.
- Can we just start ours?
What do you think?
- We're gonna trade
machetes for Ninja stories.
- [Justin] Yeah.
- I don't know if they
have Ninja stories here.
We'll see what they do have.
- Both staff.
I'm awesome with the both stuff.
(bright upbeat music)
- There's a market kind of at its purest.
We're just watching everyone come down
and start trading things.
We really haven't seen any
currency change hands at all.
- [Justin] Maybe the men are out fishing.
Maybe the men are out collecting
all the supplies to trade.
But for the most part every where you look
is just women and children.
- Very little, I think has changed here
in a long, long time.
The only thing that we've seen
happen with real hard currency
is Nick who spent a, what?
50 Foyer to get some coconut.
- Yeah, I'm the only one with coins here.
- I'll show you how to properly open it.
Excuse me, can you, could
you open this quick.
( Scott laughing)
Thank you too.
That's the way.
- That's the way you do it.
You're crushing on it.
Valta, what'd you get?
- I got my little nuts.
- Everybody's been trying
to get us to eat that
and you want to just get it over with?
- No, that's one thing I can't do.
- Can we try some right now?
- Get the skin off, like this.
- Watch, that's the one, okay.
- And then, like this.
- [Justin] And then you just chew it.
- Yup.
- [Scott] Yup.
- And then it whitens your teeth.
- [Scott] Ruby red, right?
- Well, it's a habit.
Just like Americans chew tobacco
Papua New Guineans chew betel nuts.
- (indistinct)
so why do you chew this stuff?
Why do you chew it?
- We don't have toothbrushes and Colgate
or this to brush our teeth.
But you...
- So it's actually brushing your teeth,
helps to brush your teeth.
I got two brushes if you
want I can give to you.
- You see your teeth, see your smile.
See! (laughing)
- Can I spit it out?
- It's not even red enough,
you're not there yet.
- (mumbling)
Anybody else?
Am I the only one?
(bouncy music)
- Almost in the time that
Justin was chewing his betel nut
this entire market
packed up and went home.
It's really been very
little outside influence
on a lot of these people.
And the more we travel
around Papua New Guinea
the more we see that as being true.
They continue to live their
life the way they always have.
It's amazing and a real testament
to just how true they are
to their own traditions and lifestyle,
and how effective their
means and their lifestyle
has always been.
(bouncy music)
- I got a bit of a buzz
off that betel nut.
After I had, I was just
kind of looking around like,
I feel off a little bit, but it's good.
Now I'll have some of the campfire tonight
or something and enjoy it.
Freaked me out.
(bright upbeat music)
- This is what they call a Haus Tambaran.
Traditionally, a village
would build a house like this
strictly for the men and
for the boys to be in.
And the transition of boyhood to manhood.
This one's at least 20,
25 years old, if not more.
So it's due to be rebuilt at some point
'cause it's starting to go.
But as you can see, a lot of carvings
and a lot of ceremonies go on here.
There's amazing totems and paintings.
Even when I'm sitting on is this
elaborately carved crocodile.
They would have had a second level here.
And that's where the boys would stay.
In some cases for a few months
they wouldn't be allowed to
have any presence of women
or look at women until the
whole ceremony was complete.
And on a top they would have
to go through the initiations.
- I noticed you having the markings.
How old were you when
you had the market done?
- 18 years.
- 18?
- 18.
- What would they cut you with, a blade?
- Yes a blade.
It did seem like,
and then they were
putting an oil all over it
so it would scar.
- Wow.
- What does it symbolize?
- Crocodile.
- Crocodile.
That's awesome.
- [Scott] Did your father have this?
- Yeah.
- [Justin] Do you have any sons?
So your son will get the tattoo like you.
- Yep.
- What do we go through
for becoming a man?
- You have your first beard,
that's like sign of
being a man, that's it.
Staying here for six
weeks while you get cut up
for more than an hour with a razor blade
all over your body and
get that oil put into you,
then you're a man.
- So we really don't have anything.
So when did we, when
are we classified men?
We're probably not even men now.
We are still boys.
- Yeah.
(bright upbeat music)
(bouncy music)
This guy's got some items,
he want us to trade some things
he's probably carved himself.
He really has his eye on this machete, so,
and we got two of them.
So, you know,
maybe we'll find a little
souvenir for ourselves.
- We've got three of them.
- We got three.
Well, we need one for practical use.
- Exactly.
(bright upbeat music)
- This guy here has a huge house
for just him and his family.
It's wonderfully large.
(bright upbeat music)
Did you kill this?
- No, my brother in law.
- Your brother-in-law killed.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Oh man!
That's gotta be 40 plus pounds or so.
I can see why they respect
the hell of these animals
on this river.
This is all bone, all the way down.
Like our noses are just some cartilage.
And from his eyes all the way
forward is just solid bone.
One thing they did catch my eye.
Weapon for a weapon.
- which one?
- Slingshot.
Is this yours or is it your son?
- My son's.
- Oh, it's your sons.
Well, nevermind.
- If it's your sons I don't
want him to be mad at me.
- I'll look at something else.
Trade you for this one.
The machete.
Thank you.
This is actual spear.
So, usually it's somewhat of a weapon
and this is obviously a weapon,
but this is, you know,
this is more for decoration,
don't you think that.
The paint he used is all made of clay.
You can see like down here at the pots
that he had mixed over paint
up to make different colors.
So it's 100% authentic from this area.
And the machete I gave to him,
can we used for so many practical uses?
Well, we're finished here
and we're sort of making
our way down the river.
What's down river, we
really, really don't know.
- See you.
- see you.
- Thank you too.
(slow music)
- We just came to a shore
at the edge of a village called Palambei.
And a lot of the villages
are actually set back
from the Sepik River quite a bit.
So that's where we're heading right now,
is actually into the
village proper of Palambei.
We could be a pretty big distance
between this village and the next one.
So we may just have to stay here tonight.
(bright upbeat music)
Here in this village there's
two remaining Haus Tambarans.
There's one down here and
there's another one this way.
And they're both pretty impressive
and relatively decent shape.
- Is beautiful.
this is a very, very beautiful place,
but the combination of the
skeeters and the hot hot sun.
- We just need to toughen up a bit.
- I'm still enjoying it, but
I'm just not enjoying it.
- I think we've decided we're
gonna stay here tonight.
We're gonna have to make up
a lot more miles tomorrow.
We're gonna have to find
one of the leaders or chiefs
of the village and ask permission.
What's the idea with the stones
around this Haus Tambaran?
(speaking in foreign language)
let's hope the other group
cannot listen to what I say.
Because it's a big secret.
So I'll talk to you.
- There are secrets about these rocks
and each clan has their own
secret about certain rocks.
And we're about to find
out what the secret is.
(speaking in foreign language)
- Each of the stone represents
the different clans.
(speaking in foreign language)
- That once they were persons
that changed into stones.
(speaking in foreign language)
- When they went into battle,
they also brought back
their trophies of corpses,
heads, bodies, whatever and
put the blood on the stone.
And also they feed the bodies
or whatever, to the villages
to the pigs, the dogs, the
women, and the children.
And so even today, there
is skulls and bones
underneath the stones.
- Who doesn't know about this?
- All the villages, they don't know.
- The villages don't know.
- The villages don't know the story
only the council knows.
- Why can't the people in
the village know the secret.
- I know my secrets of my clan.
And the people of Bawi clan
know the secret of their
stone, the big ones here.
- There's a respect from
each clan for the stones.
We at least we know one clan secret.
- Yeah, that's right.
- This place was all covered by water.
There were no people.
And we believed that the
crocodile spirit was under
the water swimming around.
And by crocodile throwing his
tail, they build up the soil.
- Now I see why it's so important,
why they have the tattoos
and why they carved...
- Symbolism.
- Yeah, very important.
- You see, the symbolism is a key word.
It is of the crocodile.
- Yeah.
- It is the creator of the Sepik people.
- We have some people that can communicate
with these spirits.
They listen to me.
- Does the spirits think we're okay.
- As long as you listen to me.
- I'm gonna do everything you say,
'cause right now the
mosquitoes aren't bothering me.
They were bothering me before.
Now that I'm listening to you,
mosquitoes aren't bothering me.
Hey, I'm on this guy's side.
- Would it be okay if we sleep
somewhere in the village
area here tonight,
we put our tents up?
- Yes.
- Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
- All I really asked about
was what the stones were.
He was very open to tell
us the secret of his clan.
He just wanted to be very
careful that nobody in his clan
heard the secret.
It's not uncommon when we
walk into villages like this,
that we become the center of attention.
But especially when a
Councilman drags you aside
and starts whispering secrets to you,
there were a lot of sour faces
that were kind of surrounding us.
At least the secret is
safe between you and me.
(bright upbeat music)
- Guys, I just put a order
in for some coconuts.
- That's a really, really
tall tree that he's up.
And then he's really, really young.
And he was up real quick.
(bright upbeat music)
- I think that's one.
You don't wanna get that in the head.
It'll knock you out.
(bright upbeat music)
Tim is a big deal for
us, that's pretty cool.
He's just like, whenever.
(bright upbeat music)
- [Scott] Nature's bottled water.
- Jungle fresh.
- Oh, yeah.
- You don't want to drink this.
You won't like it, trust me.
- It's no good.
- No, it doesn't.
It's not refreshing.
Are you thirsty too?
- Yeah, you left a bit in here.
- That's mostly spit.
(bright upbeat music)
- He just won't seem
to go away, or will he?
Or at least the humidity won't.
- Getting a full hotter.
- We've been given permission to stay here
without anything right now.
But I think if we give a
machete as kind of a gift
for some rainwater,
would be a nice gesture.
We've been treated pretty well, I think.
(bright upbeat music)
- These bags are a lot horrible.
It's just miserable all here.
Just won't stop.
- I the morning, It's kinda like, you know
when your alarm goes off to go to work,
and you're like
I don't wanna get out
from under these blankets
that's kind of same thing
when you wake up here,
the sun comes up and it's beautiful
and everything around you is so peaceful
but you can just see
them all hovering around
the outside of your tent.
- And I thought we are
blessed with the spirits
to stay here but...
maybe they blessed the
mosquitoes a lot more.
- We need to make a couple
of lot of miles today
to try to ensure that we're
gonna still make that flight.
And I just think about it now.
You know, if we had paddled,
there would have been
absolutely no way we would
have come close to making it.
So I know we made the right decision
and we've still been able to stop
and give ourselves more
time to really experience
the Sepik River this way.
(soothing music)
- Westernization and modernization
is having a really tough time
permeating deep into this country.
The amazing thing is that unlike
almost everywhere else in the world,
they didn't accept change.
And there are very,
very few places on earth
that are left like that right now.
And that's why we're so
lucky to be seeing this.
- Lifestyle here is a lot harder
than anything I've ever seen,
but they make it work.
Just goes to show what kind
of people live out here.
There's no power, there's
no TV, there's no radio.
It's just, they live off the land.
You gotta be strong to live in the jungle.
You gotta be strong to
live in the mountains.
You gotta be strong to live in the swamps.
They are a lot tougher than I am.
- [Scott] This how the world began.
Everyone using this
river as their lifeblood.
And hopefully this will stay
the way it is a lot longer
because I think the world
needs a little bit more
of the riverside village, untouched.
(enchanted playful music)
This is the Sago Palm.
Very, very important plant.
These trees are naturally
occurring out here in the Sepik.
There's a process that they can get food
from these enormous palm trees.
And it's actually become a staple
for the diet of people who
live along the Sepik River.
This is just, this is a jungle of it here.
They've taken it down.
They've slit it open.
And now he's just sort of chopping
and mincing it all up
with like a hand tool.
They're gonna collect all this stuff up,
and there's a further
process to somehow turn this
into an edible food.
And this is probably an amazing
source of starch and fiber.
- The process doesn't end at your stomach.
I mean the rest of the
tree is used for the roofs,
for the floors, for the walls.
- The leftover is the bark.
Now that will be used for
the flooring in the houses.
- This is our glue, you can see.
How it comes up.
And if you so sticky, yeah.
You can see.
This is a new cut, so
it is for decoration.
Girls usually use for
dusting resting skirt.
- When you've completed harvesting
one of these Sago trees,
what remains?
- On the floor behind you.
- [Scott] That.
- That's it.
And you could probably
dry that up and burn it.
(bright upbeat music)
All of the inside pulp of
the Sago tree gets brought
piled up, portioned out and
then placed in this chute.
And I keep pouring water over it.
They kind of need the pulp with the water,
and that's pulling out
a sediment and a starch
that gets filtered through.
And then right down into this trough here.
- This is the Sago.
It is prepared now for eating.
When they take it home
they gonna fried it.
They gonna make all
sorts of food with Sago.
And this water, now the
government of Papua New Guinea
want to use this for a fuel now.
- [Scott] And then the leftover pulp,
which they've now extracted the nutrients
and the starch from
gets dried out and can actually
be used as a chicken feed.
So literally there would really be
absolutely nothing left at all.
Everything has gone to some sort of use.
(flutes blowing)
(enchanted traditional music)
- These two flutes,
they used to play them during
the skin cutting ceremony
and when they want to
build a new spirit house.
And after the head hunting days.
(flute blowing)
like that.
(flute blowing)
- What's wrong with your lips?
Stop slobbering on me.
Hang your bottom lip over the hole.
(flute blowing)
(people clapping)
- Like everything else,
it's a bit easier for
them than it is for us.
- All these people cannot play.
This is very hard to.
- I'm a bit dizzy now.
I think you're the better music man.
- He's our flute master.
- The flute master.
(flute blowing)
Every single place that
we go in this country,
completely different.
They speak their own language.
They have their own dance
because they have completely
different environments
to deal with.
Because of that, they've
evolved in different ways.
They've learned how to
live in different ways.
They learn how to celebrate
in different ways.
And yet somehow all of
these hundreds and hundreds
and hundreds of different clans and tribes
all over this country still stay together
as one big country.
(flute blowing)
- The route that travels down the Sepik,
we've seen a lot of kids playing
in the water and sliding,
and we thought that we had so much fun.
There are crocodiles in the
water, but the mosquitoes
and the heat far outweigh
any of that risk at all.
I think this is one of those silly ideas.
(cheerful music)
(water splashing)
- Come on Nick, your turn.
yeah, this is for the beer.
The more he waits longer (indistinct)
- This is the most
refreshing thing we've done
in a long time.
(bright upbeat music)
We're in the last closing door of a world
where you can travel around
and feel like you're an explorer.
That's the kind of
experiences that you can't buy
and that you can't find very
easily on this earth anymore.
(soft music)
It's nice to have that one
country that just shakes you up.
The opportunity is for
you to push yourself
are definitely there.
PnG doesn't give you a chance to relax.
It's absolutely shocking
how much of the country still
remains very traditional.
And it's great.
(enchanted playful music)
This is the initiation that
you are the cultural men of the Sepik.
- This is about the easiest
and the most painless way of doing it.
I will do my best and my
time remaining in the Sepik
to uphold everything that
this tattoo represents.
(speaking in foreign language)
- Tickles. (child laughing)
- Three powerful men now.
- You can fight even the crocodile too,
get into the river.
- When we go in, we
have to have a war cry.
You just scream as loud as you can.
Let me see your war face.
Is here, it is here.
(Scott yells)
Let me see yours.
(laughing)
- That's mine.
- That's horrible.
This is war.
It is like...
- Show him how it's done.
(Justin yells)
- Did you brush your teeth?
I see ya, common I see your war face.
- [Nick] That is my war face.
(Nick yells)
- There you go.
Now, let's do it.
Ready? War face.
One, two, three.
War face, a war face.
- All right, bye.
War face.
That's great, guys.
They are the men now,
they can fight until they die.
No tourists coming around
and Papua New Guinea ever.
It is very interesting for us to see
the people of Canada doing
this in Papua New Guinea.
(slow music)
- The sun is just starting
to come up right now,
we've broken camp and loading
everything back on the boat
because our plane should be showing up in
probably the next hour.
So we've got to get motoring.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
Thank you for staying with me.
We are so happy.
This is the best time that
people from the other country
come to our place and
it is very interesting
and I cannot express with my heart,
but it is thank you for coming.
- Thank you.
- Bye.
- Bye.
- We're outta here.
Come on boys.
Let's go.
Sit, sit, sit, sit, sit inside.
(canoe engine revving)
(bright music)
- How could we have done that any better?
There he comes.
He's banking around.
That's a site for so high.
That's it.
That's the last time we needed
to officially end this Sepik adventure.
- How many times did we miss flights?
- Yeah.
- So this was the one
we did not wanna miss.
- This is one flight we
couldn't miss, period.
- Valentine, we've got
to sing about Valentine.
Thank you so much.
- Thanks so much.
- No problem.
(plane engine roaring)
- Guess what?
There's no mosquitoes in the plane, wow.
(plane engine roaring)
(slow music)
- We just came straight to this country
and it came right back at us.
The trail wasn't marked out for us.
The trail was whatever
we want to make of it.
We lived an adventure
almost every single day.
Those kinds of adventures
that we have to keep doing
and keep pushing ourselves to really feel
that we're doing a
country like that justice.
Once again, we're lucky
enough to get that view
from someone firsthand,
but also as they see it.
Papua New Guinea, took
something away from him
but he still had so much pride for it.
You should feel proud because
this is one hell of a country.
We're on route to Ecuador,
and we just sort of felt like
we hadn't seen enough of South America.
And Ecuador provides
a lot in a small area.