20/11/2025
Thursday 20th November 2025
Belgian man enjoys ENB village experience
Belgium and Baie are two places that are worlds apart.
Both with very different lifestyles, climates, people, food and different time zones. Everything very different.
Belgium –fast paced. Bright lights and advanced in technology while the latter, laid back, simple, quiet, slow and everything determined by weather.
Both places aligned last week with the arrival of 24-year old Cedric Florus, a graduate in industrial design. He spent a week in Baie – in the Toma valley of Toma LLG in East New Britain province.
Specifically at the Makurakatete Home-Stay and Tours, that offers authentic village life experience. Cedric is the fifth international guest so far, received by this village based tourism setup.
Here you connect with friendly locals, learn traditional skills and culture, explore nature and village life and support sustainable and community based tourism.
Cedric was travelling through South – East Asia and decided to travel to Papua New Guinea. He had no idea at all of what to expect.
He said that other friends of friends of his, who were mostly Australians, recommended PNG.
With no idea at all, on what he was in for, he trusted his gut feeling that he was in for one of the best experiences of his life.
“I really enjoyed by stay. I have been to every continent in the world. I have visited many countries and I can safely say that Toma people are one of the friendliest people I have met so far. They are most welcoming. Everyone is gentle and are ready to say hello and very open and kind to you. This is really, valuable”.
He added that the nature here is paradise and the hills unique.
“I hope you people preserve it for as much as possible for people to see it and enjoy and keep it paradise”.
He said that village life is something, Europeans can learn about.
“I come from a big city in Europe where everything is very fast where you have to be quick to get up and get going. Village life is more easy which I think is where you experience things more thoroughly and spend more time with people around you which I think is more valuable. The slow life is very different from what I am used to but I think we westerners can learn something about it”.
Cedric noticed that meals were quite different stating that Europeans have three different meals in a day but during his stay, noticed that everyone was just eating throughout the day.
“So this is something I had a little difficulty in getting use to but my community provided very good meals for me. I am very happy to the mamas who cooked for me. They did a very good job. I can say that I had a really good experience with trying different organic food”.
His stay also saw him go with people from the community to that garden where he tried some fresh coconuts and some edible nuts.
“I also had the five-corner fruit; we call it the star fruit, which is something I had never had before so it was cool and the experience of just walking into the garden and having anything you want is just incredible. I think this is very valuable. I also went to the bush to catch birds, cockatoos and I think it was really cool. I also visited the New Guinea Club in Rabaul and the Yamamoto Bunker. The fact that these things are still there and you can visit them, I think it is really incredible. You guys living amongst war relics is something very unique and I think a real opportunity lies in it, if you find it, you can really get more tourists to visit because they are very unique”.
He lived in a traditional village hut. No air-condition, electric lights and electric appliances. Just a bed and mosquito net.
“My hut is really nice. I have to say that sometimes during the night, it was quite hot but it was perfect. It had everything I needed. I had a mosquito net and that was all I need,” he said.
Asked if he missed the internet this was what he had to say, “I think my mum misses me, missing the internet more than I miss the internet because I have not called her over a week now. She is texting me on what am doing. I really do not miss the internet. I can live without it. It does not matter to me. However, sometimes a little bit of connection would be nice to contact family and friends to send them a picture but I think that is part of the experience so I love it”.
A very happy Cedric said that spending a week in Toma was an experience he would never forget.
“Generally I would recommend it to other people. I would do it again but I would have to get home because I need to work for some more money. I would do it again in a heartbeat - definitely. My general review would be that I would recommend this village experience to other people. The raw experience of everything that is still untouched here is the main thing that you people are offering – the authenticity of the people and life and the dances, the volcano and the hot springs. It is unique and so close to history”.
He says he was glad to come to Toma - place where he tasted taro and five corner fruits and edible nuts, something he had never tried before. He said he would miss the organic and fresh cucumbers straight from the village gardens.
Caption: Cedric Florus outside his hut during his one week stay at Makurakatete Home-Stay and Tours.
Anyone interested can check more information on www.pngfe.org or email: [email protected] or contact: +675 73285344
