BY DAN UGLOW

A CROWD HAD GATHERED around and it was swelling rapidly. There were mostly men, of all ages, with stained red teeth, dark skin, all carrying knifes or machetes.

The women and children stayed on the fringe of the growing melee. Many of them also bore the telltale red mouths. That could mean only one thing — betel nut.

This natural stimulant from the jungle is like an extreme caffeine hit for the locals, and it renders visitors very high, often leading to hallucinations. A man preached the gospel to another crowd, but his was diminishing while ours was growing.

The light from the evening’s low sun had become hazy, filtered by dust that was being kicked up by the drug-fuelled, machete bearing crowd as they grew ever more quizzical of our presence. But this was not a dangerous mob, their red teeth were framed by smiles. There was chatter, fits of laughter and above all, excited talk of dim dims.

Alotau market is not exactly used to receiving visitors, let alone white foreigners, or dimdims as they are called by the locals. Depending on who you ask, the word dimdim either means “man of the horizon”, which sounds somewhat mysterious, or it’s a reference to our white skin.

Either way those who inhabit PNG’s most easterly point, the spectacular natural harbour of Milne Bay where Alotau is the primary town, use it with great affection.

Our group had wandered down from the hotel during the early evening to buy market food. Dishes of dried fish cooked in coconut milk and green vegetables sat next to home-baked breads, deep-fried fishcake patties with noodles and handmade donuts.

The crowd, buoyed by our willingness to try their food, grew ever more friendly. Mischievous boys hungry for a sale claimed they cooked the food that afternoon, only to turn red and giggle when asked what the recipe was.

 Shrieks of laughter from the women and men cut through the evening as the boys stumbled to cobble together an answer. Eventually they too cracked under the pressure and launched into hysterics at being found out.

We talked rugby league — Darren Lockyer and Wayne Bennett were nothing short of heroic to the men. Teams like St George, the Brisbane Broncos and the North Queensland Cowboys were intoned reverently as we spoke.

Word of our dimdim presence and carefree attitude to food had spread and it wasn’t long before a man came forward with his hand buried deep in his pocket. He opened his fist and within the palm of his hand lay six pearls as fine as you might see anywhere in the world. Each one varied in size, but all had the same soft pink tinge and each was perfectly spherical.