When it comes to hotels, bars and the like Arawa and indeed Bougainville is not exactly eclectic. That is though not to say there are not a few options.
This is what led us to both the Bovotel and Steak Hous (German spelling) on our recent tour of Bougainville.
What the Arawa and what the Bougainville??
I have previously written about Arawa, but in short its the former capital of Bougainville that was destroyed during the war. That means that the current capital is Buka.
Bougainville and indeed its struggle can be be found here, but essentially it may become the newest country in the world. And if it does YPT will be front and centre with tour to Bougainville.
The best hotel in Arawa?
The Bovotel is the best hotel in Arawa and perhaps the whole of Bougainville, although there is some competition in Buka. The rooms here are of the 3 star variety at best, but they do have a small swimming pool.
This may well be the only swimming pool in Bougainville, at least to my knowledge. They also have the Steakhous, or Steak House Restaurant too! This is why our group came here.
The menu at Bovotel
Considering this was supposed to be a steak house the menu here was somewhat eclectic. Yes there was steak and general western food, but also lots of Chinese food as well as even a bunch of Filipino stuff. Sometimes less really is more.
There was also a local set meal which I embarked on. This turned out more use for the photo than that food.
And the food and drink at Bovotel Arawa?
Sadly the steak was a bit of blowout with the concepts of even medium rare seemingly not known in these parts. As in the rest of PNG and indeed Bougainville though they do know how to make chips, which provided popular with would have guessed it chicken.
Really in these parts you cannot go wrong with chickened and chips in these parts, particularly with Maggi as your condiment.
My set local meal was actually really good and consisted of plantain, sweet potato and coconut chicken, a very local dish. Alas I got a side of fries which frankly made it a starch overload, but I have but myself to blame here.
Beer wise they had all the local classics, but also Aussie crap like Castlemaine XXXX, which reminded me of being 15!
So overall not bad, but this still leaves Reasons Cafe as the best restaurant in Bougainville.
Bovotel Arawa Address
QH85+5XM
Section 9,
Arawa
Autonomous Region of Bougainville
Papua New Guinea
This city is small; you really cannot miss it……