Highlands Highway commuters will try hard to catch PMVs to travel out of Lae this Christmas.
Eriku's Highlands bus-stop in Lae had families and city workers stranded on Christmas eve as early as 2pm for the "Tulait-Tulait" night ride.
Buses started leaving early during the day with no more Mt Hagen-bound PMVs visible at the bus-stop when PNG Loop visited there at 3pm yesterday.
According to Mark Laki, a route 100 bus driver, people are still standing around at the bus-stop, waiting for buses that will be arriving from Mt Hagen this afternoon to load and return in the night, which has been a tradition during peak periods over the years.
"And buses are charging K70 a passenger, which is K20 more than the usual busfare between the Lae- Mt Hagen route," Laki said.
He said such is usual during the Christmas and New Year periods.
The night passengers find it convenient to connect their journey to other highlands provinces when dropped of in Mt Hagen the next morning.
Picture by Charmaine Yanam TVWan News