2013-07-17

Samoa 2006 - Samoa Western, Samoa

Samoa Western, Samoa

Wed 18th Oct
Sydney Airport is an untidy place, not like tiny Adelaide Airport. We had to catch a bus to the International terminal because the domestic terminal is so far away. We were hungry so we had lunch – Sushi, would you believe! It wasn’t the best and I actually felt sick after and think I had a minor bout of food poisoning combined with flying nerves. I felt better after about an hour and could force myself to get on the next plane. Phil has hired a DVD player and is watching animated movies. At the moment, we are flying over the Pacific Ocean and it is slowly getting dark. We have already changed the time on our watches to Samoan time. It is now 9.00pm but back in Adelaide it would still be 5.33pm.

Still Wed 18th Oct
We arrived at 1.15am still on Wed because we flew over the date line. There was no one there to greet us, but a kind Samoan taxi driver took us to Apia to our hotel and charged Green Turtle for the cab fare.Traffic sure starts early around here, with roosters crowing about 3.00am and cars hitting peak hour at about 5.00am. It is definitely humid here and The Outrigger looks very nice.

We are having breakfast at the moment, bananas, mangoes, pawpaw, coconut, toast and coffee. Yum! After breakfast, we walked down to the main town of Apia, - about 20mins walk. It is a very busy place and quite hard to cross the road, especially if you keep looking the wrong way, because here the traffic drives on the right hand side of the road.

The flea market was an amazing colourful sight with rows and rows of brightly coloured lava lavas, shirts, shell ornaments, jewelry, and wood carvings. Nearly every stall seems to sell the same products, I’m not sure how they all survive.

The next stop was the Apia mall where we had lunch in a place called Cuppuccino Vineyard.
The food was excellent, Caesar salad and Teriyaki chicken salad, and our first Vailima Beer – Very nice!

The walk back from town was a lot harder because we bought water and beer and had to walk uphill! After we got back, it started to rain heavily. One of the guests told us where we could get tea a few blocks away. We borrowed the hotels umbrellas and walking in the downpour was wonderful.

The place was called Giordanos Pizzeria. The food was fantastic and not at all what I would have expected from a pizza place in a hot humid place. The seafood salad that I had was made of completely fresh ingredients and cooked by an accomplished chef, and Phil’s pasta carbonara was wonderful. After only a few hours sleep the night before, we decided to have an early night.

Thurs 19th Oct
Breakfast at 8.00am, mmm bananas again and all the other fruits with toast and coffee. After a quick lesson in lava lava tying, we walked down to Apia again. As we walked along a road, a Samoan called us over to his fale because he wanted to show us his sound system which he had wired up in the roof of the fale. He was quite drunk and obviously bored and very talkative. We had a bit of trouble understanding him but we got the picture. His name was Vata, and he wanted us to sit in the fale and listen to music with him, which was ok until he took the nice samoan music off and played Julio Englesius – yuk! He kept shaking our hands and saying “Don’t worry”. He wanted his photo taken with me and then he took a photo of Phil and I. By the look on Phil’s face you could see that he was worried that Vata was about to run off with the camera any second now, but we realized later that the samoans are some of the most honest and trustworthy people that we have ever met.

After we extracted ourselves from Vata, about 15mins later, we walked on to the flea market again and had a much needed coffee and iced coffee in the other café in the mall called The Sydney
Side Café. It was time to do more exploring and we tried to find the Marketi Fou – food market.

We never made it because it started raining – and I mean raining!! We stood under a shop front for ages and then realized it wasn’t going to stop so we walked back to the main street for lunch
at 2.00pm. We got soaked but who cares when it is hot. Luckily the backpacks were waterproof!

We had lunch at the Cuppaccino Vineyard. The food was great and costs about half as much as it does in Australia. The rain had eased off a little so we slowly walked back browsing along the way,
making sure we didn’t walk in front of Vata’s fale, so we took another road.
By the time we got back we were exhausted, so we both had a sleep before going out to Giordanos again for the same meal as the night before because it was so good.

Fri 20th Oct
Breakfast was between 7am and 9am and we usually made it by 8.30am. We were determined to see the food market this time so we set off down the road again. It felt very warm because it was
sunnier today. You could see where the torrents of water came through the streets and houses after all the rain last night. The market was fantastic with fruit and vegetables as far as the eye can see!

The massive shed was absolutely spotless with no rubbish on the floors and no rotten veg or fruit in sight.There were coke bottles with coconut oil and some with sea slug innards, and cups full of coco mata – pure chocolate.

We came across a very persistent samoan woman who tried to sell us everything. We weren’t sure whether she was the full quid or just acting but it took us a while to lose her in the crowds. People were walking around drinking coconut juice so I thought I would try some too. The coconuts are stored on ice, and the woman chops the top off and puts a straw in for you to drink. Only the young coconuts are used and the juice is sweet and slightly effervescent.

After the market, we went to the internet café, spent a lot of time setting up a new account to write to the kids, which was a waste of time anyway because the connection is so slow and one of the towers had got hit by lightning.

Time for lunch and this time at the Sydney Side Café. The food was great here too, real tuna with salad and chilli chicken salad, with the compulsory iced coffee. After lunch, we had another look at the flea market and the bus depot behind, now that it wasn’t raining. Samoan women were sitting asleep in the bus seats because they don’t leave the depot until they’re full.

We then walked down Beach Rd to the samoan museum. It was a two storey wooden building built by the Germans at the time of German occupation in the 1920’s. There are many beautifully
preserved artifacts and the history of Samoa is well documented.

After the museum, we walked further east, past the harbour and to Palolo Deep Marine Reserve. It was a great spot for snorkeling, but we didn’t have our gear with us so we decided to come back here if we had time after. It was starting to get late, and after walking about 10km we thought that a taxi would be the easier option rather than walking up that steep hill again. The fare was only $2.50! Phil had a swim and I wrote in the diary while we shared a nice cold beer- nice!

After a shower, we caught another taxi into town because it was our last night here before we moved around the island with Green Turtle Tours. We ate at a restaurant called Sails which was well documented in The Lonely Planets book. The building was a ramshackle building from the outside, but when you walked upstairs the interior looked expensive, - and it was, but the food was good. We sat on an upstairs balcony overlooking Apia harbour and watching a never ending parade of taxis and cars with neon lights and woofers going past. There are not many road rules here and no-one wears seatbelts and the back of utes are full of people because it is the coolest
place to sit, including grannies and young children.

After dinner, we decided to walk back to the hotel, moving quickly and quietly past Vata’s place. We were almost back when a pack of five dogs came running out of a yard which happens all the time, but at night they seem to be more territorial. Two dogs bit Phil, one on each leg, and it wasn’t until we were back that I saw the blood running down his legs. We got antiseptic cream from the front desk, hopefully that will do the trick.

Sat 21st Oct
We had to get up early to pack before breakfast and be ready to leave by 8.00am. Disaster strikes, Phil has an attack of diahhrea and the onset of an earache with a fever. The mini bus arrived at 8.15am and we were hoping to make it to the next toilet in time.
The driver Jack was a friendly, animated samoan ex-rugby player who had played for Italy
for three years would you believe! He told us all about the fascinating history of the places we drove past. Our first stop was Falefa Falls, we all piled out of the bus and took photos. There were three other couples on the bus. One couple was going to the same place where we were going. A NZgirl and Czech man.

The next stop was Piula Cave Pool. It was a lava tube which ran under a Methodist church. Luckily this place had toilets – say no more! The water was a beautiful clear blue fresh water pool with a few fish swimming around. The locals also come here to swim and cool off. The villages we drove through were beautiful, with flowers everywhere, all very tidy with no leaves on the ground as they are always picked up first thing every morning.

We were dropped off at a tiny wharf with the other couple, and the bus continued on its daily trip around the mainland. The boat that was meant to take us to the small island Namu’a wasn’t there yet and Phil was starting to get desperate again, in fact he was in agony. Finally a small tinny came to pick us up, but we had to wade out a fair distance because of the shallow water.

The island of Namu’a is beautiful surrounded by clear blue water with about 8 fale dotted along the shore. The woman running the place was not the friendliest hostess, but she told us after that she had trouble getting paid from Green Turtle for the people who stay there. She also has a problem with her cousin who also runs the place when she is looking after her ailing father. We were stunned to learn that she has never been to Savai’i and never leaves home for very long.

We get three ample meals a day with no choices so if we don’t like the food the three friendly dogs on the island get it. Lunch was fish balls with cooked tomato salsa, rice and pumpkin and a drink of coconut juice.

We drew the short straw when it came to the weather because it rained and was overcast all the time – bugga. We went for a swim after lunch but the weather got too stormy so we came back in again. Phil’s ear got worse and his stomach cramps still hadn’t stopped. It was time for an afternoon nap. Tea time was chicken curry, rice and lemongrass tea.

Sun 22nd Oct
We were rudely awoken by the breakfast drum at 6.15am – great! We were fed early so they could leave the island, probably to go to church. Breakfast consisted of pawpaw soup and savoury scrambled eggs with biscuits – looked like sayo biscuits but tasted different, and most important, a cup of coffee.

It has been raining non-stop so there is not much to do except write and rest. I can see umu fires everywhere on the mainland because Sunday is feast day. It looks like the island has run out of water – hard to imagine with the amount of rain we are getting. We couldn’t have showers so we had to wash in the sea for now. Someone had to go to the mainland to pump the water over to the island using a 20mm pipe which runs under the sea for about 2km.

At last we have water again. 12noon and it is lunch time. We had an umu feast with baked taro, pumpkin, and breadfruit, taro leaves with coconut cream (pulusami), chicken, fish, sausage and coleslaw. I couldn’t eat it all and the dogs would have had their own feast today.

We managed to have a quick snorkel again but the weather turned ugly. It blows over quickly but it never clears up completely. The coral was plain but the fish were great. Phil’s ear was still painful so we need to do something about it when we get back to the mainland. We tried to walk around the island but the weather was too stormy. Only one thing to do – back to the fale for a nap
again. A young boy here is securing the tarps on the fales. I wonder if he knows something we don’t??

The rain we had last night was pretty heavy but the fales work very well. We found out from the others that rats had raided their snacks which they had stored in their backpacks, even to the
point of eating through their canvas bags. I could hear them in the roof of our fale at night but we had no food so we were ok.

Tonight’s weather is shaping up to be worse than last night. The wind has changed direction and is blowing into the fale a bit more. The flapping noise of the tarp is quite loud especially at night. As there is no power here, we rely on a kero lamp at night and luckily we blew it out before we went to sleep because it blew over during the night. The kero spilt onto the mats which reeked so we pulled the fale apart in the middle of the night. Surprisingly, everything was still dry in the morning.

Mon 23rd
Breakfast was at a more civilized hour of 7.30am and we had pancakes with a savoury filling. After breakfast, it was time to pack up our bags because we were leaving at 9.30. the sun actually came out at the last minute and we saw 3 turtles in the distance as we were making the 20min crossing back to the mainland.

After about 10 mins, Jack arrived to pick us up with other people on the bus. We stopped at a small place high on the mountain where they make coconut oil. The oil is made by grinding the flesh out of the mature coconut shell, and placing it on a long bbq like plate. The flesh is then toasted to evaporate the moisture out while two young boys constantly stir the coconut to stop it from burning. It is then placed in a stainless steel hand press where the oil gets squeezed out. The oil tastes yummy! The pure organic oil then gets sold at the market for about $85 for a full bucket. This oil has a high heat tolerance and is used for deep frying and they also add aromatic oils to make massage oils and insect repellents.

Shortly after, we arrived at our next destination – Vavau Beach Bungalows. Vavau is stunning
but Jack told us that this is last time we will be staying here. The Warwick hotel chain has leased this land and is about to built a very expensive resort in 2007, which means pulling down all the existing bungalows. Each bungalow is beautiful with a bathroom and kitchen. I can finally do a bit of washing – yay! We even have a ceiling fan. The shower is only cold water but I don’t care its
beautiful!

The first thing we had to do was organize a taxi (which happened to be a mate of Jack’s) to take
us to Apia to go to an ear specialist. The drive took 1 ½ hrs because Apia is on the other side of the island. The speed limit here is 45km through the villages and 55km outside. I can understand why, because of the amount of dogs, pigs, horses and people on the roads. The roads are very windy and wet and there are occasional landslides blocking the roads.

We managed to see the doctor who said Phil had swimmers ear, an infection possibly from the
swimming pool at The Outrigger. He prescribed antibiotics and ear drops which we picked up at the chemist around the corner. Since we had the taxi driver for the afternoon, we managed to do a few things while he sat and waited for us. We checked our emails (which bounced back) so we wrote another one, which I wasn’t convinced was going to work again, so we got a phone card and rang home. Unfortunately no one was home so we left a message on the answering machine.

After a quick bite to eat the taxi driver took us back to Vavau. I managed to do a bit of washing and string it up inside the bungalow but I don’t like our chances of anything drying in this humidity. The resort has its own dining fale and the food is great. Unfortunately it is raining non-stop (and I’m talking heavy rain!) We went for a swim and snorkel, but the current is strong so you have to be careful even in the lagoon.

Wed 25th Oct
We are sitting on the verandah of our bungalow waiting for our bus driver to arrive who happened to be 2hrs late now. We can see a group of Samoans who have come to enjoy the lagoon. It looks like they are the local rugby team, they are playing half in the water and half on the sand. They have set up a bbq and right now my stomach is rumbling because I think we are supposed to be at the next place having lunch.

Finally James – the other driver arrived 2 ½ hrs late ( samoan time). We stopped at a private residence. The owner took a lot of pride in his garden and labeled all the plants for us palangi (white people). You could see the top of a huge waterfall from the yard. The owner showed us how to make coconut cream. It tastes so much better than the stuff you get out of the tin. The coconut husks are used for mulch, and the shells for fuel for burning the umus, so nothing ever gets wasted.

Next stop was a farmer’s house, where we had a traditional umu cooked for us for 15 tala ($7.50) and watched a boy weave a basket out of a palm frond. There were about 15 people there from a few different mini bus tours.
Last stop for the night– Mativa Treehouse. It looked like a big kid’s cubby-house – very cute. We
waited for a while and no-one came so Phil went to sleep for two hours. By that time, we were getting desperate for a toilet. We walked across the road and asked if we could use their loo. They said yes but they couldn’t speak much English.

In about an hour, a man came across the road with a huge tray of food. He was very friendly and
could speak English a lot better. He runs this place but was at work during the day and apologized for not being here to greet us. He talked for ages and then asked why we weren’t eating, because as a host the samoans often sit with you as you eat. We had pumpkin noodle soup, breadfruit with coconut cream and two types of chicken cooked in different ways. The trays went back half full, and he said don’t worry its good! He gave us his address if we want to write to him.

Thurs 26th
Breakfast was at about 8.30am. The thing about Samoa is that you never know what is going to happen at what time, so you just go with the flow. Breakfast was pawpaw egg and onion sandwiches and very sweet tea. I don’t think any one in Samoa drinks anything unless it has three spoonfuls of sugar in it.

After breakfast, we went for a snorkel. The fish here are smaller but just as colourful. The sun wasn’t out again so we left the camera behind. There was a fresh water pool next to the Treehouse so we washed the salt water off us. These pools are used by the families to wash their clothes and also bath in them. The water seeps out of the ground and into the pools quite fast so it
would be fresh all the time.

I think that the wet season has definitely come early because out of the seven days that we have been here, we have probably had a total of one days worth of sunshine. The tropical downpours are quite heavy, but it is always warm. We were given lunch early because they wanted to feed us before we left. Rice, fried cabbage, sausages, cucumber salad and coconut juice.

James arrived on time at 1.00pm and we got on the bus for the next leg of the journey. We were dropped off at another small wharf and caught a boat to Manono Island. This is another gorgeous island – with no cars and no dogs, but it did have street lights around the narrow track of the island.

Some of the fales were semi over the water and looked so romantic except for the blue tarps which seem to be everywhere at the moment because of the weather. When we were shown our fale the woman apologetically said we could only stay one night because a large group of people from the United Nations were staying tomorrow, but her friend down the road would look after us. Dinner was at seven and we met one of the couples from a previous stay. We had soup, fried chicken, fish and snake beans. The fish was excellent!

Fri 27th
The next morning we were shocked to see the sun out. We decided to walk around the island which took us about 2hrs at a leisurely pace. The walk took us through a few villages each with their own church and a couple of schools. A gorgeous little boy walked with us for some of the way and chatted to us in samoan which I couldn’t understand. I wanted to pick him up and take him home.

We were really hot after our walk so we went for a quick swim before packing up and moving down the road. When we got there, it was so beautiful. The owner Velonica, had put beautiful flowers around the posts, and flower arrangements on the table under the raised fale and one in the fale upstairs. Then she brought us out a whole bowl full of bananas and a coconut each to drink! Thank
you United Nations, because this was better than the place down the road! Even their own toilet which we used had frangipanis laying everywhere.

Lunch
was brought out to us – fried egg and onion sandwiches and another bowl of bananas because we emptied the first one! The snorkeling was average but fun anyway. Time for a snooze and then more snorkeling. The weather was grey and still after a windy shower before. We can see the ferry crossing back and forth between Upolu and Savai’i and we can roughly tell what time it is by the three ferries that leave Upolu.

The pin fell out of my watch while I was swimming a few days ago and it has stopped working now and started corroding. I hope it is covered by warranty. At dinner time, a young girl called us over to Velonica’s main fale and we were surprised to see a table set only for us. They even had a television on in the corner which seems strange when you are sitting in an open building. The food was fried chicken, rice and a curry sauce with bananas all beautifully presented, and a pot of green tea in their best china.

Sat 28th Oct
This time we slept with a beautiful cool breeze, because we only had a couple of
small tarps which didn’t block our view over the water, and we also saw a fantastic sunrise. The clouds are slowly drifting over now, but who knows maybe it will be clear for the big ferry crossing to Savai’i! Breakfast was the best mango I have ever tasted, more bananas, pancakes, fried eggs and fresh bread. If I stayed here too long, I would look like most of the Samoan women because
they never stop feeding us. I was sad when we left Velonica and we wanted to give her something but all we had was a small pencil case with the Australian
flag on it and a can of corned beef. She was so grateful, she almost cried.

We left Manono Island after another big lunch and headed back to the mainland where the Green Turtle bus was already waiting for us. As the bus took us to the ferry, we still had half an hour to wait so we made a small detour to Aggie Greys Resort (not the hotel) and had a walk around. Very above our budget, but only one year old so the plants were not very big yet. In about two years, the place will look fantastic.

The ferry was about the same size as the KI ferry, only this one was a mono-hull. Inside the reef was very calm, but outside the reef was another story, thank goodness for quells. The ride took an hour because the waves were behind us, I would imagine that it would probably take longer to get back. Half of Savai’i is not surrounded by calm reefs; instead the coastline is made up of volcanic
cliffs.

A Green Turtle driver called Aitu picked us up at the wharf and he drove like a looney to get us to the next place so that we would be in time for dinner. He also had a thing for one of the waitresses there.

We were amazed to see the set up at our next destination – Vacations Beach Fales. There was a beautiful dining area, the toilets and showers were modern and spotless and the fales had a powerpoint and fluro light! We even got our own towels for the shower. (Ours weren’t drying and starting to smell) The dinner was excellent- fish (masi-masi – dolphin fish)

Sun 29th Oct
Breakfast in the dining fale was toast and coffee only because we were going to get a huge meal for lunch – the traditional Umu feast! I drank about 5 small cups of real coffee because we hadn’t had it for so long – yum!

While I am writing this, a samoan man called Asso came to chat with us and wanted his photo taken with me. He was a very happy (perhaps simple??) man and asked if we could send him an Australian bride. We were finally able to buy postcards to send to Australia,and tomorrow we can use the internet to send an email to the kids. It is a bit worrying, not being able to communicate with Nikki and Shane for so long, but hopefully all is well at home.

Lunch was a feast and a half, the variety was overwhelming. We had baked snapper,octopus,roast pork, chicken in various forms, stir fry veg with noodles,potato salad and coleslaw, and my favorite, pulusami (taro leaves in coconut cream).

After a nap, we went snorkeling and were a bit disappointed to find that there was hardly any coral except out at the reef which was too dangerous to swim to because of the undertow, but the water was still wonderful and warm. After a cold shower, which is great in this weather, I was able to use the hairdryer because there was a powerpoint – yay! It was tea time again, - chicken curry, rice, veg and a chardy or two!!

Mon 30th Oct
The bad news is that the emails to the kids bounced again. We gave up trying because the internet connection is so slow and we were getting nowhere in a hurry! We did have a lovely large breakfast of bacon and eggs, coffee and pawpaw. The other bad news is that Green Turtle hadn’t paid their bills again so Vacations wanted us to pay them. After a lengthy conversation with Green
Turtle head office from both Phil and the manager of this place, we got out of having to pay twice!

After leaving Vacations, we visited an underground lava tube, and then a Tree Top Canopy Walk. The top platform was about 50 feet high and the swinging bridge, about 40 feet high. A burly samoan guide sat at the bottom while we climbed up, and to be honest, I don’t think he would have fit up the narrow winding steps to the top anyway, eventhough he said he had been climbing them all morning –sure he had!!
Next stop Satuiatua Beach Fales where we stay for one night. Our fale even has a small deck -very nice! We had a toasted tuna, onion and mayo sandwich for lunch and then went for a snorkel. This time it was excellent – loads of fish and coral. At last, the underwater housing finally got a workout! You can only snorkel at certain times of the day otherwise the tide is too low. Marti the owner of the resort was a real character; she loves all the surfie guys and would gladly sit and have a nightcap with the guys as long as they shouted.

Dinner was a beautiful meal of fish, salad and chips. We met three riggers in the dining fale who were staying here as they were putting up the new Digicel phone towers. Once these are all up and working, we should be able to use our mobile phones. They were having trouble with spare parts, because some of the samoans were pinching the bolts off the towers and using them as weights for their fishing nets. The riggers then sit and wait for the next shipment of parts to arrive which often takes days. I could think of a worse place to be stuck in at full pay lounging around. These guys travel all over the world – half their luck.

We also met an old guy who has lived in Samoa for 73 years and had a few colourful stories to tell about the old days.

Tues 31st Oct
The next morning was sunny for a change and we walked to the next village to the post office (one of the few in the whole country) and bought stamps for the postcards and a samoan sim card
for Phil’s mobile. Because the reception is so bad, it took us until that night, on another part of the island to finally get through to Shane at home – what a relief! We were asked to pay again for our stay but managed to get out of it because Marti liked us.

We visited the Blowholes on the way to our next destination – A bit over rated I thought. I don’t think the sea was rough enough. We had more trouble with Green Turtle at the next and last place
we were staying at – Ananoa Beach Fales. This time we had to pay before we could stay, and I think we were lucky to have gotten so far anyway. They felt sorry for us so they gave us the night at a slightly reduced rate. We would try to get our money back when we get back to Apia.

Ananoa is a surfing resort so the reef was fairly close to the shore, and there was a very strong current, but the coral and fish here were the best in Samoa so far! The fales were beautiful with a European influence. The samoan serving in the dining room was a fa’afine (a man dressed up as a woman, usually working in the hospitality industry due to the shortage of women) and he gave Phil lots of big smiles.

Wed 1st Nov
The next morning was fairly overcast and we had to get a snorkel in before we left, but the tide was still out and snorkeling was dangerous. I have the coral scrapes on my legs to prove it. After snorkeling, panic started to set in. We were going back to Upolu on the small ferry and the sea was shaping up to be quite rough. I gave lunch a miss and worked myself into a nervous frenzy. Even Phil was getting a bit apprehensive after the last KI ferry trip back in Oz.

We were packed and ready to leave at 3pm and taken to Salelologa wharf for the 4pm ferry. I took 2 tablets and Phil also took one. It was one of the roughest crossings we have been on but the quell worked. After the fear of the ferry tipping over subsided, we enjoyed the crossing. The small boat was quite stable in the rough sea! We were saturated with sea spray and the salt crystallized on our faces.

To our surprise, the Green Turtle bus was waiting for us and James told us to go into the office first thing in the morning to get a refund for Ananoa. I was a bit doubtful whether we were going to get it though. To our great relief, we did get all the money back the very next day.

We booked into the Pasefica Inn which looked very nice – air-conditioning, and a bathroom with warm water, what luxury! Since both of us weren’t affected by the boat we were starving. We had a shower and went out for dinner. The restaurant was a small place in the main street called The Rainforest Café owned by a Swiss proprietor. The food was good and we spoke to some tourists who were leaving the next day to fly back to England.

Thurs 2nd Nov
The next morning after a tropical breakfast in the hotel, it was time to get mobile. We needed a car, and after ringing around and getting quotes, we found that the cheapest place was right next to the hotel. We hired a little Chevrolet Tracker soft top. When Phil drives, I can stand up which I did a few times. The cars here are left hand drive which is a bit daunting, so I left the driving to Phil.

Today was the first day of the new mobile phone service called Digicel. The samoans could hand in their old phones and they got a newer one on the Digicel network. Every second person in Samoa was walking around with a new phone in their hands texting constantly. Every phone outlet
had people lined up in the streets and blocking the pavements with security guards letting a few people at a time through the doors. Digicel reps were standing at all the traffic lights handing out free samples like stickers, wristbands and hats. All of them were wearing bright red t-shirts, and they even had trucks with bands on the back singing about Digicel and busses pumping out Digicel songs. Talk about saturated brainwashing, it was quite a sight to see in such an underdeveloped country.

We drove up the Cross Island Rd and found a wonderful waterfall called Papapapa-tai Falls. We were almost on the highest part of the island and the temperature was much cooler. On the way back, we found the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum which was already closed but the walk to his tomb was still open. The base of the mountain was surrounded by a botanical garden. The walk said 30mins to the top so we said – why not! Half way up the hill we said – why?? That was the toughest walk I have ever done. I almost threw up when I reached the top. The view however was
breathtaking and well worth it!

We met a few samoans who climb the mountain every day. I would have thought with this kind of exercise and this kind of heat that they would have been thinner though. Dinner that night was at a very exclusive restaurant called Bistro Tatau . The food was first class with silver service.

Fri 3rd Nov
After the usual yummy tropical breakfast, we decided to have a quick coffee in town (because the hotel coffee was terrible) before doing more sightseeing. We were surprised to see that town was almost empty, which was unusual for any day of the week. After asking someone, we found out that it was Arbour Day which also meant that the museum we wanted to see wouldn’t be open.

We tried our luck at Papasee Sliding Rock and thank goodness, it was open. Unfortunately there was not enough water flowing down the large waterfall so we went on the smaller one. It was a very beautiful lush looking place. We met a wonderful 61yr old samoan woman and her husband who shook our hands and said that they were coming here for the first time.

After leaving the waterfall, we drove around looking for somewhere to eat but almost all the places were shut, so we had lunch at the Green Turtle office. There was also an ice-cream parlour open called Scoops open which we had to check out of course. The ice-cream is the New Zealand brand that you can buy here and it tastes excellent and for only $1.60 we had a large double scoop serving. No wonder everyone is always walking around with one every day, I thought it was
just their weakness, now it is our weakness too!

We also visited the Bahai Temple which was an amazing building. It had an
immaculately groomed garden surrounding the temple and the temple itself had a
serene feel about it when we went inside.

Most of the restaurants had opened up again when it was dinner time, so we drove around the back streets looking for a new place to eat. We found a wonderful place called Gourmet Seafood. Phil had an excellent steak for $13 and I had a seafood platter for $7.50. The food was beautiful and fresh.

Sat 4th Nov
Time to pack up and leave the comforts of the Pasefica Inn, we are running out of time! We visited the Robert Louis Stevenson museum finally, which was an awesome place. His house is beautifully restored and the furniture which was sold after his death was tracked down and bought back and the furniture that couldn’t be found was faithfully reproduced from photos. You can see how passionate the samoans are about Robert, because even the guide still gets a tear in her eye when she tells of the amazing plight of the villagers and how they managed to get the coffin up to his favourite spot on the mountain. Thousands of samoans lined a path to the top and passed the coffin up person to person.

After the museum, it was lunch time and then time to leave Apia and head down the southern coast. We thought we would try a place called Boomerang Creek Resort. Just before we got there, we drove through a village called Vavau and we had stones thrown at us by rotten little kids and rude finger gestures made. I can’t help but wonder if this has something to do with the fact that the white people will be taking over that area when the new Warrick Resort gets built in March 2007. This stretch of coast didn’t appeal to us as much. Boomerang Resort was supposed to be hosting a fia fia (fire dance) night but couldn’t be bothered because there weren’t enough people. We decided to lose our key deposit because we didn’t like the place, or the slack Aussie who owned the place,so we left.

We ended up at the very expensive Coconuts Resort because it was the last chance to see a fia fia! After getting there with minutes to spare, we had a quick shower and went to the dining room. The show was fantastic with small kids doing the fire dance – as young as five years old! Our unit(and this is the cheapest one) had two bathrooms each with sunken baths and showers coming out of the rock in the wall, and a separate lounge and he bedroom with private patio and table and chairs outside. Unfortunately, it poured and was stormy the whole time we were there so we couldn’t even swim in the pool let alone take photos outside!

Sun 5th Nov
The next morning a mini-bus took whoever wanted to go to church to the village Methodist church. It was an amazing experience, the singing was beautiful, and the children were so well behaved. Time to move on again, because we definitely couldn’t afford another night at Coconuts. It was pouring again.

We moved further along the coast and found a place called Virgin Cove. It was a little patch of paradise – even in the rain! The place was eco-friendly and there is no power. There are kero lanterns along the paths and in the dusk you can see lights everywhere.
The snorkeling isn’t very good, but the scenery is fantastic. The bungalow we were staying in is powered by solar lights and fan, and gas hot water. The only bad thing about this place was that the towels and pillows and mattresses were very mouldy. We had to put our beach towels over the pillows so we could breathe.

Tues6th Nov
It rained heavily all night, but the sun finally came out the next morning so we could take some photos. The breakfast we had was the best ever. The staff all sang the farewell song because a lot of people were leaving today. One of the samoan men taught the remaining people a few samoan words.

It was time to move on for one last time. We went cross country to Apia one last time – 35km for last minute gifts. After lunch we headed off to our last nights accommodation called The Airport Lodge which is about 15 mins from the airport. We drove past the ferry and watched the big one leave and the small one come in on perfectly smooth seas.

We can see Manono Island from here and I would love to see Velonica again, and regret not having taken a photo of her. Maybe next time! The Lodge has a swimming pool where we had a quick swim in (being careful not to get our ears wet). We had dinner here and as always, it was superb –Snapper, yum!

Next morning, we were packed and ready to go with plenty of time to spare. We had to return the car at the airport which was very handy. The usual flight nerves set in along with a dose of melancholy because we were leaving this beautiful country. The nerves soon took over when Phil decides to buy a Matai stick after the final boarding call has been announced.

Anyway– Farewell Beautiful Samoa!!!

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