Greetings!
So hopefully everyone has had the chance to read my last posting about Australia. Well shortly after that trip i decided to go visit Western Samoa (or as the natives prefer it called Samoa).
(this isn't actually the islands, they are alot bigger than that! these are just the islands preceeding Western Samoa.)
We flew Polynesian Airlines in this rinky-dink little plane that only fits about 13 people. The ride was fairly smooth. Our intention was to go to Savai'i which is the larger and more remote of the two islands that make up the independant state of Samoa. Culturally, American Samoa and Independant Samoa are very similar, they share the same language, the same customs. The differences are vast also. Samoa is cleaner, larger, the people are poorer and it is much more geared up for tourism than American Samoa. We arrived at the airport and were cordially greeted by our rental car company spokeswoman. She gave us an awesome right-hand drive Hyundai Tuscon. And driving on the other side of the road really isn't as bad as people make it out to be. Which was nice as i was expecting some tiny little thing that would break in two at the first sign of a pothole.
We had arrived over white sunday weekend (more on that later) and stupidly had thought that we could just book a ferry ride for our car with only a few days advance, silly palagis. So we were relegated to leaving for Savai'i on Saturday. We were offered by some friends of ours Lucy and Phil to use their house in Apia (the capital) while we were on Upolu (the smaller island but it is where the capital is and where you fly into). They have a beautiful house up in the cloud forest and it was the first night since moving here where i actually had to sleep with a blanket rather than a sheet. We went to the sliding rocks which may have lived up to its name had it not been so dry lately. It was more like a small pond with a little water flowing in, nonetheless it was nice to get into the water and cool down. We capped off the day at Lama's boyfriends hotel, sipping unsweetened Mojitos by the pool. That night the girls (Taufau and Lama) hit up the club while Jesse and I had dinner with Tom and Amber (friends from American Samoa).
The girls were out pretty late and we were on our way to the wharf when their taxi pulled alongside our car. They hopped in and we headed for the wharf. We got to the wharf and parked our car in line. I then went to go buy tickets for the ferry as the ticket for the car only covers the driver. I got in line and soon realized that i had to channell my inner Cambodian if i ever wanted to get to the front, people were pushing and budging and calling eachother names. Luckily my girth and height made me hard to get through and i pushed my way to the front of the line trampling over elderly woman and young children.
The ferry ride over was very smooth. Tau and Lama got yelled at by an attendant for putting their feet up on the chairs. This was funny cause he singled them out as the two most attractive girls on the boat and chose to ignore the myriad of other folks doing the same thing.
We arrived on Savai'i and headed to a waterfall we saw on the map. The waterfall was dry but the pool was pristine, cool and deep. Tau conquered her fears and even though she doesn't know how to swim took a 10 foot jump off into the pool, with Jesse waiting to catch her of course. I went for something a little bigger and took a 30 foot jump off of a cliff, you have to clear this rock outcropping which is rather tricky but the jump was incredibly exhilarting. I could've easily spent the whole day there but we decided it was time to go see Tau's family.
The drive took about 1.5 hours (longest drive i've done in the Pacific). We arrived and were greeted by the whole gang. Sisters, brothers, cousins, aunties, nephews, and of course grandma were all there to meet us. We shook hands and were shown our rooms. Later on Tau's uncle came over and sorta monopolized us but such is Samoan culture. They were incredibly hospitable and reminded me of living in Cambodia when you would go and visit a families house and even though these people had so little they still rolled out the red carpet for you. We unloaded our suitcase full of goodies (detergent, food, candies for the kids) and headed off to the beach to watch the last sunset in the world in Falealupo. But it won't be the last sunset for long, in December the date line is going to shift and American Samoa will be the last sunset in the world, another reason for people to come visit me here.
We then went to the bakery and bought them out to provide bread for our hosts. We had arrived over white sunday which is a religous holiday where samoan culture is broken and children are put first the whole day. Typically children are subservient and do not eat until after all the other members of the family have. I learned this the hard way. Our host family would set up meals for us and i was wondering why they kept asking when were going to eat. I finally realized that according to culture, no one else can eat until the guest and the senior family members have eaten. Also, no one except the grandma or grandpa is allowed to sit at the head of the table, thankfully i never tried. Samoans are very religous but we were staying with a family who were seventh day adventists which means church is Saturday and sunday you can do what you want. I was dissappointed as i wanted to experience white sunday. They offered to take me to another church but they did not want to join me so i decided to stick with the crew. True to its name everyone was dressed in white, bleached so hard that it almost looked like snow. We went to the beach and snorkelled with the nieces and nephews. They got great kicks using the snorkel, swinging in our hammocks and running loose with our cameras.
(me, Tau, Lama and Jesse)
On Monday we had to return to the wharf early. We said goodbye to our hosts who were just amazing and got on our way. Our ticket was for 8am but we missed that ferry and got in line for the 10 am. Thankfully we arrived early in line because they let all the confirmed 10am cars on and we were the 2nd to last car to fit on the ferry. We made it back to Apia and dropped Tau off at the airport. She had to work on Tuesday so could only stay with us for a few days. On the way to the airport we stopped at the turtle pond where there are these huge sea turtles that come right up to the surface to say....feed me.
The next day we toured the island of Upolu (Survivor South Pacific which is airing now on CBS was filmed there). On our drive we stopped at a waterfall where a Samoan told us that for $5 he would jump off the cliff and dive into it. Talk about a business strategy. Unfortunatly for him, i would've done that myself. We went to the Lalomaga (i'm totally butchering that) trench. It is this salt water hole that is right by the ocean. Its partly open and partly a cave. The cool thing is that you can float in the cave and let the suction of the wave action pull you in and out while watching the celing change above you. We followed that up with real mojitos at a swanky resort where they were getting ready for a wedding. Our last night we spent at a awesome pizza joint where apart from being very tasty, everything was extra. Water, parmesan, red peppers. Which ended the meal with a hefty price tag.
The last day, Wednesday we spent going shopping and visiting the Robert Louis Stevenson museum. He was the guy who wrote Treasure Island and Jekyl and Hyde among other things. His estate was in Samoa because he had a breathing issue and moved their with his family to get relief. He only lived there for 5 year until his death.
Sadly it was time to leave! Samoa was beautiful and i can't wait to go back. It is definitely better than American Samoa when it comes to tourism infrastructure.
I hope to get back there soon.
Until next time.....
