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| Samoa - a paradise | We fell in love with Samoa's beautiful islands, Upolu and Savai'i at first glance. Everything is so colourful and people seem to take care of their environment. People were beautiful too, inside and out! See our photos here
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 | main church
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First days in Apia
We first arrived (safely with the tourist bus from the airport) to Samoa's capital city, Apia and were very surprised by the heat. The air was just extremely moist, and makes you sweat, even if you lay in your bed, doing nothing. We forced ourselves to move and went shopping our first "lavalava" -skirts/sarongs. Even Daniel got himself this nice, formal men's skirt. For men these are casual wear here and in one colour is comparable to westerners suits. I like the look. And it surely does not make the men look any feminine at all!
Apia itself is quite busy as the main, well the only, hub for the island with lots of taxis, which bring you around town for around 1 Euro. Youve got a cinema, cafes, internet places and the usual shops and market. Charming especially with these skirts and colours everywhere.
We stayed the 1st night at the Outrigger Hostel (which moved from former location, now called 1848 Princess Tui ).Its a fine and comfy place, but there are cheaper deals around if you dont follow the tourist guide ;) Expensive is the Aggie Grey Hotel on the seafront, but well worth a look to see old "colonial style" architecture! A historic masterpiece from one of the first foreign residents, written about by James Mitchener. The next days we moved to another seafront location, called .... , which was a bit more grungy, but really cheap and the owner was really hospitable. Car rental is available through every guesthouse anyway.
The old catholic church, on the photo, is magnificent and still bustling with the very religious Samoans. Its slightly faded colours just give this laid back feeling and fit in perfectly! | |  | Stevensons House
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Stevensons House and more
One thing to do is the visit of the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum just on the road south. it was the last resort of the writer and here he wrote his most famous stories. The photos on exhibition from that time couldn´t be more fascinating, picturing the difference between the British and Samoan culture a hundred years back. There is photos of a German warship sunken in the harbour aswell. We couldnt believe any war ever made it here. Its hilarious. More on the history here.
One restaurant in town we went to (name we forgot), offered no veggie option on the menu, so we asked to prepare just 2 without the meat. This was a very first request apparently but possible anyhow. After dinner the cook came to our table personally to ask, how it was. He was from Fiji originally and started talking about his expat life in Apia and his money problems: He cant enjoy his daily beer in the local bar, since the owner doesn´t pay enough but the beer so good though... and so on. He wouldnt stop until we finally got the message of tipping him personally. That was a first, I hope he enjoyed the beer  | |  | fancy a bus ride?
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Fancy a bus ride?
One thing that you instantly notice in Samoa, are the colourful local buses. Inside they are made entirely of wood, and are packed to the roof. Rides are bumpy and give you a reminder that you really are in a foreign country ; Local, reggae style music (probably about love and/or god) is played loud at the back and you keep seeing people coming in and sitting on eachothers knees, when there are no seats available. Just imagine this would work in Europe too; people seeing a neigbour/friend and, doing small talk, would just sit at the persons lap?! Maybe that would make the world a bit of a better place?
Visiting the waterfalls was fun, as is riding a small dying motorbike through the mountains... The bungalows on the southern and eastern side of Upolu just weren´t that special, so ... | |  | our beach hut
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Savaii Paradise
After 5 days in Upolu, Samoa's main island, we took a ferry to Savai'i , which is supposed to have great beaches and a lot to see. We went to Jane's Beach Fales and got a beachside fale (basic hut, with just a bed inside and palmleaf curtains to cover you from the rain and the world.) where we stayed for the next 9 nights. These open fales, covered only by the roof and occationally curtains, are still very much used by the locals, and Samoa is one of the only places in the Pacific still to use them. They are beautiful houses, and usually also very colourful. We enjoyed ours and I got used to swimming daily in this gorgeous, crystal clear, warm lagoon. Weather stayed good the whole time too; we only got some rain at nights and only small, refreshing showers at daytime. | |  | braveheart!
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Blowholes, lava, bridges
On sunday we rented a car with some of the other guests from Jane's, british guys Richard and Henry, (who are in medical school in England and travel around the world for 3 months taking photos of all the hospitals they pass by) and Liz from London also on an around the world trip. We headed to see the Canopy walkway and I was shaking while I, with my fear of heights, crossed this swinging bridge 20 metres above the ground. Others climbed the stairs on top of the banyantree to see the sights, I decided to wait at the lower level. Next we drove to see a rock cave, formed from a lavatube , reminder of Savai'is volcanic eruption around 1905, where lava flow covered big part of the island. Even today you can see huge black lavafields in this island and we saw, later in our car trip, how lava had flowed inside a church from the door and covered the floor. Impressive. Us, Henry, Richard and Liz continued to the southside of Savai'i, finding huge blowholes ( that reminded me of Iceland's geysirs ), where at hightide, water blows in to the air with high pressure. We had heard that you can throw coconuts in the hole and see how they blow out with massive speed, but our attempts were not succesful. I also had a nice chat with a local, who was questioning me about palangi's (white person's) weird habit of sweating on the beach, taking sun. I tried to explane to him how we all want to be more tanned... :) | |  | whats up dude?
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turtles everywhere!!!
After all the sweating in the car, we decided to go for a swim in a natural fresh water pool along the way back and had brilliant time. I just had to go through some more fear filled moments to get down to the swimming pool with very wide stepped wooden latters. I was very proud of myself after that day, believe me! Even walking through a lavatube can be fun, if you get to hear all those stories behind. The lavafield as well with its protected, not covered, grave inside, where a holy woman is buried. It just gives this extra atmosphere.
From Janes Beach we started on a biking trip to a turtle sanctuary, giving shelter to turtles catched by fishermen. This is sponsored by government and more importantly by tourists paying a small donation to the host family. The children are playing guide, you can swim with them (if you dont care about disturbing them during napping) and it was the most peaceful setting. You even could get a small crash course in Samoan cooking if you want to join in the Sunday procedures of tonai. First time we tasted cocoa in its natural form, fresh from the tree, and some more fruits. | |  | relaxing...
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And finally...
The host family of Janes beach offered some fiafia singing, food and dancing shows, which just melt into the evenings perfectly. Well, until you have to participate. one English doctor just performed a tribal mens warrior dance like a Samoan and I think he set the standard for the next generation of tourists! Plus as a detail the familys practising session every afternoon gave a suiting background for those lazy reading days on the beach.
These Fiafia dances show some of the Samoan way of life, called faa Samoa. one thing to watch are the evening resting times in the villages as the Sunday rest. Its quite rude to be too touristy by ignoring some traditions. These and other quite restricitve rules are not necessarily liked by all, especially the younger generation. There are nowadays some publications, which desturb the peace. Best is to let the locals deal with these issues themselves and not to critizise from a very different position. The natural environment is threatened aswell by rising water levels and sea temperatures.
It was really hard to leave, but we wanted to see some of the other island after all, so we went to Upolus Virgin Cove Resort, which was pleasant though suddenly it started raining for days and time was running out - the month and therefore the visa was gone, so we headed back after a short while and off to New Zealand soon. | |  | Church covered in lava
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Links
More information about Samoa here:
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Updated 01.08.03 Written by Riikka and Daniel 59120 reads |
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these ones are not finished yet.
Album: China |
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Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.
-- Benjamin Disraeli |
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