CherryPopper

With work now out of the way it was time for the real holiday. Roneil arranged to go visit a school on the other side of the island that just happened to be close to where we had arranged to stay the night on a small island just off the coast. So we headed off in the trusty van across the "cross island road" which goes over some of those massive mountains behind Apia. It was much like our great ocean road except for a hell of a lot more pot holes, but just as scenic and full of slow moving buses!

We soon reached the school which was perched just up the hill off the coast with a great view of the ocean & reefs. The school had around 450 students and the resources weren't of the highest quality or quantity. Some room didn't have tables & chairs but had woven palm leaf mats for the students to sit on (though this is a traditional way to sit in Samoa). The principle asked us to have a look at one of their servers as it was running slower than the other server. We went to the IT lab which had 8 thin client terminals (not full pc's they connect to a server) and 2 desktop HP PC's acting as Windows Terminal Servers for the 8 thin clients. In true Windows style a reboot fixed the slowness issue and we were soon on our way to the island.

We arrived at Lalomanu where the true beauty of Samoa really starts to shine, this is picture postcard stuff. Nothing but clear blue water with lots of colourful fish, white sandy beaches and lush green rainforest. Our bed for the night was on the island of Namu`a where we would stay in a beach fale (traditional Samoan hut). We found the so called wharf, it was just a small plank of wood sticking our into the sea. From there we asked the local guy to look after our car and he called over the boat. How he did this was with a long stick with a white flag on it, he walked to the waters edge then waved the flag around for 5 mins till the people on the island noticed and jumped in the little dingy to come get us, very high tech.

We slowly putted over to the island in the crystal clear water and were given a fresh coconut on arrival. The young man then asked us if we wanted lunch, to which we said yes, he went inside grabbed his snorkel and said lunch will be ready in 15 mins. He was going to catch our lunch, can't get much fresher than that!! Lunch was great & afterwords we went for a snorkel where I'm sure i saw a few of my lunches family swimming around me.

We lazed around in our fale, went for a swim & snorkel, had a few beers, slept & swam some more. It was a hard way to spend a day but hey someone's got to do it Later that night we sat there chatting with the 3 other New Zealand guys staying on the island drinking beers and watching the magnificent sunset. I dozed off to sleep in my fale which had a matrice & pillow. After a few hours the cool breeze stopped and thats when it got hot, without the gentle breeze to keep you cool the humidity got to you even though the fale don't have any walls it was still hot.

I dozed in and out of sleep for most of the night and once the sun started to come up the island's animals came to life again waking me up. But i was glad they did as the sunrise was also just as beautiful as the sunset, and its not something i see much normally. I snapped a few pics then went for a snorkel to see all the colourful fish & coral in the dawn light.

After lunch we went for a trek up the Island's mountain and sweated our butts off as it was sooo humid in the rainforest then we headed back to the real world after one of the most relaxing days I've ever had.

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Back in my day Sunday's were a day of rest, shops & businesses were closed and people spent time with their family. Today in Samoa its.... oh still like that?

Roneil & Renu picked me up from my hotel to show me around the Island a little more. They decided to take me for a swim in a waterfall that was part of the inspiration for the book Treasure Garden (yeah i got no idea about it either). We drove up the mountain to the entrance only to find it closed, now being Samoa and a Sunday we weren't too surprised to find it closed except for the fact that on the sign it said it should be open. Even if we allowed for the Samoan time (3hrs either side of the time) it should have still been open. Well not much we could do about it as no one really worries about time in Samoa, their rules are something like this:

If something must be done then it might get done, most likely tomorrow. If something should get done then it will most likely be forgotten and never done.

So with our swim in the waterfall a no go we set off to the Palolo Deep Marine Reserve. We walked through the narrow opening in the trees to a very small beach but i was told its not the beach you come here for its what's in the water. We sat down for some lunch that Renu had made, a kinda beef curry with rice. It was nice but the thing that put me off a little was the fact that its traditional for Samoa's (and most other south pacific islands) to eat with their fingers. Now sure I've eaten plenty of food with my fingers but never a beef curry with rice. It wasn't so much the fingers that put me off but the fact that after a few minutes of eating Renu & Roneil's fingers were umm... brown from the curry. Not really the best look I've since found out.

After lunch we headed into the water for a swim. There were 4 other people in the water already & they had hired some snorkelling gear from the family that lives near the beach, it seemed we were a little slow as they had no flippers left just masks & snorkels. We took what we could get and headed in to see the wonders that lay below the turquoise blue water. The tide was slowly coming in when we headed into the water but WOW the fish were everywhere & so colourful, blues, reds, yellows and loads of stripes everywhere you looked.

I was told the best part was around 100m offshore to the left of a stick that could be seen from shore. So i started to head out there. With the tide coming in the water wasn't the deepest in some places and you had to contend with a strong current trying to push you back to shore, throw in me being a crap swimmer with no flippers and you soon start to look like easy prey to all the little fish. I finally got out to the stick and it quickly dropped off to around 5m deep. This is where the real colours come to life and even the coral starts to get some beautiful colours and the bigger fish start to appear. I was glad the tide was still coming in as i was tired from getting out there so just floated back to shore like the dead wood i felt like. We just lazed around on the beach for the rest of the afternoon as that night I finally had to do some work!!!!

We rocked up at 11pm to the ANZ bank site to fix the issue which was a failed disk. After trying to fix it remotely over the phone back in Australia the week before with the local staff it seemed it wouldn't be just a normal disk replacement. Lucky for me it was just the lack of knowledge of the local staff that was the issue & i was back in bed by 12:30am, just the way i wanted it.

Thanks for the free holiday ANZ Bank!!!

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It just so happened to be my birthday while i was over in Samoa & i made sure i didn't let this minor detail go past both work & the locals i was working with. I let Roneil (local guy i was working with) know that he had to take me out on the town for my birthday & help me celebrate.

Roneil came through and picked me up from the Hotel after work and took me to his local bar, one of three in the town. The bar was a "sports" bar, it had some TV's with all sorts of games on from around the world but mainly rugby. It was full of rowdy BIG Samoans cheering for their teams on the various TV's around the place. This time i wasn't the only palagi in the place as there were a number of other aussies, so i looked a little bit more like a local. Roneil then introduced me to Vailima which is pretty much the ONLY beer you can get in Samoa, but luckly its quite good. Vailima tastes much like my favourite local beer Boags Premium, just a little more rough around the edges.

The few local aussies soon introduced themselves and were quizzing me about what its like back in Australia, one just happened to be from Adelaide.... i let him know what i thought of his hometown!!! (Ass end of nowhere). Soon i was getting pretty drunk as Roneil was meant to take me out to dinner before hitting the bar so he ordered up some Sashimi (raw salmon) from the bar, which i thought was quite odd as their aren't many bars i know that also do Sashimi. But hey i was half tanked and was hungry so it was food.

A few more drinks in and the bar maid started putting empty shot glasses next to my beer??? At first it was just one then another & then another. I slurred at Roneil "what the" and pointed at the shot glasses, he informed me that the locals found out it was my birthday and were buying me drinks!!! The shot glasses were free drinks.

At this point things got a little hazy for a while and the next thing i know I'm at some tin shed eating steak & eggs? Which I'm guessing is the Samoan equivalent of a souvlaki when your drunk you go and grab some steak & eggs.

From what i remember it was a great night but man did i pay for it the next day, i just slept all day and took it easy at my hotel & went for a short walk in the evening to watch the sunset, but it was good fun & a great place to spend my 27th birthday.

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After a good sleep in i got up late in the afternoon and decided to head into town. Apon walking through the hotel reception i was greeted by a hotel staff member who put out his hand to shake mine. Now while this wasn't anything out of the ordinary it was the length at which he held on to my hand after we had stopped shaking while we spoke, even when i tried to "pull out" of the hand shake. He was a nice enough bloke but really when the shaking stops so should the grab because then its just two guys holding hands....

After that little awkwardness i walked into the city of Apia for a look around. It's such a small place for a capitol city, well at least what i'm used to anyway. It only takes 10 mins to walk around the whole city and to see the amazing sites such as the bus terminal with all the pimped out busses, McDonald's with the drive/walk through and all the public fale (small huts) on the waterfront. The one thing that stuck out the most about my first outing in Samoa was the friendliness of the people, most would say hello or at least give you a smile. I'm sure it had something to do with me sticking out like a sore thumb being the only palagi (Samoan for white person) in town, so i really looked like a tourist.

I grabbed dinner back at the hotel and on a Thursday night they have a fiafia, which is a meal & show of traditional Samoan dancing, including fire dances. The meal was ok for a buffet but the show was great. They not only showed their more traditional ways but also entertained the crowd by getting them involved & in turn making them attempt to join in and most of the time laughing at their bad timing

My first real day in Samoa was a real eye opener in a lot of ways including the warm friendliness of their people.

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It all started off well with us leaving Australia on time with a new Boeing 777 plane. Thankfully it had the in-seat entertainment systems to help pass the time for the first leg to Auckland, New Zealand. From there I was to catch a connecting flight to Apia, Samoa. After a short stop over to stretch my legs I was back on a smaller Boeing 767 plane (no in-seat goodies) to Apia.

Again all was going well with us leaving on time but about an hour into the flight the pilot's voice came over the PA telling us that we would have to turn around as one of the windscreen's of the plane had cracked!!! He was quick to reassure us that it wasn't as bad as it sounded as the plane was fitted with 2 windscreen's for each window, an inner & outer one. It was the outer windscreen that had cracked. The other issue was that we had to burn the extra fuel, 2 hour's worth before we were allowed to land back at Auckland.

So after another 2 hours we were back at Auckland airport waiting for another plane to be prepared for us to board to Apia. An hour later we were again boarding a plane for our second attempt to get to Apia. But this time it seemed to take forever to actually get off the ground. We all sat on the plane still at the terminal waiting and waiting and waiting, going nowhere for another hour. At this point I was over the idea of a trip to Apia and just wanted to sleep as it would now take me the same time it would to get to the US when I'm only going a quarter of the distance.

Five hours and a crappy Hugh Grant movie later we were in Apia. I was dead tired and needed sleep, so I grabbed a cab to my hotel. There were a few things I quickly noticed about Samoa. It was hot & humid even at 5am in the morning, the cab's "safety" standards weren't quite kept up to any real standard as the speedo didn't work, no fair meter & the roads were full of pot holes big enough for cars to fall into.

I soon got to my hotel and passed out for the next 12 hours.

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