The R&R Big Adventure

40 Tala

Unbelievably, our bags made the short transfer with us. After weeks of being in small hotels and motels, suddenly we had arrived in a beach resort, and it was busy, noisy and hot. There was a prom going on in one part of the hotel, a pre-wedding party in another, and live singer in the open air restaurant: we had a quick dinner and retired to our air-conditioned room.

We picked up a hire car the next morning and decided to explore more of the island (Samoa is composed of two main islands – we were on Upolou, on which is the capital Apia, and Savai’i, where we are headed tomorrow). Little more than five minutes drive out of the capital and it quickly became B-roads lined with a series of small villages. The total population of Samoa is not much more than the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, over an area nearly double the size of Greater London. The CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) was held in October in Apia, and lining pretty much every road, and certainly every village radiating out from Apia, were flags of the different Commonwealth nations. Many of the villages we passed were ‘dressed’ in the colours of the flag of a particular nation. The villages were very colourful in any instance, with all kinds of exotic plants lining the road (most using brightly painted old tyres as plant pots). Every village had a meeting space – a covered, but open-sided building where I understand community meetings regularly take place. Churches are everywhere – this is a very religious country, and apparently one should avoid driving or walking through villages on a Sunday. A few car stickers proclaimed ‘Jesus is Coming’ or that ‘Jesus Loves You’ in large letters. Maybe not for us, in a country where it is still illegal to be gay.

Passing through countryside thick with tropical green forest, we stopped at an impressive waterfall and a famous ocean trench To Sua (an inland, ocean-fed swimming hole which requires descending a steep ladder to get to), before stopping at a very quiet beach for a couple of hours sunbathing. It truly does look like a tropical paradise. Now I am fully supportive of foreign tourists giving back to the local communities, and that the local population has to make a living… but then there are also cartels. The ‘entrance fee’ (to go across someone’s land) to get to the waterfall – 40 Tala (about £12); the watering hole admission – 40 Tala; parking at the beach – 40 Tala… apparently it is considered rude to haggle with the locals. I wonder if a local wrote that. We stopped at yet another picturesque bay for lunch, before returning to our hotel in the late afternoon.

Some – but by no means all – Samoans really are quite a size. I appreciate some of this is genetic, but eating a dozen pancakes with maple syrup and cream, followed by a plate full of sausages, at breakfast, might also have something to do with it. At dinner last night it looked like the Samoan women’s rugby team props were having a night out. It was an all-you-could-eat meat BBQ night (we stuck with one course from the à la carte) and they certainly were digging in, especially when they went up for seconds. In addition to the several cans of lager lined up in front of them on the table, they also had jugs of fruit juice, into which one of the ladies was not indiscreetly topping up with the contents of a full size bottle of Johnny Walker Red Label, which was sticking out from her handbag. Unfortunately we weren’t there to see how their evening ended up.

We wanted to get our hair cut before Christmas, and Samoa seemed a better bet to do this than in Vanuatu, our next port of call. Most of the barbers we Googled seemed to have either closed down, or were closed, but we finally found somewhere open this morning (thanks to the intervention of the guy who had processed Robert’s passport at Apia passport control recognising him on the street, and giving directions). The barber shop seemed fairly dead, but then from nowhere, a couple of well-built guys with tattoos and heavy chains round their necks appeared. We weren’t sure if we going to get a hair cut, or be inducted into a Samoan gang. Fortunately it was the former. And the price for two haircuts? 40 Tala (actually a bargain, compared to the parking charge). I also needed to get some eye drops from a nearby pharmacy… 39.50 Tala.

The weather held out all day today (despite being the rainy season) so we have had a leisurely day on the beach. Thankfully a strong, cool breeze was blowing for most of it. Tonight’s evening entertainment in the hotel is ‘The Boys Show’ – which, from the picture, looks like well-built guys dancing in just sarongs. Suddenly R has discovered an interest in traditional Samoan dance.