The R&R Big Adventure

Short but sweet Samoa

I thought there would at least be some nod to traditional Samoan culture from ‘The Boys Show’ dancers in the hotel on Friday night, but no, they were just dancing to pop songs from across the decades, wearing only sarongs. The high humidity certainly did make them glow quite quickly. A group of raucous Australian women were in the front row and lost no opportunity to get on stage with them as soon as they could. They made it quite clear to everyone they were the ‘single ladies in the house’. One of the younger dancers looked quite petrified: they made a speedy exit when they finished their performance.

Saturday morning we left the hotel early to catch the ferry to Savai’i which is the other large Samoan island, but is far more sparsely inhabited. I didn’t want to know what the safety record of the ferry company was: all the cars were packed so tightly together that most people couldn’t get out of their cars for the crossing (or for that matter, in an emergency…). Fortunately, just because a large truck couldn’t squeeze up next to our car, we were one of the few who could get out of their car for the ninety minute journey. The boarding ramps had large gaps on either side, and the ramp started to come down before the ferry had even turned round to dock. Thankfully the crossing wasn’t choppy.

However, we managed to get a nail in a tyre on the way to our hotel, and had a slow puncture by the time we arrived. The husband and wife owners of the hotel – a very simple and quiet place consisting of just ten bungalows by the water’s edge – gave us a warm welcome and spotted the puncture. We didn’t want to risk driving on it before the tyre repair shop (fortunately only 5 mins down the road) opened on Monday, so we had to spend Sunday relaxing on the beach in this glorious setting, trying our hand for the first time at kayaking, and R doing a bit of snorkeling (spotting loads of colourful fish, but no turtles). This was after much frustration first thing Sunday morning when the (lack of) Wi-Fi meant R couldn’t watch the Strictly… final as intended. He got there eventually. We’ve also been reminded, especially this weekend, of lots of Christmas parties, birthdays, events and general festivities with friends and families we cannot be at this year. I’m sure they are people in London reading this who would quite like to be in Samoa now. Grass is always greener, and all that.

The heavens opened at the end of the afternoon, but it was lovely being in our fale outside our bungalow, watching the tropical rains come down. The hotel in general was beautifully quiet and serene, especially compared to our first hotel in Samoa; all the staff were very friendly, and the on-site, water’s-edge restaurant offered a short, but delicious, selection of meals chalked up daily on the blackboard. Last night I had to try the seafood platter – half a lobster and two pieces of fresh grilled fish 😊. Despite being pretty much in the middle of nowhere, Graham Norton-branded red wine was on the drinks list. Apparently his wine does big business in New Zealand as well. As the clouds started to clear at sunset, we had a beautiful orange tinged sky to accompany our evening meal.

It was shame we couldn’t stay longer, but we had to be up and out this morning for our ferry back to Upolu and our flight to Fiji, where we are staying one night before our connection to Vanuatu tomorrow. The tyre repair shop was brilliant and patched the tyre (for just over a tenner!) in no time. We just had enough time to squeeze in a visit to some nearby lava fields from a 1905 eruption. You could clearly see how the lava had swirled and cooled as it reached this part of the island, and three walls of an abandoned church still stood with lava piled up inside it. Fortunately no one died in that eruption. In all the villages we had passed in Samoa you could see evidence of lava – whether it was the black rocks used as rockery, black gravel on the pathways, or just the fertile soil and abundance of plant life everywhere.

We carried on to the ferry terminal.  However, on boarding, found we couldn’t get out of the car this time during the crossing. The sea was decidedly choppier, but we arrived incident free.

Our flight to Fiji took off early, however it wasn’t incident free, as R’s permanent black pen exploded all over his best Reiss shorts (!). Despite not believing the steward’s advice, soaking it with soda water did seem to do the trick.

Getting a taxi to our hotel near Port Denarau Marina, Fiji already looks and feels very different to Samoa: dual carriageways, regular shops, and ‘normal’ houses – albeit we are in a tourist hub on the island. We managed to catch the lovely sunset from our terrace, and also discovered we have a washing machine and dryer in the apart hotel, so it looks like R’s shorts have been saved. R’s Mum and Brother had Fed Ex’d Christmas cards to us at this hotel, and as I was trying to sort out the washing, R was blubbing on seeing their hand writing on the envelopes on the table. We got there eventually.