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chrischarly

700 Blog Entries
6 Trips
5148 Photos

Trips:

Chris and Charly Down Under
Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
Chris and Charly's mini trip to The States
Chris and Charly's African Adventure
Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey

Shorthand link:

http://blogabond.com/chrischarly



Buddy List

Jason Kester
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Sunday= day of rest

Manase, Samoa


Had a nice little lie-in this morning before getting up and eating some tasty fruit for breakfast. Then Chris and Neil went out for some early-morning snorkelling but the current was so strong they soon returned having gotten stuck in some places as the current just wanted to take them far out to sea, so we decided before going out again we would wait for higher tide when it wouldn’t be as strong, which it wasn’t but still a good work-out swimming session.


As it was a Sunday we had umu for lunch; very tasty and lots of nice selection to choose from. Samoa is similar to Fiji and Tonga in the way that everything virtually stops on a Sunday so most if not all shops are closed and the people just relax the whole day, so we did pretty much the same.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 20, 2012 from Manase, Samoa
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Lava fields and a protected Virgin's Grave

Saleaula, Samoa


Virgin's grave the lava missed completely
Got up this morning, chilled for a little while before checking out of Lauiula Beach Fales and headed North for a little while to go and see

Old church destroyed by the lava
some lava fields in Saleaula, which were really impressive that happened between 1905-1911 which destroyed 2 churches and impressively missed a ‘Virgin’s Grave’, the lava spitting in half completely avoiding covering her grave.

Corrugated iron melted by lava
There was a couple staying at Lauiula with us who we made friends with and as they didn’t have a car and wanted to go and stay at the same place as us we all squeezed together

Lava fields
in the car and headed out together which helped our negotiation skills when trying to find some accommodation after seeing the lava fields as there were now 5 of us and it isn’t quite the high season yet.

Chris driving through a restaurant
After deliberating over lunch between the 5 neighbouring fale accommodation we finally made a group decision to stay at ‘Vacations’ which although was the most expensive was clearly the nicest.

Our little mozzie-eating friend
Then, for the rest of the day we all did what we know best… relaxing, which a bit of snorkelling added into the mix. Then, later after we had all showered and were enjoying the gorgeous sunset Chris spotted a turtle coming up for air just past the shallows, then after seeing

Awesome beach
it in the same place for a second time decided to grab his mask and see if he could see it and he luckily got the chance to swim alongside it for a while before coming back out and enjoying gloating to the

Sunset
other guests who have been staying here for a week desperate to see a turtle themselves but not being able to. At 6:30pm dinner was served which was some Chicken and mashed potatoes and then the bar closed shortly afterwards so the 5 of us sat and chatted for a couple of our before Chris, Neil and I retired to bed to all snuggle up and watch a film.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 19, 2012 from Saleaula, Samoa
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Flat battery...

Lano, Samoa


Our fale
After watching an amazing sunrise this morning Chris and I dozed for a little while before waking up and seeing the sun shining as it has done every day since we have been in Samoa so far so we had an awesome day just relaxing, reading books and going in and out of the water snorkelling. Neil unfortunately left his clothes out on the line to dry last night, as did the rest of us but when he came to get ready he noticed that they were nowhere to be found.

Inside our fale
So annoyingly after searching everywhere they had obviously vanished, but we did find a mysterious pair of shorts outside his fale that didn’t belong to anyone staying here, so it seems that someone who must’ve walked by late at night took a liking to his shorts and decided to swap them for his or her own. Irritating, but kinda funny. Then when it got to lunch time we decided to go out and find somewhere to eat something as our place wasn’t serving lunch today and they had run out of supplies.

Explaining the ingredients and how to make
So got in the car to realise that we had a flat battery. Great. We have only had it one day, so Chris called up Avis and they remarkably sent someone straight out to buy a new car battery and sent him on the 4pm ferry to come over and change it for us. Pretty good service really, but it did mean that our car wasn’t fixed until 6pm and then it was pointless going out and doing something, but still, a good excuse to enjoy the sunshine.

Richard demonstrating the umu
So, when dinner did arrive at 7:30pm we were all famished, but at least it was delicious as we had ‘umu’ but instead of being cooked underground as the Fijians and Tongans do, it is instead cooked above ground cooking the same things though, just using slightly different methods. Chris and Neil went and watched the preparations as Neil had never seen it being made before whilst I enjoyed some more quiet time reading my book. The evening was a quiet one again as nothing much seems to happen in the evenings so we stayed up chatting for a few hours before grabbing an early night.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 18, 2012 from Lano, Samoa
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Off to beautiful Savai'i

Mulifanua, Samoa


Our new ride
Alarm went off at 5:30am today to head to Savaii the other large Island here in Samoa. So after packing we hung up our wet clothes we had washed yesterday that had failed to dry completely over the backs of the seats in our car and drove to the Ferry terminal in Mulifan, 1 hour away.

Day fales
It was nice to be up bright and early so we could make the most of our day and make it to Savaii at a reasonable hour to have a look around before finding somewhere to stay.

Coastal road
So after a quick snack for breakfast we drove straight onto the Ferry and found some seats upstairs. The Ferry journey was comfortable and not too long, just 1 hour and as soon as we arrived in Savaii the sun was there to meet us and we had a nice slow drive to Lano as the speed

Chris and Neil
limit is just 40kmph but at least it meant we could enjoy the views along the way. We chose to stay in Lauiula Beach Fales as it had a nice open restaurant with a lot of breeze going through and also had the traditional Samoan Fales to sleep in.

View from our fale
These are all open with shutters all around that you can either leave up or down when you are sleeping and when open give fantastic views of the sea, beach and Sunrise in the morning.

Neil
But as they are so open, security of any valuables is an obvious issue but luckily we had our car that we could lock anything

Big bowl of 'ava for the 3 of us
valuable up in. So after a tasty Chicken curry for lunch the 3 of us all went for a snorkel for an hour or so before having a relaxing afternoon and evening. After dinner we decided to buy some ‘ava which is the same as kava just spelt differently and as there were other people staying here as well we chose to get 2 bags so we could share it around. But typically as we had gotten so much the others didn’t like it so we had a huge bowl all to ourselves which was a struggle to drink and kept all of us up at night needing to use the toilet. A good night though.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 17, 2012 from Mulifanua, Samoa
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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A traditional fiafia show

Apia, Samoa


Chris enjoying a Vailima
After our late night last night we all had a bit of a lie-in this morning and once we had all arisen, ate some papaya for breakfast and did

Neil and I
some hand washing as all our clothes were filthy and no washing machine were available. So I washed, Chris rinsed and Neil rung out and hung up; a good conveyer belt system we thought!


Practicing for the boat race

Fiafia show

But it did take ages and by the time we had finished it was boiling hot outside as it was now midday. But we still had a nice walk around Apia which is in fact a really nice capitol city kept immaculately clean with nicely manicured gardens all along the road side. We stopped off at a posh Chinese restaurant which served tasty, yet expensive food served by some miserable staff, surprising for such a friendly country.


Fiafia show

Traditional ladies dance

After lunch we all wandered about a bit more and Neil and I brought a new top each in between going in and out of various hire car companies trying to get the best rate, car and price with the lowest insurance excess which we finally found when we walked into Avis. They were very efficient and said we could have the car straight away if we wanted so as it was already 4:30pm just managed to book some ferry tickets for the following day in time and thought we may just as well get straight out and enjoy the nice beaches on Savaii. So happy with our new car we drove back stopping for a quick drink along the way at the Yacht Club to watch some rowers practising for the 50 years independence in a couple of weeks’ time before going back to Livingstone Apartments for a quick change and out to Aggie Grey’s for dinner, in a very old hotel which served a delicious buffet dinner accompanied by a fiafia show, which is a traditional Samoan dancing and fire show, expensive but worth it.


Firedance

Firedance


Our drinks and food

Enjoying a cocktail

We all really enjoyed ourselves, ate too much food and drank a couple too many cocktails.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 16, 2012 from Apia, Samoa
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Onwards to Samoa!

Nananu-I-Ra, Fiji


The bar
After waking up and having breakfast we packed up and left Lellevia on a tiny little boat to the mainland.

Neil chillaxing
It was supposed to take just 40 minutes but instead took 1.5 hours, luckily Neil had his sun-cream close to hand or we would’ve all baked in the sun as the boat wasn’t undercover. The reason why it took so long was because the boat kept cutting out and they had to keep pulling it apart and repairing it.

Beautiful sea
But eventually we made it and caught a taxi to Suva to get on a very small and cramped bus to Nadi airport with a couple of hours to spare to take our flight to Samoa. The flight wasn’t long, under 2 hours and it was nowhere near full so we all got to spread out, but they sure like their air-con so it was freezing so I snuggled under

No smoking sign
the 3 blankets on the seats next to me. When we landed, the accommodation we booked, Livingston apartments was there waiting for us and drove us from the airport and into Apia driving the long way through the city taking in some night sights along the way. By the time we had unloaded our bags and gotten into bed it was gone 1am so we were all really tired so soon got into bed excited about being in a new country and going to explore tomorrow.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 15, 2012 from Nananu-I-Ra, Fiji
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Stupid friggin' chainsaws

Lellevia, Fiji


The stupid chainsaw
Before booking to stay here on Lellevia Island we had been warned that they were doing “a little bit of construction work”.

The beach
But nothing was mentioned about being awoken at 8am by a chainsaw being started right outside our room and continuing all day until after the sun had set. We were not happy. It was so loud there was just no escape from the noise as we were on such a small Island with at least 20 workers rushing to get some more bures up in time for the high season, next month.

Where Chris and I spent most of the day
Neil wasn’t feeling great today as I had kindly passed on my cold and stomach cramps over to him so he was especially irritated when all he wanted to do was rest and catch up on some sleep. Chris and I sat on the

The beach
beach for most of the morning as far away from the building work as we could get. Then, after lunch, Neil was back up and we went for a walk to the Cannibal Pol, which is still there from years ago when the locals would come over to

Nice beach
the Island to cook up

The cannibal pot!
some yummy humans for the chief. After having a quick look at the pot and not wanting to hang around for too long in case we fell in, Chris and I went for a snorkel while Neil relaxed and recovered on the beach. In the evening after our dinner we drank some Kava with the workers and watched the replay of the rugby sevens which were on last night, but the reason why we couldn’t watch them live was because they couldn’t pick up the signal on the Island, so a DVD recording was brought over instead. It was nice to have something to do in the evening and to hang out with the friendly workers and watch them so happily watch Fiji’s victory especially over England.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 14, 2012 from Lellevia, Fiji
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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To another remote island in Fiji

Lellevia, Fiji


The long walk down
We left Bobo’s once again, and we will really miss Bobo and Karin. They are great hosts and we really fell in love with the place.

Walking down to catch the boat
We walked down to the village with Bobo just as the boat from Lellevia was just coming in to meet us. On the way we caught a few squalls and it was like icy spikes hitting your face.

Leaving Bobo's...
When we arrived on Lellevia the sun was out and it looked really nice as there are no mountains on the Island so the rain doesn’t hang around for long.

Frozen coconuts
We knew they would be doing some construction, but they were offloading a large ship of materials, so it could be worse than expected.

Our bure
As soon as our bags were off the boat we had lovely coconuts that had been kept in the freezer so just like slush puppies before going to our room, which was ok, if a bit tired.

Nice view
That’s why they are building new ones I suppose. The conch horn sounded signalling lunch and we headed down for some Chicken

Chris in our room
curry. After digesting we all went for a snorkel that was better than expected with a wide array of hard and soft corals and many fish.

Neil and his little scary-looking friend
It is protected here and it shows, it was some of the best snorkelling we had seen for a while. After snorkelling Chris and Neil enjoyed a couple of happy hour beers before showering and dinner. We chatted to some of the other guests while having a few more beers before retiring to our bure for a good night’s sleep.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 13, 2012 from Lellevia, Fiji
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Local buses and rugby games

Levuka, Fiji


Neil and his new mates

Chris, Bobo and I


Market stands
We awoke early today to get some brekkie before heading off with Bobo, to Levuka, to show Neil around and watch the local rugby.

A fishing boat
We took the local bus/truck which was packed! After 1 hour of bumpy roads, and with numb arses, we made it to Levuka.

Local market
We went down to the cessation stones, where Fiji was originally signed over to UK in 1874, and then back to Fiji in 1971.

Levuka town
We then went for a look around the museum and town, which was nice with a guide like Bobo telling us lots of information Chris and I missed on our first visit here. We went to have a look around the Royal Hotel, before we popped in to Mary’s to say hi again to Leila.


Me

The oldest hotel in the Pacific


Rugby Match

Fans celebrating


Commiserating their loss
Then we headed for some lunch and a beer before making our way to the rugby ground.

Eating at Bobo's
We caught the second half of a local game and then the full Ovalau vs. Northland that unfortunately Ovalau lost.

Bobo and kava
We went back on the truck, which was even more packed than before and Neil, Chris and Bobo had to stand, whilst I was kindly given a seat by a local guy which I was extremely grateful for as I was so sore from yesterday and I there was no way I could’ve reached the bars at the top of the truck to hold on to. In the evening Karin made us a lovely curry dinner and we had some Kava with Bobo for the last time as once again we have to leave tomorrow.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 12, 2012 from Levuka, Fiji
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Levoni Hike

Levoni, Fiji


Chris and Bobo climbing
After a stormy night we knew our trip to Levoni was going to be slippery but we hadn’t expected it to be quite as tough as it was.

Break time, thankfully
To set the scene, we were hiking from Bobo’s, on the coast, to the centre of the island before finally arriving in Levoni, a village which sits inside a crater of an old dormant volcano.

Neil and I
Bobo led the way and after making this trip several hundred times before, had no issue with the mud, that was until he stepped to the side of the track to help

Cooling down
Charly pass a slippery section and disappeared into the vegetation, only held by Charly until Neil could assist.

My nice ripped trousers :(
We went up first into the plantations and it was pretty slippery but doable, then we left the track and the rest was Bobo hacking through the forest on what he told us was his secret track.

Nice view
It did resemble a sort of track I suppose. We climbed, descended, slipped, fell over, got knackered, fell some more, crossed the river/s more times that I can remember,

Nice view
taking breaks in the cool water, and then 5 hours later we were there. Not bad for a 3-4 hour trek that Bobo used to be able to do in 1 hour, in his youth.

View down to Levoni crater
Charly and I were totally knackered, Neil not so, but he is a tad fitter, or at least disguising his tiredness very well.

Levoni village
We met Epi, the Levoni host for a fabulous and well needed lunch and to learn the amazing story of Levoni and how it fits in with Fiji. I won’t recall the whole story,

Neil looking good in his sulu!
but it was really interesting and if you want to know the full story you just need to come to Levoni and meet Epi. If it’s been raining take the road, not the hike across the mountain!

Little local house
Epi took us for a quick tour of the village, where there is a stone marker showing the absolute centre of Fiji. After this we took Alvin’s truck back to Bobo’s for some rest and relaxation and more of Karin’s lovely food – this time my favourite freshwater prawns that we saw swimming around in the streams on the walk today. Early night was very much welcome.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 11, 2012 from Levoni, Fiji
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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