Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop - chrischarly

Woke up and it's a Wednesday... again...

chrischarly — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Woke up this morning bright and early and went for a nice walk into town to find somewhere cheap with breakfast preferably with Wi-Fi.

American Samoa is pretty pricey actually much to our dismay so breakfast wasn’t cheap and we had to pay for the internet as well.

But we will have to get used to it for the next 8 days. On the internet we managed to get in touch with Carl and arranged

to go and stay with him from tomorrow onwards which will be very exciting, definitely beats staying in a motel for the rest of our stay. We then had a wander around town; Chris got his hair-cut and due to the usual miscommunication ended having it all shaved off really short. We then wandered back for a little while before having some sushi at a little Korean place down the road.

P.S, This blog entry is actually newer than 'The Time Travel' entry, but annoying this blog doesn't understand that!

Time travel

chrischarly — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Got up at 6:30am and got ready to head to the ferry after waking Poy up to drive us there. We were told to be there by 7:30am at the very latest so we had chance to clear immigration before boarding the ferry due to depart at 9am, so we arrived at 7:15am thinking we were running late already but when we arrived everyone was also sat waiting for immigration to open. By 8:30am everything was still closed and this is when most of the locals started showing up clearly more aware obviously than us dumb ‘palangis’ that we are on island time and there is no way the ferry will leave on time. So of course we just sat and waited.

At around 9am immigration finally opened and some security officer started to announce things in Samoan which we kind of understood meant that just some V.I.P.s could start boarding now, not exactly sure who they were but they looked important anyway. So Chris and I, as well as 2 American friends we got talking to, Carl and C.J, decided to use our ‘palangi’ ignorance to our advantage for once and proceeded to board as well, even though no one else was moving forward. So with big friendly smiles, we cleared straight through without any fuss and managed to grab the best seats on the ferry before the masses came onto the ferry.

Haha. The reason as to why the ferry was so busy, as it was packed, is because it is the first ferry operating since the independence and many people from American Samoa came over to celebrate as well, so we were lucky to skip the queues. The ferry finally left at 10:30am bound for American Samoa and OMG it was such a horrible journey! The sea was so rough many Samoans were green within the first hour and it wasn’t long before the whole ferry smelt of vomit and even Chris and I felt really rough, which is not something we are familiar with when on boats,

so Carl kindly gave us some of his sickness tablets which helped a lot but didn’t cure us unfortunately. At one point in the journey maybe just under ½ way the boat hit a big wave and then thumped back down with a bang which sent off one of the emergency flares emitting continuous fluorescent orange smoke, which we thought was pretty awesome and we were half expecting some emergency helicopters to come to our rescue, even though we weren’t in any danger, but thought it might be cool to see. But we soon got sent inside until the flare stopped by some deck hands as the smoke is apparently dangerous to inhale so our excitement soon ended.

Mum told us that Venus was due to cross the sun at 2:30-3pm this afternoon and although it would’ve been interesting to see, it was really cloudy outside and walking was a right mission on this ferry as was trying to stand still, so after a weak attempt I soon gave up and sat back down. Suppose I’ll have to wait another 100 or so years until I get to see it again. Finally after 8 hours of hell on the ferry we arrived in Pago Pago- the capitol of American Samoa and we were all delighted; cleared immigration as quickly as possible and stood chatting once again to Carl and his son.

We met their family briefly and Carl’s Mum shared some oranges and papaya cup cakes with us, which were a nice change to cheese sandwiches as that was all we brought with us on the ferry and the shop was closed on-board. By the way, we crossed the dateline on the ferry so it is now a Tuesday but still the same time, so we are officially time-travellers! We then took a walk to the cheapest motel we could find in town at $60 a night, what a rip-off especially as we had to go searching for someone to let us in as it was empty. But the room itself is ok, pretty rubbish for the price, but never mind, it’s a comfy bed and then we took a walk to the Mexican downstairs. Food was tasty but even though it was just the two of us in there they had the music blasted up so loud and it was lit up with just disco lights you would think you were in a club and not a restaurant so we ate as quickly as we could and left for bed.

A stupid mistake

chrischarly — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Woke up this morning before 7am to our Mobile ringing. Uh oh… it was Chris’ dad informing us that we had stupidly booked our Hawaii-Alaska flight in July instead of June. So Chris’ dad thankfully managed to search online back home whilst on the phone for us and book an alternate route to get to Alaska in time before we missed our connections; so now instead of flying directly to Alaska from Hawaii we have to go Hawaii-Seattle then Seattle-Alaska, so yet another flight on our mammoth trip back home making it 5 flights in a row!

Wow, we are gonna be exhausted! But on the plus side, as there were on a couple of rubbish seats left on our new flights and not together, for just $100 more we get to fly 1st class! Now that is exciting! I have never flown 1st class before and it will be a nice treat to break up the journey! But on the downside we lost quite a bit of money as the original far was non-refundable so now our bank balance is really suffering! Never mind. So once the internet had opened for the morning we headed down into town for a couple of hours, ate in a crappy Italian, confirmed our Ferry tickets for tomorrow and hung out and watched some more boat racing. It was pretty cool as all the Samoans were cheering and enjoying themselves and then we finally headed back and had yet another relaxed evening.

A great big dent in the bank balance

chrischarly — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Took a walk into town today and wandered aimlessly around for a while, went online and booked our flights back home! OMG we fly home in 10 days! That is scary. So our USA, Central America and South America trip is going to be put on hold for a little while whilst we go back and visit family and friends for a bit! So all change out here, but change is good. We had just 2 hours in the internet before it closed as it is still holidays here and managed to book the cheapest options we could find…

American Samoa-Hawaii
then Hawaii-Alaska
then Alaska-Germany
then, finally Germany-Home

So after 3 days of travel which every night will be spent on planes with horrific lay-overs! But then again at short notice this was cheap. So pleased with ourselves but sorry about our new bank balance, we went back and chilled out for a while away from the blaring sun before heading back out for a yummy Indian in the evening.

Another Sunday spent in The Pacific

chrischarly — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Once again it is a Sunday so nothing to do again, so that’s what we did, nothing. Apart from make a tasty pasta bake and watch some movies.

Not a lot to do

chrischarly — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Stacks of coconuts

The celebrations were still going on today and will be for the rest of the week so we headed into town today and surprisingly it was a lot quieter than we envisioned. Many places were closed or closed early so we soon got bored and headed out for an Indian before heading back.

UB40

chrischarly — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

We woke up after an awful night in our smelly hotel room after a group of drunkards were outside our room screaming and throwing things at our hotel and checked out straight away.

We headed to a nice café for some breakfast then in to town to look at what was going on for the Independence Day celebrations.

It was really busy and everyone was in a buoyant mood, there were stalls setup all along the front and even the police had on shiny white uniforms (Sunday Best!).

It was very hot, so we had to keep stopping for refreshments, before heading back to our NICE hotel and getting a well needed shower and some rest before the big night.

We headed to Apia Park around 6pm, to get in early for the UB40 concert. We were glad we did as it was very busy.

There were a number of local bands on first, and one from NZ, but at around 8.30, when the place was really packed UB40 came on. They were without their lead singer, but still did a very impressive set lasting nearly 2 hours. The old stuff was the best, and the locals liked this a lot more than the newer. All in all a great night but both Chris and I were both aching from standing around in a small area for so long.

The party animals we are, we went back and to bed for a nice sleep; pity we didn’t have any Cocoa!

Smelly disgusting motel

chrischarly — Thu, 31 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Checked out of Livingstone Apartments this morning as they are full for tonight, then back down to the doctors for another check-up on Chris before having some breakfast at a café and logging on for a couple of hours. After the internet, we took a walk around the waterfront and watched a heat of the massive canoe racing before making our way to our new hotel for the night.

Only after we had checked in and paid did we realise how lucky we have been with our previous hotel in Apia. This place ranks in our top 5 worse hotels to have stayed in during our trip. It was very small, hot and incredibly smelly, actually incredible smelly is an understatement. We didn’t waste too much time there, and headed out for an Indian to make us feel better, at least it’s only for 1 night!

A day in the docs

chrischarly — Wed, 30 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Chris had an early-morning appointment with the docs today and not wanting to wake me he slipped out the door informing me he would only be an hour. Unfortunately over 5 hours later he returned as they were just so busy after doing some routine tests and scans on him. But he did have to fast for the whole day so he could go back tomorrow for some more scans as they wouldn’t show up properly, so Chris was quite weak and tired for the day so again we didn’t do a lot, just generally relaxed.

Finally finding a bed

chrischarly — Tue, 29 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Still feeling a bit off today but a great improvement on the past few days, after some brunch Chris and I took a walk into town. Instead of walking the boring road way, we decided to take our chances and go the scenic route.

Our home in Apia

Remarkably after stumbling through a couple of villages we managed to navigate our way to the coast alongside a River linked to the sea.

But OMG it was such a hot day! By crossing roads and paths a few times we did manage to stay mostly in the shade, but when we showed up at the visitor information sight we were sweating hard and appreciated their turned-up air-conditioning. With a bit of prompting the guy was quite helpful and managed to find us somewhere to stay for the night of the 31st for quite a good price, as it was looking like we may have just had to camp up underneath the stars. For such a huge event happening Samoa is so unprepared for the amount of visitor’s it’s going to have. But at least we have a bed for the night. We then continued to walk through town and going to the internet again for a couple of hours before taking a taxi back home.

A plan day

chrischarly — Mon, 28 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The roof's made out of flip-flop remains

Another rough night for poor Chris so we had to take another trip to the doctors in the morning after taking the hire car back but luckily after having another take-it-easy day he felt a lot better but still not perfect. We took a trip into town and managed to finally find some internet! Although it was pricey it was quite fast so we started planning our onwards trip to America. Then after wandering around town for a bit we came back and chilled some more, apologies if this is getting boring to read about…

Bye bye Neil xxxx

chrischarly — Sun, 27 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Got up early with Neil and drove him to the airport to bid him a sad farewell. These 3 ½ weeks have gone by so fast and we’ll really miss him. Chris and I then had a very quiet journey back to Apia in mourning of the departure of our friend…

Hermit crab in a snail's shell

Once back in Apia we drove around some other accommodation to try and find some availability for the 31st as it is Samoa’s 50th year of independence, but we failed to find anything but high end places for ridiculous prices as everyone else except us thought long ahead and booked up, so we’ll have to think of something else. Then went back and did some washing for 2 hours before driving back into town to buy some supplies for dinner. We then relaxed for the rest of the day as Chris was still feeling a bit weak and is unable to eat much else except bananas, papaya, eggs and bread.

A nice tasty treat of a meal

chrischarly — Sat, 26 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Neil cooling off

The cave pool

Fish in the cave pool

It’s Neil’s last day today and the first thing Neil and I did was to drive to the doctors with Chris who was still feeling unwell after a rough night, so after getting him some strong painkillers we tucked Chris back into bed and drove into town to buy him some bananas and do a little bit of souvenir shopping for Neil before returning a couple of hours later still to an exhausted Chris, who sent us back out again so he could get some more rest.

Chris

Neil

So, as the sun was attempting to shine through the thick clouds we headed back towards the east coast and went to a cave pool. It was really nice and full of fish so we had a very cold yet refreshing swim in there for half an hour before we got back out and returned once again back to Apia. Chris was feeling a lot better so we all got dressed up and went out to Paddles restaurant for a celebratory last meal with Neil.

Keeping Neil entertained in bad weather

chrischarly — Fri, 25 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Lots of rain

Chris was feeling rough after a bad night, but I was feeling a bit better, so I swapped roles with Chris in entertaining Neil and we decided to go out on a mission.

Waterfall

Although the weather in Apia was not great, we had high hopes that it would be fine the other side of the Island, so we chose to take the cross-country route through the centre of the Island to the south coast and then drive up and round to the east. But the weather only worsened the further from Apia we went.

Neil checking out depth of ford #2

By the time we had reached the bottom of the Island Neil could barely see out of the windscreen so we seeked some brief shelter at a nearby resort.

Would be fantastic views if no clouds

We both felt very under-dressed as this was an obvious honeymooners retreat and we sat in the restaurant dripping wet in our optimistic beach wear receiving unfriendly looks from the staff as we chose to only have a drink and nothing to eat. As soon as we downed our smoothies, we drove quickly away faced once again with the rain.

The ford we didn't pass through

But as it had rained so hard, we were faced with a deep ford and feeling brave decided to chance it and luckily as we had quite good clearance managed to drive straight through, but just a few kms down the road we were met by another, this time fast-flowing which we just made through.

Choppy sea

Thinking we had finally crossed through the worst of the roads, we saw one more and there was no way we could risk driving through as it was really wide, even more fast-flowing and this time ended up in the sea, so we sadly turned back around and drove back to Chris for a relaxing evening and a quick bite to eat at a Chinese which unfortunately made Chris feel even worse even though he just ate clear soup.

Sick sick sick

chrischarly — Thu, 24 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Neil

Inviting bed

Chris was feeling much better in the morning, but I was not, so after a lazy morning for all I let the guys go out and explore. They went out for a nice breakfast then up to the Robert Louis Stevenson House/museum before returning to check on me.

Neil about to have a nap

Table in the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum

Old photo in Robert Louis Stevenson Museum

I was still feeling rough so expedition 2 was to the point, and then to ‘Cocks on the Rocks’ for a few beers and pool, before returning to check on me again. The last expedition they went to McDonald’s and then the cinema to watch a blokey movie. Chris returned with acid reflux so took a few pills and had a pretty uncomfortable night, think the sickness followed by a day out eating badly may be the cause!

Pulemelei Mound

chrischarly — Wed, 23 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Banana flower

We checked out this morning and left after a nice breakfast.

Check out how long the grass is!

The useless staff at the hotel managed to get our bill wrong and ended up not charging us for half our food, their loss! We then drove a little way to find the walk to the Pulemelei mound. After taking LP direction we arrived at a ford that we didn’t want to risk crossing so went around to the village to ask some locals for assistance.

Random bit of tarmacked road

They setup a guide and Neil and Chris went off for the walk, which was pretty tough so I was glad I didn’t go, instead staying behind keeping an eye on our car. The boys took lots of nice pictures though, and their guide was really nice and explained to them some of the history of this strange mound in his very basic English.

Rock hopping

He climbed for coconuts on the way back so Neil could watch with admiration as he’d never seen it done before. The walk had taken longer than planned, so we had to rush to get fuel and a quick bite before getting on the ferry. The ferry itself was a rough trip and we were pleased to get off the other end.

Chris having a little break

Once back on Upolu Island we met a Kiwi couple we had met at Lanu, and offered them a ride to their accommodation as we were going past it. On our drive the weather got worse and worse with torrential rain. After dropping off the Kiwis and stopping for a drink with them, we got on our way to find a beach fale in this horrible weather. A little way on Chris said he was feeling unwell, and offered an alternate plan to detour across the cross island road to Apia for a guaranteed good room out of the weather.

Neil and the boy's guide

We were pretty glad we agreed, as Chris got worse, and Neil did a great job driving in the dark rainy conditions.

We fed the hungry dogs whilst waiting for ferry

As we entered Apia, Chris told Neil to stop and got out of his system whatever it was that upset it, which we suspect it was the fried chicken for lunch. We got back to our original accommodation and got Chris rested up, while Neil and I went out and grabbed a take-away pizza. Later that night I got struck by the same as Chris only as it was later in the day and not so immediate I was up all night, only Neil was saved!

Awesome Blowholes

chrischarly — Tue, 22 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Reluctantly we left our lovely beach and drove along the south coast to check out some other places. But unfortunately the place where we wanted to stay was closed due to a private function so we continued on and went to see some blowholes which were in fact amazing.

Blowholes

Admiring the blowholes

Huge blowholes

Chris and I weren’t that bothered to go out and see them as previous ones we’ve seen were pretty disappointing, but as Neil was keen we both tagged along and I’m glad we did. Then after watching a guy throw some coconuts inside the blowholes we drove further on and ended up in the main town by the wharf and found a nice resort and after some super bargaining by Chris we managed to get a bargain room for 100 tala, 50 tala cheaper than the original price.

Our fale

We then chilled for a while, went to buy some tickets for the Ferry tomorrow and then went for a swim in the natural fresh water pool before having dinner and an early night.

Mt. Matavanu Crater

chrischarly — Mon, 21 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Pidgin English

Checked out this morning and drove to see Mt. Matavanu Crater which is a Volcano responsible for the devastation visited upon North Eastern Savaii a century ago.

Warning

We were greeted by the famous Gr8TRMan (Crater man) and drove on a rugged 4WD track and took a short hike to the top to take in some impressive views and read some signs written by the Crater man himself in his funny Pidgin English.

Neil

We then continued on to find somewhere to stay for night after our first choice was fully booked and stumbled across a deserted amazing beach with an old resort on.

View from the crater

Luckily the family were still taking customers but due to the reputation this part of the Island has for car break-ins we had the whole place to ourselves which made it simply paradise!

Old church affected by tsunami

After we had settled in, the sea soon started calling us so we grabbed our snorkels and went for a swim.

Sunset

It was in fact the best snorkelling we have seen so far in Samoa and we saw a big puffer fish and amazingly a HUGE shark!

Nice sunset

It was by far the biggest Chris and I had ever seen and we would like to think it was merely a harmless(ish) black tipped reef shark, but by judging the size and shape of it (it had a huge belly and a few black stripes down the side) I’m not so sure, so we got out quite quickly just in case!

View from Neil's fale

Our beach fales

We then had a couple of drinks and some tasty dinner and relaxed watching the stars.

Sunday= day of rest

chrischarly — Sun, 20 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

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.

Lava fields and a protected Virgin's Grave

chrischarly — Sat, 19 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

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.