Beach used for Survivor Samoa:
We doing Samoa for lowa
‘Cause the mothah and the faddah
say the money ain’t no mowaTalofa! We’ve only been in Samoa for a week but already we’re rapping like the locals. In Auckland, we had been walking down the main street when a city bus went by with a large ad plastered on its side. It said “Samoa for Lowa”, advertising some vacation package deal. So Mitchell started repeating “Samoa for lowa” in his best gangsta style and this little rap kind of morphed out by the end of that walk. Anyway, it makes us laugh especially when he follows it with a fist bump to the little bro and downward peace sign to finish it off with flair. It’s kind of sad as well because it’s actually true. Not only are we running out of time but our self-funded leave money really is no more . . . I mean, no
mowa.
I don’t want to write about how melancholy I’ve been lately, contemplating the end of this amazing year. I’ll try to stay upbeat for now and focus on Samoa. To me, the trip essentially ends after Samoa because I can’t really think of the US and Canada as anything other than home turf. I think Ted and Jackson are really looking forward to the return home, but Mitchell at least shares some of my pain. He often tells me he doesn’t want to go home, he wants to keep traveling. He definitely has the wanderlust bug. My bad. Or good, depending whose opinion you ask.
Back to Samoa. (Bear with me, this is going to be a lengthy post. Remember this is my virtual scrapbook and I want to record everything so I can re-read it when I am still depressed this time next year). Western Samoa is yet another stunning corner of the world, with lush green rainforests, waterfalls, volcanic mountains, black sand beaches and lava fields, not to mention the now taken-for-granted turquoise ocean just to complete the colour scheme. It reminds me of that classic quote by St. Augustine: “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page”. I'm loving the Samoa page.
Random gorgeous scenery:
Random cute Samoan kid:
We’re staying at a place called the Samoan Outrigger in Apia, the capital city on the main island of Upolo. Western Samoa is made up of two large islands and a few tiny ones scattered nearby. The other main island is Savaii. We rented a car for a few days and did a circuit on the coast roads around both islands. It’s hard to get inland but worth the effort – there is one cross-island road on Upolo and this drive rewarded us with more beautiful scenery including waterfall after waterfall and green mountains shrouded with low-lying clouds. We had hoped to see the famous blow-hole display, where water shoots straight up into the air up through a lava tube, but you have to time it just right and be there at high tide. Still could happen.
Apia harbour:
Shopping for fresh fruit on a rainy morning:
Buses in Apia are always crammed full:
The owner of our hotel is a 40-something Danish guy named Klaus. He’s a very interesting guy and we’ve been hanging out a bit with him, his Samoan wife Lianna and their two young kids. Klaus was a banker in Denmark and, as you might imagine, really loved that life (sarcasm intended). About 15 or 20 years ago, he went on a diving trip with a buddy for 4 months all over the South Pacific. He tells us they just hopped around from island to island in search of good diving. Apparently, he had a blast (surprise, surprise). Anyway, he went back to his banking life after that trip and could not settle back down (uh-oh, you see where this is heading don’t you?). Long story short, he asked for another leave, which he was granted, but ended up resigning from Samoa. Eventually, he met his future Samoan wife, opened the Outrigger while also working as a diving instructor on the side, and the rest is history. To me, he is an example of the right type of person to run a business like the one he has. He genuinely loves hosting people and showing them around.
One day he took all of us to a tucked-away waterhole called the Piula Cave Pool. This is the clearest, coldest water to be found in Samoa. Very refreshing on these hot, muggy days. You can swim into a small cave, which happens to be underneath a church, and if you’re very brave (or an Aussie), you will dive down in the pitch black water with a flashlight, find a tunnel that passes to another cave, hold your breath and go for it, emerging victorious in a different cave. Either that, or your dead bloated body will surface in one or the other caves eventually. Just kidding. I wish I could tell you we did this dive but we did not have a flashlight so it really didn’t seem wise. It also reminded me of a certain chapter in the novel
The Beach, where the main character (I forget his name) almost dies doing something very similar in Thailand.
Piula Cave Pool:
Klaus and his kids:
Love this photo:
Jackson in mid-leap:
We spent one afternoon visiting the former home of Robert Louis Stevenson. The author of
Treasure Island (inspired by Samoa),
Kidnapped, and
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, lived in Samoa for 4 or 5 years just before his death at the age of 44. He moved here because he thought the climate would alleviate symptoms of his tuberculosis.
Portrait of the famous author in his dining room:
After catching a ferry to Savaii, we headed to the north end to a place where you can swim with turtles. This was a definite highlight for Jackson. He has developed a real thing for turtles over this year. Back in France, there was a family in St. Papoul who had a couple of pet tortoises and these tortoises fascinated him. To work on his writing, I had told him we could write a little book together on any topic he chose. He chose turtles and tortoises, and spent a lot of time finding facts about them on the Internet, summarizing one or two facts per page, doing illustrations, etc. So to be able to swim with large sea turtles up close and feed them fresh papaya (which they seem to love) was a real treat. Next time you see Jackson, you can ask him what are the key differences between turtles and tortoises - that is, if you have 10-15 minutes to spare.
Ferry between Upolo and Savaii:
The ferry was really swaying that day and we all felt slightly green around the gills:
No Gravol with me so all I can offer is a hug:
Sea turtle enclosure:
Getting up close and personal:
We also took in another foreign sporting event – this has become a bit of a theme for the boys as well. It started with the New York Yankees and spread to Barcelona FC in Spain and the Yomiuri Giants in Tokyo. Now we can add the Manu Samoa Rugby team to the list. Last Saturday, we watched them narrowly defeat the Tonga team as part of the Pacific Nations Cup. This Saturday, Samoa plays Japan so we may be there but who to root for? Here’s one surprising observation from the game: at the risk of making a sweeping generalization, the Samoans are a very happy people and they laughed all through the game. Every error committed, every lost scoring opportunity provokes these huge belly laughs. They also cheer wildly no matter who scores. Kind of confusing at first.
We visited a local church on Sunday morning. I could not believe how welcoming the Samoan people were. Of course, we stuck out like sore thumbs. They made a big deal introducing us from the pulpit, telling us they rarely had foreign visitors. We especially enjoyed the singing – Samoans can really sing and the service went on for 3 hours! I also loved the taxi driver we had that day. When I first hopped into the cab, I launched into my description of where we wanted to go, not knowing any precise street names. He held up his hand and said “Yes, yes, I know da place. But first, miss, I need to say some ting to you. (Pause). (Wide smile). Welcome to my ride.” I loved that. Welcome to my riiiide. Complete with a piece of shag carpet on the dashboard and all kinds of doo-dads hanging from his rear view mirror. I told him I was going to use that line back home next time I give a friend a lift somewhere.
Last but not least, a personal highlight for me (being a die-hard Survivor fan), was visiting the actual site where Survivor Samoa was filmed. This is on private land so, with Klaus’ insider directions to the precise location, we drove to the secluded spot on the south end of the island and paid the owner 10 Tala to let us see it. We spent several hours enjoying the beach in complete privacy – not another soul anywhere. Very cool. Not quite as isolated as they portray it on TV, though. There is a little village (Matautu) a short walk away. Theoretically, the contestants could have snuck away and bought all the fish and fruit they wanted from this village less than ½ a kilometer away.
The owner of the Survivor locale - he got his 10 Tala and now he's outta here:
We bought a coconut from a man in this village who we then (having purchased the right) proceeded to pepper with questions about the show. He told us that yes, he met the contestants but had been told by the producers to please stay away (I’m sure the enterprising locals would have tried to sell the contestants stuff every chance they got :). He also showed us where one particular challenge was filmed, and told us the cameras were only there two times per week. Klaus also told us he had had lunch with one of the producers and he scoffed at the way Samoa was portrayed as some wild land full of savages. Ah, Hollywood.
Our coconut-selling friend hamming it up with Flat Stanley:
The name of the actual Survivor locale is Return to Paradise Beach, I kid you not. It did seem like paradise and yeah, I would definitely return to it.
Area of coastline most affected by recent 2009 tsunami:
This small island was once a leper colony:
Re-building beach fales after the tsunami:
Eating cold pizza in a hammock under a beach fale - does life get any better than this?:
Sea turtle & Survivor beach videos:
Today is our last day in Samoa. We fly to Los Angeles tonight on an overnight flight. Heavy sigh. Beautiful place, beautiful people. The best part was sharing several outings with Klaus, the Danish owner of the hotel we’re at, and his family. They know all the best spots to go and having a glimpse into their exotic (so it seems to me) life has been fun. We spent all day yesterday, Father’s Day, at a beach and they treated us to a great BBQ. At one point, it started to rain but since little fales (huts) dot every beach, we were able to grab the food and dash inside. Very cosy. They also took us to another waterfall – this one tame enough that kids can jump into it. And so they did, over and over.
Fun to climb these gigantic tree roots:
It's just one potential screensaver after another:
Having our BBQ inside the cosy beach fale:
Mitchell, the Tarzan boy, getting ready to jump into the next waterfall level:
Mitch & Jackson preparing for a jump. Klaus is in there urging them to go for it:
We'll miss the Samoan Outrigger Hotel. Just this once I may actually get online to TripAdvisor and leave a review. Even though we've had lots of positive hotel/hostel experiences, I've just never bothered before:
Mitch working on his trip journal by the pool. He is up to 40 typed pages and that is single-spaced. Wow!
We took in a traditional Samoan show one evening (they're doing the Haka warrior dance):
Hey Shambo, are you looking for this? (Warning: if you never saw the Shambo/ chicken episode of Survivor Samoa this will make absolutely no sense):
