More Site News…

I just uploaded a ton of photos from my weekend adventure on Rennell Island. Please check them out. I had less than perfect lighting conditions for most of my time on the island, so some didn’t turn out quite as well as I had hoped. Nonetheless, there are some good ones.

Also, I keep talking about video but never post anything. Most of my time in Hawaii will be spent working with Kris to get the first couple of installments of my video out the door. Here is a taste of what is to come:

http://www.nightlightpress.com/video/etew.mov

Once the first ones are done, doing subsequent episodes should be much easier. Expect about 2.5 to 5 minutes per episode. I got some great footage this weekend.

McDonald’s Noumea

The McDonald’s in Noumea wasn’t anything special. Nothing special on the menu. The only thing of note was how they organized their value meals. You picked a sandwich, you picked a side (salad or fries) and a drink. Each meal was the same price.

They also had the Royal Cheese from Pulp Fiction fame. Not “Royal with Cheese” or “Royal du Fromage” but just “Royal Cheese”.

The McDonald’s in Noumea was very similar to the McDonald’s in Papeete, Tahiti. This really shouldn’t be too much of a surprise as they are both French Territories.

Menu wise, most of the McDonald’s in the Pacific were pretty much the same. Just like the small changes in Fiji were really indicative of something bigger, so too is the lack of anything special in the Pacific indicative of something. Talking to people back in the US, one question that always comes up is “what neat stuff have you eaten?” Believe it or not, despite my McDonald’s obsession, I am always on the looking for unique foods. In the Pacific, however, it has been hard to find.

Think how many ethnic restaurants you’ve eaten at or just have seen in your community. In the Twin Cities alone, I have seen restaurants featuring cuisine from: Italy, China (and provinces there in), India, France, Germany, Greece, Lebanon, Iraq, Mexico, Nepal, Vietnam, Thailand, Ethiopia, Morocco, Norway, Sweden, England, Ireland, Russia, Somalian, Mongolia, and, oh, Japan.

I can never recall having seen a polynesian restaurant anywhere. Even the Polynesian resort at Disney World doesn’t really have any real polynesian food. They serve drinks in cored out pineapples with little umbrellas, but the food really isn’t polynesian. There is a good reason for this.

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Polynesian diet was very limited. Meat consisted of pork, chicken, fish and shellfish. That sounds like a lot but the pork and chicken was probably only eaten on special occasions. The plants were even more limited: taro, coconut, various fruits (breadfruit, banana, papaya), and maybe some cassava.

Somewhere along the line, polynesians also lost the ability to make pottery. Cooking was done in banana leaves or large stones, which limited the ability to bake and do other types of cooking. (actually, it is still often done in banana leaves). The absence of pottery also made it hard to boil water in large amounts.

With limited food options and limited cooking options, and few if any spices, it is no surprise that genuine pacific cuisine never developed. (I should say I haven’t been to Papua New Guinea yet. With more land and 40,000 years, they may well have developed more of a cuisine than the other islands did. I don’t know)

Most pacific nations are, by a wide margin, net food importers. Moreover, the foods you see in village markets tend to be things like instant noodles and corned beef. On the basis of the amount of advertising and product I’ve seen in stores, I would call canned corned beef the food of the South Pacific. During my trip to Rennell Island my breakfasts consisted of: white bread (no toast or spreads), saltine crackers, beef flavored instant noodles and homemade donuts that were very very hard to chew. I should note that what I listed was the entire meal, not just the entree.

The only unique dish I’ve seen was a raw fish dish with cucumber/coconut sauce. In Tahiti it was known as Poisson Cru and Rarotonga it was known as Motu Iki. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before in an earlier post, but I should again mention it was delicious. Also, lime juice with papaya is something I’ve seen everywhere. If you haven’t tried it, go buy a papaya and some small limes. Squeeze the juice of the lime onto the papaya before you eat it.

So, the lack of variety on the McDonald’s menus in the pacific is probably just a reflection of the lack of variety in diet in general in the region.

Even when its nothing, it still means something…

My Trip In Airport Code

I’m still working on my Rennell photos. To hold you over, here is a summary of my trip to date in the form of three letter airport codes:

MSP–>DFW–>LAX–>ITO–>OGG–>HNL–>PPT–>IPC–>PPT–>RAR–>AKL–>NAN–>APW
–>PPG–>APW–>TON–>APW–>NAN–>NOU–>VLI–>HIR–>RNL–>HIR–>INU–>TRW–>NAN
–>SUV–>FUN–>SUV–>NAN–>CXI–>HNL–>GUM

I’ll keep this as a running list. I think it’s interesting to view it this way.

Back..

Oh, man.

I just got back from Rennell Island. I don’t know where to begin or what to say. This weekend was probably one of the biggest adventures I’ve had in my life and certainly on my trip.

As soon as I get my stuff together, I’ll begin working on a much longer post about my weekend.

The Curious Case of the Solomon Islands Moon Rock

For those of you who don’t know me personally, let me explain something about myself. I’m a smart guy who is socially retarded.

I can explain calculus to people who don’t know math. I own at trivia. I have a capacity to remember all sorts of stuff that most people, rightfully so, would never bother to remember. Sometimes it’s spooky.

However, I will also probably forget your name if I meet you and there is a good chance I’ll make a very bad first impression, probably inadvertently saying something offensive. (I was told at my going away party I yelled at someone telling them that “BORNEO ISN’T A COUNTRY. IT’S AN ISLAND!”)

..anyway, I digress.

The reason I bring that up is because I noticed something today that I am probably one of only a small handful of people who would have noticed and been in a position to notice.

I visited the Solomon Islands national museum on Wednesday. The National Museum isn’t really anything to write home about. It’s surrounded by a rusty fence. The one building with exhibits is pretty old and grungy. I was the only visitor there and they had to open up the gift shop just for me. So I suppose that’s the first thing….most people who visit the Solomons (and there aren’t many) don’t bother to go to the museum.

In the museum, they had all sorts of carved sculptures, artwork, photos and artifacts from the Solomon Islands. It wasn’t the level of a display you might expect at a western museum, but that shouldn’t be expected. It got the job done and the lady working at museum was very nice and informative.

While wandering around all the Melanesian artwork and artifacts I came across something which was very out of place. It was an engraved plaque.

It was an engraved plaque with the Apollo XVII mission patch on it.

On the plaque was a small acrylic sphere with a tiny piece of rock in the middle. A moon rock. It was collected in the Taurus-Littrow Highlands of the moon, and it was sitting in a exhibit of Melanesian artifacts in Honoria.

The plaque said it was given to the people of the Solomon Islands by President Carter on July 7, 1978 on the occasion of their independence.

Most people would have noticed the moon rock. There is nothing special in that. I however knew something else. There have been several hundred moon rocks given as goodwill gifts by the United States. About half of them are missing. They might be sitting in a cabinet somewhere or might be in the home of some bureaucrat who was in a position to take the moon rock home 30 years ago.

However, many of them have been flat out stolen and sold on the black market to collectors. On a per gram basis, moon rocks might very well be one of the most valuable things on Earth. One recent case in the news (where I read about all of this) had someone trying to sell the stolen moon rock given to Malta for $5,000,000!!! In public auctions, pieces of the moon have sold for $400,000 for tiny fragments.

It was that knowledge that had my heart racing when I noticed something else…..

the glass display case had no lock….

the glass display case was wide open…..

I was alone in the room…..

I’d be lying if I didn’t say there was a moment of temptation. I, and I alone it would seem, was the only person who had laid eyes on this thing in years who probably knew the real value of it to collectors. No one probably would have noticed it missing for months if not years. (If I had replaced it with a fake, maybe even longer) Five million dollars in the size of a big marble just sitting there unprotected.

With my warped values however, I figured it would make for a better blog post that it would selling it. Besides, I’d really be a shitty human beings if I stole from the poorest country in the world.

I mentioned going to the museum later in the day to the guy at the travel agency who booked my tickets through to Honolulu. He mentioned that there had been several break-ins at the museum.

What was stolen you ask??? Shell and feather money which is still used as currency on some of the islands.

If you want an example of the different values other cultures have, I can think of no better example. They broke in to steal the pacific equivalent of wampum and left the $5m moon rock.

Anyway, having decided not to turn to a life of crime, what to do next?

Given how these things have disappeared over time around the world, it is probably just a matter of time until someone steals it. (It may have been stolen before during the civil unrest here in 2000) If I tell someone who works at the museum about the value of it, there is a good chance they might just take it.

I have no clue who to talk to in a position of authority and, honestly, I don’t think the security of moon rocks is very high on the agenda of the government of the Solomon Islands.

I figured the best thing to do was to make it public and hope that someone will pass this along to someone in NASA or the State Department who might be able to suggest to the Solomon Government they put it away. Also, by making it public, if it disappears, it is going to make it very obvious that is it stolen and at least give and indication of when and where it happened. (I suppose there is a risk of someone reading this, taking the first flight to the Solomons and stealing it, but I think that is slim, and moreover, having made this public, it would make it much harder to sell).

I will probably also stop by the US Consulate today because the office is in the same building as DHL and I need to send a package home.

So if anyone reading this knows someone in some position to do something, please pass this along. It would be a shame to lose another one of these rocks to thieves.

Everything’s Coming Up Gary

The Solomons isn’t turning out like Vanuatu….thank God.

I got my flight to Rennell Island booked which worried me. i had read that it was usually booked. Likewise, my flights out of Honoria all the way to Hawaii should be fine with minimal sitting around time. I should be in Honolulu on August 14th and In Guam about the 19-20th.

I should have some amazing photos when I’m done here. I’m off to see some WWII relics and the US memorial on Guadalcanal.

The CIA World Fact Book lists the Solomons as tied for the poorest country on Earth. I don’t’ know if it’s true, but if not, it’s damn close.

35,000 Feet Above The Pacific Ocean

I’m writing this in route from Port Villa, Vanuatu to Honoria, Solomon Islands….

I had an interesting experience at the Port Villa airport. When the flight with my plane to Honiara landed, there were a bunch of police and TV cameras waiting. I didn’t know what was going on. I assume it was a politician or a celebrity which was arriving. The flight had come in from Fiji.

After everyone got off the plane, a man exited and was thrown to the ground by the police after he got down the stairs. Turns out he was a counterfeiter from Fiji who had been coming to Vanuatu to make fake notes. The police made a big show of it for the cameras (some things are the same everywhere I guess) and put him and two accomplices who were arrested waiting for him in a cage in the back of a pick-up truck and drove off.

Frankly, it was the most entertaining excuse I’ve had for a flight to be late.

I was worried about my flight to Honiara. When I got my tickets for this part of my flight in Apia, the flight from Vila to Honiara was full. I was put on a wait list and decided not to get any tickets beyond Honiara if I wasn’t sure I could get on the flight. I figured it was a small plane because the Vila to Honiara route couldn’t possibly be that big.

Well….the flight was 50% empty. It was a Pacific Air 737. Why in the hell they had this marked as full was beyond me. Yet another story to throw on the pile in my Pacific travels. I had I been guaranteed a seat on this flight, I would have taken care of my flights beyond Honiara sooner. Now I have to cross my fingers and hope I can get a ticket there an back to Rennell Island, my objective here in the Solomons. I really don’t want this to be another Vanuatu. I also have to book my flights to Tarawa and back to Fiji. From Fiji I’ll take a brief weekend to Tuvalu, then to Hawaii

I’ll stay a bit in Hawaii so I can send mail out and finish up the video that I keep talking about but never showing (I think you’ll find it worth the wait). Then I finish up the Pacific in August in Guam, Palau, the Northern Marinas, Micronesia and the Marshalls.

Then…..JAPAN!! I look forward bullet trains and not being trapped in one small spot for a week at a time…..and quality internet.

Your things to see/do in Japan suggestions will be welcome. The help I got from everyone in New Zealand was really appreciated. I got to see most of the things that were suggested.

Vanuatu Blues

I really had high hopes for Vanuatu. They have all been dashed. Vanuatu has turned out to be a total bust.

Its been overcast and rainy most of my time here. That means I haven’t been able to get off the island, take any tours of the island, or even take any good photos of Port Vila. I’ve read my books, scrounged for decent internet (lots of connections but most are crappy), and ate. That has been my last several days.

Oh, I have no clue if I’m leaving the island tomorrow. My ticket to Honoria has me flying stand-by. There is only one flight a week from Port Vila to Honoria. There are pluses and minuses to both getting the flight and not getting the flight.

Given the cloudy weather, I’ve taken a few HDR photos of Port Vila….not that there is much to take photos of here.

Oh well, I’ve set up shop today at the yacht club in the harbor. They seem to have the best wireless connection I’ve found and I get to talk to people who sailed here. Maybe someone can give me a lift to the Solomons.