Daily Travel Photo - Savai’i, Samoa

Daily Travel Photo - Savai’i, Samoa

This is a long exposure shot of the Southern Cross taken in Samoa. The light on the palm tree is ambient light from a near by building. The exposure was about 30 seconds. I adjusted the exposure in Photoshop to make the palm tree more apparent, and that also brought out more stars. The Southern Cross is on the flag of Samoa.

Daily Travel Photo - Savai’i, Samoa

This is a blow hole on the island of Savai’i, Samoa. If you look closely, or click on the image, you can see man near the water plume. He lived near the blowhole and would throw coconuts into it for a few dollars. In the photo, you can see a small black dot in the water which is the coconut. The coconut would get launched about 150 feet into the air and would smash on the rocks below. Great fun.

Daily Travel Photo - Savai’i, Samoa

Cape Mulinuu is considered the western most spot on the Earth. For a long time I wondered why this point was the westernmost. There are bits of land which cross the 180 degree longitude line. There are part of Alaska which are farther west which do not cross the International Date Line. I eventually discovered that it is the last place the sun sets each year. Because of the bends in the International Date Line, the parts to the west near the 180 are in a new day and the parts of Alaska which are to the west would be in the dark earlier. I thought it was a fitting photo for New Year’s Eve.

A Tale of Two Kingdoms

Almost every night I get to tell the same story: the story of my trip. Most people I meet on my travels are just visiting somewhere for a weekend. Sometimes I’ll pull out my laptop and show them the Google Earth map and walk them through the places I’ve been and the places I’m going.

People who are traveling for extended periods are usually just stopping in the Pacific on their way to somewhere else, usually the US or Australia/New Zealand. Few people visit more than one Pacific country. (Although I’ve met several Aussies and Kiwis who have been to several countries over the course of their lives)

I was asked by a woman last week, “Aren’t all the islands pretty much the same? Once you’ve seen one haven’t you seen them all?”

It’s a fair question I guess. Without having been there, I suppose most islands would seem the same. Certainly, in Polynesia at least, many things are similar. The languages are similar, the foods, what few they have, are similar, and the music and dancing are similar.

But they are different, sometimes dramatically so. The best example of this is difference between Tonga and Samoa.

Tonga and Samoa have histories that are intertwined. Tonga was originally settled by polynesians from Samoa. (In fact, all polynesians can trace their roots back to Samoa). Prior to the arrival of Europeans Samoa was ruled by Tonga. Samoa and Tonga are both regional powers in Rugby. Both have populations similar in size. Both have large expatriate populations. And of course, they are close together.

Yet, Tonga and Samoa are very different.

For starters, Tonga was never colonized and Samoa was colonized by the Germans, New Zealand, and in part by the United States.

In Samoa they drive in the right and in Tonga they drive on the left.

Last September, the King of Tonga died and in May, the King of Samoa died. The King of Tonga was buried in the royal graveyard in the middle of the capital. No one can get within about 200 yards of the grave. The King of Samoa is buried off the road just north out from town near the parliament building, and the grave is accessible by everyone. Many people have left flowers at the site, but it isn’t a giant edifice like the Tonga royal graveyard is.

While in Tonga, I saw soldiers all over the place. Soldiers around the royal palace. Soldiers near the new king’s palace. Soliders in the downtown. Solders out to keep peace during a high school rugby match. On the tour of the island, I was struck at how often our guide would mention stories or customs in villages that surrounded warriors. I also saw lots of police on the island. That is a lot of uniforms for a country of about 100,000.

In Samoa, they have no military. None. I saw a few police directing traffic. That’s it. The Samoans seemed like a much more peaceful people than the Tongans. The recent riots don’t take away from that perception. Nor does the historical fact that Samoa was conquered by the Tongans before the arrival of the Europeans.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Samoan village life is very structured around the village. Tongan villages seem more like small towns and not as highly centralized as Samoan villages.

I suppose if you just went to these islands to sit on the beach you wouldn’t catch a lot of this stuff. This is why I’m traveling.

Bye Bye Samoa

Tomorrow moring I leave Samoa for Fiji. That should begin several intensive weeks of travel. I will cross the date line for the 5th time from the 14th to the 15th of July.

I will then rent a car and drive to Suva, Fiji where I will try to get my visa for Kiribait on Monday. If they can’t process my visa in one day, the country has serious issues. I then drive back to Nadi that night to catch a Tuesday morning flight to Noumea, New Caledonia on the 20th.

I then have 3 days in New Caledonia till I leave for Vanuatu. I don’t plan on doing a lot in New Caledonia beyond exploring the capital. As previously mentioned, in Vanuatu I will be visiting a volcano on the isle of Tanna and visiting a John Frum (Cargo) cult. I am hoping they embrace me as their god.

I then am currently scheduled to fly stand by on a flight to Honiria in the Solomon Islands. Here is an article I just read today about the Solomons and logging. I had no idea they had so few tourists. My primary goal in the Solomons is to visit Rennell Island. The largest raised coral atoll in the world. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage site.
I’ll then head off to Papua New Guinea, where I am thinking of leaving the capital Port Moresby as soon as possible and getting out to New Britian or one of the other islands in the archipelago.

After PNG, it is back to Honiria to connect on a flight to Nauru and Tarawa, Kiribati. My places visited list will probably need to include some asterisks as my ‘visit’ to Nauru will probably be as short as the country is large.

From here, I may have to go back to Fiji to get to Hawaii as there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of flight to the north of Kiribati. I may have a stop over in Tuvalu before Hawaii.

That should conclude the most logistically challenging part of my trip. The remaining pacific islands should be pretty easy to reach as they are all serviced by Continental Airlines Micronesia. My big “to do” list in Micronesia includes” jellyfish swimming in Palau, wreck diving at Chuuk lagoon, and trying to visit the atolls in the Marshall Islands where the US did above ground nuclear testing in the 40s and 50s.

I’m loving the hell out of the Pacific, but I’ll also be glad to be done. It is very frustrating to travel within the region.

Samoa Fatigue

So I went to the Chinese embassy today and spoke to an official about my trip. She explained that I’d probably only get a visa good for three months and two entries at most. Because I don’t know the exact date of when I’ll be entring China, I will just get the visa when I’m closer. I’ll also provide a lot more documentation about where I will be going.

This was the first time I’ve had to apply for a visa, so it was educational. I think I’ll take the route of information overload in the future so there are no problems about what I’ll be doing.

I also made a travel agent very happy. I explain what I was planning on doing and the tickets I needed booked to Melonesia. I think she was happy.

It is looking like I will have to go through Hawaii again. I’ll make the best of it and send some stuff back home while I’m there.

My last two days in Samoa I’ll be at Auggie Grey’s Hotel. It’s the classic place to stay here. My current place is booked so I figure I should go there and take advantage of the hot water.

If the rest of my trip goes as slow as it has been the last few weeks, I’ll die of old age before I’m done.

I’ve settled on two major obectives in Vanuatu and the Solomons. In the Solomons I’ll be visiting Rennell Island. It’s the only World Heritage site in the Pacific and largest raised atoll in the world. It also has the largest chunk of bird diversity of any pacfic island. In Vanuatu, I’ll be visiting Mount Yasur…an active volcano.

Vanuatu and the Solomons have so many islands that I had to narrow down what I wanted to do. I also wanted to pick up the pace a bit. I’m I’m lucky, maybe I’ll meet some people in a cargo cult :)

Every Time I Try To Get Away, They Keep Pulling Me Back In

It is as if I can’t escape Samoa.

I’m now stuck here till Saturday because of flights to Fiji. I will have spent more time in Samoa than New Zealand. That doesn’t seem right.

Travling in the Pacific is really slow. I’m going to need to pick up the pace and maybe cut down the time I spend in some places. I really wanted to spend some time in Nauru, but given the flight schedules, my choices seem to be one week or one hour on a stop over. As much as I want to visit Nauru, a week there really seems over kill.

I’m starting to get worried about my ability to get to China and avoid the winter. I’d like to be out of the Pacific by the end of August. Even if I finish in the Pacific by August, it might be too late if I also go through Japan and South Korea. I could just say “screw it” and reverse my route and go north through asia and try to make China by the spring.

There was a miscommunication at the Chinese embassy and I ended up having to get my vias on a rush, else they had to have my passport for five days. I’m getting a one year multi-entry visa, so I should be fine.

I also am doing better than expected on my finances, so that’s good. Three days in Tonga with food, internet, drinks, and lodging was $120. Not bad.