A week in the sun is more than enough fun!
Trip Start
Jan 24, 2007
1
46
49
Trip End
Ongoing
Apia, Samoa
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Samoans are BIG, not just a wee bit chubby and not chubby alone, just BIG. The young guys are predominantly walking Adonis' (Adonii?) with rippling muscles and six packs, towering easily 6 foot in height and above. The women are also large but have the same large bones that no diet can hide! As a nation they seem to love life, they eat loads, nap in the afternoons and place family above all else except their faith. Its a christian country with a quite remarkable number of Churches, both Prot. and Cat. They love their sport and from 6:30 am (sunrise) on a saturday they have their volleyball and rugby matches before the heat gets too strong. The laid back attitudes of the locals rubs off on all, which can make travelling around the island difficult.
The buses are large diesel monstors with wooden benches. They're owned by the driver and he decides when he'll go and if he'll go. Might get to 2 in the afternoon and he just feels like an early afternoon- you find another way to get back home! We only had one bus journey but as it filled (while we waited 2 hours for it to go) the older people got priority seats whilst the younger had to pile up sitting on each others' (rather ample) laps or standing. Just when the bus interior was a single mass of flesh and bone, we departed only to stop 10 mins down the road where everyone got off to go and stockup on crisps, fizzy drinks and crazy green and yellow coloured ice cream (of chernobil fame!). We arrived at the beach 5 hours after first sitting on the bus (a 1 and a half hr journey) with a numb bum and thankfully no serious compartment syndrome of the quads!
Lalomanu beach was stunning (though there were a number of tourists there) with gorgeous white coral sands and a small lagoon with ace snorkelling. We had a couple of great sunsets, some good proper rain deluges and space and time to reflect. The onlt down side was that it was a little busy with fun-loving drinking tourist types (not good in groups!) but that didn't detract from our time there.
Beach accmomodation is in the form of a Fale- an open sided hut, on stilts with a palm-leaf roof and plastic sheets for blinds in the rain. They give you a break from the stifling heat (no aircon) keep you off the ground to frustrate the crabs and come with a mozzie net with only a handful of large-ish holes. The thin mattresses and pillows mean that the mornings are for stretching the sore neck and shoulders, but once used to the new sensation they really are very well suited to the climate. Its lovely to lie right on the beach front with the rain pounding outside your little fale, yet it still be 25 degrees at night and cozy. The food was ok- certainly very plentiful- but too much of it was deep fried with surprisingly little fruit, so the porr digestiions were complaining a little and keen for a change of scenery!
A week lazing on the beach- snorkelling, swimming, eating, reading, sleeping, swimming, sleeping, eating- was great for us. Yet at the end of the week we both had the same notion of strongly wanting to get back, to start getting on with the process of getting a job, to get away from the mozzies, get a good bed and warm shower, and so within 24 hours of making the decsion we were sitting in LA ready for our flight back to London. It was 2 weeks earlier than planned, but we are thoroughly satisfied and keen to get back to our family.
