Upolo (Samoa)

After catching the boat back to Upolu, we made a quick stop in Apia to so some shopping, stocking up on essentials like food and electricity (no really) before moving onto more beach fales. We managed to end up back in Apia on Sunday again, this time there was even less going on! We said goodbye to Dave and Keira (who were off to spend Christmas in Calgary) and headed off ourselves to Virgin Cove on the southern coast of Upolu. We had a slight hitch with our taxi driver: he hadn't heard of the Apia's tourism office, despite it being located about 100m from his depot. We had to make a stop at his depot, and after much consultation and head scratching with his boss we managed to point it out, just down the road! Sometimes in Samoa I felt like I was back in South America struggling to speak in Spanish!

We arrived at the Virgin Cove resort after a seemingly never ending succession of mud tracks through the rainforest. We were relieved to discover an beautiful resort, with this great beach and amazing fales. Good thing too, as we were really in the middle of nowhere! The place had great food, very friendly Californian owners and we spend four very happy days there -not bad for 15 pounds a night! I was sold on the place on the first night when they brought me an entire second dinner without even having to ask! It was so relaxing, with the beach about 20m from our fale.



The only slight stressor was the occasional coconut dropping from the very tall trees with a loud thud (you soon learn that sleeping under a coconut tree is a bad idea). Luckily for us there were no Keith Richards moments in paradise!

Other than flattening the occasional tourist, the trees did at least provide more photo opportunities with the moon shining through them.






Here's our beach fale (before we got the chance to mess it up):

Our next stop at Boomerang Creek involved another trip back across to Apia and then another joyous journey on a Samoan bus. In the below right picture of the bus station / random collection of vehicles abandoned in the middle of the road, you will spot Vania querying with the driver if the next buses really was not until 2010. Whilst this was going on, a car pulled up and a woman got out and said my name. This was a bit worrying, until we realised she was the owner of Boomerang Creek Fales and we were probably the only guests there. She guessed who we were and introduced herself. With Vania already getting in the back of her car, she said she wasn't actually here to pick us up but had a couple of sack loads of grain to deposit on the bus! She did at least direct us to the right bus (opposite direction to what we had been told). The journey was slightly less harrowing than previous ones, although the torrential rain through the cardboard window shutters added a new element to the experience. Also, in addition to the random time, destination and vehicle elements of the bus journeys, with it now being close to Christmas we had the additional feature of people joining the already packed bus with christmas trees, inflatable snowmen and any other objects large enough to annoy the entire bus!

Boomerang Creek turned out to be a bit of a dump with a horrible beach. I got sick from the restaurant, the weather was rubbish and the sea was too rough to swim in. The staff were friendly, but totally useless. When we checked in, one had no idea of the accomodation / meal prices so we had to call the owner and ask. She then asked us to explain the pricing system for her! The owner had disappeared (presumable still planting sacks of grain on random buses in Apia) and her six year old daughter was seemingly running the place (and was actually the most efficient person there). Other than that, it was a lovely place! And no, you can't have any photos. Thank you, thank you, thank you Dave and Keira, if you hadn't told us about Virgin Cove we would have been in Boomerang for four days!

Arriving at Litiasini Beach Resort was all the better after Boomerang Creek. This is the main beach resort on Upolu, and when someone we met told us to stay in the "second place on the right" I was a bit surprised. However, this was an accurate description as there was little else to Lalomanu other than the fales and a shop. It was perfect though, we had a great fale again right on the beach. On the first day I went snorkelling and was stunned how incredible the reef was, only just off the beach. I saw loads of fish, including some Nemo cousins (clownfish) and some swordfish who found it amusing to follow me around!

Life in Lalomanu was very relaxed. The hotel was so laid back that the staff routinely took siestas lasting most of the day, even in the middle of the dining room floor! Another one spent the afternoon snoring outside the fale next to ours, and looked genuinely annoyed when some people came and asked if they could check in!

The family that ran the place were very friendly. We also made a friend in our fale, a gekko who spent each evening running along the striplight catching the mosquitos, to great success. So much so that when we turned the light off he would make a noise to complain that we had closed the restaurant for him!

We spent the rest of our time in Samoa at Lalomanu, and were glad to be somewhere so beautiful for what would be a very different Christmas for both of us. We spent Christmas Eve at the other fales (Taufua) who had a Samoan family reunion, a Fia Fia, with Samoans returning from NZ and Australia, basically a big party with each family putting on some sort of entertainment. Even a thunderstorm and powercut didn't put them off and the partying went on. In the middle of it we attempted to call home as it was now Christmas morning there, although I'm not quite sure what they could hear other than the music.

Christmas Day started with me waking up very early and dragging Vania to the sea for an early morning snorkel. Then we made another phone call home to wish everyone a Happy Christmas in case they were still wondering who the crank caller was last night! We had a good day although it was obviously very strange to be away from home and we did miss our families lots. Still, as our travel plans made returning for Christmas difficult, if we were to be away from home we should spend it somewhere completely different. We got each other some presents, hid them in the palm trees and fales and spent quite a while looking for them (not helped by the occasional torrential downpour). Given the incredible snorkelling on offer, we spent more time in the afternoon in the sea. The fish were on a feeding frenzy, so we saw loads more. It seems its not only humans who over-eat at Christmas!

On Chrismtas Day evening, after dinner and some drinks watching the sunset the hotel laid on its own Fia Fia. Despite some initial threats it didn't involve us having to join in or me providing a birthday samoan special (fortunately for everyones sake)! We watched as they put on another series of energetic dances, a Samoan style Haka (similar to the Kiwi one but interspersed with high pitched girly screams for some reason). A few more drinks and then it was the end of our very different Christmas, Samoan-style.


Tom