Stunning Samoa

First good news is that I thankfully made it to Samoa alive. The flight was interesting… I arrived at the airport to find no-one there except for one other guy who was also hoping to be on my flight. As it turned out, the plane was only a 7-seater, with actually only 3 of us on the flight. The staff of the airport did not think it worth rocking up until an hour before the flight was due to leave, seeing as there were no other flights due to leave for a while. Upon checking in, I was told that I could not clear security yet as the staff were yet to arrive, then the shop through security opened specially for us, only to close again minutes later when they’d checked with us that we were not intending to buy anything. It was equally exciting and petrifying being on such a small vehicle and being able to see everything the pilot was doing. You could really feel the wind against the body of the plane and every time we changed altitude, you got that feeling in your stomach. We stopped to re-fuel and pick up passengers at Pago Pago (American Samoa). We stupidly had to clear customs, where upon questioning of how long I intended to spend in their country, I (truthfully) answered “about 30seconds”. Sure enough, once I was through I did a quick circle, going back through departures and back onto the plane for the 20mins onwards flight to Western Samoa. American Samoa is on the other side of the date line to western samoa, so I went back a day to then go forward a day again, all within a few hours- time travel!

I spent one night in the capital, Apia, where I oriented myself a bit and got all the info. I went to the fabulous cultural presentation put on by the tourism office, where they show you traditional tattoo-ing, cooking, woodwork, tapa, dance, music and you even get free lunch. Next begun transport adventure #2. I thought to save on some money I’d get the bus over to Lalomanu on the South East coast. The bus “terminal” was frankly chaotic. I received a lot of mixed messages, but after 10mins or so found a bus headed in the right direction for Piula Cave, my first destination. The buses here in Samoa are pretty epic. They all have bright colours and amazing patterns and are even pimped inside! Travelling by bus is also a great way to hear samoan music, which is blasted out at full volume. I got a seat right next to the driver, with a local student on my other side. Strangely, the bus stopped after about 15mins for everyone to get off and do their shopping at a supermarket. Eventually I arrived at Piula cave, a cute cave and pool with insanely clear blue water. You can swim inside the cave from the pool, which was pretty cool, although a bit eery- apparently there are lots of spirits that frequent the cave. Another highlight at this site was the “garden toilet”, which turned out to be exactly what it said on the tin! Literally a fenced-round area with various plants inside and a toilet at the corner.

I headed back to the road to catch the bus to Lalomanu, timing it carefully based on what time the bus supposedly left Apia according to the timetable I had been supplied. While waiting on the side of the road with my luggage for an hour was not exactly what I’d had in mind for beautiful Samoa, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Numerous locals stopped to check if I was ok and have a chat. Understandably, a young white girl randomly sat on her own by the road in your village is perhaps quite an occurrence! A few of them thought I was super young as well (the youngest guess being 18!)- I’m not sure whether that is a compliment or not! Had some lovely conversations! After maybe 30mins, a group of teenage girls passed by, who had passed 20mins before. Seeing that I was still waiting, they offered that I should go and wait in front of their house. It was a little bizarre sat there on what appeared to be a family gravestone in their front garden, but it was nice to have the company and 8 eyes were better than 2 for spotting this elusive bus. One girl even appeared with some food for me because I “looked tired” (again not sure how to take this!) Sadly the ripe banana cooked in coconut cream was not very nice- I politely soldiered on through one banana, going very slowly and hoping that the bus would turn up and rescue me from the foul concoction. When the bus finally arrived, I ran out into the road waving my hands frantically- probably absolutely hilarious to any bystanders! The bus was definitely too full for the number of passengers it already had, let alone me. Already people were sat on eachother’s laps etc, but sure enough they made room for me and my ridiculous rucksack. This bus had some super funky red lights at the front, which made it feel like a club when combined with the loud music once it was getting dark. Passed through lots of villages and some stunning scenery. The journey took quite some time, probably because the driver turned off the main road a few times to drop people right outside their front door. I was intact the last person on the bus when I got dropped outside “Taufua Fales” just in time for dinner. Dinner at “fale” accommodations is a communal affair. I was staying in one of the enclosed beachfront fales. It was super cute and literally 15 metres from the sea. The fales at Taufua are in lovely bright turquoise and yellow colours.

Sunrise was a little disappointing, but I enjoyed a morning swim and diary catch-up, followed by a lovely breakfast. I was fortunate to meet some other backpackers headed for the To Sua Ocean trench, so joined them- Sandra (Netherlands), Katrina (Finland), Roko (Italy) and Lukas (Germany). The ocean trench is quite something! It’s literally a giant deep hole in the ground near to the coast, with a pool of sea water at the bottom. We had a great time swimming around and even swam through a cave to another “ocean trench”. The currents were quite strong, meaning that you could lie on your back and just float around, while staring at the perfectly blue sky framed by the borders of the trench. We also explored along the shoreline where there were fantastic cliffs and some natural volcanic tunnels, then relaxed in a fale for a bit. In the afternoon we headed for Vavau beach- probably one of my favourite beaches in the South Pacific so far! It had a couple of volcanic boulders/ islands out in the sea that formed a lovely little cove. We swam out to get on the islands and look out at the stunning view. Katrina had a ukulele from Bali with her that she had never learnt to play, so I spent some time teaching her and we had a bit of a jam! We got back to Taufua just in time for a sunset swim! In the evening, they put on a cultural show for us- there was dancing and fire-dancing- we also got to have a try! Afterwards it turned into an island-style disco, with fun music and energetic dancing from the locals who had performed in the show. The day finished hanging out on the beach stargazing.

Sunday sunrise was slightly better. A few of us met to do some sunrise yoga in one of the empty fales, which was then followed by a bit of a beach workout! I thought I ought to complete my tour of the South Pacific Island churches, so we went along to the local church. We unfortunately had not got the memo about wearing all white with white hats (the boys rather stood out in their black tops…) It wasn’t a particularly interesting service if I’m honest, but nevertheless interesting to see. The music was fairly similar to that of the solomon islands- electric keyboard backing track. After church we attempted to join the family preparing the “umu” (trad samoan lunch cooked with hot stones) but sadly got lost trying to find their house, based on a variety of very vague instructions, and got there just too late. On the plus side, we got some lovely scenic views and went past some plantations. The traditional lunch was quite nice- pretty similar to the tongan traditional food. There was taro, palusami (taro leaves with coconut cream- super nice), fish, pork, taro. Spent the after chilling on the beach and receiving a £10 massage.

Sadly I had to part ways with some of my new pals on Monday due to my tighter time schedule. Katrina and I were hoping to get across to the wharf to catch the ferry to Savaii. Samoa is made up of 2 islands, Upolu (which contains the capital) and Savaii. Breakfast brought good luck again in the form of a couple headed for Apia, which was a whole lot easier than our plan to take the 9am bus, which may or may not exist depending on who we had asked. We got there with 20mins spare before the bus to the wharf was due, meaning we were actually able to catch an earlier ferry than intended! On arrival in Savaii, we caught the bus from the wharf to Joelen Beach Fales, where we were met by our lovely, but rather simple, host, who made us some (late) lunch. It was only us and one other lady staying there, which meant we basically had the beach to ourselves. It was glorious weather so we had a swim and snorkel, read on the beach and played ukulele. We stayed in one of the open fales here- literally a little hut with no walls right on the beach.

Being on the east side of the island, I had been hoping that the sunrise would be amazing, but it started to rain right at the least opportune moment meaning that all we could see was a grey blur. It was pretty cool being in our open fale while it rained around us. Sunrise yoga still went ahead! After breakfast we tried our luck with getting the bus back to Saleloga, where we would be picking up our rental car. Miraculously, a bus arrived after about 30 seconds?!

Valerie, our rental car, is an automatic, which I found a little challenging at first, but have now got used to! We spent the day driving along the south coast of Savaii. Highlights were the Afu Au waterfalls, where were had a nice swim and some blowholes on the coast. it was quite a windy day, meaning that the waves were especially large and the blowholes particularly powerful! Tonight’s open fale is at Falelupo. Again, it’s only us and another couple staying here meaning we have the beach all to ourselves. It’s stunning here. A long sprawling beach with immaculate clear blue water and phenomenal snorkelling. We chilled on the beach once we arrived! Sunset was, like sunrise, ruined by the clouds, which came in at just the wrong time, but we still saw some good colours. We’re on the west coast looking out to the ocean- at present, I’m sat in the main fale typing, listening to the rain on the ocean in the distance and seeing the odd flash of lightning. Sincerely hoping the weather stays out at sea and not in our little ocean-front face!