Day 12 – Written by Aus at Lalomanu, Samoa
Samoa is awesome! Not only is this place really amazing, but it is nearly untouched by modern tourism. The only accommodations we`ve seen have been beachfront fales, the majority of which have no doors or windows but instead only a mattress on the floor and a tarp, or woven shutters in case of rain. There are no megaresorts in Samoa, and we are apparently on the best beach in Samoa, which I believe as it is gorgeous, and the water is the clearest I have ever seen. The experience we have had since our arrival has been very impressive. That is largely due to our good timing. By luck we arrived on the day of the grand re-opening of the Litia Sini resort. We are here after one year of rebuilding following last year`s Tsunami that wiped out the resorts previous infrastructure. One year ago Sept. 29 this area was hit hard by a Tsunami, resulting in many deaths, casualties and total destruction of many homes and buildings. This village (Lalomanu), was the hardest hit in Samoa. The village lost 64 people, and that is a very large number relative to the population (approx 250). So, there is an incredible amount of emotion involved for the people here who have work hard to rebuild this resort. Despite the fact that it is a sad occasion to remember, it is also a joyous being able to celebrate the completion and reopening of this resort. We are just lucky to have the timing that we do, as we have been treated very well.
Our journey to Samoa was a short flight, but involved lots of waiting. It was in the middle of the night, so it knocked us out of our natural rhythm. I should mention that coming to Samoa from Fiji also meant we crossed the date line again. We officially travelled back in time by a whole day. Our flight here left Fiji at 1:45 AM on September 26th Fiji time, and arrived at 4:35AM on September 25th Samoa time. How weird is that?! Also, it was less than 2 hours in duration – so yeah, so ya, we were thrown for a loop. Due to the fact that it was in the middle of the night, we also had to do some considerable waiting around the aiport before the flight in Fiji. That was OK, as we had to do some things on the internet anyhow, primarily booking a flight to out of New Zealand, as we learned that we would not be let in to the country without one. We had about 9 hours of waiting at the Nadi airport before boarding our plane, which was not as bad as it sounds due to the fact that it was air conditioned, and we were able to get on the internet, both of which were very welcome after a week in the heat and sun without any access to technology. Funny enough we did not get to posting our blog entries, so the ones from Fiji that will be posted along with this one, will all appear to have been written at the same time, but that is not the case. We have been writing and saving our entries as we go while our memories are fresh, but can only post when internet access is possible.
Anyhow, back to our Samoan experience....
Anyhow, back to our Samoan experience....
We arrived in the middle of the night at the Apia airport, which we learned is not actually in Apia, but instead is about an hour west of there. We had some concerns about our arranged driver to our resort, but were impressed to see a driver holding a sign with our names on it. Lucky thing too, as there were loads of aggressive taxi drivers trying to sell us their services. We did not realize the length of the drive either, and were again impressed with our driver`s ability to stay alert on the 3 hour journey—it was a long night for him. We were a bit out of it, but we stopped a few times so our driver could have a cigarette and try to keep awake, and at each stop we were impressed with our beautiful, surroundings. We were driving along a coastal highway pretty much the entire journey. I say "highway" because technically that’s what it is, but it’s more a road, complete with speed bumps and signs alerting drivers to watch out for stray cattle and pigs—the speed limit was 25mph. I did see a number of seemingly wild pigs and chickens on the trip, and no signs of fences or other divisions of property. We are told that that is the Samoan way, a communal living. Works for us, as we have been welcomed into this community where we are staying. It is really just our good luck to be here, as we have been treated as VIPs being the first new booking for the place after the reopening. There are other guests here as well, but many of them are repeat guests who were either here at the time of the Tsunami, or were frequent gusts here before the Tsunami who wanted to be here to help celebrate the re-opening. Most of the people who travel to independent Samoa are New Zealanders, and this resort is no exception, with every other guest coming from there. There is one group from New Zealand who love the people and the place so much, that they have been involved over the past year donating their time, skills, and resources towards the rebuilding. It’s been interesting to hear all of their stories, especially about what happened during the tsunami.
Tsunamis are not all that common here, with the last one occurring in 1902. So while that is not common, it is often enough that people should probably be prepared for it. Unfortunately however last year, they were not. There was a big earthquake that everyone at the resort had felt. Everyone had gathered to talk about it. It was a brave and knowledgable little girl from New Zealand who had learned about the signs of a tsunami in school that ran around the resort alerting everyone to the fact that the water had been sucked way out to the reef and yelled to everyone that there was going to be a tsunami. It because of her that everyone at this particular resort survived. Others in the area were not so lucky. People had to run up almost 100 metre sheer cliffs to reach the high ground, and many did not know exactly what to do, so some tried to outrun the Tsunami in their cars etc. Each have their own story to tell. It must have been quite the experience. We are told there are some videos on YouTube that people have posted, but we have not yet had the chance to take a look. Anyhow, it obviously had quite an impact on both the locals and the guests who were here at the time, and this grand re-opening is intended as a celebration of the efforts in rebuilding and rising up from the destruction. So as I said, the roots of this celebration may be sad, but the mood right now is very celebratory, and spirits are high. Added to the fact that we were walking zombies due to weird sleep when we arrived, the experience thus far has been quite surreal, and certainly at times indescribable—very serendipitous.
After our long drive from the airport to the south east coast where this resort is located, we had a little snooze upon arrival. We were woken around 11AM and asked to come to the main hut for some snacks and stuff. We stumbled over there and into a huge party. There were all sorts of figureheads there – the deputy prime minister, the village chief, the local pastor, and many others we could not identify, even Miss Samoa was there. It was clear to us that it was a big deal, and we had just stumbled into it. We knew it was the first night being open when we booked this place, but we had no idea of the party they would be having. We listened to several remarks by the big wigs in native Samoan language, and were worried that we had stumbled into something like the marathon church service experience we had in Fiji, but after a while the remarks ended and the party began. They served us appetizers, beer and wine, and eventually a really nice meal – all complimentary and totally unexpected, so that was a nice primer to a party to follow. We saw traditional Samoan dancing and were also invited to participate ourselves---it was a lot of fun. As I said, most of it was just so unexpected and so unique as to be indescribable-but the bottom line is that is was very enjoyable and very impressive. We ended up partying well into night with everyone. Lots of singing and dancing, and perhaps a bit too much to drink, but it was all a great time and we just felt so much warmth form the people, it was impressive.
The Samoan dancing....
Miss Samoa.....
The dancers posing for a picture....
A pineapple plant which I found interesting, they grow vertically from a long stem and ony one per plant, but looked cool I thought...
Our hosts (TJ, Adrian, Marila, and some other staff).....
The following day was a Sunday so it was obviously a bit more subdued. Religion is very big here in Samoa, and Sunday is a day of rest—which suited us fine as we needed it after partying all night. We did get out for a bit of sun and some fantastic snorkelling, but mostly rest. Today we will try our luck snorkelling again in the amazingly clear waters. We also found a little waterproof pouch for the camera that we will be trying, so with any luck we may have some pictures of all the fishies. The coral is still a bit beaten up from the Tsunami, with color just starting to return in parts, but the snorkelling is still great, with many different types of fish only 15 metres off the beach.
Yours truly enjoying the sun and beautiful water..
Kim doing more patching on the beach... the sewing kit Elaine provided has already been very helpful!
The camera did turn out to work with the pouch underwater, so the photos are only half decent, but give you an idea anyway....
A sea cucumber...
It’s our last night here tonight, and while we will be sad to leave, there is much more of Samoa to explore. This entry will likely be posted from Apia, the biggest city on this island of Upolu, where we will sleep tomorrow night and try to organize some more explorations of the other island Savaì’i.
All the best,
The Knotty Travellers
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