Adventures with sheep and kiwis: Samoa - Apia, Upolu to Manase, Savaii

Samoa, part 1:

The flight itself was rather painless and only about 3 hours long. Chris and I sat together with an Indian man next to Chris and Brian sat a few seats behind us next to a crying baby that had a dirty diaper. Near the end of the flight the man seated next to Chris became rather talkative. He had been very friendly from the get go but he started asking about our trip and what we planned on doing when we landed. He offered up some advice and we ended up talking to two girls seated in the row across from us as well. They all told us to be wary of taxi drivers because they'll try to over charge you and all sorts of places we should check out. Dev, the Indian man, offered to split a taxi ride with us from the airport to our hotels once the plane landed. We were very thankful and took him up on his offer.
Landing was strange, it was pitch black and I could barely get an inkling of what Samoa looked like. I saw palm trees and green grass faintly lit by the runway lights and the lights of the airport, but that was about as much as I could see. The air wasn't too humid or too hot when we got off, but then again, it was night.
The airport itself was small, but not as small as I had been expecting. Customs went by very quickly and as we left the customs area we were bombarded by taxi drivers trying to get our business. Thank god we found Dev because we simply pushed passed them and followed Dev to his personal taxi driver, Taylor. Taylor loaded our stuff into the car and we were off.
Dev explained to us Samoa culture, the phenomenon of "island time", what to do with stray dogs, and how to be careful with taxi drivers. We tried talking to Taylor a bit, but he was soft spoken and didn't understand us half the time and vice versa. But when he did talk he'd also chuckle, a high pitched giggle almost, that became very familiar to us as the Samoan laugh.
Dev asked us if we had eaten and we answered no. He told us that McDonalds (of course!) would be the only place opened at that hour. He asked us if we'd rather just eat at his hotel with him and then Taylor would drive us home. We liked this plan much better and decided to eat at Dev's hotel, the Millenium.
Driving I caught some glimpses of Samoan villages and people. There were HEAPS (as a kiwi would say) of people walking down the street and stray dogs prowling. There were these large open houses with tons of people sitting inside them having some sort of family gathering. These were only nighttime visions I caught, for what I'd see the next day would be completely different from my impressions in the night. Further, due to a lack of mass artificial lighting, the sky was jet black and the stars were out in full force.
Dinner with Dev was very interesting. We ate hamburgers and french fries (which was funny to us that this would be our first meal) and drank Vailimas, the Samoan beer. Dev told us of his life and business. He worked for some international bank (I think, Chris and Brian probably remember this better than I do) and was working in Samoa with their Health department or something. He was a world traveler, born in New Delhi but currently called Washington, D.C home. He had worked and lived all around the world. He told of studying architeture in Copenhagen and traveling to Spain with his family. He had a wive and 3 kids. All 3 of his children were huge success stories. His eldest daughter worked for and was the CEO of some movie industry business and attented the oscars regularly. His son used to be a champion hockey player and his younger daughter was in the navy and about to come to NZ. He seemed to have lived a very fruitful life and was continuing to do so. He was very accomodating and pleasant to talk with. We ended up making plans to meet up for dinner the next night at a place Dev recommended called the "Italiano."
Taylor drove us to our hotel afterwards and we settled in for the night. Our fale was pretty cool, although I was skeptical how well it would withstand rain. We had mosquito nets and only a light sheet to sleep with, which I would come to love and appreciate in the days to follow.
In the morning we woke up all sweating profusely, but happy to see that it was going to be a rather sunny and cloudless day. We ate breakfast (fruit and toast with coffee) and immediately went in for a swim in the pool.
Our hotel called a taxi for us and we went into the center of Apia in order to pick up some vouchers we forgot to get at the airport the night before. Once we finished with that we walked around Apia breathing in the sights and sounds. Everyone honks in Samoa as a form of communication. A honk to a fellow driver, a honk to people walking down the road, a honk to thank someone for letting you pass, etc etc. So it was very noisy. Also, they drive on the right side of the road, but some of the cars are made for driving on the left and some for on the right. The country of Samoa is planning on eventually switching entirely over to using the left side of the road. They want to be more like NZ I think.
After buying some water we caught a taxi up to the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum. The museum is actually the remains of his house that he lived in for 4 years. We took a tour for 15 tala and learned all about the life of Robert Louis Stevenson. Our tour guide was another soft spoken Samoan (a typical trait of Samoans) and showed a real passion for Robert Louis. He explained how much Robert Louis loved Samoa and how in turn the Samoans loved him, which is why they had his museum and why they buried him on top of a mountain. He explained everything in the same sort of template, "And this, this is the only fireplace in Samoa." The house was very big, airy and beautiful. After the tour we wanted to climb up to see his grave but the hike would cause us to get too tired and too sweaty, so we opted to go find some waterfalls instead.
Our driver took us to this placed called the "Papaseea Sliding Rocks." The waterfalls were located deeper into the jungle of Samoa. We saw banana plantations and some poorer looking villages. The sliding rocks were managed by a village and we had to pay only 2 tala to get access to them.
We descended steep cement stairs into the jungle, down to the water falls. The falls were beautiful. Our taxi driver came down with us and immediately walked out of the second of the falls and pointed and instructed Brian to "slide" down the waterfall. At first I thought he was joked, I had thought that was just the same of the falls, but he was serious. Brian took off his shirt and edged to the spot the taxi driver was telling him to sit. We saw below a pool of water that wasn't nearly wide enough for my comfort and the rocks did not really look like they would be comfortable to slide on. Brian nervously asked, "What happened if I don't sit right here?" the taxi driver looked at him and said, "oh, you don't want to do that."
As sketchy as it was, and as nervous as I was that Brian was about to go to his death, Brian pushed off and SLID down the falls into the water. What a relief it was to see his head pop up from the water below and throw two thumbs up, exclaiming how awesome it was. Chris and I immediately got into our bathing suits and followed Brian down into the water. It was mildy terrifying, sliding down the rocks, but they were quite slippery and the pool below was quite deep. We did this several times (adrenaline pumping) and also did another waterfall, a 3rd, that was a bit longer but also with a shallower pool at the bottom of it. None of us liked that one and only did it once because of how scary it had been. Haha.
Afterward our driver took us to a fish and chips place and then back to The Outrigger (our hotel). After eating we went for a swim in the pool again and then decided to go exploring around the city. We walked from the Outrigger to Apia city center. It was about a 20 minute walk and by the time we were go there we were all drenched with seat. We walked along the water and decided to go find the market place. We managed to find one of the two large market places fairly easy. The market place was jammed with stands full of touristy stuff to buy. Chris really wanted to find the food market, but I was really exhausted so we stopped in a park for a little and then made our way over to the food market. It took us a while to find, but once we did we got ice cream and Brian bought a coconut to drink from. It was really cool to see and quite a culture shock to see the way these people lived and the buses they traveled in (jam packed, colorful buses with hiphop music blaring.) We were all really dirty and sweaty from walking around we walked back (stopped and bought large Vailimas) jumped in the pool at the Outriggers and then got ready to go out to dinner with Dev. We ran a little late but managed to meet up with Dev, no problem. We encountered more interesting stories from him and enjoyed delicious pizza and Vailimas (Dev's treat). We finished dinner with a glass of wine. Chris and I went back to our hotel after that, but Brian and Dev stayed out to drink some more. Brian ended up spending the night partying it up with some Samoans, which I found hilarious.
In the morning we checked out around 10 and took a taxi over to the ferry dock (which was an hour away from Apia, as was the airport). I was nervous about getting sea sick and we could see that Savaii, off in the distance, was shrouded by clouds and rain, so the water conditions probably wouldn't be too great. We waited for about an hour. There were little kids very fascinated by us and one girl kept trying to touch my hair. All I could think about was that I was probably one of the few white women they'd see before.

First few images of Samoa, in Apia.

Robert Louis Stevenson Museum

Robert Louis Stevenson's Yard... haha.

Robert Louis's lion rug

The only fireplace in Samoa

The deck

The silly thing about the museum was that they had hardly anything completely authentic. They had a lot of his books and of course some of his belongings but the house had been inhabited by a king of Samoa and also a German man for a while, so a lot of the original stuff has been lost. The only thing that belonged to the Stevenson's family in this room was that tattered dress and a trunk. WOW. We found that to be really funny.

This is where Robert Louis died.

Crazy bumping bus

Crazy Mormon church. So extravagant... so sad for the Samoans.

Sliding rocks!

House on the way to the sliding rocks.

The sliding rocks

From the top

Our taxi driver instructing Brian, haha

Chris about to go down

Somehow he is going sideways here...

Outrigger, Chris and Brian by the pool with this obnoxious Australian woman.

Our fale at the Outrigger.

The dining area.

The water close to Apia

Walking by the water toward the city center

Buildings in Apia

Another crazy church

The food market

Bus Station

A man waiting to catch the ferry...

With all our bags we waited on line with a large grouping of Samoans and packed ourselves onto the ferry. We sat outdoors to minimize seasickness and the whole time I stared off into the distance at two small islands that lay in between Upolu and Savaii. The boat did rock quite a lot, but I turned out to be okay. As we neared Savaii the rain hit us so we went inside and the boat started to sway and rock up, down, side to side. I still was okay but Chris and Brian both got very sick. When we finally docked (it was pouring) we met up with our arranged driver for our hotel (funny enough, called Stevenson's Resort) and took us. Brian and Chris confessed at how sick they had been and I was pleased that I had no gotten sick at all.
As we drove (it was about a 45 minute drive) the rain stopped and revealed a tropical paradise of palm trees, jungles, and crystal clear blue water next to a darker shadow of coral reefs. Savaii was significantly less populated than Upolu (if that's even possible) and there were stretches of the drive that we just jungle. Our driver was very fast and reckless and again Brian confessed to being terrified. Haha.
We arrived at Stevenson's, in Manase, around 230/3ish. The sun was out, it was hot, humid and we were exhausted. Our beach fale was beautiful. It was like our fale at the Outrigger except it was right on the beach, more open and much larger. We had a small deck space with deck chairs and a table and a view of the ocean. We had several neighbors, but they weren't very noticeable at all. After eating lunch in Stevenson's dining area, Brian and Chris immediately fell asleep and I sat reading for a while. Once Chris woke up, he and I went for our first dip in the ocean. It was wonderfully warm compared to the ocean water I'm used to in NJ. It was a little overcast, but still beautiful. We could see the coral reef really close to us and small fish swimming around in the water. Also, interestingly, some of the water would have pockets of very cold water and you could also see the salt differences in the water. Very interesting.
After swimming Chris and I read books on the beach until Brian woke up and we had dinner. The dining area of Stevensons was full of stray cats begging for food. At first I thought it was no big deal but in the days to come they became very obnoxious and none of us had any problem hitting them with our jandals or trying any method ot scare them off. The meals we recieved were nothing to talk about, a little bland at times and over priced. We ended up resenting Stevensons a lot because of the poor service (all the servers were really rude and all our meals took over 30 minutes to be prepared even after being preordered hours ahead) and also because of the blandness of the food. We later found out the reason was that Stevensons, unlike most of the resorts, was not family run so the people who worked there weren't working for the family, like more people do in Samoa, and thus they had little motivation to work as well and in better moods as people at other resorts.
That night we fell asleep after a long day. The next day Jon Bell was to join us and it was also my 21st Birthday!
TO BE CONTINUED!!!