Labor Day weekend, Ruth, Fred, Nikki, and I went to Savai'i in Western Samoa. On Friday though we stayed in Apia and went to Apalua Hights restaurant. It is a fantastic place in this big old mansion overlooking the city. They have terrific food as well. At least I think they do. I'm afraid I've lost my ability to tell what is actually good here since the quality is somewhat less at most places on Tutuila than say the Palace Kitchen (or the Pastime). Anyway, I think I might have had the best sashimi ever there. Really, it was incredibly fresh and as soft as butter. I also had filet mignon which came with 2 filets. Sashimi appetizer, filet mignon and about 4 drinks at the nicest place in the country ran me about $25 or so with tip.

Saturday "morning" we went to the market and then headed to the ferry dock to get to Savai'i.

See our ferry?


That is because the 1pm ferry left at 1240. Nice. We got there at 1245. So, we had to wait until 4, take that ferry,
and then when we got there, the rental car place was closed so we had to take a cab all the way across the island to our place at Vaisala. Savai'i is the largest Polynesian island except for New Zealand and the big island of Hawai'i.

Vaisala is nice though. Nice little beach and pretty decent rooms. The food was ok. I'd rate it slightly more comfortable than a fale resort, but not as cool because you're not in a fale right by the water. Also the food is not inclusive so it is more than 2x as expensive and the food isn't up to Lalomanu fale standards. It is still a cool place, it is just that Lalomanu is awesome.

(I tried to grow a beard)

The next day, we got our rental car delivered to us and checked out the northwest corner of the island where we climbed up a giant banyan tree and took a canopy walk. It is super high up there. I don't think the pictures can really get across how high it really is.






The banyan trees in the pictures got their tops ripped off by Hurricane Val several years ago.


Then we drove to the end of the world.

Around here is the closest you can get on land to the end of the day. The international date line is not too far off the coast. Can you see it?


Then we went to the little town of Manase on the north coast of the island and stayed in fales there. That was a really nice place.



We had a good time hanging out with a cool couple from New Zealand there.


And Fred made some kava:



The next day we headed to the ferry to go back to Upolu. On the way we stopped at this place where you can swim with tons of huge turtles. The turtles are very interested in people.


The market in Savai'i is hilarious. It looks like something you might find in Afghanistan or something. It is definitely wayyyyyyyyyyyy more ridiculous and crappy than anything I've seen in Mexico. They pretty much don't have anything you'd want unless you really need to do some laundry by hand. The floor is mud. The stalls are just jammed together and all have the same things. There are dogs running all over and half of the place is taken up by guys just sitting around playing checkers and smoking- crammed together at sawhorse tables in the mud. I actually enjoyed it though, it looked like I was definitely somewhere foreign. I guess I do live a long way from anywhere.




I didn't feel too good that day. I don't know if I was already getting sick from bad tap water (giardia has been suspected) or if I was about to eat was what actually got me in the future. We went to this 'restaurant' with precooked food sitting out and since I was starving I had some of it- though nothing looked good. My policy about eating things in foreign countries or from vendors is usually take zero precautions. I've gotten food poisoning from this a total of 2 times in my life from a Mexican place in Greece and from a Mexican place in Seattle. Neither place is known for delectible Mexican food. This crap I got was scrambled eggs with sausage and curry chicken. The curry chicken was way below par but edible. The eggs were repellant. Blech. One of the worst items I've ever eaten (look out rotten egg nog).

So we got on the ferry. This time it was the small ferry. The small ferry is about the size of a tugboat. It clearly was not made for hauling passengers. There are a couple plastic chairs on deck. Otherwise there are wood boxes (supposedly full of life preservers). We picked some boxes and sat down.
They looked like good boxes because it had started to rain and they were under cover. And then...


The drainage features of the Lady Samoa II were highlighted. The basic thinking with this engineering is to let the water build up on the top deck and then once the level gets to the inch or two level of the lip around the top deck, just let that water drain wherever. If there are any palagis available, that's the place to drain it. So, we were maximum drenched, sitting in a waterfall for the 90 minute ferry ride. I was cold- which would have been a plus if the ride was 10 minutes, since you are never cold in Samoa.