Antipodes part 1: Samoa
11/3/10, 1:25amPST: In the air enroute from LAX to Apia, Samoa. My first flight longer than the trans-atlantic. Stray observations about Air NZ:
1. Not only do they have the standard personal entertainment console, but they have a USB power outlet for my iTouch. No 110V outlet, though (except in business class, apparently).
2. Speaking of outlet power, through a series of somewhat questionable actions and decisions, I am going on this supposedly light-packing trip with two laptops. The new one claims to have 7.5 hours of battery life, hence my typing this. (The old laptop of course, is negligible.)
2:05am
3. Even though we left at 11:45pm PST, they felt obliged to serve us dinner. It was actually quite tasty, and came with free (NZ) wine (and refills on the wine). They are also, naturally, English enough to serve a pot of tea with milk. I can only imagine there will be breakfast as well, some six hours from now.
4. The flight safety video was some crazy thing featuring what I gathered was a kiwi rugby team. Far more relaxed and jokey than American ones (also had a lot of slang, which seems like it would be hard to follow for a non-native speaker).
9:13amPDT/6:13am Samoan time
5. Indeed breakfast, again tastier than I expected.
11/3/10, 9:12pm Samoa time
Oh diary, so much to tell you! I got in on time, breezed through immigration and customs (I always seem to end up declaring my electronics, but I'm never sure if that's correct since they're for my personal use and I'll be taking them away again.) I withdrew some local currency and paid too much for a taxi ride to the ferry from 'Upoa (the main island) to Savai'i (the other island), which I caught with five minutes to spare, totally by coincidence. The ferry ride was crazy: first I sat indoors with the Samoans, where they were showing some local film that seemed to be a telling of Samoan myths, together with some traditional dancing, directed by a reverend. Then I went outside and saw a sea turtle (!) and some flying fish (!!). Once on Savai'i I sucessfully avoided the taxis and took a bus to the village of Manase where I'm writing this. The buses are brightly painted and reminiscent of a San Francisco streetcar, and bizarrely enough, the one I was on played Christmas music the whole time. Yes, the same Christmas carols we have in the US, in a vaguely reggae style, including things like "Jingle Bells". There were some fascinating sights on the bus as well: for instance, all Samoan homes seem to feature a pavilion thing, just a rectangular platform with roof supported by columns at the edge, where the business of the day is conducted. Also, most homes seem to have above-ground graves in the yard. I arrived in Manase and paid for two nights in a beach fale, the traditional Samoan (tourist?) dwelling: a small platform on stilts with a thatch roof and thatch side-coverings that can be drawn up to let the breeze through. It also features a floor covering, mattress, mosquito netting and a light bulb. The bathroom is communal, and it comes with three meals a day for ST70/day (I believe the Samoan tala is roughly 2.5 to the dollar.) After checking in I immediately went for a snorkel: the water was rather too shallow but very clear and I saw some awesome coral and fish. (This was low tide; I tried it again at high tide and the water was deep enough but cloudy.) I had lunch, then walked the 25 minutes each way to find out that the dive shop is closed until tomorrow. I think that walk was where I got most of my sunburn: I tried to respect the tropical sun but apparently didn't respect it enough. We'll see how it turns out tomorrow. Then back to the fale, more reading and snorkeling until dinner. Dinner was (as I understand) very traditional Samoan, with rice, chicken curry, a breadfruit (interesting, but not super tasty) and a Samoan raw-fish dish which was somewhere between sashimi and ceviche, and really delicious. Incidentally, lunch was a sandwich of Chef Boyardee sphagetti, which was actually much tastier than it sounds, mostly because the bread was very good. After dinner, more reading, a walk on the beach and then this. The stars are incredible, totally different from home; you can see the Milky Way, and there's also a thunderstorm way off to the north which looks awesome. Goodnight.
11/5/10, 7:49pm Samoan
Okay, so I missed yesterday. Yesterday I started my PADI Open Water Diver certification process at Dive Savaii, the shop up the road. First there was breakfast, which was mostly coffee, bread and fruit. Then I walked down the road again and they were actually there, eager to train me and so on. But they don't take credit cards. How can you sell things for multiple hundreds of dollars and not take credit cards, or even Paypal?!?! This will become relevant later; pay attention. Anyway, the first day consisted of watching a silly informational video provided by PADI, then home in time for lunch. Lunch was the same as the day before, but with tomatoes. Then, having the afternoon free, I thought I should at least see some of the sights around here (above the water), so I rented a bike. The bike-rental lady was nice, but absolutely adamant that I not go off-road and especially not try to go up to the crater (you know, the volcano that created this island, which last erupted in 1908 or so and produced huge lava flows you can still see--pretty cool), which apparently has a microclimate rainforest inside. So I didn't do that, but she said I could go to Dwarf's Cave, a nearby lava tunnel with a freshwater pool inside. And that is what I did. After a long and hot (partly uphill) bike ride, during which I discovered that Samoan rock walls are not designed to sustain any horizontal force whatever, I came to the village of P____, where I asked for directions from a random passing truck. With these I soon reached the corresponding sign, followed by one of those pavilion things (are they also fale?) with some men lounging about. Parting with 10 tala gave me a somewhat run-down flashlight, and they shouted up the road to the very same truck I had just encountered, which had gone the same way I had. I put my bike on the truck and sat up front with the driver, a garrulous fellow who explained he had recently returned to Samoa after spending 30 years in Australia. After trekking slowly up a steepish dirt/grass/lava road, we found the turnoff for the cave (which also had a horse and foal tied up nearby). I locked my bike to a nearby tree and was led a little ways into the cave, then handed the flashlight and given some vague statements about returning, which I didn't really comprehend. Proceeding alone down the tunnel with absolutely no light but what I had in my hand (and the backups of my iPod and camera) was a little intense; really intense was coming to the end of the tunnel, stripping down to my Speedo (which I was wearing as underwear), and climbing down the five or so feet of rock with few footholds (although I hasten to mention that the rock itself was quite friction-y), all while having my important possesions and light source perched above. But in the end I made it fine, and was very glad to be in the cool water after my exertions. I only stayed in a few minutes, though, in case my ride was indeed waiting for me, since I had taken quite a while with the downclimbing. Climbing out was much easier, of course, and I was able to reclothe and reequip myself with only one scare: my glasses getting flung off my head as I put my shirt on and clattering behind me. Fortunately they hadn't bounced or slid anywhere, or broken, so I was able to exit the cave entirely intact. I unlocked the bike and went back to the road, where everyone was gone. Fortunately it had been a straight shot and all uphill to reach the cave, so I was able to coast back down to the fale of flashlight-givers (going slowly in deference to the quasi-offroadness), return the torch and then return to Manase by a different road. I was back in less than two hours, earning me a partial refund from the bike lady, and in plenty of time to go to the preprandial happy hour at the bar down the beach. There I met a nice Kiwi who had spent a lot of time in the US as some kind of international truck distributor, and his Argentinian wife. I then chatted with two Australian girls, before I returned for dinner (fried chicken and what appeared to be a whole fried parrotfish), and the five quizzes I had to complete from the diving book. These took longer than I expected, so afterward I only had time to finish my first book of the trip (Lucky Jim, by Kinglsey Amis, a fine and insightful novel, especially for academics, if not as funny as I had been led to believe.)
Today, I had breakfast (same as before, but with fried eggs), got picked up and spent the moring going over the quizzes and taking more quizzes. I had a bit of lunch at the cafe/convenience store next door, then in the afternoon got to put on all the scuba gear and go pracice the skills in an 8ft section of the lagoon. All went, as they say, swimmingly (except perhaps for my ears, which I'm slightly concerned about).
Now, at this point I had some 60 tala in my pocket, barely enough to pay for one more night in the fale, so I desparately needed more cash before the weekend. Finishing the dive training at 2:30 or so, I made the decision to take a taxi back to Salelolonga (the chief village of Savai'i and where the ferry comes) to use the ATMs there, which are the only ones on the whole island. After a stop for gas we got to the bank at 3:30, where I was able to withdraw 400 tala, plenty to pay for my fale, but not the 1200 I needed for the diving. I went inside the bank and after much filling out of forms, producing of passports, etc. was able to get the 1200. Now back in the taxi to Manase, for which round trip I was charged (after a really sad attempt at haggling) 120 tala. Yes, that's a 10% (or $50) ATM fee right there, plus whatever the exchange rate and bank fees were. Possible ways I could have avoided this:
1. Read the guidebook more carefully and taken out more cash at the beginning of my trip (although I never would have anticipated needing the 1200 for diving)
2. Used the internet cafe to Western Union money to myself (there's one of those ever 10 feet here)--although I've never tried that before, does it work?
3. Tried the local bank branch in Manase to see if they could do whatever the Saleolonga one did.
4. Take the damn bus instead of the taxi (although it's possible I would have gotten there after 4).
Anyway, after that quasi-fiasco, pseudo-debacle or whatever you want to call it, I went for a nice swim and did some reading. Two Kiwi couples and a French girl about my age showed up, and we got nicely acquainted over dinner. Then the French girl pulled out her laptop on one of the beach table-things and started writing, so what could I do but join her and write the bulk of this? At one point we were joined by a small Samoan boy who was fascinated by the laptops, tried to use them as touch-screens and asked if we had any movies (which I sadly do not on this, the new laptop, yet). I think that brings us pretty much up to the present. Tomorrow: actual diving.
11/6/10, 9:46pm. So, the diving. Not much to tell, really. I did have some trouble adjusting my ears, but it worked out eventually. Also had a few moments of disorientation/panic when I was free-floating in the middle of the water with no reference points. And some mask-fogging problems which reduced the enjoyment a bit. Otherwise it was fine, looking at the coral and the fish and a shipwreck from 1881. We saw a sea turtle and a spotted eagle ray right together; apparently there was also a moray eel, but I missed it. Afterwards I came back to the fale and went snorkelling with a couple of the Kiwis, where I saw some crazy bright-blue starfish. Then the six of us had a beer together before dinner, and after dinner played Scum/President/Asshole/you know that cardgame, along with a couple of other newcomers. During the game a gigantic hermit crab saw fit to walk across the floor. And now I'm back in my fale. Tomorrow being Sunday, everything will be closed more or less, so a day of rest (and hopefully get started on my fiction writing).
11/7/10, 9:33pm. As advertised. Substantial lunch, light dinner (read: more spaghetti sandwiches; apparently canned spaghetti on toast is a popular dish in NZ, so it's probably a sop to them, although they don't actually seem to like it when the bread is untoasted), and snorkelling, reading and yes, even some writing. More cocktails with the Kiwis and a Danish couple who arrived yesterday, as well as a couple of nurses (one English, one Canadian, both female). Somehow nearly everyone here is either a (medical) doctor or nurse, or training to be one. There's also an American (well, a dual citizen with Canada) doctor and her mother. At any rate, after dinner we sat around, and I was prevailed on to identify constellations. Pulling out the iPod app (Planets), we were able to lock in the sky, via Jupiter and then Pegasus. Still too far north to see the true Southern Cross (Crux), but can see the so-called "fake" one, and just too far nortAnh for the Magellanic Clouds (I think), but hopefully all these deficiencies will be remedied once I reach the Iantipodes proper.
11/9/10, 9:17am. Well, the new laptop that I'm writing on seems to have a bad memory sector or something: it's starting to repeatedly bluescreen. Very unfortunate. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that the dives three and four yesterday went *much* better than the first two. I still had more trouble eqalizing my ears than I would like, but the mask stayed pretty clear and I didn't have any anxiety. Also the water was a bit clearer than on Saturday which was nice. We saw a sea turtle having lunch on the coral (or rather the seaweed that grows on the coral I think). It just sat there as we swam around it, using its front flippers to grip the reef as it ate. I also saw a big triggerfish, and these things called "christmas trees" which are little worms coming out of the coral that look like one-inch versions of their name (more or
less), and when you touch them the suck themselves back into the coral and disappear.
Okay, I've done a system restore in case it was a software problem of some kind. Signing off now anyway.
11/9/10, 7:30pm. In the Apia airport. Laptop seems okay for the moment... Today I went with some of the people from my fales into Apia, then took a taxi to the Robert Louis Stevenson home/museum just outside the city. It was a pretty large house for a writer to have built in 1884 or whatever, but I guess that's colonialism for you. He spent the last four years of his life in it. After touring the house I hiked the trail up to his tomb. It was pretty steep, but I wanted the excercise, and the experience was worth it. I seem to collect writers' graves when I travel: when I was in Zurich I made a point of going to grave of Joyce. Then a quick pizza dinner in town and to the airport. Hopefully the car-rental place will still be open when I get to Auckland...two days from now.
11/9/10, 8:16pm. Still getting bluescreens. Motherfucker.
And the web album (which has mostly NZ at the moment):
Doctor Clay in the Antipodes