Apia, Samoa - September 2013

Have you ever been that sick that you feel that your best option would be to crawl into a hole and die? An hour or so after sailing out of Apia Harbour I was in that kind of mind space, fuuuck, when would it end? The day had actually started off pretty good really, we had arrived bright an early in Apia on another beautiful South Pacific day, being docked at a wharf meant we didn't have to rely on the ships tenders to get us off the ship, so we were ashore nice and early. 

First up today we visited a small village.

First up today we jumped onto a local school bus and headed east to visit a small traditional village (well as traditional as a Samoan village can be when catering for a bus load of Aussie tourists!). After being shown around the village we all assembled in the village fale - an open sided ceremonial building. Lots of singing and dancing ensued while I slowly tried to shrink my somewhat oversized frame into a crack in the concrete, terrified that I might be asked to participate (you may not think it after reading my blog but I'm actually painfully shy). Eventually the audience participation part of the ceremony ended and we hooked into the kava, now this was more my style. Kava looks like muddy water, and to be honest it tastes a bit like that too, making your tongue go numb fairly quickly and giving you a pleasant buzz. So it was the kava that made my crook right,...err...no. After our welcoming ceremony and kava binge, we sampled some local fish and chicken cooked over the open coals, washed down with coconut milk, what could go wrong hey, well it wasn't the fish or the chicken that made me crook either.

Hey, hey its kava time!

Lunch is almost ready.

Hey I never said that this was hard core.

Looking slightly out of my comfort zone, actually I reckon I look like 'Bernie' out of 'Weekend at Bernie's' looking at some of my other photo's it's a look I seem to be cultivating!

Leaving the village we headed a bit further east along the beautiful coast line to the Piula Methodist Theological Collage. The attraction here wasn't the actual school though, but the freshwater grottos on the school grounds a few metres from the ocean. The water in the grottos was crystal clear and full of freshwater fish which kept me entertained for a while. The Piula Cave Pools, as they are known aren't exactly as nature delivered, there is a fair bit of concrete and landscaping to make it a bit more pleasant for the punters. There are actually two grottos and you can swim through a small passage at the back of the cave between them, although I wasn't too keen on that option, imagining myself wedged into a rocky tunnel in the pitch black.

The Piula Cave Pool.

There were plenty of freshwater fish in the pools.

You can actually swim through a narrow tunnel at the back of the cave and come out in another pool.

Leaving the Piula Cave Pool we headed back to the big smoke of Apia, although with a population of only 37,240 its hardly over crowded. After a quick shower and change of clothes on the ship we headed into town so Sam could have a bit of retail therapy, and at the same time I could continue my quest to get a floral 'Hawaiian style'  shirt from every country we visited on the trip, not as easy as it would seem as I was only interested in locally made shirts. Now here's a tip for young players, the taxi drivers on Samoa are the shiftiest I've encountered anywhere, make sure you have plenty of small notes and that you agree to a price before heading off, even after all that don't expect any change as its almost guaranteed that the driver we'll say he's got no change, ah well.

Our ship from down town Apia.

Time for a couple of beers on our way back to the ship after our shopping expedition.

After couple of shitty experiences with the taxis we decided to walk back to he ship at the end of the day, the walk along Beach Road was quite pleasant and Marina provided a nice spot to sit on the deck and have a couple of cool beers, celebrating another beautiful day in paradise (so it was the beer that made me crook, er not this time). Once again back on board the ship we dropped our stuff off in our cabin and then headed back up on deck to watch the sun set over Samoa. This cruising life is very relaxing, just sit back and watch the world go by, although I think I'd go crazy if we did this all the time. We left port just after dark that night and we're treated to a performance by some cultural dancers with their fire sticks on the wharf as we left, one of the most impressive sail aways that we've experienced.

Late afternoon, Apia Wharf.

The locals came to check us out.

A couple of hours later and I'm driving the porcelain bus. So what made me so crook, well there was one thing that I haven't mentioned. While we were in town I thought it would be nice to support some of the locals and buy something from the local market, so being the health conscious bloke that I am I settled on some fruit salad, thinking that would be a fairly safe option. Fairly safe that is until I saw the lady open up the esky and scoop the bits of fruit out of a milky substance (I'm assuming it was coconut milk), so my fruit salad was floating in a milky substance scooped straight out of an esky that may or may not have been cleaned properly after the last fishing trip, hmmm. Now if I had my time again I would of discreetly walked around the corner and thrown away my cup of milky fruit, but no I decided to give it a go while Sam shook her head and laughed at me, yeah I'm an idiot, but I'm an idiot with a social conscious. So that's how I found myself wishing that it was all over, every cloud has a silver lining though and it was because I was so crook that I discovered that the bathroom in our cabin was so small that my arse could be parked on the toilet and at the same time my head could be in the sink, which saved a nasty mess and also promised plenty of time savings in the future, after all all who doesn't want to sit on the crapper and brush their teeth at the same time!

The sun setting on another great day.

The Dirt.

Once again we cruised with Princess, as usual they provided a good value for money experience. We took a tour out to the village which we booked on the ship, my only issue with the ships tours is how much money gets back to the local communities that we visit, hence me wanting to buy locally made, although I probably should of stuck with shirts and not fruit salad. The Piula Cave Pool is a nice spot to visit but its a little bit manicured for my tastes, although with the number of people visiting I suppose that a bit of landscaping was inevitable. There is a small entrance fee for the pools. As for most South Pacific countries, and with the exception of the taxi drivers, the local Samoan's were welcoming and friendly.

Before we sailed away from the wharf some local fire dancers put on a great display.