Audacious Freedom Live anywhere. Travel everywhere.

With wide eyed wonder I listened to Miko’s story. He is Samoan, a tsunami survivor and tour guide. He invited us to join him for a day and learn about plants, herbs, natural medicines, preparing and cooking local food and family life. With sadness he told us his story of leaving his son at home while he went to Apia, Samoa’s capital city, without knowing it would be the last time he saw him. En-route to the path leading to his house we passed 6 little graves – his neighbour’s children.

Watching the activities around me, it was hard to understand their attitude. They were sad; frustrated at the lack of funds they had received, unsettled and living on someone else’s land. Yet they laughed easily, sang as they worked, spoke with optimism. I complain when my local shop runs out of my favourite rice and I have to walk across the road to another shop to buy it. They walked a mile with energy and purpose to buy stale bread. I get irritated if I have to eat the same meal twice in a row. They were so thankful to have enough coconuts for snacks, drinks and main meals.

Sitting on the rough ground learning how to open coconuts, make traditional food, listening to the family’s story I felt humbled. Here they were building their lives, grateful for their family and starting their own business without complaining, without trying to gain sympathy or feeling sorry for

Responsible Tourism

Another thought that struck me as we talked was how Miko earned an income. He wanted to provide tourists an understanding of the natural environment they were staying in. Tourists descend on island paradises bringing their array of baggage expecting to enjoy the luxuries of home without understanding the impact on the environment by putting unnecessary pressure on fragile ecosystems, wasting precious water and leaving their rubbish to pollute the environment.

Miko was hoping to show tourists another side to island life – local life and share local knowledge. However, he said often his invitation to join him was met with blank stares and a dismissive wave of the hand. He found that most people were only interested in swimming in the sea, eating at the hotels and not putting anything into the local community. Though tourism is an important money earner, sadly not much of it found its way into the local community.

Sitting on the resort deck watching the sunset I examined my own attitude to travel, the environment and local community. It was challenging and I extend the challenge you.

Do you travel lightly, leaving only the imprint of your friendliness or do you leave a more fragile environment filled with your unwanted rubbish?  Do you buy local, eat local and take part in local activities or allow yourself to be cocooned by international tourist operators that rake in the money but don’t spread the wealth locally?

As travellers let’s benefit the land we explore!

Other posts on Samoa that you might like:

What you need to know about Samoa

My take on Samoan road rules

A place to escape to

Lying on the sand, swimming and snorkelling were the most popular activities. The current there is reasonably strong especially as the tide came in. This current was perfect for those of us who snorkelled. It was like drift diving. You just lie on top of the water and let the current push you along. Lazy mans snorkelling! Every morning we would get up at about 6am and go snorkel for an hour before breakfast. The fish and coral were varied – we saw eels, octopus, schools and schools of fish, corals of every colour and variation. Really a refreshing and relaxing way to start the day. Of course because of the current it did mean a stroll back along the beach to our towels and fale. I did try swimming back the one day and after 10 minutes of swimming I had got nowhere. My husband who was walking on the beach was standing waiting for me to try and catch up. After that I drift snorkelled down and walked back on the beach.

We also did our refresher dive course there as well as two dives. The dive school was relaxed but professional. Our first dive site was coral gardens which is about 18m at the deepest point. The second was a wreck dive with the deepest being about 15m. The water temperature was 29oC –so perfect for me. Both dives were within the reef which meant that there weren’t big fish though we did see the resident barracuda. Man he has big teeth! One thing that I did see for the first time was an electric clam. These dives sites were enjoyable and it was good to be underwater again after such a long time – but compared to some of the other places we have been the diving was average. Saying that this is a perfect place for dive courses or to learn how to scuba dive.

Non beach activities

The lava fields near Mauga village is interesting and worth a visit. In 1905 there was a volcanic eruption. The eruption lasted 6 years and covered large portions of the island. In the Mauga village all that survived was a grave and a catholic church. The church is quite interesting – all the walls are still standing because the lava flowed in through the door. Our tour guides grandfather was part of the mountain workers that saw the mountain smoking and was able to warn his village about the coming danger. In order to escape to Upolu the villagers build rafts using coconuts. As the last of these villagers left, our tour guides grandfather saw the lava ‘eating’ their village.

Feeding and swimming with fresh water turtles. We were met by a youngster of about 6 years old who told us how much it cost and what to expect. It was quite funny, he didn’t  really know how much it cost but he knew the colour of the money we needed to give him. It turned out to be ST$ 10 and that included feeding the turtles papaya and then swimming with them for as long as we wanted. The papaya caused a feeding frenzy – and we had to be careful not to get our fingers nipped. If you are going to swim, then take snorkels and goggles with – it makes spotting the turtles underwater easier. And they don’t hire snorkels or goggles.

We really enjoyed our time in Tanu. The people were fantastic and the atmosphere that the Tanu resort owners cultivated was one of belonging, relaxing and freeing. This is definitely a very special place and we would love to go back and visit again.

Our first stop on Savaii was Tanu Beach Fales. Tanu seems to be the most popular of the fales in this village. It also has the reputation of having the friendliest family and the best food. We spoke to some of them staying at the fales next door and they found the food awful. I am glad to say that every meal they served was done in style and was tasty!

We arrived at Tanu in a tropical downpour on a Sunday afternoon. This tropical downpour in the afternoon set a pattern for the rest of our stay on Savaii. It got to a point that we didn’t try and run from shelter to shelter when it rained. We did as the Samoans did – walked in it. It didn’t stop us from doing anything and we appreciated the cooler temperatures it brought.

Sunday afternoons are nap times so be warned if you intend to travel or arrive somewhere new. In Tanu we had to wait till the family woke up and sorted our fale out for us. It was raining so hard at this point that we were not in a rush to go anywhere and the young lady that met us encouraged us to sit, absorb the beauty of the campsite and drink fresh coconut milk.

And this was a paradise! The resort was completely built on beach sand; there were coconut trees, banana trees and mango trees in abundance. To the one side we had sea and to the other we had mountain (actually a volcano). Our fale consisted of a wooden platform, a roof and 8 bamboo sides that could be folded up or down for privacy. All that the fale had inside was a few mats on the floor, a mattress, two sheets, a mosquito net and two pillows.

Our fale ‘door’ which was always open faced out to the sea which meant in the mornings we would wake to the most beautiful sunrises. The skies were absolutely stunning as the sun lit up the clouds to create variation of colours and patterns that I haven’t seen before.

Our fale fees included breakfast and dinner. Both meal times were signalled by a spoon being hit on a gas cylinder. This was a call for all of the ‘family’ (us) to gather at the table for the meal. Meal attire was casual and no shoes. It was so cool sitting at the table, that was beautifully decorated by all different types of woven mates, vases, flowers etc and play in sand with my feet. The women serving us were always beautifully dressed and decorated with palm leaves as necklaces. I found mealtime varied and interesting. The only thing that was the same every breakfast was the delicious fruit and tea or coffee. Otherwise it varied between bread or pancakes, traditional food such as sago in coco or rice in coconut milk. Dinner consisted of two meats: one was always fish the other would be steak, chicken or sausage. My favourite meal was taro with cooked baby taro leaves in coconut milk. Needless to say I loved meal times, it was a very social time catching up with our neighbours over great food!

In the evenings it was not uncommon for a group of us to sit till all hours talking, laughing and having fun. Our most interesting neighbour was Hendry. Hendry is a 76 year old, tattoo artist from Los Angelos. 90% of his body was covered in tattoos. He had come to Savaii to learn the art of Samoan tattooing. But he was enjoying himself so much he had extended his holiday to three months. What he realised was since being there he no longer needed to take all the medication that he had been on. He was also recovering from cancer treatment and he found he was recuperating really quickly. In the end he decided to move there for a year. When we saw him, he was busy making plans to get all his papers filled in, move his stuff into storage and find a place to stay for a year or two.

I envy him – I would love to stay there for at least 6 months. That lifestyle really appealed to me!

There are some rules in Samoa that are quite unique to drivers there.

1. Hoot when you over take – no one looks in the review mirror.
2. Drive slowly through villages – there are people walking in the road. This is common at about 3pm when the kids come home from school, at 5pm when the villagers are returning from work and on Sundays when families are going to or coming from church. And makes driving hazardous.
3. Between 6pm and 6:30pm a bell is rung to signal quiet time – this is half an hour where the villagers will pray, mediate or reflect on God. Though we didn’t see it – we were told of some villages that when the bell rang they would stop right where they are to pray. This meant if they were in the road – that is where they stopped.
4. Driving through a village on a Sunday or during their quiet time required respect and stillness. In some places we noticed cars pull over to the side of the road. It also meant no hooting (so no overtaking), no radios, no slamming doors or any other noisy distractions.
5. Whatever you do – do not hit a child or a pig when driving. A child is very much a part of life and you are likely to get a serious beating. A pig equals wealth. They are reserved for very special occasions and a pig mistreated is not taken lightly. We were told if we hit a Samoan or a pig we were not to stop, but drive straight to a police station and hand ourselves in. If we stopped there was a strong possibility of getting hurt or beat up.
6. Wave at every person on the road, in their fale, in their garden or in a tree. I sometimes felt like a queen waving all the time. My arm often got sore and tired from waving. I remember driving through one village and I didn’t see some kids waving. The father whistled and shouted until we noticed, so that we could wave to them all.
7. Enjoy the scenery. Take your time. Don’t be in a rush!

Samoa is divided into a number of islands. The two main ones are Savaii and Upolu. Apia, the capital city, and the international airport are both based on Upolu. Our plan was to stay one week on Savaii and one week on Upolu. After talking to a number of people who had been there we decided that we wanted explore the different areas and experience the different villagers’ way of life, instead of staying only in one place and doing day trips.

It is possible to get around both islands by bus. However, one of the villages we wanted to stay at on the most western point was 8km down a dusty road. Though there was a bus stop just before this road, no bus actually went to the village itself. If you don’t have a car it means you either have to walk or if you are lucky catch a taxi and pay exorbitant prices! Before deciding on hiring a car we had to weigh up the impact of us driving a car around the islands vs being able to reach the more remote villages and stay a couple of nights. In the end we chose to hire a car.

Hiring a car

If you intend to travel round in Samoa then hiring a car is definitely worthwhile. Here are some of the advantages of having a car: If you travel between the islands you get to go on the bigger ferry which means you have a choice between an air conditioned lounge with a film or seats under a canopy on the top deck. If you are unlucky enough to land up on what was nicknamed the cattle ferry (a smaller ferry) then it meant you could sit in the car instead of standing in the sun or rain the whole 3 hour trip.

Secondly we didn’t lose time waiting round for buses. If we wanted to go somewhere we just got in the car and went. Sometimes we would see people waiting for a bus up to 2 hours. That is 2 hours of the holiday wasted. Also the buses can be crowded and it is not uncommon to have another passenger sit on your lap if the bus is full. And Samoans aren’t small! Many times the buses didn’t stop at the tourist sites – which meant getting off at the closest village and walking to the site. What many tourists in our one resort did was hire a car for a day. It only takes about 4 hours to drive round the whole island including stopping at interesting spots. We didn’t feel that this gave enough time to really enjoy and appreciate the island, but for some people that was enough for them. They were more interested in the sun, beach and sea.

Thirdly we had a secure place to leave our belongings. Except for four nights, we slept in fales. A fale is basically a wooden platform with a thatched roof. The ‘walls’ are made from coconut leaves woven together into shutters. These shutters could be let down for privacy or tied up for a cool breeze. Basically it was like sleeping in the open. Though theft isn’t common, it was nice to know that our stuff was locked in the car while we went to the beach or went snorkelling.

The fourth reason I enjoyed having a car was it acted like a big suitcase. Because we were travelling around only staying three nights at most in one spot it meant we didn’t have to continuously try and get all our stuff into one bag. All we needed to do was chuck it in the boot or on the back seat and head off.

Yes, this is a lazy way of travelling, but it is also a hassle and stress free way of travelling.

Though if you do hire a car, please keep your impact on the enviroment to a minimum. Driving a car in another country doesn’t mean you can wreck their enviroment by driving on sensitive eco systems, race through villages endangering villagers lives or irritate fellow travellers by fumagating their fala while you try and cool the car down.

Pablo Deep Marine

About 10 min walk from Apia city, is a marine reserve called Pablo Deep Marine. This is a deep hole inside a reef which makes for very good snorkelling. It was sad to see how much dead coral there was. Our first trip it rained so hard that we couldn’t actually get to the actual marine hole but had to swim closer to shore. Though there was fish life – for the entire hour that we were swimming we didn’t see any live coral.

The next day we went back – this time we were able to swim out to the actual reserve. The marine reserve is marked out by long sticks, the idea is to swim from stick to stick. However, at the first stick there were schools of fish, so many that we seemed to hover right compeletely surrounded by fish.  There were thousands of little fish and schools of bigger fish – mainly small snappers, and parrot fish. There were no real big fish because they couldn’t get over the reef to this hole. Which was great for me –it meant NO sharks!

We did do a short swim following the left rim, but after 10 min of swimming and only seeing dead coral we turned back to the first pole and stayed there. It was so peaceful and relaxing watching the antics of the fish that we had no desire to explore any further. And with the coral being alive and the fish plentiful we didn’t see any reason to go on if the coral was going to be dead.

Robert Louis Stevenson Museum

Though we had come to mainly experience the warm tropical waters, we also took a trip to the Robert Louis Stevenson (R.L.S.) Museum. R.L.S.’s house was huge. I would love a house that big, with such beautiful gardens! The museum also boasted the first edition of Treasure Island. That was pretty amazing to see. Our tour guide was amazing and so knowledgeable. He showed us round telling us stories, taking photographs of us in the different rooms and answering all our questions even though the museum had actually just closed when we got there. So be warned, they don’t close at 4pm as stated on the brochure but at 3:30pm.

One of the strangely unique things about R.L.S.’s house was a fire place. Why is this so unique? Well the temperature in winter gets to 28oC! Yet he had a fireplace built to keep him warm. It turns out that he contracted TB and would get serious fevers which often left him chilly. He died at age 44 from this disease. Our tour guide showed us his medical room – a private hospital that still has some of the original medication bottles. There was even a bottle for ‘anti mosquito bite’. So the pesky mosquitoes bugged them too!

On a dry day there is also a walk to the top of the mountain. Along the way it is possible to stop off at his grave site. However, we had just had a torrential down pour and our tour guide advised against it. Saying it would be too slippery to actually enjoy.

Colonial buildings on Apia peninsula

On the peninsula just outside of Apia there are a lot of old buildings and war memorials. We decided to take a stroll from our cottages along the peninsula. This turned out to be an 18 km stroll but well worth it. There was nothing spectacular about the old colonial buildings; however it did give us insight into Samoan life in the city. It also gave us the opportunity to see Samoan canoe practice – roughly about 30 oars man, 1 helmsman and 1 drummer. They basically row in time to the drum beat. We also watched a sailing school for under 10s. The kids were having so much fun, they just loved being in the boats.

24 hour market

The 24 hour market is also an experience. It is 24 hours because if a person leaves there stall to go home, they lose their spot. The stalls were all colourfully decorated with different types of clothes, jewellery, cloths and knick-knacks. Their prices for lava lavas were very reasonable but I landed up not buying one there.

Don’t forget to enjoy the coffee shops, sit on the rocks overlooking the sea or talk to the locals!

We had booked ourselves into Vaiala Beach Cottages – these were brick cottages consisting of a fully equipped kitchen, lounge area, bedroom and bathroom (with hot water!). The gardens were tropical and well maintained though sitting outside resulted in quite a few mosquito bites. Altogether there were about 6 of these little cottages on the grounds. Nigel, the owner was very friendly, chatting to us, giving us advice and recommendations.

Our first priority after a much needed sleep was food! We had a couple of things to snack on but not much. Our walk into town turned out to be quite an experience. I don’t think I have ever been in a country that is that friendly. People would smile and say hello, some would even walk up to us, introduce themselves and shake our hands. Our initial reaction was that we weren’t interested in buying anything – and it challenged us to realise they actually didn’t want anything but to be friendly.

One of the things that really impressed me was their colourful dresses. The women were mostly dressed really stylish in bright colourful dresses or skirts and tops. The men mostly wore colourful lava lavas or colourful shirts. Colour matching or clothes matching didn’t seem to be a priority – anything seemed to go together. The only rule was to be colourfully dressed. Somehow this colourfulness gave Apia a cheerfulness that was quite unique; even though as a city it is dull, bleak, dirty and run down.

After a long walk to town – long because we stopped so often to say hello to people – we finally found a supermarket that sold muffins.  I was so hungry by that point that I ate it – even though it was as hard as a rock and probably at least four days old. By that stage it was the best tasting muffin I had ever eaten! This muffin was then swallowed down by banana chips. Who would have thought of making crisps from bananas? And who would have thought that they would be so unbelievable tasty? In fact they were quite addictive!

I bought a bag with 10 packets in for friends that had asked me to get them. Michael wasn’t too pleased about it and said he wasn’t carrying them back to our cottage. However, after he tasted one (why did I offer them to him?) he was hooked and after that every day we ate about two or three packets. After we had finished all the bags I bought that day, we would buy locally made ones. The local ones were 100% more addictive than the commercial variety!

Another unique thing about Apia is on Sundays all the shops except a couple of coffee shops, the 24 hour market and two supermarkets were closed. Samoa has a strong Christian influence which influences everyday life quite strongly. One of those influences is the closed shops on Sundays because it is a day of rest. I quite liked this idea. Why do we need shops to be open round the clock? Is it really necessary to be able to go shopping on Sundays when we have the whole of Saturday?

It was so wonderful to see families sitting, lying, eating, and swimming together. Sunday’s seemed to be about church in the morning and fun in the afternoon. Of course fun also included a big family meal!

It is a very strange experience crossing the date line. We left New Zealand on Friday afternoon bound for Samoa. We arrived in Samoa on Thursday night. This was great – at least if we hadn’t enjoyed our Friday then we could have a second chance!

The flight was uneventful and quite short – shorter than I had expected. In fact from our city it was as far as going to Sydney. So then how come it had taken us so long to make the trip? I guess because in our minds eye if we wanted warmth for a weekend we would shoot over to Australia. Somehow going to the islands seemed a long and expensive holiday! Well maybe if we went to the resorts or some of the more touristy islands. But Samoa was inexpensive and a fantastic experience.

My first impression of Samoa was heat – it was 8pm and it was still humid and warm. I could feel all the tension just draining from me. And as we disembarked and walked across the tarmac to the arrivals hall the most beautiful fragrant filled my senses. I could have stood in that heat and smell for hours!

On the way into the arrivals hall I noticed a man, woman and a couple of security guards. I wondered what naughty things that had got up to, but didn’t give it too much thought because as I entered the hall the awesome Samoan music hit my ears. What a welcome! Four men dressed in colourful lava lavas (traditional island clothes) were playing and singing various melodies. It was so beautiful – I haven’t had an airport reception like that, ever! It was so entertaining listening to them that even after we had collected our bags we continued to stand and listen.

Eventually we dragged ourselves away to stand in the customs queue. It was here that the man and woman I had seen with the security guards caught my eye again. While waiting for our passports to be stamp the airport security were walking their sniffer dogs up and down the lines of people waiting. Every time a dog got to this couple they would smell his feet, get excited and sit down refusing to budge. Each dog was brought passed this couple three or four times. Eventually I found out that a security guard had tied a cloth around the man’s ankle to test the security dogs’ performance. So finally the riddle had been solved – the couple hadn’t done anything naughty, they were just helping out.

Because of the late hour we arrived, I had book a prepaid taxi. It was brilliant walking out of customs into the arrival hall and seeing my name on a board, held by a smiling Samoan lady. I can definitely recommend making the effort of pre-arranging transport from the airport to your hotel. It takes away so much stress and hassle.

The smiling Samoan lady introduced herself to us as Jasmine, and then led us to our awaiting car and driver – who turned out to be Jasmine’s boyfriend. It took 55 minutes to travel from the airport to our accommodation in Apia – the capital of Samoa. Along the way Jasmine gave us an introduction to Samoan life, explaining the way families lived, the hierarchy of chiefs, the family structure, taboos and life in general. We were amazed at the open houses – they had no walls and yet there were TVs, microwaves and people sleeping in them. Jasmine explained that these were fales – traditional dwelling places of Samoans and were perfect for the weather. Theft was very rare because almost everyone on the island knew each other – and if someone stole something, where would they go? Fair point!

By the time we eventually arrived at our accommodation it was almost midnight. Again I really appreciated having paid for the taxi – because they organised everything once we got there. They got the security gate open, woke the owner and carried our bags to our ‘hut’.

Samoa is divided into a number of islands. The two main ones are Savaii and Upolu. Apia, the capital city, and the international airport are both based on Upolu. Our plan was to stay one week on Savaii and one week on Upolu. We didn’t want to go and just stay in one fale resort and do day trips. We wanted to really explore the different areas and experience the different villages’ way of life. One of the holiday fales we wanted to stay at on the most western point was 8km down a dusty road. No bus went out there and according to the reviews we read it was possible to catch a taxi, however, this was very expensive and meant waiting around until a taxi happened along.

We made the decision to hire a car. Having a car turned out to be an excellent decision. It gave us freedom to travel and explore without waiting for public transport. It meant we weren’t tied to bus schedules when we wanted to go to tourist sites or go diving.

Samoa is mainly a Christian country. Each village has at least one church but usually at least two or more churches. The churches and surrounding areas were always well kept and looked beautiful. Because they are mainly Christian it means that there are some customs that outsiders aren’t used to. One is the 6pm to 6:30pm quiet time. This time is set aside for reflection and relaxation. You will know that it has started by the church bells ringing. During this time it is expected that you will respect their quietness ie no hooting, loud radios, shouting or talking loudly. In some villages cars pull to the side of the road during that time and it is not unknown for villagers to sit in the road during this half hour.  It also means that on Sundays most of the shops are closed – so buy food in advance if you are there over a Sunday. We did find resort shops and restaurants open but some of the cafes and most of the shops in the capital city were closed all day.

Most Samoans live in fales. These consist of a wooden platform, a roof and shutters made from woven palm leaves which could be rolled up or left down for a bit of privacy. Most Samoans seemed to leave the sides open. It was fascinating driving past all these homes and being able to see everything they possessed from TVs to microwaves. Even stranger was seeing them sleeping in the evenings without walls.

Each village also has a meeting house. There is a self governing hierarchy within villages and the chiefs, talking chiefs and heads of families meet once a week to discuss family and village matters. If you ever get invited into a meeting house remember to take your shoes off, don’t enter if a chief is present and if the chief invites you make sure you sit – don’t stand around and when you sit make sure your feet are covered or at least pointing away from the chief. It is considered disrespectful to be higher than the chief.

Each island had their own unique beauty and attractiveness. Of the two islands I preferred Savaii; it seemed less pressurized, more colourful, beautiful and less influenced by the west. It is good to experience the capital city but now that I have been there once, if I go again I would head straight for Savaii. We spent three nights in Apia, the capital (situated on Upolu). Apia is a typical third world city, there is a lot of litter lying around, it is run down and dirty. The people make up for it though – they are friendly and colourfully dressed. If we planned it again we would have stayed for a maximum of two nights. There is a lot of interesting things to see like the museums and the Pablo Marine Reserve, but we would rather have spent more time in Savaii.