Steve’s Travel Blog

Hello all,

Well I have been in Vanuatu for 6 days and I have to say that I have a lot of mixed feelings about the place.  When I first arrived it was late in the evening and I took the first available cheap place which was a guest house that cost $1500 Vanuatu dollars which is about $16.40CAD.  That makes it very affordable for accommodation but the place was complete crap and I stayed the night and then went hunting for somewhere else.  After a lot of walking to assorted cheaper places and finding that they were all full I found an internet cafe and tried to book something that way.  The frustration continued and I finally decided that I am going luxury for the first time in 8 months and staying at a hotel.  The hotel I booked was the Meriden at a cost of $170 per night and I stayed 2 nights.  The place was really nice and I had all the comforts that one would expect in this type of place.  I even got to watch game 6 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs live.  As one would expect the food was also expensive but hell its the first time in 8 months, I guess I deserve it.  I didn’t get a lot done the first day so the second day I started to see what the place had to offer.  I played golf on an executive 9 hole course and shot 5 over par except for the mulligan I took on the first tee.  Now I know what your thinking but I didn’t chunk it, all the yardages are in meters and I calculated wrong, even though the hole looked long it wasn’t and I pulled out the driver and ripped one about 50 yards past the hole and into a parking lot.  I didn’t bother looking for the ball, I re-hit with an iron and still hit a good shot and got par.  I am not sure who designs golf courses here but they put trees and a lot of them in the middle of the fairway, and you are never to sure where the fairway actually is.  The 9th hole goes back towards the resort and the hole is beside a kids play ground with no fencing between, I hope most do not hit it long or they are going to take out so kids.  I played way better than I expected.  After I took in some time at the pool and swim up bar and did some reading.  I went to a Melanesian Feast for supper and had a great meal and saw some really cool dancing and awesome music. The band was so good and you almost won’t believe the instruments the used.  There were 3 guitars, and 1 ukulele and a bass that was a wooden box on the ground with a string coming from the middle and it was tied to a long stick and held on the corner of the box to give the string some tension.  They plucked the string and the note depended on the tension given by the player.  Next was the bamboo thing, think of a pipe organ with bamboo except to play it they hit the top of the hole with a flip-flop and the sound was wicked.  Next was the bottles,yup different alcohol bottles filed with water to make different sounds, and again it sounded great.  Finally all sorts of percussion stuff to keep a rhythm.  The only bad part was that I forgot my camera in the room and didn’t get any pictures. After a great night of fun it was time to get back to reality as I needed another place to stay because this was way out of my budget and again it was tough going.  I ended up at a place called the Coconut Palm resort which was still nice but a lot better priced at $3950 VAV, but still over budget.  I got to the resort just in time as some bad weather was approaching and I made it just before the rain started.  This made the rest of the day pretty lazy and some time to reflect.  I thought about all the money I had spent and in the long I am not sure it was worth it but to late now.  One night here and I finally transferred to somewhere affordable, the Vila Hibiscus at $1500VAV per night.  Through these first few days I have been walking around Port Vila looking for what else there is to do in the country and all the tours and islands that you can go to.  I can tell you that I seriously thought about leaving Vanuatu early and heading back to Oz because everything is extremely expensive and I again was wondering if it was worth it.  It is funny that all this stuff is expensive but none of the locals seen to have a lot of money so I am guessing that foreigners have taken over a lot of the trade and are also taking all the money.

Today was decision day as I had talked with 2 tour guides yesterday about what I wanted to do and they were going to put it all together and get me a price.  I went there this afternoon and had a great chat and the lady had put together a great tour and it is really what I wanted to do in Vanuatu but now was it worth it.  In the end I decided that I will only be here once in my life and I better get the best out of it I can, so I paid the $180,000VAV  or $1971CAD and done.  I guess I just won’t eat for a few days, but my mom will be happy because the faster I spend the money the sooner I have to come home.

So what will I be doing for the next 13 days, well I should be amazing and I will only give you the highlights and leave most of it for the next blog when I get back.  I start with a tour of Efate Island which is where I am now.  The next day I fly to Tanna and stay 3 nights to see an active volcano and some custom dancing in a village.  From there I go back to Port Vila for a night and then to Pentecost Island for traditional land diving which is like bungee jumping except it is a vine tied to your feet and they do it over land not water, and yes they do hit the ground, it is part of the tradition that boys do to turn into men, and yes I know it sounds crazy I can’t wait to take pictures.  After the diving I take a boat to Ambryn Island and get a ride to a village.  The next morning  guide takes me hiking to the top of an active volcano and we camp overnight at the top and maybe abseil into it if I want.  The next day we hike out the other way to another village and stay there.  After I fly too Santo and stay nights and do some caving and see what is called the Blue Hole.  Then fly to Melekula for another 2 night to see a cannibal sight and black sand beaches.  And finally back to Vila for 2 nights before heading back to Oz.  I am hoping that this is going to be a great time because so far I have not been that happy with Vanuatu and want a better feeling for it.  I was thinking that it would be a lot like Fiji but so far it is not even close to what Fiji was.

With me going to all these outer islands I do not expect to get internet connections so the next time you hear from me will be in about 2 weeks.  I know what your saying, where are the pictures, well I have not taken many and then when I got here to get this all done I forgot the cord to transfer all the pics from my camera (sorry).

Currently I am sitting at a cafe along the beach front watching a beautiful sunset, listening to music and having a rum, I guess things could be worse.  Man I wish you could  see how great this sunset is.

Well that’s about it for now, take care all.

Steve

PS:  I did see that the Pens won the Cup but did not see it live, it was Saturday here and rugby is the sport of choice on any TV.  While I am island hopping my cousins Danielle June 20th and Trevor June 28th will have birthdays, so Happy Birthday in advance.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 14th, 2009 at 12:15 am and is filed under Vanuatu. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.