Valentines Motel Apia

An uneventful trip on the plane - the 4.5 hour flight went well. We gained a day as we crossed the International Date Line. So we left Brisbane on Monday night 6pm Brisbane Time and arrived in Samoa at 2am on Monday the 4th May. The most excitement was arriving into Faleolo International Airport (located on the island of Upolu [ah-pool-oo]) at 2am. As we exited the plane everyone was directed to the tarmac in front of the airport to get their temperature taken. This ...

... Savai'i. Upolu houses the capital - Apia - and is where I began and ended my trip. Because this trip was less about adventure and more about me desperately needing some time out, I didn't see much of either island. On Upolu I saw Apia and Lalomanu Beach. Apia is just what you would expect the capital city of a developing country to be - necessary and unforgiving. What I mean by that is that the second you get into 'town' you feel coated in grime and are ...

... autour de la bouche. Aussi appelée concombre de mer ou bêche de mer (bref un animal un peu bizarre). On y trouve également des centaines de noix de cocos, produit local qui se vend pour quelques centimes d'euros seulement. A l'origine notre but était de rester deux nuits sur Apia puis de prendre le bus et faire le tour de l'ile d'Upolu. Hélas, tout ne marche pas toujours comme prévu, surtout dans les iles ou l'atmosphère et le mode de vie est plutôt cool et relax ...

... out that the bus continued all the way around and cross the island back to Apia, a small detail that we were informed of about ten minutes after the bus already passed us. Our German friend was going straight to Savaii after reaching Apia and just managed to get the last bus to the ferry that day! Well that's some of our latest adventures here in Samoa, I'll try and get back to you soon again with some more stories. Talk to you soon!

... we came down the mountain we got a well needed energy boost at the local shop and headed on to the Baha'i temple . We got a guided tour around the premises and got a good look at the temple. Interesting building... Just as we were about to leave we got caught in a cloud, see picture, and had to seek shelter from the rain and thunder in our guide's home where he treated us to some tea while we ...

... nime saanud samanimeliselt saarelt Balti meres. Hiljem hotelli baarmenidega juttu vestes ei tundunud siiski keegi midagi sellest nime pärituolust ega Baltimaadest kuulnud olevat. Hotellis oli parasjagu barbeque õhtu ning mängis elav muusika. Ühinesime meiegi selleks õhtusöögiks ning saime üsna mõistliku hinna eest rikkaliku õhtusöögi osaliseks. Õhtul oli meie uni nii magus, et Aguri ja Gerli järgmise hommiku muljed kõvast äikesetormist tundusid meile nagu tsipa uskumatuna...

... Apia, to which we took our first local bus - an experience in itself, has a massive 5 metre tall rock with fast fresh water running all over it and from the top you have to slide down to the pools below. It's like a natural mini water park. It was such great fun. Joseph was our "tour guide" for the day, although he didn't which bus to catch and we had to work it out ourselves ...

... placed car rental agency overlooking Apia harbor on the island of Upolu. The guns are said to have come from a British ship wrecked in the early 1800's which were raised over the years by local villagers and finally sold to the owner of the agency. The island of Savai'i is also well defended (from the position of the gun, I would have to say against attack by balloon ...

... the rainforest outside of town with these naturally formed waterslides! Don't know when we will be back on the net- if you are reading this and want to say hi, make sure you leave us a message on the blog or on Facebook! Otherwise, we miss everyone and have you all in our thoughts.....when we are not busy lounging on the beach with a Valiima(beer)! Yes, even Bonnie has been drinking beer! Finally! Tyler and Bonnie

... came for the first two meetings, so I gave up and did everything myself. The maps went up surprisingly well for all my worrying. Ray and I with some helpers drew the map on the wall after it was painted ocean blue. We used a projector which meant we had to do the work at night and the enlarging of the map made the borders of some of the countries a bit fanciful but they are all more or less in the right ...