Village stay in Malaita Province

Hi All,

I am going to Malaita Province for 8 days in September.

We would like to do a village stay while we are there. Does anyone have any good contacts or best to organise when we get there?

Check out the internet address at the bottom of this post.
Also send me a PM and I'll send you more information.
Will you be in Malaita for 8 days, or is that the whole time of your stay in Solomon Islands?
(I will be in Malaita next month)

Hi there

I stayed in a couple of villages in Malaita last year. One was in the Lau Lagoon in the north, but I wouldn't really recommend it. Although the family thought that they were ready to receive and put up tourists, the rest of the community did not agree - apparently they were jealous, but whatever the reason, they made us feel very unwelcome (stealing some of our cameras from the house even!).

The second village that we stayed in was Thomas' village stay in the Langa Langa lagoon. I would really recommend Thomas's place. The family made us feel very welcome, and Thomas has made a really nice hut at the edge of the village for guests to stay in. They were a shy famlily, but after a few days really opened up to us and it was lovely to get to know them. They cooked us very nice food, and were happy when we wanted to go to church with them on Sunday. Thomas arranged all kinds of cultural activities for us, such as seeing the traditional face tatooing, and seeing how they make shell money, as a very reasonable price.

There is another homestay in the langa langa lagoon called Sarah's. Sarah's also gets good reports - we went to vist and it looked nice. Sarah is a local lady who is married to a foreign man. She is actually related to Thomas, and her homestay is very near by.

You can book to stay at Thomas's place through the tourist office in either Honiara or Auki (speak to Jackson there, he is a very nice man). The village stay is officilally called 'Busu Cultural Village Stay' I think. You can get a boat quite easily over there by going down to the harbour and speaking with some of the locals.

Camille, unfortunately you stayed at a so-called guest house built by a man who rarely visits his village. He used the area of the island usually used as the women's toilet to build it, which meant all the women then had to paddle across to the mangroves. He also took advantage of the locals while building the house.
Several (expat) people who knew him, and knew where he was building the house, advised him against it - he actually yelled at me in front of everyone in the Lime Lounge in Honiara, when I told him his place would not be what the visitors were looking for. (It was very embarassing for his wife, who was the cook there at the time). He claimed he was the village chief, and that I would never be allowed back on the island. This is actually quite untrue, and the real chief (who is a close relative of his) was very happy to welcome me back.
My main concerns were the lack of privacy on the larger artificial islands like this one. The houses are generally very close together (I have stayed with another family on the island several times) and you are always surrounded by a crowd of children. They are quite delightful, but I generally tire of them after an hour or so, and do not appreciate being watched while having a bath etc.
On my recent visit to the lagoon, I was told the story by the locals in the area. They are basically very angry with this man. I have never had anything stolen in the whole Lau Lagoon - unfortunately you suffered from a specific act to stop this man from bringing visitors.
The village stay I suggested above is not that far away, but on a much smaller and more private island, where the family live on another island connected by a footbridge, so you can spend as much or as little time with them as you like. The family are parents and 3 children, plus grandma, and usually several friends.

Ozzie, it is interesting to hear your perspective on Jack's 'guest house'. From what Jack told us, he wasn't seeing too many tourists - and for their sake, I think that is a good thing. He told us that he had extended his house so that he covered the women's toilet. To him, it seemed quite normal, but we wondered what the rest of the women thought about it on the island. In the night, Jack allowed us to urinate behind the house, but during the day we had to canoe to the mangroves with his daughter-in-law. We asked her if she always has to canoe over to fo to the toilet, and she said yes - even when she was pregnant, which must have been quite annoying! It is interesting that you actually heard the story from locals in the area. To be honest, it wasn't a nice experience - we really should hae gone on the trip with a guide, but as one was not available, we decided to go it alone. Perhaps not the best idea looking back, but you live and learn!

The village stay that Ozzie has talked about sounds very interesting - would definitely be interested in going should I go back. Shame that the Solomons are so far away from the UK! Malaita has such an interesting culture.

Hi Everyone,

My and two others are going to the Lau Lagoon guesthosue that Ozzie has recommended in mid-August. I will report back.

I am also very excited because I just found out that I will be living and working in Honiara for 12 months beginning in October, so I might just become a regular poster!

Camille, I can't believe that Jack, who has lived in European-style houses in Auki and Honiara for many years, thought he could build a guest house suitable for Europeans, without toilet facilities.

Jack did seem to be in a bit of a dreamworld... even though the thief had admitted to stealing our cameras, he kept asking us if we were sure we didn't have them in our bags! And he happily watched us paddling to the mangroves to go to the toilet - hilarious thinking back on it.