Some Samoa notes...

Well, it's rainy night here in Singapore and I am at a hostel where the internet is free and there is no one else around badgering for the computer, so I guess I can give a few notes on my recent trip to Samoa.

The government is "promising" to do something about the dog situation... It is as bad as ever, unfortunately and folks are still getting nipped. Things that make you go "Hmm..." We all know about "govermental promises" in 3rd world (or 1st for that matter!) countries!

SAD NEWS ( I think): The local buses are no longer permitted to have music blaring from them. I suppose this is either a good or bad thing depending on your perspective. Personally, I miss it. They will not be allowing smoking anymore after next year on the buses and the usual public places that we already know about here in the west. I will not miss the smokey bus rides. To me music coming from the buses was as Samoan as eating Oka!

Seipepa Travel Home is now closed (sadly) and Mats and Sia have gone out to Virgin Cove to take over the management there.

Virgin Cove Resort: Lovely as ever and now under very efficient management. One of the owners has come to live there as well. There have been many improvements including new flush toilets, new bar/restaurant area and a reliable water supply. The food is still very good, but some of the guests were complaining of the prices for appetizers and desserts saying that they should be included in the price of your stay. I say if you don't want to pay, then don't eat them!
I also found the staff to be a bit more on edge and not as easy going as in past years.
The Saturday night Fia Fia has unfortunately lost it's charm. In previous years, it was the staff and local villagers that did the show... It was very touching to see the same people you saw at work in the day perform at night...and very personal. Now a dance troup is hired to come in... It's all very nice and professional and they also do dances from other Pacific islands. I miss the old shows with "Fa'lili" (One of the staff members) doing the "Story of the 99 Virgins" and the 'Ava ceremony that preceeded the show.
Virgin Cove no longer has shared Fales for 70 tala. I have come to understand most people do not want to share, so fales are now 110 tale including 2 meals.... It is moving out of the budget/backpacker range and I noticed the guests are more mature and well-heeled.
Several new fales have been built along the beach area in the "secluded fale" area.

Princess Tui Inn continues to have water problems (the problem being is that there is NO water at night) This is very inconvenient especially for guests who are arriving in the wee hours (this would be almost all of the arrivals in Samoa). I hope the owner does something about this rather than giving lame excuses. (George: Build a water tank so you have at least SOME water at night... This is a reason why many people I talked to said they would not return to this establishment). If you have a hotel, you HAVE to have water... 24/7.

I've stepped on some toes, but there's always room for improvement, right?

Thanks for listening everyone.

On my last night in Samoa I stayed at Evina's Place for the night... It's like being at home... I liked the pool!! and Evina is a hoot!

Actually, good news about the loud noise (music)..rap crap ? being banned from the aiga buses.

Great to hear from you islandboi!

We were just "talking" about you the other day in your Samoa warnings thread.

Welcome back! :-)

Pity for the music - I also consider music in buses part of the local color, wherever its being played.
And whatever the quality... in fact some of the stuff that I can't stand while actually travelling ends up evoking fond memories once back home.

As for the mongrels, they should just invite some Cookies to show Samoans how to deal with them! ;-)

Good to hear from you islandboi.

Although I don't like noise per se, I enjoyed the local buses with all their noise - not always rap, sometimes hymns. Hope they don't ban the individual decorations.

As for the smoking ban, well I'm sure they won't stop the smoke from the exhausts!

As silvanocat says, yes we were talking about you recently.

They tried in Rarotonga to get people to register dogs - without success. Still at least there most of them don't bite!

Hey Greg!

As always - fascinating observations which allow us some intimate insight into how things really are, "on-the-ground". I share the previous sentiments. It's nice to see your post.

All the best,
Mark

Greg,

Good to see you "back" again, although if you're sitting in a room in rainy Singapore, you're obviously going home the long way this year?
Even the regulations they are thinking of introducing in Samoa will seem minor compared to those existing already in Singapore - I hope you dumped all your chewing gum before you landed and got Health Dept permission for your codeine headache tablets!

I must admit that the cigarettes and loud music were not the things that scared me most about my first couple of trips on Samoan buses (although I do remember some concerns about the smoking driver as we sped along country roads on what I have always thought of as the "Rasta Bus" which had a dashboard decorated with photos of lots of spectacularly lush marijuana plants).

I was more concerned about the way the drivers played "chicken" with each other on narrow country roads to determine who had right of way and who was going to pull over, and my heart certainly skipped a beat the first time I was on a bus that stopped up in the hills for two unkempt, strapping young men who got on the bus carrying the biggest bush-knives I had ever seen, and one of them sat beside my (Yikes!!!). One of the lessons of travel - not all people carrying big, sharp knives in public are dangerous - some just carry them because they need them for the bloody hard work that they do on their plantation plots.

Cheers,

Rob