Tanna / Mt Yasur / Lenakel / general advice

All,

Having just been on Tanna for 6 days, I thought it might be useful to provide a brain dump of information which may be useful for others planning their travels.

1. When deciding where to stay on the island, you have to make the choice between (a) more comfortable resorts near the airport or (b) less comfortable resorts near the volcano. Each has pros and cons - those nearer the airport (eg: Whitegrass and Evergreen) are very quick to get to which means a lot if you've got to get the 8am flight off the island and don't want to have spent 2 hours crossing the island by car prior to the flight. If it rains, you won't get locked off from the airport. On the other hand, if you want to see the volcano, you're better off staying near it. We stayed at Whitegrass and suffered from the trip back being seen as a priority. As soon as the sun set and the lava display got really good, our tour driver bundled us off the volcano and back into the car so we wouldn't be too late for dinner. Personally I'd rather have eaten dinner at 10:30pm than 8:30pm and spent 2 more hours at the volcano but this was a viewpoint not shared by the resort. I recognise there could have been problems getting home that would have caused a delay but still, just as we were leaving the volcano other groups were just arriving from the bungalows located much closer. This was quite disappointing. If we get back to Tanna, we'll stay nearer the volcano.

2. The Lenakel market is an area approximately 15m x 10m with fruit and vegies for sale. I'll leave it to you to decide how much time you need there. You can see the entire thing in under 60 seconds if you just look at it. If you're staying at a resort and don't need to buy food, you'll not need much time here at all unless you want to engage with the locals. We wandered up and down a few streets and in and out of stores at random to find out more about local conditions and food availability.

3. If you're going to a cultural village, make sure you know which one you're going to. At Whitegrass, for example, they go to either Ipai or Yakel villages. Yakel is the far more primitive of the two whereas Ipai is evidently much like other village experiences around the island and on Efate. Speaking to those who went to the two villages, those that went to Yakel loved it and those that went to Ipai were less enthused with their experience.

4. If you get the chance to go to John Frum Day (Feb 15), you should make every attempt to do so. It's a fascinating day out with lots of pomp, ceremony and dancing. The most refreshing part is that the dancing is done by the villagers for their own entertainment. Something I personally dislike is the experience of going to a village (not just in Vanuatu, it can be the "maori experience" in NZ) and somewhere in between the explanations of weaponry and living tasks, there's an interlude best summarised as "natives sing and dance for the tourists". I find such experiences stilted and unnatural for both performer and audience, but the John Frum Day happens whether tourists are there or not, and that was a refreshing change.

5. Getting from Whitegrass or Evergreen to Lenakel will cost 300VT per person, one way. It used to be 200VT but it has gone up now.

6. We were unable to find the Kosalos restaurant mentioned in the LP guidebook. If someone else is able to find it, I'd love to know where it is. We asked locals in multiple stores near the co-op and were told (on Feb 17, 2009) that it had closed permanently, and/or that it never existed, so its current operational status is believed to be "non-trading" but happy to be proved wrong on this front.

7. Tanna airport is a little behind the curve when it comes to computers. We had the flight details for only my wife so for a while there it didn't look like I could fly (we had made the assumption that they would just need to see our names and flight details to confirm the flight arrangements but without a computer, that was not possible). The faulty assumption was mine so I take responsibility for it. I'm just warning others so they don't also print one email for two people - it's not a nice feeling when there's confusion about flights and you're the one that could be left behind.

8. Take reef shoes and be prepared to somewhat twist an ankle. Walking on the rocks to the various blue holes and swimming spots was quite an ordeal as the rocks are vertical and jagged. If you're thinking of trying to just use thongs (aka "flipflops"), I think you'll struggle. Mind you, my $9 reef shoes were not much good either - the thicker the sole, the better!

Hope that helps someone else planning their Tanna travels.

But did you have a good time?

Yes.

Thats some good information bud. Fair play.
I'm heading to Vanuatu towards the end of march, thanks for all this info.

All,

I've updated my website with more specific details about Mt Yasur which may be of interest to somebody.

http://mooquack.com/2009/02/12/mt-yasur-volcano/</a>

It's wordy but it has pics if you just want to see flying lava...

Trav.