Day 51-52: Apia, Samoa
Samoa is pronounced ‘Sam-wah’ and is known as the 'friendly islands’. It’s not to be confused with American Samoa. I couldn’t say whether American Samoa is friendly or not, but I can tell you that despite being only 43 miles away, it is 24 hours behind Samoa. This is because in 2011 Samoa changed time zones from east of the international date line to west. Maybe they were just sick of being one of the last to celebrate the New Year! But it was more likely an attempt to better align themselves with their Commonwealth trading partners in Australasia.
The Commonwealth seems quite important to Samoa. The ship was docked in Apia, the capital, and there were references to New Zealand and Australia all over the place. From flags, to consulates, and even the New Zealand greeting ‘Kia ora’. Samoa used to be under joint British and New Zealand rule, and I saw images of the British Royal family, and lots of adverts for a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, that had just taken place in Apia.
Speaking of government, the captain of the Westerdam suggested passengers should visit the parliament, and see a changing of the guard happening there shortly. I thought I had identified the parliament building from the deck of the ship, so I headed onto shore to find it. However, when I came to the building it was a Catholic cathedral (Catholics are the second biggest religion in Samoa after Protestants). An impressive cathedral sure, but not what I was looking for.
I didn’t have any phone signal, the tourist information wasn’t open yet, and I didn’t have a map. It was a nice sunny morning though, so I walked along the coast road a bit further (where most stuff seemed to be located). The road was a combination of: beautiful coastal scenery; litter; taxis tooting, hustling for rides; and locals, not so much begging, as just asking for money! I asked one guy for directions to the Parliament, and in return, he asked for money. Unfortunately for him I didn’t have any cash on me, nor any cigarettes (his second choice). I did have mints, so I traded a few mints for directions.
I came to a bunch of government buildings, but I couldn’t tell which was the parliament. So I took a picture of all of them and Googled the parliament when I got back on the boat. This turned out to be the parliament (image below). Apparently, while anyone can vote in Samoa, only chiefs can stand for election.
Back in town, on my way to tourist information, I passed McDonald's. I was going to go in, and soon wished I had (more on that later). This branch has the claim to fame of being the westernmost McDonald's in the world (as they are closest to either side of the International Date Line)! When I got to the tourist office, there was a handy sign outside showing distances, like in CocoCay. I was relieved to see my journey to Sydney had shortened from 9471 miles in the Bahamas, to 2731 miles at Samoa (converted from km).
I was interested in going to the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum. RSL (to use his initials) was a Scottish novel writer who lived in Samoa. I asked in Tourist Information whether I could walk to it. They said “no”, and advised that if I liked museums, there was a different one about Samoa nearby (giving me a map of Apia). Whenever people tell me “no”, it usually spurs me on to do the opposite. The map showed that the RLS museum looked easy enough to get to, down a straight road, and a similar distance to my walk to the Parliament. So off to the museum I set.
It was a lovely walk in 29-degree heat, the sun beating down. For me, this is optimum conditions, but most of my countrymen would be ‘pishing with sweat’. Along the way, I saw a combination of traditional island life and the modern West. Some homes and farms were very basic, others colonial and grand. The sound of kids singing traditional songs emanated from schools, while Christmas pop songs blasted from cafes. Churches were juxtaposed next to used car dealers. Oh, and they loved a flag! One section of the road had flags on each side of the road from practically every country in the world. As their name suggests they certainly were friendly. Many passers shouted “tah-lo-far” meaning hello, and one guy said, "I like your style brother" (maybe it was my hat!).
As I got near the RLS Museum, I saw a convoy of police cars heading straight for me, their sirens blaring. I wondered if they were coming to tell me I shouldn’t be walking to the museum. But they sped past. It was then I noticed they were driving on the left. I remembered my guidebook saying Samoa changed to driving on the left in 2009 (to be like other Commonwealth countries). Imagine if the UK had to switch sides, there would be chaos!
When I got to the RLS museum I was feeling pretty pleased with myself and was looking forward to finding out more about this author, whose books I had read, but knew little about. That was until I tried to pay the admission fee and realised my bank cards wouldn’t work. The museum had facilities to accept cards, but the transaction wasn’t going through, presumably because I had no signal and a text message was being sent to authorise the transaction.
So all I could do was take a picture to prove I had been there, and enjoy the grounds (which were spectacular) before walking back to town! So the moral of the story: go to McDonald’s! If I had gone to the McDonald's earlier I would have realised my cards weren’t working and got cash out in town.
The next day, back aboard the Westerdam, I went to the ship's library, and picked up Stevenson’s famous book ‘Treasure Island’. In addition to the novel, it told me some facts about his life. Born in Edinburgh in 1850, he studied at Edinburgh Uni, though suffered from poor health exacerbated by the cold and damp (so Edinburgh wasn’t an ideal place!). Samoa was more conducive, and he settled there in 1890, but died four years later at the house I visited yesterday. You may have heard of another of his novels ‘Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’, but he was also a travel writer. Like me, he sailed across the Atlantic, crossed America by train, and explored the Pacific. Unlike me, he knew royalty, a good friend of King Kalakaua the last king of Hawaii. I need to start moving in higher circles!
