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Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop

a travel blog by chrischarly

After 6 months in the Western world, it is time to put back on our backpacks, pack away the rain coats and hit the Pacific!
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Bye bye Neil xxxx

Apia, Samoa

Got up early with Neil and drove him to the airport to bid him a sad farewell. These 3 ½ weeks have gone by so fast and we’ll really miss him. Chris and I then had a very quiet journey back to Apia in mourning of the departure of our friend…

Hermit crab in a snail's shell
Once back in Apia we drove around some other accommodation to try and find some availability for the 31st as it is Samoa’s 50th year of independence, but we failed to find anything but high end places for ridiculous prices as everyone else except us thought long ahead and booked up, so we’ll have to think of something else. Then went back and did some washing for 2 hours before driving back into town to buy some supplies for dinner. We then relaxed for the rest of the day as Chris was still feeling a bit weak and is unable to eat much else except bananas, papaya, eggs and bread.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 27, 2012 from Apia, Samoa
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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A plan day

Apia, Samoa


The roof's made out of flip-flop remains
Another rough night for poor Chris so we had to take another trip to the doctors in the morning after taking the hire car back but luckily after having another take-it-easy day he felt a lot better but still not perfect. We took a trip into town and managed to finally find some internet! Although it was pricey it was quite fast so we started planning our onwards trip to America. Then after wandering around town for a bit we came back and chilled some more, apologies if this is getting boring to read about…

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 28, 2012 from Apia, Samoa
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Finally finding a bed

Apia, Samoa

Still feeling a bit off today but a great improvement on the past few days, after some brunch Chris and I took a walk into town. Instead of walking the boring road way, we decided to take our chances and go the scenic route.

Our home in Apia
Remarkably after stumbling through a couple of villages we managed to navigate our way to the coast alongside a River linked to the sea.
But OMG it was such a hot day! By crossing roads and paths a few times we did manage to stay mostly in the shade, but when we showed up at the visitor information sight we were sweating hard and appreciated their turned-up air-conditioning. With a bit of prompting the guy was quite helpful and managed to find us somewhere to stay for the night of the 31st for quite a good price, as it was looking like we may have just had to camp up underneath the stars. For such a huge event happening Samoa is so unprepared for the amount of visitor’s it’s going to have. But at least we have a bed for the night. We then continued to walk through town and going to the internet again for a couple of hours before taking a taxi back home.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 29, 2012 from Apia, Samoa
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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A day in the docs

Apia, Samoa

Chris had an early-morning appointment with the docs today and not wanting to wake me he slipped out the door informing me he would only be an hour. Unfortunately over 5 hours later he returned as they were just so busy after doing some routine tests and scans on him. But he did have to fast for the whole day so he could go back tomorrow for some more scans as they wouldn’t show up properly, so Chris was quite weak and tired for the day so again we didn’t do a lot, just generally relaxed.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 30, 2012 from Apia, Samoa
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Smelly disgusting motel

Apia, Samoa

Checked out of Livingstone Apartments this morning as they are full for tonight, then back down to the doctors for another check-up on Chris before having some breakfast at a café and logging on for a couple of hours. After the internet, we took a walk around the waterfront and watched a heat of the massive canoe racing before making our way to our new hotel for the night.

Only after we had checked in and paid did we realise how lucky we have been with our previous hotel in Apia. This place ranks in our top 5 worse hotels to have stayed in during our trip. It was very small, hot and incredibly smelly, actually incredible smelly is an understatement. We didn’t waste too much time there, and headed out for an Indian to make us feel better, at least it’s only for 1 night!

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 31, 2012 from Apia, Samoa
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UB40

Apia, Samoa

We woke up after an awful night in our smelly hotel room after a group of drunkards were outside our room screaming and throwing things at our hotel and checked out straight away.
We headed to a nice café for some breakfast then in to town to look at what was going on for the Independence Day celebrations.
It was really busy and everyone was in a buoyant mood, there were stalls setup all along the front and even the police had on shiny white uniforms (Sunday Best!).
It was very hot, so we had to keep stopping for refreshments, before heading back to our NICE hotel and getting a well needed shower and some rest before the big night.
We headed to Apia Park around 6pm, to get in early for the UB40 concert. We were glad we did as it was very busy.
There were a number of local bands on first, and one from NZ, but at around 8.30, when the place was really packed UB40 came on. They were without their lead singer, but still did a very impressive set lasting nearly 2 hours. The old stuff was the best, and the locals liked this a lot more than the newer. All in all a great night but both Chris and I were both aching from standing around in a small area for so long.


The party animals we are, we went back and to bed for a nice sleep; pity we didn’t have any Cocoa!

permalink written by  chrischarly on June 1, 2012 from Apia, Samoa
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Not a lot to do

Apia, Samoa


Stacks of coconuts
The celebrations were still going on today and will be for the rest of the week so we headed into town today and surprisingly it was a lot quieter than we envisioned. Many places were closed or closed early so we soon got bored and headed out for an Indian before heading back.

permalink written by  chrischarly on June 2, 2012 from Apia, Samoa
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Another Sunday spent in The Pacific

Apia, Samoa

Once again it is a Sunday so nothing to do again, so that’s what we did, nothing. Apart from make a tasty pasta bake and watch some movies.

permalink written by  chrischarly on June 3, 2012 from Apia, Samoa
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A great big dent in the bank balance

Apia, Samoa

Took a walk into town today and wandered aimlessly around for a while, went online and booked our flights back home! OMG we fly home in 10 days! That is scary. So our USA, Central America and South America trip is going to be put on hold for a little while whilst we go back and visit family and friends for a bit! So all change out here, but change is good. We had just 2 hours in the internet before it closed as it is still holidays here and managed to book the cheapest options we could find…

American Samoa-Hawaii
then Hawaii-Alaska
then Alaska-Germany
then, finally Germany-Home

So after 3 days of travel which every night will be spent on planes with horrific lay-overs! But then again at short notice this was cheap. So pleased with ourselves but sorry about our new bank balance, we went back and chilled out for a while away from the blaring sun before heading back out for a yummy Indian in the evening.


permalink written by  chrischarly on June 4, 2012 from Apia, Samoa
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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A stupid mistake

Apia, Samoa

Woke up this morning before 7am to our Mobile ringing. Uh oh… it was Chris’ dad informing us that we had stupidly booked our Hawaii-Alaska flight in July instead of June. So Chris’ dad thankfully managed to search online back home whilst on the phone for us and book an alternate route to get to Alaska in time before we missed our connections; so now instead of flying directly to Alaska from Hawaii we have to go Hawaii-Seattle then Seattle-Alaska, so yet another flight on our mammoth trip back home making it 5 flights in a row!
Wow, we are gonna be exhausted! But on the plus side, as there were on a couple of rubbish seats left on our new flights and not together, for just $100 more we get to fly 1st class! Now that is exciting! I have never flown 1st class before and it will be a nice treat to break up the journey! But on the downside we lost quite a bit of money as the original far was non-refundable so now our bank balance is really suffering! Never mind. So once the internet had opened for the morning we headed down into town for a couple of hours, ate in a crappy Italian, confirmed our Ferry tickets for tomorrow and hung out and watched some more boat racing. It was pretty cool as all the Samoans were cheering and enjoying themselves and then we finally headed back and had yet another relaxed evening.

permalink written by  chrischarly on June 5, 2012 from Apia, Samoa
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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