It is less than a 2 hour flight from Fiji. But Fiji Airways flew a wide bodied, double aisle, flat bed business class seats plane!! The staff was just outstandingly nice.

That is the other big island of Samoa – Savai’i. We will be landing in the island of Upolu soon. The waters looked outstanding from the airplane.

I have heard of Fiji water and seen Fiji bottles. For the first time, I realized there is a parallel to that in Samoa !

Disturbingly, there is sargasso seaweed all over.

The lush greenery reminded us of the rainfall in the rainforests of Costa Rica.

The trees looked like they were digging in their heels and bent squarely into the wind to take it on

Each house in Samoa seemed to have an outside structure – covered but no walls. Thomas – our driver and guide – explained that these are called “fale tales”. These are usually used for family meetings and other occasions. In Samoa, multiple extended family members live in the same house or next to each other.

This was a huge structure with innumerable number of stalls selling fruits, vegetables, drinks, dresses, pottery, wood work – you name it and you will get it here. Adjoining this was another market and all they sold was fish! Like in Fiji, looks like eating fish – especially on Sundays – is a big festive thing here.

I have mentioned previously how some of the best Indian food I have eaten are in small island countries. Nevis, Turks and Caicos, Malta immediately come to mind. Samoa was a return to that pattern. Thomas took us to this Indian restaurant that lived up to all my expectations.

It is a bit of a tongue twister to pronounce the name. But the view was gorgeous. Especially after all the overnight heavy rains, the water was flowing with a lot of speed and volume. The falls is sheer drop of over 300 feet!

This picture is in the main bus stand. Apparently, this is the only island where buses are made of wood!

Drivers here drive on the left side of the road (like most of the world). However, it was not that way always. Till about 2009, most cars were from America. They were costly and few people owned them. And they drove on the right side like in the US.

But cheaper cars from Asia started flooding the market and they became popular. Every single family has a car today! But the steering wheels were on the other side.

In 2009, the government switched the side of the roads!! Can you imagine the complexity of the project? The turning of boards, the paintings on the road, the confusion for drivers…. But they got it done over a period of 3 months!!

Interestingly, American cars are considered sturdier and higher quality here!

Still no motorcycle, scooter or bicycle – much like Fiji.

There was one excavator valiantly trying to dig a channel for the water to drain out

Turns out our Sheraton was not very diligent in the airport pickup. Eventually I sorted it out. They contract out the transport to a company named Autobot. The Autobot guy was there at the airport but my name was not there. The young guy decided to anyways drop us and then come back to pick up his designated passengers.

And that is how we got to know Thomas. Of course, after that, he was there with us for the whole time. Turns out he is not a guide at all – he was just helping out his uncle (whose company is Autobot). However, we insisted next day that he take us around.

Thomas was an outstanding company. This was his first tour job! He actually has a different day job. He not only was able to answer every question I had about Samoa, he was also able to quickly understand what we like doing and not doing and accordingly set up our schedule.

We hope to come back and meet him and his family next time!

Thomas thought that we might like a local shop that makes all sorts of clothes in house. He could not have been more right. We were delighted by all the work there. Owned by a lady – Vivienne and her daughter, the set up does the whole coloring, block printing, stencil printing, cutting, sewing… everything there. Vivienne was kind enough to take us around the whole place and show the entire operations!