Why fly to Fiji? If we are already in that hemisphere and have time, wouldn’t we spend some time on an exotic islands?
SUMMARY
Fiji is a union of 400-500 islands (depending on who you ask) some are inhabited and most are not. It’s hard to say we know Fiji. We arrived at the main island and went to a temporary hotel close to the field. In front of the hotel there is a tiny island. We took a boat to the island intending to spend there a few hours and stayed for 5 days. We only left this island when we had to take the next flight. Since the area of the island is 2-3 acres, we know it and its inhabitants very well… Everyone is very nice, happy, want to help, not in hurry. If you’re in the area, drop by.
Samoa, sounds like a country in Africa, that no one is interested in, but Doron Fischler from the podcast “The Answer” occasionally mentions them, they use words in Hebrew (in their Hebrew meaning), they are the only country in the world that switched to driving from the right to the left, they decided to change their time zone and went to the other side of the timeline and lost an entire day. But the most ridiculous story, their president, after not being elected (he had been in power for 22 years), decided not to return the keys to the parliament and it took them half a year to get the keys to the building back with the help of courts (lucky there are courts 
). That’s why we said to ourselves “we have to visit there”, and when we discovered that the island is near New Zealand here we are.
Third world countries (and Samoa certainly is), even if they live on tourism, will usually be seen shining in places for tourists, and neglected in their backyard. Samoa is really not there, every house and every road is well maintained, with the help of potted plants and various decorations, so it doesn’t matter where you go (and we were on every road on the island) everything looks really good! Add to that peaceful residents, who are not in a hurry to go anywhere, are always laughing, and who speak English (almost all of them), and you have a recipe for an island that is fun to be on. Now don’t say that we just say that about any exotic place, in Fiji for example it’s fun to be on the islands for tourists, but the rest is poor and quite neglected.
True, Samoa is at the end of the world (all tourism here is from New Zealand or Australia) yet still worth visiting. Since we are here then here are some more details about this cute island. All the residents here are devout Christians and the number of churches is simply unbelievable, literally every two houses have a church, some of the churches have no walls, just a floor and a roof, that’s how it is in a hot country without air conditioners. They love Israel – we saw the Israeli flag flying in all kinds of places (over a school for example), the permitted driving speed on the whole island is 50 km/h, and we didn’t see even one car that drives faster. The people here are BIG, even those who are not fat (there aren’t many of them) are big. It should be noted that everything related to tourists (hotels, restaurants, cars…) is expensive – England prices.
We definitely recommend it – don’t go there specially, but if you are around, drop by to visit.
Fiji, Lautoka
February, 2023
We opened a map and looked for such an island in the New Zealand area and here is Fiji. It is a group of 300 islands, of which 100 are inhabited. We are now on a tiny island (Bekona) with only one house surrounded by several bungalows under palm trees, a golden beach and clear water, and most importantly – hammocks.
So why fly from here to Samoa? Well that’s a whole other story. There is a podcast called ‘The Answer’ that occasionally mentions Samoa. The story that caught our attention is that the president who was not elected for another term did not agree to hand over the keys to the parliament building so that the new president could not enter (and indeed she did not enter for a while) and we said to ourselves, ‘there are places crazier than us in the world, we must see that’, so we will fly there next week.
Fiji, Bekana Island
February, 2023
We sailed for a few hours to a tiny island just to dip in its blue waters and stayed for almost a week. The island which is about two hundred meters long and maybe fifty meters wide contains only a tiny resort (8 bungalows) and a restaurant where the chef prepares fish and chips or chicken and chips. The staff seems to have taken something, all the time happy and laughing and really ineffective. Forgot the Wi-Fi password – no problem, use the bartender’s details; there’s no hot water – they’ll fix it right away; we’re two hours late for breakfast – it’s okay to wake up the chef… If it sounds like we’re complaining, then absolutely not, the island is amazing and the atmosphere is worth everything. BTW, we were the only guests in the hotel with a full staff.
Samoa, Apia
February, 2023
First impression of Samoa.
This is a third world country, with all the signs of poverty and neglect. But… and there is a big ‘but’ here that contradicts our experience in countries of this type.
For example, the roads are full of potholes, not well-lit and not well-marked, but the sides of the road are well-kept and decorated with flowers and bright green grass, and the drivers, without exception, obey the rules.
The supermarket doesn’t have air conditioning and I also saw someone paying by check (!), but the local market is incredibly clean and orderly.
There is a lack of attention to the small details, but in the restaurant the toilets are polished.
In the hair salon, the walls peel off, but when they wash your hair they also give you a full head massage for about fifteen minutes (included in the price).
Another important point – everyone speaks English.
So, what does resemble a third world country? – there is a church on every corner, the people go out of their way to help, laugh all the time and think they live in the best place in the world. Maybe they are right.
Coast Road, Samoa
We are on the island of Samoa.. somewhere in the South Pacific… we met a group of young children on the beach who were really happy to meet us and loved to pose for pictures..
Coast Road, Samoa
The island is surrounded by a road. Houses are scattered around the road. Each house sits on a large grassy area. The houses are usually simple with unpainted tin roofs. In front of the house there is a rather large area covered with a tin roof. That is where the daily life of the family takes place (on the floor). Like a balcony only huge. What is special is the cultivation of gardens almost without exception – with flower pots, flags, coconuts and painted stones. Creates a really great atmosphere.
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