Hapi krismas blo yu

Mi wanem se olgeta frends blong mi "Wan hapi krismas blo yufula ol". 

Thanks to Eslyn for sending me this Vanuatu Christmas greeting

The Vanuatu adventure came to end last Monday (20 December 2010) morning when I left Port Vila but that won't mean I will close this blog straightaway. I have a few pictures and stories to add. 


I managed to pick up a nasty bug while I was away and its effects are still with me. I have no idea from what (water, food, ???) or when and where I ingested the offending item but whatever it was it certainly packs a bit of punch - an excellent way to lose weight but it does mean I am missing out on all the treats of the Christmas table.


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone...

What's new

Woke up this morning at 05:30, kava effect seems to be lingering and I couldn't sleep. So before I left for work I updated a couple of things.

Video - there is a new scene from South Pacific in the video below, Bali Hai sung by Juanita Hall from the original musical. South Pacific trivia: Apparently the director wanted all the men to be shirtless during this scene, obviously some felt a little modest and wore a t-shirt and a shirt.

Comments - if you would like to leave a comment choose the anonymous profile before posting the comment. I don't know why this is necessary but you won't be able to leave the comment with selecting that profile.

Music - still can't work out how to add music. Hopefully I will be able to by the end of the week.

Last week's student farewell - here are a couple of shots from the student farewell dinner last Friday night at Sunset Bungalows




Solomon Island student leader (Kennedy) and a couple of SI students in the background preparing for their custom dance





Boskie, student from PNG, making a presentation. That's Ronic, colleague of mine in the background on the right and David on the left.

 

Trip to Tanna Part 2 and Mighty Mt Yasur

I have just returned from dinner which was preceded by a coup le of shells of kava at the Felix Nakamal (Bislama for kava bar) on the Second Lagoon in Port Vila. Felix is known as an expat nakamal principally because they serve beer and food. The kava was quite good as far as kava goes. Two shells was probably my limit although I know of locals, white men as they are referred to, who manage up to five shells in one session. I don't think I would be able to turn the computer on let alone write a few words if I had had five shells beforedinner and coming home tonight. The perfect combination for me is kava and a beer chaser and tonight it was Tusker beer. But I digress as this post is really about the second half of the trip in Tanna and more specifically the visit to (Mighty) Mt Yasur, I say mighty as it is the most accessible active volcano in the world and although I usually eschew cliches, a visit to Mt Yasur is truly amazing and an opportunity to see nature at its most powerful.

In the previous post I talked about the trip from Whitegrass International Airport in Lenekal to Mt Yasur along the unsealed road. Well at a certain point we turned off that road and headed along iomething even more basic and finally drove up the side of the volcano for about 300 metres. There we had to exit the vehicle and make the climb (about 1 km) to the rim of the volcano. In this picture (below) I stopped at the base of the walkway to post a couple of postcards. I can't remember who I sent them to so if you recieve a postcard this year (judging by the speed of Vanuatu Post) it came from this very postbox. Oh and I forgot to mention that owing to the late onset of the kava effects I cannot be held responsible for the lucidity of this post.



There are two crazy postboxes in Vanuatu - one underneath the water at Hideaway Island and this one on Mt Yasur just before the walkway leading up to the rim of the volcano.



As you can see in the picture above I am wearing a raincoat, I also had a torch. The climb to the rim of the volcano is quite steep and high and windy. I would recommend sturdy footwear and a raincoat regardless of the time of year. As you walk up the ash hill that is Mt Yasur nothing prepares you for your first experien\ce of erupting volcano. When it first went off I think I was about 200 metres from the crater's edge and this is the first picture I took. I think the drop in the volcano edge gives you some idea how close I was to the crater and how steep the edges were all around the crater. Fortunately, Sam was as good a guide as he was driver and he was on hand to guide me all the way to the viewing area which was another couple of hundred metres from this spot. I was standing there thinking to myself this is pretty impressive and then all of a sudden there was this enormous bang, the earth (or volcano to be exact) under my feet shuddered and a spew of red hot lava shot into the air - right in front of me. I can't describe the feeling or impression accurately but it is still quite vivid in my imagination...

Mt Yasur about to erupt, almost on cue as I arrived to look down into the crater

The quality of this picture is not fantastic but it gives you some idea of the red hot lava shooting into the air. We arrived in daylight about 17:30 and had about one hour of daylight to enjoy the volcanic fireworks before the sun set and then the show really began. We stayed until 19:00 and then left partly because Sam wanted to beat the traffic so to speak and get a head start on the five other vehicles parked at the base of the volcano. I remembered the section of the road earlier where we emptied the vehicle to get past and I thought just as well only three of us were returning but I was still a little concerned we would not make it up that particular hill. As it was Sam floored for about 300 metres before the hill and we slid and swayed all the way up the hill and made it in one piece.

Another eruption from Mt Yasur, by this time I was standing directly above the crater; frightening but fascinating at the same time

I think the picture on the left is one of the best I took while standing above the crater. I can't describe the noise accurately but is was like a low grumble and then an enormous bang followed by complete silence as the hot lava fell to the ground or back into the crater. When it was dark I watched one piece of lava shoot high into the sky and fall slowly and gracefully and hit the ground, not far from us, with a dull thud. It looked the size of a car wheel, I have no idea what injury it would have caused if the wind was blowing in our direction and it landed among the 15 or so spectators gathered around the edge of the volcano.

I can't see what the picture above is as the internet has just dropped out (for the umpteenth time this evening) but I think it is another shot of an eruption. The volcano erupted more than 20 times while I was there and each time it was different in terms of colour and movement, ash cloud and sulphur cloud, noise and spectacular lava shooting into the air. As the sun set and it become dark you could see the second crater glowing menacingly in the background and then all of a sudden it too erupted and we received two for the price of one with both craters erupting in unison - now that was spectacular. I was particularly taken by the colour of the glow around the very edges of each crater - more like a hot orange than a red glow - and I can only imagine the temperature down in the crater if it can melt whatever it melts (showing my geological ignorance I know) and then spew it into the air. I feel another cliche coming on.

Anyway the kava is taking its effect and so it's time for bed. I will leave you with one more picture, here I am standing at the top of the outer crater - you can see how high it is by looking at the landscape in the background. The ground is ash that is firm to walk on but the edges are very steep and I thought it was safer to remain standing rather than sit and run the risk of sliding down the front or back of the outer crater. Next post will be boring by comparison - a few of my favourite things in Vanautu.

Standing on the "viewing deck" at Mt Yasur, as you can see the OHS police haven't ruined this attraction with myriad fences and safety controls. The drop to my left is about 90 metres at the base of which is a small plateau and then...the crater.





Trip to Tanna Part 1

Two weeks ago (time has really flown by) I was fortunate enough to travel down to Tanna Island, one of the southernmost islands of the Vanuatu archipelago, to review plans for a program that is scheduled for delivery on the island in early 2011. Tanna along with Santo are the two most visited islands in Vanuatu after the Efate, the island with the capital Port Vila. Transport to Tanna at the moment is via a plane (17 seats and two propellers, one on each wing) and takes about an hour or boat (actually it's a barge) and I have no idea how that long that takes but the chap who captains it said he can't take passengers anyway due to the occupational health and safety risks. I wasn't sure if this was referring to the seaworthiness of the vessel itself or the lack of life saving aids on board.

Anyway I digress, as you can see below I am standing in front of the rear door - trusty Venetian Panama in hand and ready to embark on the trip to Tanna. I forgot to add that the check-in experience includes being weighed after you check in your luggage. Fortunately, there were no, how shall I put this, larger size passengers travelling down to Tanna that day.



Port Vila from seat 12A. You can't see my place but just imagine it is off to the right of the picture.



After years of flying and one particularly close scrape a couple of years ago (some of you will know what I referring to), I am a very calm and controlled passenger and I have learnt simply to accept whatever comes when flying, especially when you are in the air, as there is nothing you can do about it and it's probably better to leave it in the hands of the crew...but imagine my consternation when I looked down minutes after take off in the 17 seat, two propeller Air Vanuatu plane.

What did I see? No, it wasn't rubbish left on the floor from the previous flight or the remains of a previous passenger's lunch. See below - it was the arm of the aisle seat in front of me lying on the floor at my feet. Given no hostess was in sight, in fact there was no hostess, I thought it churlish to bother the pilots who I could through the open cockpit up front and chose to ignore the offending item. Fortunately, it was a smooth flight so there was no chance the object could fly through the cabin taking out the passengers.

Seat arm of 11A resting on the floor in front of 12A

There is less than 200 metres of sealed road on Tanna Island and the picture below was taken from inside the 4WD we were travelling in after being picked up at the Whitegrass International Airport at Lenakel (I am not sure what the international flights are in and out of Tanna but perhaps they are private charter flights from the US) by the tour guide (Sam) from Tanna Lodge. We drove straight away to Mount Yasur (more about the volcano later) along the roughest roads I have ever experienced. In fact I thought driving across the island that this trip was the most remote location I had visited, even more remote than places I visited in Australia and certainly the least developed, not that I minded that at all. In fact, the drive was fascinating, there were sections I thought we would not pass because of the state of the road).

We passed this tree (Banyan?) on the way to Mt Yasur - that's our truck underneath it and the people in the tray we picked up in Lenekal and delivered to their village at the base of the volcano. These trees are true wonders of nature, I have seen some that you can walk right through at the base, with all the twisted roots and gnarled branches. Next to the tree was a small village market. Well a trestle table really with a few locally-grown foods and produce for sale. In front of the table on the ground were these bundles of roots (see below) that one of the villagers told was kava root ready for processing.



I have been reliably informed the kava in Vanuatu is much stronger than the kava in Fiji and the kava in Tanna is the stongest in Vanuatu. That must have something to do with the unique method of preparation of kava in this part of the world - the root is chewed by uncircumsised boys and then the partly masticated root is blended with water and strained before drinking. Now I know one needs to be culturally sensitive but if aTannese offered me kava I would seriously have to think what was more important - avoiding an infection or committing a tabu.

Here we are (see below) half way between Lenakel and Mt Yasur. We had just driven down, or to be more accurate Sam the driver had just driven down, a stretch of almost unpassable road and the only way we made it was to lighten the truck by getting out of the truck and walking down the hill. I took this picture at the bottom of hill just as we were about to get back in the truck and continue our trek towards the volcano. We had four generations of the one family in the back and you can see great-grandmother (frizy hair at the back), grandmother (blue Island dress in the front), mother (yellow and red sarong standing on the tray) and sundry children.

What's new on BBMLV (short for Blog blong mi lo Vanuatu)?

I have made a few changes to the Blog tonight. It is amazing what you can achieve when the internet connection is stable for more then 15 minutes. In fact it hasn't dropped out all night.

Firstly, I have limited the number of posts to 3 per page to make more space for a couple of gadgets. The archive link on the right side of page contains a link to each post so if the post you would like to read is not on the main page check in the archive.

Secondly, the latest gadget (at the bottom of the page) is a five-day weather forecast so you can see what delightful weather I am enjoying at the moment. Don't be too envious as we are now officially in cyclone season - we did an emergency cyclone drill last week to see how quickly we could contact all the team members in the event of a code red cyclone alert (it helps if you have your mobile telephone switched on, which I didn't have in my case so the drill was not so successful in my case). The only thing the forecast gadget doesn't show is humidity which I have no doubt you will be pleased to know is sitting around 80-90% at the moment - stiiiicky.

And finally, I trying to work out how to embed a Youtube video with scenes from South Pacific underneath the weather gadget. South Pacific is one of my favourite, no actually my favourite, musicals and its inspiration came from the time James Michener spent here in Vanuatu on Espiritu Santo during WWII. I discovered the other day that Bloody Mary was most likely modelled on a Tonkinese brothel owner in Luganville than Aggie Grey in Apia, Samoa who I had previously thought was the source for this amusing character. It makes sense as a number of Tonkinese were brought to Vanuatu by the French in the early part of the twentieth century and settled on Santo. My intention is to change the videos with different numbers from the musical. Let's see how it goes...

Latest addition to the Frawley family



Baby Rex and bear

 My cousin (Daniel) and his wife (Kat) who live in Dubai are the proud new parents of their first child - Rex - and the latest addition to the Frawley family. Rex brings to five the number of great-grandchildren of John Frawley who moved permanently to Sri Lanka in October this year - as you do when you are 95. JF is very proud of this new member of the family and followed Rex's arrival into the world through the wonders of the internet. There is a video of Rex a few days after his birth (if it loads) alternatively a couple of pictures.

Congratulations Dan and Kat.



Rex and father



Fly the flag

I copied this moving Vanuatu flag image from someone else's website over the weekend. It demands an acknowledgement but I can't remember where it comes from probably the page of one of the local resorts. If it is made any larger it goes all wobbly so you will have to content yourselves with the original size...

Next trick is to try and add some music. What until you hear a traditional Vanuatu string band.

Local markets

The local markets in Port Vila on Efate and Luganville on Santo are fascinating places to visit not only for the amazing selection of local produce but also to meet local people and see some of the real Vanuatu. The market in Port Vila is open almost 24 hours day from Monday morning until midday Saturday and you can buy fruit, vegetables, herbs, nuts, coconut oil, peanuts from Epi, seas shells, and so on.  Here are pictures of a market day last month in Santo - the market buildings are tent-like in strucuture with lots of benches groaning under the weight of produce and food items and with plenty of produce (see below) spread out on the ground on mats or tarps.


Luganville market, Espirtu Santo




Local produce for sale at Luganville market: L-R, Yam (I think), Jackfruit, Bananas




















Last Thursday night I went looking for fresh basil and I ended coming home with 2 big pieces of fresh pineapple (it's so sweet) and two large floor mats, the latter I had no intention of buying but when I saw them I thought since they were only vt800 each (about $8.70) they would look good in the flat and would be good for beach visits back home. The mats are now spread out on the sitting room floor and make a pleasant contribution to the overall aesthetic - better than the pictures on the walls at least. And I didn't end up buying any basil - none left. One thing I have learnt is that if you see something at the market and you think you might need or use it soon buy it then and there because chances are next time you visit the market it won't be available.




Three generations of stallholders at the Luganville market

(toddler stallholder looks decidely unhappy being in the picture).

The fresh flowers are the market are always beautiful and there is generally a good selection of greenery and different flowers on sale. I don't the names of any of the flowers below although I think one is a waratah (or at least waratah looking). Vanuatu is incredibly verdant vis the quality and variety of produce and flowers at the market. Occasionally you see some fresh crabs and live chickens for sale.

These flowers last for a long time and keep their

beautiful red colour.

 Throughout the markets baskets woven from palm branches are used to carry and store things such as taro, yam and potatoes. You can see in the photo below how the palm fronds are woven together to form the basket and handle, they are durable and can carry quite a bit of weight - sort of like the ultimate recyclable shopping bag because when it is finished with it goes on the garden as mulch and then another branch is cut down to make a new basket.



It looks like kumara and yam in these baskets.



The flowers in the two pictures below look like the tuila flower that is very common in Samoa. Someone told me they are called ginger flowers here in Vanuatu but they don't look like a ginger flower - more like a tuila flower. Perhaps they are the ni-Vanuatu cousin of the Samoan species. Whatever they are the look lovely in a vase and are so cheap at the market. A bunch of eight costs about vt400 (around $4.20).

Daily news in Vanuatu

The local and national news in Vanuatu comes via several sources,. There are two newspapers printed during the week the Vanuatu Daily Post http://www.dailypost.vu/ and The Vanuatu Times . Both newspapers print news items in Bislama, English and French (the three official languages of the Republic of Vanuatu) and there is a smattering of items from the Pacific Region, Australia, Europe, Asia and the USA.  The Vanuatu Times promotes itself as Vanuatu's indigenous owned newspaper but the contents of the two publications don't seem that different given is owned locally and the other isn't.

There is a somewhat amusing section in the Daily Post on a Saturday called Mi harem se, sort of like a gossip column with brief items about local affairs in Port Vila and Luganville. This morningwe read the following...

Mi harem se Morkin Steven was the first of the new ministers to pick up his car. Given Morkin's history with alcohol and car accidents last time he was a minister, everyone will be watching to see what happens this time around. Silip!

And another, this is a real cracker...

Mi harem se a woman Paama was inside a bus late at night when she saw her husband with a married Bali Hai girl whose husband is currently picking fruit in NZ. They were drunk and going for it so she hid at the back of the bus so they couldn't see her. Trouble is she heard everything including the need for them to 'do it' and him wanting her to play her Ambae mouth organ on the bus. That was it. She rushed at them. He ran off and she grabbed the girl and it was a full on Paama, Ambae bitch slapping contest. Paama won and the Ambae girl was stripped clear naked with her panties, bra and clothes all taken and left to walk home naked along the main road at No3. The cuckolded wife said she was keeping the clothes she had ripped off to show the woman's husband when he returned from NZ. Hemi nao woman. Silip!

People tell me it is quite common to be spoken about in Mi harem se so I wonder if it is a sign that one has arrvied in Port Vila if one scores a mention in this section of the paper. I must look out over the next couple of weeks and see if anything I have done around town excited sufficient interest for someone to write to the Daily Post. For the tourism awards, dinner this evening at Le Lagon, I volunteered my time as a judge so perhaps some disgruntled Vanuatu tourism operator who saw me out and about judging (not that I told anyone) might take umbrage at not winning and complain in Mi harem se - one can only hope, anything said in print is better than nothing said at all.

I don't listen to a lot of radio, only when driving in the car, but the BBC World Service broadcasts in Port Vila on 99.0 FM and there are two other local radio stations, Capital FM107 and another the name of which escapes me on 99.0FM, these two stations have hourly news bulletins in Bislama, which is great for me to listen to now that I am attending a weekly Bislama class (more about that another post).

As there isn't a television in the apartment I haven't seen television news, actually any television for that matter, since I left Australia. Don't miss it in the slightest to be honest. I did hear about the election in Victoria but couldn't rouse enough interest to inform myself about what happened.

Trip to Santo

Island journeys so far...

On Friday I flew up to Luganville on the island of Espirtu Santo for the day. The principal purpose of the trip was to conduct skills assessments for new students who will be enrolling in a new course next year but while I was there I took advantage of the opportunity to meet with industry representatives and visit a couple of resorts where graduates from our first program in Santo are now working.


Western cost of Efate flying to Espiritu Santo

The flight to Santo took approximately 40 minutes long enough to write a page in my journal.  I now have a blog and a journal and I wonder how long before the journal is left behind by the blog, this is much easier and it the humidity there's no chance of the ink smudging on the paper. The inflight service was a brief as the flight - a plastic cup of juice and a lolly. Like many airports in the Pacific there is no such thing as disembarking at the gate rather passengers descend the exit stair of the plane and walk across the tarmac. I rather enjoy the experience, not sure why perhaps because it seems a rather old-fashioned thing to do. The airport was abzuzz with people waiting for the return flight to Port Vila. Here is shot from my seat 12D of Malakula Island which is between Efate and Santo.



Rather indistinct view of Malakula Island on the way up to Santo

















Luganville is rather quaint, it has the feel of a large country town and I understand from people who live the politics and the culture of same. Driving in from the airport is very different to the approach to Port Vila from Bauerfield International Airport as the island is flat by comparison and the main road, particularly in the middle of the town is quite wide hence the "country twon" feel. I think it would be an interesting place back in the 1950s and 1960s and up until indepedence with the strong French influence that was apparently present. One can almost see the plantation owners driving into town on a Friday afternoon with their wives for dinner at the local club. I suspect this location and the French plantation owners of previous times might have been the inspiration for Emile Debecq in South Pacific.

The Village de Santo was the first hospitality stop and I had breakfast there (and returned later for lunch). I ordered the petite breakfast (no bacon) and this is what I was served...

it was delicious... the maple syrup around the edge was a nice touch.

I spent most of my time out at the Vanuatu Maritime Training Centre where the students came for the skills assessment and interviews. The MTC is on the other side of Luganville from the airport near the Beachfront and Coral Quays Resorts. Unfortunately the Captain Superintendent of the college was overseas and I was not able to meet him but I met his deputy, Zakariah, who was from Fiji. Students from all over Vanuatu study at the MTC as it is the only maritime training centre in the country and the college offers a range of short and longer-term courses. The facilities all looked pretty good and the internet access in the room I used was excellent so I caught up on a bit of international news surfing the web in between interviews.



In the afternoon I stopped off at the Beachfront Resort for more skills assessments and interviews and I got chatting to the proprietor who has some big plans for the resort. The location is fantastic right opposite Aore Island and once the pool goes in I think it will be a nice place to say. I saw a fine tam-tam pole near the bar while I was there. I'll need to do some research on the tam-tam but they are quite distinctive and different islands use different designs, basically they are 'totem' type carvings on the outer surface and with a hollowed out the centre leaving a slit down the front. The hollowed out log gives the deep resonance of drums when hit with sticks.

Tam-tam pole at Beachfront Resort, Luganville, Espiritu Santo

The Apartment

Update: I managed to secure sufficient internet time to load a couple of images for this post, see below. The comment box is open to all if you would like respond but remember anyone can see your comments so please consider others when replying.

There are many great locations for accommodation in Port Vila and depending on what you want and there is something to suit all tastes and budgets. I am staying on the northern edge of Port Vila in the Bayview Apartments. The rent includes everything - power, gas, wirleess internet - and is about 500m from work so I have a nice walk up the hill each morning and a pleasant walk home down the hill each afternoon.

The internal appointments are fine for my needs. the furniture looks reasonably new, the native wall hanging is more than bearable and the balcony stretches the width of the apartment. As you know I like my cooking and I was pleased to the the oven and stove are more than serviceable, there is air-conditioning but I don't use it much as I prefer the fans. Vanuatu is sub-tropical with average temperatures around 22-28C each day although it is a little humid at the moment as the wet season approaches so every now and again I turn on the cooling for a little relief. Outside there is a swimming pool and a nice terrace. The apartment overlooks the Walter Lini Highway (The Rev. Dr. W.H. Lini is known as the father of independence and has a public holiday in his honour). The noise from the highway, if you could call it that, is lopud most days but non unbearable. Here are some interior shots - those of you who are interested in interior design look away now...

Interior view of apartment looking towards the lagoon



Interior shot with kitchen and breakfast bar

 Note the indigenous (I think by way of Bali) wall hanging. I thought of putting tea candles in each of the baskets and then realised the decoration would go up in flames and so thought better of it. I actually don't mind it now and it would like good with lights in it.
Anyway onto the view...

The absolute jewel in the crown for this apartment is the view across Vila Bay. At the end of the day there is a beautiful sunset and in the morning the rising sun casts a bright light across the lagoon and out into the sea. I like to eat my breakfast each morning looking out at the water. This evening I watched a cruise lights ablaze sail slowly out the bay and make its way back to Australia. Here is a ship coming into the harbour last week early in the morning...



I think it's the P&O Sea Princess, there were three cruise visits to Port Vila that week.

Early morning (06:00) looking from the balcony



Typical Port Vila sunset



Nambawan blog post blong mi lo Vanautu

As the title suggests this the my first blog post in Vanuatu. I thought it would be a good idea to create a blog for family and friends so I can share my experiences living and working here in Port Vila. This is the fourth time in two years I have visited Vanuatu and each time I have stayed in the capital. In fact, the last time I was here was the shortest of any visit to another country - all of 36 hours. Now I am here for an extended period of time and although I am pretty busy with work there will certainly be time to visit all around the island of Efate, that's where I am at the moment and perhaps even make a couple of trips to the outer islands such as Tanna or Santo

I arrived here a couple of weeks ago and have been busy settling into my new role, well not quite new role more of an expansion of what I was previously doing before I left home to come out here. I didn't realise how time consuming it was to organise accommodation and the other mundane things one needs to do when establishing a new base. Finding the apartment was the easy bit but setting up the kitchen and the bathroom, organising internet connection (not least so I can write posts at home each night) and so on has taken me longer than I thought but I am happy to say that things are organised the way I like them. The apartment especially, it's nothing flash but the view each morning and evening is pretty spectacular - the subject of a future post to be sure. And so before the internet connection drops out for the umpteenth time tonight I will close here and post again tomorrow. But before I do here are a couple of pictures of various sights around Port Vila and the island of Efate.



A view of the lagoon from The Moorings, Port Vila



Beach sign for the protection of the mama turtle, North Coast Efate



The wing of the Air Vanuatu Boeing 787-800 nearing Bauerfield International Aiport, Port Vila