Van Gogh came here!! Gauguin lived here! I’m so excited by that!
I can see why Van Gogh hated it, but definitely know why Gauguin loved it – and it’s not all about the naked natives! Actually on my part it’s not about that at all… it’s just so lush and beautiful, very much can see why an artist would be completely entranced by this place. And yes, oddly inhospitable and hot and sticky and completely understand why a sickly Van Gogh wouldn’t be so keen… though honestly don’t really. It is actually paradise. But I imagine that all home comforts were a very long way away (at least I have Sprite) and the humidity and heat didn’t really make up for the homesickness.
Anyway – back to me:
So, I was woken this morning at 7am by a work crew fixing a wall right below my room, which is always a lovely way to start the day, but fortunately got back to sleep and it was good! Got up at 10:30, no tea or coffee in my room though there is a kettle thank god, will rectify the tea situation ASAP. Meanwhile started my day with a Sprite and cigarette on the balcony, nearly as good. Would send you the view from the balcony, but it’s basically Baby City (maybe Rachel could transfer here?!) so not that exciting. Though there was also the work group, though that looks a lot like home so nah. There is a stream/river with what I thought the first night was rubbish, but it turns out it’s heaps of fish – will send a pic of that 😄
There are heaps of chickens, and a mad rooster down the road that seems to crow whenever. Some of those are beautiful, and the chickens are great – make me feel right at home though they are not as fat as Angela, I’m going to stop feeling bad about her feeding regime 😏
I went down to the water front, checked out the Ferry terminal, they go every three hours, so planning to do that in a couple of days, do the snorkelling and find somewhere I can submerge. The plan tomorrow is to go find the beaches, the museum of the islands and the water garden. They are about 18-25 km up the road so that will be an adventure 😃 Had a cup of tea! It was terrible, almost cold, but it was definitely tea so it was good anyway!
I shopped in the early afternoon, found some lovely people that were really helpful about where to go and what to see and bought food and a couple of presents… it was great! But there are lots of beggars when you go the back roads, it’s really sad – I want to give them stuff but I don’t know what they’re asking for, and honestly I don’t have much stuff to give… so you know. One of the women who sold me some stuff said they all want money for drugs, but I’m sure that just like in NZ not all of them do. But anyway, yes I could give them a crisp 5000xpf ($75ish) note just withdrawn from the bank or I could buy myself some food and much needed drink and get some tourist stuff to take home. I went for the latter. And I told myself I’m allowed to. So there you go. I find that bit hard.
Then I found a funky wee bar and bought a Maitai and immediately Snapchatted it to Caitlin – yes I have my book and my cocktail 😆
Then came back to the hotel and had a shower ‘cos I’m hot, sticky and my hair is a literal afro 😃
Going to the bar downstairs shortly and then to bed. Shocking how tired I am, but also I got used to the Timezone really quickly – I think the sun being in the right place helps, but it goes down early.
Just gorgeous!!!
BlueKahu 