samoa
samoa | travelled in 2015 | posted on dec 22, 2015
when planning a trip to the south pacific, it can be quite hard to decide where to go. there are more than 7.500 islands, divided into 14 independent countries and several autonomous territories (i don't know if it is p.c. to use the word colony, but basicially this is what these regions are).
unfortunately, with a limited time budget, one has to make a decision. my first choice was tuvalu - for a long time, i had been dreaming of travelling there for several reasons (see my recent post about this outstanding country). so i had to go to fiji as well, as flying from suva, fiji's capital, to funafuti is the only choice when travelling by air. apparently, the main reason for choosing tonga were the whales.
but why did i pick samoa? to be honest, i still don't know...
maybe because landscapewise, samoa might have been a contrast to the other countries? well, compared to the coral atolls of tuvalu, samoa is indeed very different. but considering fiji's main island viti levu or 'eua in tonga, which are also high-risen volcanic islands, there is no major difference.
maybe because coming from germany, samoa had been one of the few german colonies before new zealand took over during the first world war? well, i do not think that colonialism is something a country should be proud of. i mean, some german traces can still be found in samoa. especially german names are still used quite often. but except from that, i could not find much more that reminded me of germany. besides, i see no point in travelling to the other side of the globe just to find traces of my home country.
maybe because samoa was the first pacific island to gain independence in 1962? yes, none should have the right to rule over somebody else only because he is stronger.
maybe because samoa is, according to the international dateline, earth's second easternmost country? so if you arrive from europe from the west and leave samoa continuing east, when passing samoa, you are again on the way back home without turning around. sounds kinda cool? well, not really.
maybe because samoa repeated july 4th 1892 the day after, before continuing with july 5th and instead skipped december 30th 2011 by directly switching from the 29th to 31st? yeah, they are truly masters of time.
maybe because samoa does not only hop around the international date line, but also decided to change which side of the road you have to drive on from the righthand to the lefthand side? the reason for this drastic change was to end samoa's reliance on expensive, left-hand drive imports from the us. instead samoans can now buy more affordable cars from closer australia and new zealand. fortunately this change happened smoothly without any serious accident.
maybe because samoa is almost crime free? can you image that there has been only one single bank robbery in the whole history of samoa and that everybody was so stunned that it took the police about one hour to show up at the crime scene? (see the nz herald, april 9th, 2010)
maybe because being inked myself, i think that the samoan tattoos do show some of the most beautiful patterns? yes, but to watch these it is easier to use google instead of stalking some samoans.
maybe because the shirt of the manu samoa, the samoan rugby national team, is the most beautiful of all teams that competed in the 2015 rugby world cup? yeah, as hard as i tried, it was impossible to buy one, as this shirt was entirely sold out. no wonder, as the championship was just held while i was in samoa. so i have to try to find when when i am back home. by the way, unfortunately the samoan team, at that time ranked 9th in the world rugby ranking, totally messed up with only 1 win out of 4 matches. so why did i decide to cheer for the samoans instead of fiji or tonga, the two other world cup participants that i visited? well, i do not have a single clue about rugby, but the samoans had by far the most beautiful shirt!
maybe because i wanted to stay in a fale? mmmmmhhhh... actually, this is a quite good reason.
or maybe, just put all these into one pot, stir and i guess, this mix sounds quite interesting. doesn't it?
uhm... it must have been the rugby shirts.
