Day 2

Last night we went back to the market to get more food from the lady who made us lunch yesterday because it was so nice and cheap. When we got there the market was still open but the restaurants appeared to be closed. However when we confirmed this with the lady and her husband they insisted that they cook us something even if it required them going to the local supermarket to get what we wanted and then cooking it. We couldn’t dissuade her from this and started to feel even worse when they got out their kitchen equipment, which had already been washed up, to cook our food. The food was again fantastic and we had a nice chat with the husband. Amazingly he told us that he had spent 15 years living in Alaska. How somebody from Vanuatu ever got to Alaska escapes me. The wife has a daughter at ranwadi, we offered to look out for her and report back if she was naughty: ).

This morning’s main activity was watching Katie cut Rhiannon’s hair. This was the source of many jokes at both of them and resulted in many worrying looks and wry laughter from Rhiannon. One successful hair cut later and we where ready to go to town. We where supposed to pick up a few things but we have been getting into the swing of things here and decided to put it off for another day. We got some snorkel gear and browsed some shops and an indoor market that sells island dresses, shirts and sarongs. We didn’t buy anything because there was a cruise ship in town so prices were slightly inflated for the tourists. We had arranged to go back to the outdoor market for lunch again, having made our order the night before, which again was very nice; hopefully we will be able to reproduce food of this quality when we are on Pentecost.

After lunch we caught a bus to Mele, otherwise known as Hideaway Island the home of the worlds only under water post office. Buses here don’t work as they do back home. Lots of the larger cars such as minibuses, people carriers and 4x4 trucks have a B on their number plate indicating they are a bus. You flag them down and simply tell the driver where you want to go and he will take you there. They differ from the taxis, which have a T on their plate, because the bus can stop half way through your route and pick up more passengers. For a single person it is quite cheap but they charge per person so if there are a number of you it adds up to about the cost of a taxi back home.
Mele Island was very small it took maybe 10 mins to walk around it and only because it was difficult due to most of the coast line consisting of large coral rocks which we had to traverse in flip-flops. The island is the result of the coral reef that surrounds it. The beach is not great and consists mainly of broken pieces of dead coral and shells that are painful to walk on without shoes. Shoes are a must as it is very easy to cut your feet on the coral reef and the cuts get infected very easily in the humidity here. Despite the snorkel we bought being rubbish and my inability to breath out of my mouth the coral reef was amazing. I have never been in such clear water and with so many beautiful fish swimming around me. There were warning that blue bottle jellyfish had been seen recently but no one in our group was stung but an Australian man we met got a nasty sing on his arm. He rushed off to the bar and after an application of vinegar he was fine with a nice war wound for a few days. We all took the opportunity to post some letters in the world’s only underwater post office. Which was a very nice and novel experience and capped a wonderful day exploring the coral in the warm sea, a nice change from the Irish Sea.

We had told the bus driver an approximate time that we thought we might be finished by, by no conscious effort we actually were only 15 minutes late. We were unsure that he would actually be there and if he did turn up he might just pick up the first tourists he came across but when we got there 15 mins after we had said he was there waiting and drove us back to our hostel.

Last night we went to a tourist bar for a meal, to get a bit of steak and chips. We thought that although it is good to eat local food we should get our fill of meat while we can.

Although not everything I have been told to expect is true the friendliness and openness of the Ni-Vans certainly was. Everyone one you meet is so friendly and smiley. People are so genuine, which is such a nice change to living in the west. I thin I’m really going to enjoy living with these people.

At the moment we are using the wireless at the hostel so that is why updates are so regular. Next week on pentecost I suspect they will decrease in regularity and probably just as Detailed. Once I get into a routine I suspect daily life will be less to write home about but lots more time in which to write. I suspect my posts will start to be more about my thought on life here rather than actual events.

Tom