We arrived in Samoa on Oct 19 at 1:30am. Earlier that dat we tried to book a room at some budget places but all were full so we had to stay at a nicer more expensive place, spent 120.00 tala (approx 55.00can).The ride into town was about 45 min so we didn't get to out place till about 3:00, what a waste, spent all this money on a room and check out was at 10;00. The next day we decided to get out of town and head to Lalomanu, beach destination. We were going to take the local bus there but we weren't sure what time it left, the front desk person said it left around 11 or 12, we went down at 10:30. The buses in Samoa have no real timetable, they just leave whenever the driver wants to go.We got to the bus depot, found the right bus and he said he wasn't leaving till 2:30. Four hours sitting in the hot sun, only a few hours sleep and just having hung out in town in Tonga for the whole day previous, screw that....we took a taxi. The ride there took about 1 1/2 hours, would of been 2 hours on the bus and cost 60tala but was worth it. We got to the beach and it was paradise, we stayed in a fale, a samoan hut with retractable walls, right on the beach. It was about 20 steps to the crystal clear torquise warm water....awesome, the sand was so white and fine, just what we were looking for...one of the nices places we've been. Every morning before breakfast i would wake up and head straight for the water and go swimming or just sit around. We stayed in Lalomanu for 4 days, the place was great, owners were super nice -they gave clara and I sarongs before we left, they thought i was samoan. Headed back to Apia -main city in Samoa and stayed at Siepepa travel home. The city and the island were a lot bigger than i thought, Apia had traffic lights, only other city that had them was in Tahiti.I thought the isalnd would be qyuite small but we found out it would take about 5 hours to drive around the island. Seipepa's was a nice place, close to the city , took about 15 minutes to walk.The people there were really nice, the place was clean and you paid what you thought it was worth -no set rates. We walked to town the first day and checked the place out. I wanted to get a tradional style tattoo, thats when they use a sharpened boar tusk that looks like a comb and they dip it in ink and tap it into your skin, but there were only 2 tattooist in town and they were kinda dirty and shady, one guy sold tires out of his shop -so maybe not on the tattoo...kinda weird that there were only 2 places considering this is where tattoos were started. When we got back to our place I asked one of the owners about the tattoos and he gave me a name and the village of a local tattooist who is supposed to be one of the best.That night we walked to town and went to the movies, we saw Alien vr. Predator, the movie sucked but the theater had A/C which was good because it was hot and humid out. The next day we rented a car and drove out to see this tattooist, his village was 30 min out of town but he wasn't home, we got his phone number to call him later. We continued on driving around the island, beautiful place, very tropical, dense jungle. We stopped at Return to paradise beach -some 1950's movie was shot here, nice beach but can't swim here -rocky, big waves and undertow. Continued driving around the island, only made it half way around. That night we went and saw another movie to get out of the heat, saw Bourne Supremacy. Went to the market the next day -Saturdays are a big market day, the place was packed, bought some fruits and veggies. Talked to the tattoo guy last night and set up a time to see him today, got lost on the way there and was an hour late. Met with him, i wanted to see some designs or pics but he didn't have any, everything was in his head, he just wanted to know where i wanted it and how big, told him i would be back on Monday. finnished driving around the island that day, stoped off at a cave pool and swam around, also stopped at some waterfalls and stopped at the Bahai temple, there are only 7 temples in the world. The next day it rained hard, returned the car and waited for the rain to stop.Finally stopped in the afternoon and went snorkeling, Went to see Dodgeball that night. Monday, tattoo day, kinda nervous cause I didn't know what it was going to look like, had a good feeling about the guy but still wasn't to sure, i decided to get it. Took a taxi to his house, he does the tattoo's right in his fale on the floor. He's very proffesional, wraps his tools and bottles, everthing is sterilized. It takes 4 people to do this type of tattoo, 2 people holding me down and stretching the skin and another guy fanning to keep cool and keep the flies off. It took 5 hours to complete , went from elbow to shoulder, worst pain i have ever felt, 5 hours of torture. The most pain was when they are stretching my freshly tattooed skin, and when he did my armpit area. In the end it looked great, kinda what i was hoping it would look like, really sore though. We had to walk a ways to the main road to catch the bus, arm was bleeding a bit, had a cloth to cover it up but the flies were still trying to get to it.....gross. Caught a cab back to town, don't think i could handle the bus it it was packed. The next day we went to the other island, Savaii, it's a bit bigger but not as populated, ferry took about 2 hours. When we got there it was another hour bus ride to Tanu beach fales, supposed to be nice there like lalomanu. Not quite, was hit by cyclone last year and some of the beach was washed away but still nice. Met a couple guys there and the four of us were going to rent a car the next day and drive around. The next morning we had breakfast and had to take the bus back to town to rent the car -an hour ride back. Got to the rental place, rented a car and then the sky darkened and then downpour.....rained all day. That didn't stop us, we went to the blowholes, waterfalls and the lava fields. Lava feilds were cool, lavaflow right through a church. Rained all night, we were soaked. it turned out our roof leaks a bit right onto our mattress, it was a rough night, ended up just sleeping on our floor with out the mattress -drier that way. The next day we decided to head back to the other island cause we were soaked, plus we had to take back the car to town and thats were the ferry terminal is, on the way we stopped off at a turtle farm and went swimming with the turtles. The ferry ride back was faster, got back to the city and decided to stay at a nice place, with hot showers and a/c, all the other places we stayed at were cold showers only.....to be continued.
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