Vanuatu tomorrow

Soooo. What happened at Suva?
It’s about 8:30 am and we can hear sirens on shore. There is a tender boat near the ship and Ed overheard the prediction of a substantial tsunami wave at 10 am. So I’ll keep writing this simultaneously while doing other things so you can get it from an on site reporter (as if I thought I had those skills!) Ed is debating taking photos of the wave as it comes in but he’s not sure the Captain won’t tell us to stay in our cabins and off the open decks.
Ed noticed the bridge taking water samples (my part of the story) and depth readings (his part of the story). I once asked the Captain about this practice in port and was told that they do specific gravity readings as that helps them in determining the density of the water. This information is helpful for so many things the ship must take into account in movement. I think they can take the measurements of depth and such much more accurately with the instruments they have on board as opposed to the old piano wire method.
And so we waited…..and waited….and listened to Fox News(the only outside feed we have) which is carrying no other news except that about the tsunami headed toward Hawaii and American Samoa, while we wait. Ed’s outside using his camera as binoculars to see things on shore.
Locked out
Our table mates told us of being on their balcony and the sliding door closing and locking on it’s own. It took them about an hour to get released. At least the cabin stewards come in twice a day to do the room. Well just now I automatically locked the sliding door while Ed was on the balcony. I hear his tap on the window and realize I’ve locked him out! Was that Freudian perhaps? He howled when we saw that I was going to put that in my blog.
Ship turning to face the direction of the incoming wave. We saw ships nearby doing that several minutes ago. The wave is expected to come from the side of the bay rather than directly into it since we are on the SW side of this island. I presume we are circling around our anchor(s).
And then
The captain came on to announce that the tsunami warning was just removed and that we would be given 2 additional hours on shore to make up for the 2 hrs we lost this am. We are still watching the Hawaii information. Here folks were driving to the pier and so one wonders if they were lookieloos or if they knew something earlier than we did.
So then we
Headed down to the Cabaret Lounge for our tour group to form. We were in group 2; those are the latecomers. That’s my destiny for years now. So I’ve been looking at the advantages of always being late; there must be something good about it, right? Otherwise why would so many people be late all the time? Well for one thing, you always get the back of the bus. That may sound awful but as an example today, we got the biggest window and had a bench each our own (this bus was more like a school bus and no a/c of course. The breeze coming through the window ensured a degree of coolness but it also assured one of wind burn on your face and rats in your hair that will take half a bottle of conditioner to straighten without drawing blood.
But before all this, we were overflowed (is that a word?) to a third bus. One of the tours had been cancelled because of the late start and so those folks were interested in other tours. I would have been too. Well there’s always one person or group that everyone knows. Lisa F. recognizes these folks in my descriptions because she’s met them on other tours! Soo now for the dip s__t on today’s tour. She forgot her ticket. And then she also forgot her cruise card. This meant she had to go down to the purser’s desk to get a new one. Eventually, she did get her card, money, and ticket so that she could go on this tour. But in the meantime we all waited on the bus for her to finally arrive. All the while her new (from this cruise) friend in an unbearably shrill voice is insisting that we have to wait for “my friend.” When the friend finally arrived, she had to know: did you find your card? How did you get into your room? Did you find your ticket? And this was not soto voce either.
But we have no right to talk (much anyway). We had our card, tickets, bottled water, cameras, trekker stick, hats, bug spray, sun screen, sunglasses (this is the list I ask before we leave the room so I’m not waiting while there’s a return trip to the room). Yeah right. We were initially routed to one bus. The fellow at the door took my ticket; because of some other confusions I’ll spare you, Ed told me to go to the overflow bus so I jumped off and asked for my ticket back which I got. Then I’m on the other bus in a seat waiting for Ed. I’ve relinquished my ticket at the door you recall. I have a nice bench seat with a great window for photos and I’ve saved space for Ed—near the back but not totally at the rear of the bus. And one of the locals comes on and calls for “Mrs. Feldman”. So I go off and it turns out we have our tickets for Vila Vanuatu not the Fiji ones. Not to worry, the tour guy for the ship was right there and simply took our cabin number and I assume we’ll work it all out tomorrow. So I climb onto the bus again and some couple has rushed to take my seat!
People’s manners.
There’s a friend we’ve made on this trip who has mobility problems. And we’ve been having conversations about how folks will knock a handicapped person down in their rush to get out of a place. He told me he was waiting for the elevator the other day and a fellow in a wheelchair was also waiting there. Some able bodied guy came u and it turns out the latter two were going the same direction. The elevator opens up and the able bodied guy gets in the elevator, hits the button, and says to the poor guy in the wheelchair: “I’ll send it back down to you.” Now there’s plenty of room for both in that elevator.
So as I had initially gotten on the bus, I saved a seat for this new friend up front so he’d have easy ingress and exit. I tried to save the seat behind it for his wife but to no avail; Some folks rushed to take that seat. His wife sat almost as far back as we did. At one point today, he is waiting to climb 2 stairs out of the stadium. He had been waiting for a while and folks were just charging ahead. I put out my arm to make space for him and folks just kept going around it. Finally, I moved over a little more (I should do this right away in the future) and told him to go ahead. What ever happened to manners and courtesy? These folks are not teenagers by a long shot.
USA
That the name of our guide. At least that’s what he said and the other “guys” called him that but who knows.
Massage?
Well that would be putting a really positive spin on our experience. There are many speed bumps along the road and the driver was sure to try to get over then with as little delay as possible—kind’ve like some drivers going through our complex back home. This meant that those of us in the back of the bus got the worst of it! The roads are paved but clearly they aren’t up to NTSHA standards. The tatas were sore when we got back and I wear a compression garment on my chest! I forgot to ask Ed about the family jewels.
We didn’t have to worry about sunburn. It was overcast; it’s so gloomy outside right now that I can’t read by the light of the window which is the best reading light for me. There was rain all through the performances (more later) but we were under a covered stadium style seating and it was a slow sprinkle that continued through the whole time.
The countryside
Is lush and green and beautiful. Many yards are tastefully decorated with various colors of indigenous plants including lots of the ti plants. Many of the homes look like sheds and Usa explained—what little I could hear over the din of the motor and wheels and wind: one more disadvantage of the back of the bus without a microphone. Well anyway it was something about asking permission of the chief for land and it not belonging to you and was maybe temporary so folks don’t spend a lot on their homes. Then there’s the 15% of the land that is free hold and can be sold. We did see some very palatial homes along the way but most were very modest but for the most part, nicely kept up. Many are on stilts and it seems a LOT of them have the carcass of their last vehicle “tastefully” arranged on a hill of dirt on the periphery of their land. There are lots of tired used for decorations here. They line driveways. You see them painted white at the base of trees presumably to keep the pests away. Kids use them for everything including swings. I sure hope they drill drainage holes in them though.
Many houses are in clusters and often there is a large building in the center which is the local church. This was Sunday and we saw families leaving services. Everywhere you go you are greeted by wide waves and big smiles as children and adults wave and holler to you. It’s usually “bulla” which is their equivalent of “aloha.” There are lots of fields with plants; some appear more formalized than others.
Cannibals
If someone looks at your white face with a smile and says “yumi yumi” (yes that’s the local phrase) you’d be wise to get the hell out of there. They play a lot on this image of their history. When one warrior/chief defeated/killed another, they cooked him in an underground oven and had him for dinner.
Along the way
We saw 2 prisons. I hope this was just coincidence. The guide said their only drug problem was marijuana and that most folks were there for that crime. Robbery is apparently also a frequent occurrence. 85% of the population are Fijian; most of the rest are Indian ancestry who were brought here to work the sugar cane fields since the natives wouldn’t work (honest. That’s what we were told)
We saw plenty of schools, a few stores here and there but not as many of the latter as you’d expect. Maybe it was the route we were taking.
There were plenty of mountains, some of which are volcanos, in the distance but they were hidden with fog and clouds today. And we saw some of the bays around Suva with the tide out and some thought this was evidence of the expected tsunami arriving later than predicted. As well all know: they were surely wrong. But it does illustrate the power of expectation and people’s desire to be “in-the-know” and to be the “first-to-know”.
Firewalkers
We were taken to an arts and crafts center where our guide told us not to buy anything because it was too expensive there. He’d drop us off for souvenirs in town at the end of the tour. He may have been right but I also suspect there’s a tie in with the “mall” where we were dropped in town. Whatever, we never bought anything anyway but it is interesting to watch these folks who HAVE to buy something everywhere. The clothing that was offered here was extremely flimsy 100% cotton and had to be hand washed. I don’t think so!
Back to the show: there’s a very elaborate ceremony to get the stones ready and we were a captive audience to the extended version. By the time the priest said it was OK to do the fire walking, none of us much cared. I suspect they piddled around with their various rituals and in the interim, the rocks cooled off. But it was fun to observe the posturing including standing on the top of the hot stones and pausing and clapping to encourage the audience to give them bravos which of course we well trained tourists were glad to do.
Dances too.
Then they had various dances by the male dancers which of course showed them as very brave and great heros. In one instance the winner would have gotten all the women of the loser’s village as wives. So of course there was a skit where the “saved” women of the winner’s village were appropriately grateful to the courageous warrior, their chief. The female dances were graceful and the costumes, especially the headpieces, were cute. We have photos I’ll try to fix up tomorrow. At this point I can’t afford to get behind with blog or photos.
Then there were some cute skits that dealt with cute mischief in their culture. We enjoyed it all.
Back in town
We were ambivalent about going to the shopping mall but so many folks were leaving the bus that we thought if we don’t do it, we’ll always wonder. So we trekked off too. The prices and quality were not very good. I suspect I could get most of it at Pier One Imports without the problem of lugging it home. I did see one thing I hadn’t seen before. Remember the men in the barrel carvings? You remove the barrel and the guy’s standing their naked with his pride and joy at high mast? Well they have them with women here but in this case the tatas are sticking straight out but they aren’t particularly attractive. Still they’re funny. There were some things made out of tapa cloth which might have been of interest but none had a price on them and I’m always turned off by that.
They had a tattooed warrior to greet you at the door and then he did some vicious looking war dances solo in the aisles. He certainly made enough frightening noises to be impressive. We never went beyond the one store; I doubt there were any other stores open. We walked back to the ship through the drizzle.
Afternoon “snack”
Except for a power bar, we hadn’t eaten since room service at 6:30 am so we went up to the Panorama Café for something to eat. This will definitely mess us up for dinner tonite. And since I don’t drink much caffeine lately, and I had over 1 glass of iced tea, I may have problems sleeping tonite. That’s certainly not Ed’s problem; he’s sleeping as I write this. Of course, when caught at it, he’ll protest that he was just resting his eyes. Yeah right.
Ed used the opportunity to use VOIP to call some folks. He did speak to Jeff, Mike and Trudy, and Pat. There’s something surreal about talking on a cell phone half way around the world, via the internet, as if it was right next door. But I am relieved to know that we do have the theoretical potential to call folks when we are in port.
View from our room
We can’t even see the land on the other side of the bay it is so overcast and foggy. Who would have thought this of Fiji? I have no regrets. It meant no burning sun today and cooler experiences.
It’s 5 pm and tonite is Island night so I think I’ll get some more wear out of the cute Hawaiian dress I got in December. Lord knows if I don’t use it in the tropics, it may be years before there’s a need for it again and who knows if I’ll fit it then! And I sweetly “suggested” to Ed that he should change into an island shirt. Those of you who know Ed’s dressing habits know that I didn’t even finish the sentence before he was making his selection among his many “quiet” shirts.
Rumors
It’s interesting the rumors that get started in any large organization and a ship is a case study. There’s murmuring that there will be a tsunami wave of some magnitude that will hit Fiji around 6 pm. Of course this gets passed from one to another and after a while it assumes a credibility all it’s own. We’ll see what form it takes before and after 6 pm passes.
Health update
Well my cold seems to be on the downside thank God. I thought perhaps Ed was getting it but he assures me it’s just his usual post nasal drip. But you did hear a lot of deep, productive coughs, sneezing, and nose blowing all over the ship. And many of the staff as well as passengers are clearly not at their best. Well hopefully it will run it’s course and we’ll have smooth sailing for the rest of our time. We can only hope.
Oh darn! We missed it!
We went to dinner and there was only Bob and Peg there. It did give us an opportunity to get to know them better and we shared stories of wild animals in urban areas and other jolly vignettes. But at tonite’s show (more later) Barbara told us that there was a “brilliant” show put on by the National Fijian Police Corp on the key side of the ship around the time we were at dinner! Not only do I love marching bands and precision drills, but their uniforms are very unique. I’m not sure I got a good photo of it either. Basically the top looks like, but sure isn’t, dark wool serge material with wonderful colorful badges, sashes and such. The bottoms are a white lava-lava type skirt that has sharp handkerchief type hem that end about the knees. Then of course the shoes. It’s quite impressive and I can only imagine how impressive it was to see them playing and marching.
Daniel Oliver
The show tonite was done by the fellow who plays every night in the Casino Lounge. We’d heard things positive about him now and then but hadn’t really listened to him mostly because all the times I recall going by that area when there was music, it was someone caterwalling to karaoke. Well he’s quite good and we all thoroughly enjoyed his show.
Another hour!
It seems that we get another hour tonite AND another hour tomorrow nite. Yippee! But then I think we have to give one back when we go to see the kiwis in New Zealand.
I’m glad I trusted my gut
You may recall that I was inclined to take the rain forest walk but was hesitant given my experience in Hawaii with depth perception and balance issues. So yesterday we saw the astronomer and she has a fractured funny bone. It turns out that she went on this trek and it was very muddy and slick. She was helping a lady with a cane (there goes that screening I think they ought to do for some of these tours) and in the process she fell and fractured her elbow. The lady with the cane is fine I assume. This involved a not so easy attempt to get her out of the rain forest; thank goodness she could walk but she was in severe pain. They did get her back to the ship and Nikolas casted her beautifully. So now she’ll have to make her way back home by plane with this arm in a cast.
Island Party
Since the weather conditions were too severe near the pool, this party was moved into the Pacific Lounge. There wasn’t as much decoration as I’d expect but most folks were in tropical attire. The band didn’t play music that was especially tropical but we certainly survived.
I’m constantly amazed at the games the staff come up with for us to play. Last night they had one where you had to pick a port. The four ports were Sydney, LA, Honolulu, and Suva. One would be eliminated and the people who had picked that port would have to sit down. Then there was an opportunity for folks to switch ports. Again one would be eliminated and everyone would have to sit down from that port and that port would then be eliminated. Anyway, I stuck with Suva s did most in the group and WE WON! I got the grand prize of a Princess LUGGAGE TAG. It will join the 4 or 5 others we have. (I really should start putting them on our luggage to replace the rag tag stuff we now have.) There were other funny stories, including several involving the “woman who shows her knickers” as one of the other passengers refers to her. But since I don’t know who’s reading this blog, I’ll save these stories for private conversations.