A small nearby river, a local waterfall, cats, dogs and only a handful of other guests. It felt like I had the entire mountain to myself. Of course once you are on top of the mountain, you are stuck there without a car. Dave Parker drives into town daily at 8am. You could call a taxi if you really needed to. There's no shared kitchen, so if you want to eat at Dave Parker's, you have to have the fried rice made by the husband and wife couple who run the place under Dave. At this point in my Samoa trip, it started raining and did not stop. It was raining when I left Samoa too. I did not mind at all. Sitting at the top of the mountain, overlooking the city and the distant ocean made me feel such a sense of peace.
I would spend my days there catching up on my blog articles from New Zealand. I positioned myself at a table with the perfect angle of the mountains. I went down the hill only once to hike to the falls and swim in the river. I was completely alone in nature. I was a little scared of the falls. Like if something had happened to me, no one would ever find out. The river was a different story. I felt safe there, there was only a slow current.
The dogs would run up to me and greet me whenever I left my room. At dinner, the cat would come by to say hi, sit on my lap and eat my leftovers.
On Sunday, the couple does a traditional umu ceremony where a bunch of food is cooked on hot stones and covered by banana leaves. The food was pretty bad, unfortunately. The fish was hard like a rock. The root vegetable was like chalk. The other guest I met, a former security guard from Heathrow Airport, threw the bad food over the side of the mountain. She did not want to make the cook feel bad. That made me laugh. She also tried to sell me into a pyramid scheme and asked me to sleep with one of her crystals that night, to trigger dreams. I did sleep with the crystal and whatever dreams I had that night I'm sure were absolutely great.
My final day at Dave Parker's, I would meet two Samoan brothers living in Sydney. They were on a tour of Samoa and Hawaii for the International Fire Knife Competition. Justyce, 18 years old, was the entrant representing Australia! He's the only person to represent Australia and it's the second time Australia has sent a participant. We chilled that afternoon, drinking beers and watching the rain hit the mountains. He invited me to his show the following evening (in town) near where I would be staying, so I didn't have to worry about getting a ride back to the mountains.
The next evening, I head out after dinner to the other side of Apia, 25 minute walk, to see the fire knife show. About half way there, the rain started pouring like crazy. I arrived to the show completely drenched just as Justyce ran out onto the stage to do his number. I only caught a glimpse of it, I was pretty bummed. Luckily, he was also a drummer in the show and I was able to see what a multi-talented guy he is.
The next day, I would meet up again with Fred and Farina (from Taufua Beach Fales) and we would go to the Samoan Cultural Village in Apia together. For three hours, we were guided through multiple traditional ceremonies. It ended in an excellent traditional dance show. We went out to lunch afterwards at the best seafood restaurant in Apia. Fred and Farina wisely followed the reviews and got the 7 tala poke. I instead paid for the much more expensive salt and pepper squid. They commented that the poke was the best meal they had in Samoa!
The next afternoon, my final day, I met up with Fred and Farina again at Sue's in Apia. In the rain, we sat in chairs and debriefed on our communal Samoa experience. I think all three of us were coming down from some very heightened emotions and missing fresh fruits and vegetables. I think we all thought there would be so much tropical fruit and juices and there was very little. We forgot to take a photo together and I'm really pissed off about that.
I got my hair cut in Apia Town. That was pretty cool. Meeting a local young barber and his friends. One friend who was sitting in the back just watching me get my hair cut came up to me after the cut outside. He told me I had the most beautiful blue eyes. He was incredible handsome, like Jon Secada in the 90s. The second guy in Samoa to kinda flirt with me. Not bad for a super Christian country!
Did I mention that my mosquito bites from Fiji (and maybe Samoa) got infected? I had to go to two clinics and two pharmacies to get a proper diagnosis and then find antibiotics. Current state: I'm fine. After all of this drama in Samoa, I wasn't sure if I was ready for Vanuatu. I spent a few hours going back through my research to see why I had originally chosen Vanuatu and I was quickly reminded that Vanuatu is no Samoa. It would be worth giving it a shot. I also accepted from my Samoan mountain experience that staying in the mountains is something I really cherish. I could spend all day looking at the mountains and all night looking at the stars.