Samoa Thursday

Thursday 15th December

Well, the day didn't begin too badly, with confirmation from the travel agent that the Qantas web site was having problems and that we did still have flights.  Thank goodness! It wasn't raining and the day looked sunny too, though it quickly became too hot for Paul.

However, things deteriorated from there on. My 5 hours of wireless for the iPad ran out, and I am not prepared to pay for another 5 hours just to post the blog this evening, so I knew I'd have to use the PC, with a much more clunky interface.

We had booked another tour to different parts of the island with the taxi driver we had used before, who seemed a nice friendly chap. However, Paul had made the mistake of paying for the trip beforehand, and this time the chap didn't turn up. Even worse, we did not have his full name, or the number of his taxi, so we could not do too much by way of complaint. We both felt like a couple of idiots for not refusing to pay in advance, and for not taking an elementary precaution before handing over money, like asking for a receipt or taking the car number.

We waited for a while, with Paul getting more and more hot and cross.  I was keen to try a trip with another taxi, but Paul felt that all he wanted to do was sit in air-conditioning somewhere, and slip occasionally into the pool. So that has been our day. There are no photos, and no events to write about. In between enjoying the air-conditioning and the pool, Paul has spent more time on his photos and on snoozing. And I have read more from the library in the lounge area. At least we have been able to relax after all the mad rushing about we have done.

The taxi driver had also invited us to come to his house tonight to meet his wife, but of course that didn't happen either. Now I wonder if there was anything true in what he told us.

Well, it will make us that more suspicious of people in the future, which is probably a shame, and has also destroyed some of our pleasure in Samoa. Everybody here is very friendly and helpful, and now we will be looking at them and wondering if they are really friendly and helpful, or just trying to rip us off.

Tomorrow we check out and head for the airport, to fly back to Fiji. Our day starts on 16th, but when we arrive in Fiji an hour later it will be the 17th. We had Saturday twice on the way here, now we are going to lose Friday. We will have another day twice when we cross the dateline again on the way to Los Angeles. However, with spending 12 hours in a plane, we may not notice it.