Visiting Samoa and Some Moa

After NZ South Island we stayed couple of days in the North Island again before our trip to Samoa. It was cool to go back to our "roots" as we stayed again at the Bamber House. From there it was easy to get to the airport and to the city center. It was a bit bittersweet to go back to Auckland as I missed my mum and sis but.. It was also exciting :)
One year before we were planning to pack our bags and head out to the world my two (actually three) co-workers said farewells and went to see the world :) and now.. after 1,5 years it was time to see Sofia and Sebu again.. In Auckland NZ! Haha that was so cool! :)
So on one Saturday afternoon we met up on Queen Street and hopped on a ferry and went to the Waiheke Island. It was so nice to catch up as I had followed their journey through Instagram and got some good tips of places to visit. We had a great sunny and warm day at Waiheke Island playing frisbee golf, Tantrix and consuming beer on a beach. The night got even better when we tried unhealthy vegetarian food (by Lord of the Fries) talking about future plans and chilies in wrong places.. Good times 😎

A summer day well spent

Tantrix and beer on the beach

But yeah, that was the "Moa" part* of the story but the actual post is about Samoa.
What started as a joke in a bar in Bondi Beach Sydney turned out to be our reality and all of a sudden we were in a bumpy plane ride towards Samoa.

It took maybe 3-4 hours to get to Samoa from Auckland and when we got there we immediately noticed that we aren't in a super Western country anymore. The main terminal was under construction so we were guided to a nearby building for our immigration. There was a duty free "shop" consisting of one little stand in the corridor and a Samoan band wearing Samoan Talofa shirts was playing ukuleles and singing local island songs near the luggage belt. That was so special and thoughtful. We did not have any expectations whatsoever so it was all so exciting! When we arrived it was pitch black so we didn't see anything from the van's window and it was quite late when arriving to our accommodation in Apia, Talofa Inn. It was so late that no shops were open, they don't have any 24h 7/11 or gas stations there. But after a quick Google search we found a place of relief.. McDonald's! Oh hallelujah! And the best thing was that McD was just few blocks away and it was pretty much the only building staying open 24/7.

It was so dark and silent outside that I was super afraid to go out after 11pm in a strange place.. but we had to eat so my knight in not-so-shiny armor went to fetch some dinner for us. My hero <3

I can not even put into words how wonderful place Talofa Inn was. It's a small place in a wonderful location in Apia. Only 6 rooms, commodity kitchen, marvellous breakfast and smiling lovely ladies taking care of the people there. Talofa Inn was also a place where we met this one German/UK/Chinese guy and a Canadian girl.

Talofa Inn breakfast

Chatting at the breakfast table lead us to experience Samoa in a way we hadn't planned. Odin and Megan were heading to see the island of Upolu and we had the pleasure to join them. First we checked a 100m waterfall Papapapaitai and then got to swim in smaller one called Togitogiga (I am not making these names up...). Well Matias couldn't unfortunately swim as he had his new ink on him, but he got to enjoy the scenery still :) It was refreshing and amazing experience to have a dip. Also interesting experience as we met this local guy who first talked about his life and then laid his eyes on the Canadian girl trying to hook up with her behind the bathroom :D Well no time for hooking up as we had to rush to see what more the island had to offer ;D then we ended up in a paradise.. To Sua Ocean Trench. This place was so pretty with ocean view, small fales and clear water ocean trench where one can just chill and float. It had some scary ladders but I made it with Odin and Megan while Matias guarded our stuff and had his chill time enjoying few cold ones :)

Driving through the island

Togitogiga Waterfall

To Sua Ocean Trench

Chillin' in a fale

After the chill time we headed to explore the island little bit more.
We ended up in a tiny village of Uafato. The whole village was playing and enjoying some cricket like sport by the ocean and we actually drove through their playing field.. twice. Whoopsie. Luckily the village people were patient and let us move on in peace.
Odin was a good driver and we made back to Talofa Inn and cooked some dinner and we got introduced to Dhal soup :D ah.. that thing "saved" our lives later on our journey!

We stayed little over a week in Apia and we chilled, read books and wandered around a lot. We visited the fruit market and the flea market often and enjoyed the view of the ocean and the colorful bus terminal :) We also found an amazing restaurant called Paddles. It's a Italian restaurant founded by Italian guy who fell in love with a Samoan lady. You should always make a reservation, but if you forget and go just when it opens, you just might get lucky and get to have the marvelous food over there before the hustle. Especially the tuna and the salsa brings big smile to my face to this day :)

Apia bus terminal

Flea market

Mmm..

Heavenly tuna

We also visited The Cultural village of Samoa and that was an eye opener and amazing peak of Samoan history and the way of living there. We also got to taste some taro with Palusami and some fish made in umu, the tradition natural oven. The cultural village visit was free of charge but they accept donations so we felt it was good to give a little something back.

Umu cooking

Palusami is good!

We pondered should we go to visit Savai´i the bigger island and supposedly more beautiful island of Samoa but we counted our days and resources and wanted to try something fancy for a change instead. We booked our last 3 nights near the airport in a five star hotel. It was Sheraton Samoa Beach Resort and it was something else.

Breathtaking beach with hammocks and peace. Super friendly staff, swimming pool, good beer and big comfortable bed and also.. great food :) Though as we had our budget also in mind we weren't the typical five start residents.. oh no :) we had our own canned food! We had Dhal soup and dynamite chili meat mix and noodles with us! Matias, our chef "cooked" our delicious meal by putting the water heater on and filled the sink with hot water. Then he added our cans to heat up. After some waiting we had semi warm food to fill our tummies with. Haha it was silly but hey it made sense! The last night we spoiled ourselves and went to a Fia Fia night. Samoans are proud of their fire dance skills so the night meant good food, nice dance performances from ladies and gents of Samoa. Our waiter made sure we got good seats and what do you know we were invited to dance on the stage with the locals :D The fire dance later on was also cool! Or more like on fire! The guys are talented.

Sheraton Samoa Beach 

Life hacks

One of my favourite moments of all time

Samoan dance

Fia Fia Show

Ay ay ay :) I am smiling so much while writing this post by the way. 
I still drift away to the Sheraton hammock where we cuddled in an amazing sunset while listening to our favourites Robin and Popeda <3

If you ever get a change to visit this place.. do it. And bring your sun block and mosquito repellent.. The sun is hot and there is the possibility to get dengue or zika for example so stay safe and enjoy your life :)

Next for us it was time to work our way back to Europe and.. back home :) ️

*Oh and the headline.. The Moa part was NZ of course. Moa´s are extinct giant flightless birds native to New Zealand. But Moa is also a small brewery from Marlborough, New Zealand, offering a wide range of craft beer. So the Moa lives on after all.

- Sini

Our route so far

Crossing the border to Langkawi

It was a beautiful, hot Tuesday when we packed our bags and headed to the beach.. though today was not the day to just lay there. No, it was time to go to the immigration so we could say our goodbyes to Thailand and hello to Malaysia.

We had booked our ferry tickets the day before from the company called Bu-ngha and paid 750 tbh each. We had read that bookings should happen at least the day before and before 6 pm. So with the tickets we went to check in, handed our passports and sat by the immigration to wait for them to call us by our names. After some time the moment came and we went to get our stamps and noticed that we didn't get our passports back just yet.. scary, but we figured (hoped) that we'll get them back on the ferry. Then after some more waiting we got to hop on a longtail boat and got a lift to the ferry. Koh Lipe does not have a pier so wear a pair of flip-flops and shorter pants so you won't get too wet when entering or leaving the island ☺️.

The trip to Langkawi took about 1,5 hours and the Malay immigration was quick and easy. Before we noticed we were sitting in a taxi, the local driver was speaking some Finnish to us and again we saw some monkeys on the street :) We stayed in Pondok Keladi Guest House. The lovely and funny host Dee lives also on the property with his partner and they were always ready to help. I was expecting some formal check in but no! Dee was so laidback and was immediately ready to show us around the property and also the nearby areas with his car. And there were even complimentary water and beer waiting for us in the fridge.. what a wonderful welcome :) The place is located approximately 1-1,5km from the beachfront and from the shops and restaurants. Dee had also rental scooters available (30 MYR per day) so it was easy to walk or drive to the busier area. After settling in we headed to search for the ATM and food. We found this small chain restaurant, I don't think you've heard of them.. umm it's called McDonald's 😁 Our food was mad cheap! I took a triple cheeseburger meal and it was 3€ (15.5 MYR). Whoa! I also learned quickly that Langkawi is like Åland for the Finn's.. tax free. So cheap beer, tobacco and parfume are available. The chocolate is also tax free and we did find this magical place which advertised to have chocolate from all over the world! Omg I got emotional just from the thought of chocolate and even more so when I thought that I might find some Finnish Fazerin sinistä (Fazer Blue (?)) from the shop.. I know myself and I am sure that I would have started weeping if I have found the best chocolate there is from there.. But this time I was out of luck unfortunately :( But! I do have one bar of Fazer Blue with me but I am saving it for 6th of December because it's a big day for Finland, celebrating 100 years of independence ❤️

Pondok Keladi

Fear factor

We were chilling in the common area of the guesthouse on our first day at Langkawi when we noticed monkeys like 10 meters from us.. they were climbing on trees and getting closer to us.. luckily Dee's dogs scare them away. Then when I went back in to our room, noticed some droppings on the bedside table.. quick Google search taught me that it could be gecko feces and it could get us ill. Gecko droppings contains salmonella and when inhaled.. well you get salmonella also. I was horrified. Then, just when we were heading out to eat, the thunder started booming.. and like that wasn't enough the toilet stopped flushing! "Omg!!!"

I guess it's good to clarify that I  am scared of monkeys, bugs, getting ill, bacteria and for example.. thunder. I like safety and cleanliness.. This night it felt like many of my fears were coming true and I was way out of my comfort zone, again! I was panicking. Luckily I am fortunate enough to have an amazing boyfriend who understands me and Matias said we could have dinner at the guesthouse (guesthouse has a shared kitchen and offers toast, eggs, noodles and coffee for free) and just chill at our room (our gecko poo room 😂). I got the immidiate fear out of my system and started soon to make jokes already about the dirty monkeys and the evening went nicely. We ended up to stay in this place for three nights because,  i dont know, it still felt like a good and safe place to stay.

Cruising around Langkawi

The second day we rented a scooter and went to the cable car which was around 17km away from Pondok Kelodi and Cenang beach. When we got to the cable car park, we saw that this was actually a big touristic place with different kinds of tax-free shops and fun things to do. We bought  the basic package which included the cable car ride and entrance to SkyDome, SkyRex and 3D arts museum. It cost us 55 MYR (11€) per person. The cable car ride was actually scary! Scarier than the one in Barcelona! If I understood correctly, the Langkawi one is the steepest in the world and it sure felt like it! :) A good experience! After getting back to the ground level we headed to the SkyDome where we watched some short films. It was ok but nothing spectacular. After that we went to the SkyRex which had a cart that fits around 30 passengers. We got 3D glasses and sat down with some scared Malay girls :D The cart rolled to an area with 180 degrees screens and some kind of platform that allowed the cart to move and all of a suddent we were a part of Jurassic Park type of a ride where the Tyrannosaurus tried to eat us! Fun ride and it definitely exceeded my expectations :) The 3D arts museum was cool too. A big place filled with 3D art that you could photograph yourself with. Here's some examples:

Later that night we ended up in a Korean restaurant called Haroo. It was top rated on TripAdvisor. The atmosphere was nice and the lady who was waitering us was absolutely wonderful! We ordered kimchi and she was in awe like "how do YOU Europeans know kimchi and how do you dare to order it?" It was out of ordinary I guess! She was happy that we knew their traditional dish and that we ordered and ate it :) We highly recommend this restaurant :) (I must add that it was thundering again but I found some courage somewhere and hopped on the scooter still.. a personal win for me :))

Our purpose was to stay in Langkawi for two nights and take a ferry to Penang but Dee said that we should think about the flying possibility also. So we checked the prices and found a very cheap Air Asia flight so that's what we booked. We paid 266 MYR with the value package (including 20kg luggage and a meal). We could have gotten it a little cheaper without the package and with 15kg luggage allowance but we hadn't tested how much our backpacks weight before buying the tickets.

On the third day on the island we hopped on the scooter again and went to Kuah to see the famous eagle statue and then back to Cenang beach to walk and wander around. We were surprised how many jellyfish we saw there! We didn't see any in Thailand so that was strange. After some wandering around we were heading back to the main street from the beach. I tried so hard to watch my step but then.. it happened. I stepped on to something sharp and started bleeding a lot from my heel. An old Malay man came to say that I have to push the blood out first rather than stop the bleeding. He was sure it was a rusty nail that I had stepped on to.. I figured it was a rock or a piece of sharp plastic.. either way I was not happy. Shit! (Ja paljon muita kirosanoja..) The man also said that I needed "a shot" and he wasn't taking about tequila alright.. but I had my latest tetanus shot on September so I was confused should I go see a doc or not. We went back to the guesthouse and I started my Google search.. Dee called his medical friend and he said that because my tetanus is ok, I don't need to worry.. well.. I worried. Again thanks to Whatsapp, I asked help from home and got the "ok" from there also and was able to breathe again. Just some Dettol cleaning liquid there and some bandaid and I was good to go. On Friday I felt that it really was time to get out of this island and see what else Malaysia has to offer. Off to Penang we went! Hopefully we (I)  have less scarier times ahead..

- Sini

Langkawi riders

The eagle 

Our route so far