#fiafia

Siva Afi Entertainment stages a fia fia night and buffet dinner weekly on a stage behind the Government Building in central Apia, Samoa. The Polynesian dancing and fire knife shows are spectacular.

Fire dancers 👌 unlucky that Faith got sick so I never got to see the entire show, but apparently it was the best in all of Samoa 😩 Low laying clouds over the mountain tops of Samoa 😍❤️ #firedance #firedancer #firebreather #firebreathing #fiafia #fiafianight #explore #exploreearth #discoverearth #livelife #liveoutdoors #lifeofadventure #liveauthentic #travel #travellingtheworld #welltravelled #samoa #beautifulsamoa #upolu #apia #pacific (at Apia, Samoa)

Our next stop was Samoa, a lesser visited South Pacific island. We had decided we wanted a short holiday from the hard life that is travelling, and it would probably be our only chance to head to an island on this side of the hemisphere. With most people heading to Fiji, it has becomes incredibly resorty and far too pricey for us, so Samoa, Vanuatu and Nieu were a few of our other options. Of course, if money was no limit then Bora Bora would of been top choice, but Samoa had a lot of features reminiscent of paradise and cheap flights, so that won. We had booked a transfer from the airport so were greeted by a local driver and headed straight for our first accommodation; tuafua beach fales. Despite my desire to see the island I soon found myself drifting to sleep from our early morning flight. When we arrived we were both very happy to see the paradise we had been hoping for. The sun was out, our hut was on the beautifully clean white beach and we had great views of the small island opposite. Our beach fale was on Lalomanu beach, which is the furthest place on the island from the airport (around a 2 hour drive), but it was said to be the nicest and we were on holiday, so we splashed out! That evening was spent drinking cocktails at the Fiafia night. This consisted of eating a traditional Samoan feast and watching the cultural show. Everyone had to join in at some point and all food was served 'family style' around one long table so we soon found ourselves making friends. Our first full day was spent on the beach, snorkelling and again enjoying a Samoan Sunday lunch, including a suckling pig and cocktails. This To'ona'i is cooked almost like a maori hungi and enjoyed most sundays in each village. We also made plans with 2 girls from Christchurch to share a ride to a few places around the island the following day. Unfortunately the trip was rained off and the 4 of us spent the day being taught a card game called canasta by an older couple. This game is important for later on in our travels. After our day of rain the sun came back out and we met our driver for the day. He had a very interesting taste in music, with a few titanic remixes thrown in, the samoan way of life and music is a bit behind. Our first stop was the to sua ocean trench, which many people have seen photos of but thought it couldn't be real. To Sua translates as 'big hole' in Samoan, and it really is a big tidal hole. The 30 metre ladder allows access to the hole to swim in, and ropes are placed across it to hang on to when the current is sucking you in and out. It would be a health and safety nightmare in a western country, but in Samoa you can just enjoy it! Locals are known to jump from the very top of the ladder in high tide but it was a long way down, and we had plenty of fun just going in the conventional way. Our next stop was the puila cave pool, a freshwater cave system that was surprisingly located under a church in a college. At first it is really not clear where the tunnels are that connect the 2 caves together, and we could of spent a long time swimming around in darkness had it not been for a man appearing below us out of no where. After the appearance of this surprise 'tuniwha' appearing in the water below and scaring the absolute crap out of Catherine, we put our snorkelling masks on and he tried to lead us down into the darkness and show us the tunnel we would need to swim through. It was small! Again a health and safety nightmare, adding to the excitement, will you make it or not?! Laurence opted to meet us round in the other cave (you can just walk to it if you aren't a good swimmer) whilst the rest of us proceeded to dive down through the tiny hole, into a tunnel, and out the otherside into an amazingly clear blue cave. The fish were huge, and we had no idea how they got there. Swimming out from the darkness passing huge staring fish eyes into the clear blue water and out into sunlight again was jaw droppingly cool. Our driver then took us to a few beautiful lookout points before taking us back to the beach for more snorkelling and sunbathing. The next day we were moving accommodation as we wanted to see what the capital was like. We went to stay at a hotel in Apia, a city like no other. Bearing in mind the humidity was over 90% most days, moving away from the sea breeze was a very sweaty decision. It was HOT in Apia. We were staying at the Samoan outrigger hotel, a little bit further out of town than we would of liked but it had a pool and good reviews. After an afternoon of dipping in and out of said pool we headed into the 'city' to find dinner and see what went on. After walking for quite some time with no restaurants in sight we decided to ask a security guard on the street. He directed us to McDonalds. Not exactly what we were looking for. We walked further through the town and eventually found a restaurant, but also found ourselves wondering where all the other tourists were. It would appear that although a lot of people stay in 'Apia', they actually just stay in their luxury resorts that are on the outskirts, and there wasn't a huge amount to look at in the city itself. It was very basic, just like the rest of the island, but had all of the important buildings such as banks, the post office, the radio station, the bus station and a market. Still,we found a cocktail bar after dinner and met a few locals, one of whom invited us to come back to the island and call upon him for a big fiafia. Not only that but our taxi driver wouldnt take our money because he wasn't sure where our hotel was and we had to show him. The people in Samoa are so friendly! The next day was a prime example of Samoa not being prepared for tourism yet. We took a long sweaty walk down to the Palolo Deep Marine Reserve, said to be the best place to snorkel on the island after the tsunami. We went to hire snorkels, masks and fins to be told there was only 1. We took it and walked round to the beach to see there were only 2 people out snorkelling. This meant they only had 3 snorkels in total, and ours was completely chewed through and broken. All tours of the island include a stop here, so either the tour companies must be providing tourists with the equipment, or you are just expected to bring your own? Unfortunately for us the current was very choppy and strong, and after swimming through very long sea weed and finally making it out to the drop/trench off shore, I could only stay out there for about 10 minutes with a broken snorkel before I was absolutely knackered. Laurence decided the current was too strong for him and we went back to the hotel quite disappointed. If anyone is thinking of visiting though I would recommend a visit, as other people's photos are amazing and there were a hell of a lot of fish to look at, just take your own gear and pay for entry rather than rental! On our last morning we took a taxi to the Papaseea Sliding Rocks, a short drive from the hotel. These sliding rocks are a series of waterfalls that have eroded down to create smooth 'slides'. This place would of also been seen as a huge health and safety nightmare in the western world, but here you just pay entrance and wander on down by yourself.  With no one around we were a bit confused as to which falls you were supposed to slide down. Many were incredibly steep or didn't look deep enough, some were too long and most looked too dangerous. Sure enough after a while a local driver pulled up with a European he was showing around and he hopped straight in and showed us 2 'safe' routes. After a while we built up some courage and Laurence took the plunge on both one after the other. It looked fun, but still painful. I attempted the smallest one and hit by heels and back on the rock before declaring I would probably die if I went down the next, so that was the end of that. After a relaxing paddle and meeting 2 people from our hotel we all shared a cab back to the local market in Apia. Laurence tried to local delicacy of a chicken bun, which was kind of like a salted donut with meat in, before heading back to our hotel for another fiafia and cocktails in coconuts! We spent our last evening with the guys we had met earlier at the rocks before packing and leaving for our next adventure. Overall Samoa was an amazing place to visit. Though incredibly undeveloped and reminiscent of a third world country, the people are super friendly and smiling faces greet you everywhere. Everything is on Samoan time, meaning slow and chilled out, but it works. Everybody is relaxed and happy even if they only own a goat and a hammock, and everyone wants to share a bit of the culture with you. Also the attractions that brought us there in the first place are all beautiful and quite undisturbed, so you should get there before someone dies at one of them and health and safety close them down. One thing to remember: Don't drink the tap water, no matter how many people tell you it's OK. Otherwise you will shit yourself and have diarrhoea the whole time like I did. Just to let you know...

Samoan Fire Dance by jdf_92