Major impressions - beautiful scenery, but so hot! Of course it's summer time in the tropics so I should expect this - but even the Queenslanders were commenting on the humidity so you can imagine how it hit us - we're used to heat, but Canberra doesn't understand humid :-)
Here are a few different shots taken from our balcony:
Anyway, we got off the ship fairly early. Our plan was to have a look at the markets near the ship, then get a taxi or taxi-bus into town and look around there. Then in the afternoon, Paul and Adam have a 'Reef and Sports Fishing' excursion, while I'm doing a shorter 'Vila City Highlights' coach tour.
Later: Wow. I think I was told on the afternoon tour that there are only about 20,000 people living in the vicinity of Vila - all I can say is that a huge proportion of them must own a taxi. It was like organised chaos at the exit from the wharf, with taxis and taxi-buses everywhere. We were accosted about a dozen times by drivers offering us a trip into the city, proposing to take us to 'better' markets or on tours to other parts of the island. We stuck to our guns though and had a look at the markets first, then picked a taxi driver at random to take us back into the city. As we were doing this, two ladies off the cruise ship asked if they could join us - one of them was completely frightened by the people who were accosting them offering taxi fares, and the way it was being done, which I thought was sad as it clearly wasn't their intention to scare people but they were definitely very persistent.
We got to the city, mastered an ATM and bought a couple of things - mostly bottled water because it was so very hot. Paul got a really nice shirt from a market in the city. And, the trip back was a doozy - I'm pretty sure we got an unlicenced taxi-bus, and let's just say that there's nowhere in Australia that you could see that bus outside of a scrap-heap :-) However, the driver was a nice guy and we got back in one piece, so it's all good.
Unfortunately, I made the mistake of letting myself get dehydrated again and paid the price - just as I did at the Hoover Dam last year - with a vicious headache that took a couple of hours to shake off even with a heavy hit of Panadol. And, we got back to be greeted by two workers in our cabin doing even more grouting in the bathroom, so hopefully they're happy with it now. I gather that the ship is due for drydock next year and all I can say is that I hope that they're planning to completely gut the bathroom in our cabin.
My shore excursion in the afternoon was interesting. The bus could have held 15 or so passengers, but only six people had signed up for this particular departure and two of them didn't show up. So, the operators were unthrilled right from the start, although they really tried not to show it. It was definitely one of those tours where they take you to places in the expectation that you'll spend money, and of course we did, but not anywhere near as much as they'd have gotten out of a busload of course. On the other hand, leaving aside the commercial side of it they were friendly interesting people and we learned a lot about the local culture and way of life. Here are a few pictures taken on the tour:
As I'm writing this, Paul and Adam are due back from their fishing trip - as it turns out though they had a fairly good time. Adam caught the first fish and the biggest fish for the group, so needless to say my hopes that this might cure him of his desire to fish are a completely lost cause. I'll add some photos of his fish later - and here they are - and just to be clear this was a 'catch and release' trip:
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| The first fish caught by anyone on their trip - a coral trout |
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| And the biggest fish caught on the trip - a sweetlip |
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