Around the island of Efate

All-day All-around Island Tour

The weather was a bit patchy but I expected it to clear, based on the forecast. I decided I’d risk it and do the all-day tour that had be proposed to me during my walk around town. Two places had offered it to me for VUV7500 (including entrances, meal, snacks and guide) which is a lot of money but I couldn’t do it myself for much less with a rental car.

I got the hotel receptionist to ring up the lady who had offered me the trip, and she confirmed that I could still join. With a pickup time of 0830 to 0900, I arrived at the lobby just as John, the guide/driver, was asking for me. There were a total of eight of us, two more than the minimum of six required for the trip.

Soon after we left town, John showed us a big harmless spider that was on a fence on the roadside. I certainly wouldn’t have spotted it from a moving car, and I wouldn’t have touched it without reassurance that it was harmless. It certainly looked big and scary enough.

Near the town of Eton, we pulled into Blue Lagoon. It was an blue (but slightly milky) inlet of mixed fresh/salt water. There was an Aussie family there swinging their way on the rope to drop into the water. The kids kept yelling out to their Uncle Ben and I couldn’t help thinking of rice. I was the only one that took the plunge amongst our group.

John served us a morning tea of fruit and chips (banana and taro) before we headed up the east coast. We were shown the devastation of Cyclone Pam from a few months ago. Some big trees had been uprooted and some homes are still roofless. As in Aitutaki and Niue, people don’t seem to have the resources to rebuild or reroof that quickly and some places are left to deteriorate.

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Next we stopped to visit a big banyan 500 year old tree. I had seen quite a number around the island but this was a particularly big one which we were able to walk through. People often take refuge in them during strong cyclones as the tree is stronger than many homes. I learnt that this was a female tree with no beards whereas the male tree has beards.

Further up the coast, we visited the Ekonak Primary School. The kids sang for us and they sure did have good lungs. My ears were still ringing after we had left. The schools are quite basic; we were told that Vanuatu does not have personal income tax so schools and healthcare are largely paid by the user. The teacher showed us the school’s wishlist on a flipchart and invited us to give a small donation.

I was more than ready for lunch when we arrived at the Taka Custom Village. Warriors rushed out to “attack”us. They were followed by the chief who brought out two palm leaves, symbolising peace. After a brief dance performance, we were shown some handicraft before I finally get to tuck in.   Food consisted of rice, tapioca, sweet potato, veg (with some chicken and beef) and salad. It was nice enough to call for seconds but I think the food was a bit “new” for some of the Aussies.

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Moving up the coast towards the hot spring, we drove on a large expanse of grassland. It seemed incongruent with the lush landscape of the surrounding area. It turned out to be the disused runway of an American airbase. The Americans had a bit of influence on the landscape of the country. They had brought in this creeper plant as war camouflaged; it is now called “a mile a minute” because it grows profusely under local conditions and has taken over parts of the country strangling the native vegetation by cutting our light when they grow over them.

The hot spring consisted of a few shallow concrete pools. They were largely deep enough for soaking our feet in it. If one was keen, it is possible to sit in them. But the water didn’t look inviting enough.

The last official stop was Survivor Beach, where the American TV programme was filmed. It wasn’t that secluded but I think some of it was filmed on an offshore island that’s more remote. While the beach and water was nice enough, the dull weather lessened its appeal and no one swam.

On the way back to Port Vila, we made an unofficial stop at Tanna Coffee where beans from Tanna Island are roasted. Hopping out of the van, I wasn’t greeted with the delicious coffee aroma which I love. Instead, it was a rather smokey and sour smell. To my surprise, they were making “medium roast” instead of their other product “dark roast”. I’m no coffee connoisseur but others who bought themselves a cup rated it highly.

I had noticed that the gate to the premises had some Chinese inscriptions on it. Upon enquiry, John told me that the place belonged to the Vietnamese who had been brought in by the French. The place was also the first Catholic mission in Vanuatu; not sure if the Vietnamese had anything to do with the Catholic mission though.

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Cultural Insights

The 80km circumambulation of Efate finished around 1700 as it was starting to get dark. Looking back, we didn’t see many things in the long day. But we learnt lots about Vanuatu:

• In historical times, if a chief died, his wives would be killed too and be buried alongside.
• Also, in the good old days, when a woman gets married, a front tooth would be knocked out to indicate that she is no longer available.
• Locals were cannibals.
• While customs differed between tribes, there is a practice where the dead are not buried but left on a bed of banana leaves (perhaps on a rack). The maggots that fell through would be eaten in the belief that it connected the deceased’s spirits back to those who consumed them.

Insights into pronunciation of English

It always interests me how pronunciation of English around the world is influenced by the sounds that are in the speaker’s native language. Here, I noticed that:

• The “hard g” is pronounced as a “hard c” or “k”: Cum tree (gum tree brought in by the Australians).
• The “j” or “soft g” is pronounced as “ch”: Chapanese cars (not so common as they drive on the non-British/Japanese side, instead Korean used cars are more common).
• The “p” is pronounced as “b”: Botato (not so common here compared to sweet botato).
• The “v” is pronounced as “f”: Fery Kood (Very Good).
• I noticed a hint of French in some people where “h” in a word becomes silent (heat becomes eat) and it is added when it isn’t there (inside becomes hinside).