Delighted to have wrapped up another continent! I’ve been working on trying to clock up all of the Oceanic countries since about December 2017, I definitely feel like Oceania was a lot harder than Europe, for a lot of reasons, the distances between islands, the inconsistency with the different airlines in the region, the expense of Australia, the food, the prices, the sickness in the Solomon Islands, the lack of hotels/Air BnBs on some of the islands, the stray dogs (absolutely huge problem in Nauru and Samoa) the lack of public transport, clean facilities, lack of western products, and so on…..

Samoa is nice and chill so far. I departed from Fiji this afternoon and located a shared bus at the airport entrance. The driver originally agreed to leave me to my hotel, in a place called Solosolo, about a 20-minute drive from downtown Apia, though he quickly changed his mind about half way and decided that he wanted an extra 40 dollars, I declined and began looking for another taxi, at least on a positive, he left me reasonably close to the downtown area. I should have ordered the hotel transportation if I were to do it all again! The receptionist was waiting for me when I arrived at the hotel. It seems like I’m the only guest at the hotel, or maybe even one of a few, I don’t have a lot of negative things to say about my hotel room, only that there is no hot water, in fairness, this is fairly normal in most of the Oceanic countries. I got an absolute bargain deal, my hotel only works out at about 20 Euro a night, though there is a disadvantage, it is located about a 20-minute drive from the downtown area, but there is a bus stop right outside my hotel with regular daily trips.

Enjoying Samoa so far. I’ve had a lot of fun experiences. I met a local guy a few days ago, a part-time taxi driver, and he drove me to the hospital. (really long story) We agreed on a deal, he drove me around the island, all for about 100 USD, which is also the standard price offered from the main tour agency who I chatted to a few days ago in downtown Apia.