Just Back From...

Getting Wed in Samoa!

By travel.com.au member, Ross Langdon

We have discovered the "Jewel of the Pacific" - discover it yourself and be surprised - Samoa!

Our flight with Polynesian Blue was identical to the service you receive on Virgin Blue, drinks and food were extra although we recommend hiring a personal DVD player for $12 AUD which makes the 5 hour flight pass quite quickly.

At Faleolo Airport Apia, going through Customs & Quarantine was a breeze and very laid back. At the baggage collection Samoan musicians were playing traditional music, and it was after midnight.

We were about to find out that this laid back style is the Samoan Way or "Fa'a Samoa".

We were greeted by Lydia, manager of the Litia Sini Beach Resort, and driven over 2 hours to the far east coast of Upolu where we spent 2 nights at Litia Sini Beach Resort at Lalomanu. This beach is renowned as the best in Samoa with its beautiful white sandy beach and stunning scenery. As basic as these beach huts or "fales" were, they were upmarket compared to the traditional Samoan fales. Basic meals and drinks were available at the resort. From our fales we were able to step onto the beach, then a short walk for a swim at any tide in the lagoon and an easy snorkel amongst the coral and reef fish.

From here we were picked up by the Coconuts Beach Club & Resort, a drive of 1 hour to the south coast of Upolu. Once again we were greeted with that warm friendly Samoan welcome. The drive to Coconuts took us through many Samoan villages. The Samoan people still live in homes without walls (fales) and most villages are self sufficient, growing their own crops, fruit, pigs, etc. Each village has at least 4 churches. The Samoan people are very strong in their Christian beliefs and also have strong ties with their traditional Polynesian culture. This may be part of why they live such a relaxed and peaceful culture. Everyone waves to you and has a smile, what a soothing sight it was. The other thing that stands out is there is little or no billboards or advertising. Samoa is very uncommercialised.

Coconuts Beach Club & Resort can be classed as a very laid back boutique resort, for you will be so relaxed when you depart for home, that you will not care for what is happening elsewhere in the world.

Coconuts has various types of accommodation ranging from over water fales, beach fales, treehouse rooms to garden suites. The rooms are each very different architecturally but best of all are the bathrooms with their lava rock walls and waterfall showers. The rooms were also very spacious with air con and ceiling fans. We stayed in a Garden Suite, a 2 room suite with 2 bathrooms, a day bed, and a private balcony.

With the the meal deal included, we could choose from the expansive menu at breakfast, lunch or dinner. Dinner ranged from a fantastic French onion soup, to beautiful fresh lobster, French snails escargot or NZ steak, to name a few. We could not fault the quality of the food, excellent ! Wine and beer was included with lunch and dinner and the staff were never shy of keeping your glass full. There are no buffet meals at Coconuts.

The Coconuts service is very Samoan - warm, very laid back and relaxed so don't be surprised by this ! This is part of what makes this resort so appealing.

The surrounding gardens are underdone and appear to be deliberately designed this way to take on a natural setting. The swimming pool is shaped like a gecko lizard and has a swim up bar. In front of the resort, the beach has suffered from erosion but down in front of the beach fales there is a beach or you can take a very short walk to some beautiful beaches.

The resort owner Barry, an ex Los Angeles lawyer, is a fantastic host, always enjoying treating us and other guests to a warm hello and friendly chat at breakfast and dinner.

The resort has no TV's, no radios, no newspapers and no phones. Although there is a payphone at reception. Digital mobile phones do not work in Samoa.

If you want to be in contact with home or the news of the world, require stiff or very formal service, like beautifully manicured gardens, like to be in a fashion parade at dinner or around the pool, and love buffet meals, then Coconuts is not for you. If you want these things, then I would suggest Sinalei Reef Resort is for you, being next door to Coconuts. As beautiful as Sinalei is, if you want the real Samoan experience and total relaxation, stay at Coconuts.

You can always take the short walk from Coconuts to Sinalei if you want a change of scenery, or visa versa.

We also held our wonderful wedding (eloped) at Coconuts on a Saturday night ! God was on our side on our wedding day, with a picture perfect postcard morning, followed by an afternoon tropical downpour, only to see it clear up with 5 minutes to go before our ceremony, and followed by a beautiful Samoan sunset. The Coconuts girls who organised our ceremony on the day were an absolute delight. Our night finished with a traditional Fia Fia Samoan dancing spectacular. Coincidentally on our return to Australia, we were overwhelmed by the quality of the DVD wedding presentation put together by the Samoan photographer. Ten out of Ten.

We hired a car for a day and discovered some beautiful waterfalls set in amongst lush rainforest. At Togitogiga Waterfall we swam in a magnificent waterhole. From Lalomunu in the east through to Apia (the capital of Samoa) the road passed through luxuriant rainforest, Falefa Waterfall which cascades straight into the ocean, and then via the north east coastline road with headland after headland, beaches in between, with surf breaking on the nearby reef or breaking straight onto the shoreline. It was as stunning. Be aware when hiring a vehicle that there are no fuel stations on the southside of Upolu.

The capital Apia is much the same as Vila, Nadi, etc. Small, rather run down but still vibrant. Most importantly we felt more safer here than in own street at home. The markets were basic - selling clothing and wooden carvings etc. The prices here say for a Kava (lava) bowl were 30% to 50% less than prices in Fiji. We found this price difference to be the case in most instances in Samoa, ie: around 30 % less than Australia. In Samoa we used the local currency - Samoan Tala, which was easily exchanged to and from AUD $.

A strange icon in Samoa is the local buses, with some having beat boxes booming out their music numbers. We were told this is a fantastic way to meet the locals.

I would not recommend staying in Apia at all, as you will spend most of your time either in a hire car or on day tours or sitting beside your hotel pool all day.

Additionally the brand new Aggie Grey's Lagoon Resort is literally at the end of the Faleolo Airport runway, so one would think this maybe a little noisy at night, when most of the international flights fly in & out.

Our Samoan experience was without exception a total surprise, as we were taken back by the Coconuts resort, the beautiful beaches and coastline, lush tropical jungles, beautiful waterfalls, the Polynesian cultural experience and best of all, the beautiful Samoan people !

I must sign off by saying that we look forward to enjoying our first wedding anniversary back at Coconuts in March 2007.

As the Samoan's would say "Manuia Le Aso" - have a nice day!