Port Vila, Vanuatu.

Thursday 24^th January 2013. Vila, Vanuatu.

Plans to go to Hideaway Island to snorkel today were nearly dashed before we left the wharf area. Vila is a port where the ships tie up at the wharf and you come and go as you please. It all sounded so simple – negotiate with one of the many local mini-bus drivers to go to the island. In reality, no so simple. There was an absolute free-for-all at the port gates with drivers trying to get business. They’re not allowed through the gates, so if it all becomes too much, a retreat back inside the gates to regather yourself is a good option. If town is 5 km from the port and costs $3AU pp for the ride, how much should it cost to go into town then another 9km to Hideaway? $10AU all up?? No. Try $50AU pp return!! Are you serious? Strategic retreat time. There was a table set up inside the ‘safe zone’ manned by people from the Tourist Information centre. Their advice was to pay $3 each to go in to town, the Post Office to be specific, where we should be able to find a more reasonable price. Brilliant! We found a guy who offered to take us to town for $5AU total, so we followed him to his mate’s van. He was just the tout, not the driver. Once we were at the P.O. we found Roger who gave us a price of $10AU pp each way and he’d wait for us for as long as we wanted.  Much better. We never got out of second gear the whole way, there’s something wrong with the clutch, so it was a slow trip. We were overtaken many times. Trevor had an interesting chat with him about how the Chinese are buying up supermarkets, petrol stations and factories in Vanuatu. Interesting. In Australia, they’re buying up farmland.

The ferry to the island is free and it cost us $10AU each to go onto the island. You pay and are given a receipt as proof. Again, reef shoes are a must. The water’s edge is deep with broken, water tumbled coral. From the minute you hit the water, you are surrounded by fish of all sorts, some plate size! The island is in a marine sanctuary and I think the fish know it. Sadly, the coral is very damaged, but there’s still enough for the fish to hide in. Apparently the underwater mailbox is an attraction here, so we swam out to it, not too far from shore. Had nothing to post though.  Could have stayed out there all day, but fear of sunburn and thirst for a Tusker beer drive us out of the water. 

Just as well, time has flown and by the time we dry off and get changed, down a beer and catch the ferry back, it’ll probably be time for Roger to pick us up. We’re a bit early but he’s there waiting for us. We realise later that he’s been waiting the whole time.  He drops us back in town and we pay him and tell him not to wait for us, if he’s at the P.O when we’re ready to go back to the ship, he can take us. So, of course, he’s waiting for us. It’s far hotter in town than it was on the island, so we don’t last long wandering around. We pick up a few souvenirs for the boys and a little something for the birthday girl. 

We’re back in time for Trivia and again it goes to sudden death, with 3 teams on 15/20 and we’re one of them! My turn to play for the win and I’m beaten to the punch, another player grabs the host’s hand which is acting as the buzzer. And the answer is…….. he goes blank!! So I pounce in with the answer and take the win! Do we really want/need another P&O stubby holder? Not really, seeing as we’ve also got a pair at home from last time, so we offer them to a couple who’ve sat near us every day. They’ve already got some as well, so we end up giving them to the couple we beat at the sudden death question. They’re really appreciative, they really wanted one! And the woman has a photo of the fella hitting the buzzer, so it looks like they won anyway. 

P&O promote their freestyle dining or whatever they call it. Eat at whatever time you like. But on the Jewel, they’re not so keen on that idea and always seem to be steering people into booking a set table for a set time, 6pm or 8pm. That didn’t happen on the Pearl last year. We’ve been going up between 6.30 and 7 and the last couple of nights we noticed a decline in the level of service at this time. We’re going to try booking a table on the way home and see what difference it makes. 

Our cabin steward is Jan Paolo, or JP, a young Philipino man with an 8 month old baby boy at home. He really misses him and told us that sometimes he cries at night before he goes to sleep. They get a break through the day when they usually have a sleep but when he’s in Vila or Noumea he has his favourite Philipino restaurants where he goes for some authentic food. 40 % of the crew are Philipino but they can’t get Philipino food in their mess. There’s an AQUIS issue with the authentic spices needed. It’s a bit sad, they’re so far from home for such long contracts (8 months), they miss their families, their homes and they can’t even get their food.