How the West Was Won...
talofa...how's it hangin for y'all?...anyways, i dont feel like writing tonight...so this post is gonna be short...and im gonna stick to my word on that one...the post is mostly gonna be about my last two days of my trip in western samoa...i know, im sick of western samoa, too...im excited to get done explaining my trip...this post isnt gonna have any philosophical questions or lists...mostly because im tired and bored with writing...but also because no one interacted with my last post...so y'all suck...the last three days of our trip was spent in upolu...the main city and the capital of western samoa is apia...thats where our hotel was and where we did most of our sight seeing...the city, though not nearly as beautiful as i thought it would be, was nice...it reminded me of the states...and ill explain that in a little bit...i dont wanna get stuck too much on the history and culture of western samoa...otherwise, we'll all be here all night...so stop me if i start...the picture above is a statue of one of the most legendary kings of samoa...i forget his name but he's an actual king that was a cannibal...as you can see, theres also another man with him in the sculpture...thats the king's son...legend has it that the son was completely against cannibalism and kept protesting it to his father...but the king loved him some human bacon and so he kept practicing cannibalism...well, i guess the son got so fed up that he had himself killed and cooked for his father...and his father, the king, eat him without knowing it was his own son...until the meal was long in his belly did he realize that the meal was his son...and the king like went crazy or something...whatever the legend, i think the statue is pretty cool...they look so strong and manly...i especially like the big feet...you know what they say about guys with big feet...
that was our pool at the hotel we stayed at...it was the hotel kitano...we didnt even swim in the pool...the weather we had wasnt the best swimming weather...it was a okay hotel but nothing spectacular...i think i should be a hotel critic in my second life...im an expert in what hotels should have...for one, all hotels should have a hot tub...its just wrong when they dont...and this one didnt...but, man, i love sitting in a hotel room and blasting the A.C. and watching t.v. and reading...its my heaven on earth...is that weird?...im a hotel freak!...maybe its because of all the hotels we used to go to when i was young...they just bring me comfort...long live leilanis!...and embassy suites!...
this sign was at our hotel...i thought it was kinda neat...it has all these locations around the world and it tells in which direction they are and how far they are away...notice fiji and tonga and cook islands...all the places i still wanna go while im here...
thats lisa, kava, and anna...some of the teachers that went with us on the trip...we went to the robert louis stevenson house...he lived in western samoa and actually wrote a lot of books and stories about the samoan islands...by the way, he's the guy that wrote treasure island and dr. jekyl and mr. hyde...in other words, he's a very famous author...the mansion, sitting on a hill and overlooking the ocean, was grand and stately...it was exquisite...i dont really have any pics of the front of the house...but here's a link to a picture...http://www.eevacations.com/newsletters/2006/2006.06.12/images/image002.jpg
that was our tour guide...he looks nerdy in this picture but lisa and i had a crush on him...he had an exotic accent...part samoan and part new zealand...hubba hubba...
i took some video of the villages outside apia...when we were driving back to the airport i decided to film the side of the road...yeah, its not very exciting but if you wanna get a better grasp of what the samoan islands are like, watch 'em...and tell me what you think...you might wanna put your computer on mute...the wind from the car is very annoying...also, remember that these were villages outside a big city...the villages in the rural areas look much, much different...
the clock tower was at the center of apia...the main city area...when we americans think of city we think of huge skyscrapers...or even big buildings...this city had neither...it was actually pretty ghetto...more like a big market place...it was almost like tijuana in a way...but i still really liked it...there was actually nice little shops and cafes...there was even traffic lights!...none of that stuff is in american samoa...i kinda miss the whole city environment...it was nice to sit at a cafe and drink coffee and eat a sandwich...like i said, american samoa has nothing like that...theres only one road on our island...but this town had tons of roads and tons of people...people from all around the world...a lot of new zealanders lived here...and let me just tell you, new zealand boys are hotter than black asphalt in july...they dress amazingly...kinda punk mixed with some surfer boy and european chic...they all had faux hawks and well-groomed bodies...once again, something youd never see in american samoa...the club scene here in apia was awesome...probably the best part of the entire island and the one reason why im excited to go back...their bars reminded me of the states...they were clean and polished...and they played excellent music...hip hop and pop...not just samoan music like the bars on our island...it was just great to be in a city again...a worldly city...i felt like i was in morroco or brazil...it was a ghetto city...but a thrilling one...with some sexy boys...
speaking of sexy new zealand/samoan boys...the city of apia also had a vibrant gay community...completely unlike american samoa...in fact, it was a lot different than many cities in america...it reminded me of something youd see in london...here are some of the reasons why i loved this gay hub of the south pacific... 
this was our hotel room...it was not the greatest...i even saw more lizards in this room than in our fales...which is just sad...cause fales were like open tents on the beach...but the A.C. was splendid...im already fantasizing about air conditioning for when i come home this summer...today it was like 95 degrees with 80% humidity...oh, my lord...it was so hot...get ready to blast your air cons when i come home and stay at your house...i wanna freeze my butt off...mmm...coldness...
those were all pics of our hotel...kinda hawaiian, huh?...
this was a little tree house at our hotel...i thought it was kinda cute...
lisa and william sleeping together...well, laying in bed together...i have to say that us three have a lot of fun together...i mean, just 8 months ago we were complete strangers...all of a sudden we're on a random island together and becoming best friends...i guess the million dollar question is if we're friends only because we have to be...because we only have eachother...or do we really like eachother?...i think i actually like them...though they can be strange...one thing i do know is that i get along with them better than any samoan i have met yet...and i truly think thats a culture thing...as much as ive said in the past that i can be friends with anybody in the world (africans, asians, mexicans, etc.), theres nothing like connecting with someone that is part of your own culture...it sounds racist or something...and i cant believe that i, a liberal, would be saying something like this...but ive learned since being on this island that i love hanging out with white people...and people from the states...i just connect with them better...they talk like me and act like me and think like me...and it makes things so much more comfortable and enjoyable...i even love chilling with people from wisconsin more than any other place...im just on the same plane as them, ya know?...cheeseheads rock!...i suppose its alright to admit this though...i mean, i hate how people are always saying how everyone should just be friends and cooperate...i believe humans should do this, too...but i think we are in danger of losing whats unique about us then...its the whole melting pot theory i guess...for the past 50 years, america has been trying to just mix all the cultures and make them one glorious pot of stew...so we all become one...but theres obviously something very wrong with that...we all then lose our cultures and our individualities...so, i suppose, saying that we're all different is okay...and sometimes i just think that me and samoans are just hella different...and, dog-gone-it, thats perfectly satisfactory...
that was our tour guide...he looks nerdy in this picture but lisa and i had a crush on him...he had an exotic accent...part samoan and part new zealand...hubba hubba...
i took some video of the villages outside apia...when we were driving back to the airport i decided to film the side of the road...yeah, its not very exciting but if you wanna get a better grasp of what the samoan islands are like, watch 'em...and tell me what you think...you might wanna put your computer on mute...the wind from the car is very annoying...also, remember that these were villages outside a big city...the villages in the rural areas look much, much different...
the clock tower was at the center of apia...the main city area...when we americans think of city we think of huge skyscrapers...or even big buildings...this city had neither...it was actually pretty ghetto...more like a big market place...it was almost like tijuana in a way...but i still really liked it...there was actually nice little shops and cafes...there was even traffic lights!...none of that stuff is in american samoa...i kinda miss the whole city environment...it was nice to sit at a cafe and drink coffee and eat a sandwich...like i said, american samoa has nothing like that...theres only one road on our island...but this town had tons of roads and tons of people...people from all around the world...a lot of new zealanders lived here...and let me just tell you, new zealand boys are hotter than black asphalt in july...they dress amazingly...kinda punk mixed with some surfer boy and european chic...they all had faux hawks and well-groomed bodies...once again, something youd never see in american samoa...the club scene here in apia was awesome...probably the best part of the entire island and the one reason why im excited to go back...their bars reminded me of the states...they were clean and polished...and they played excellent music...hip hop and pop...not just samoan music like the bars on our island...it was just great to be in a city again...a worldly city...i felt like i was in morroco or brazil...it was a ghetto city...but a thrilling one...with some sexy boys...
speaking of sexy new zealand/samoan boys...the city of apia also had a vibrant gay community...completely unlike american samoa...in fact, it was a lot different than many cities in america...it reminded me of something youd see in london...here are some of the reasons why i loved this gay hub of the south pacific...1. the guys were not only gorgeous...they were also very straight acting...which, of course, is my style...they had the perfect mixture of gayness (they dressed fashionably and their hair styles were off the hook) and straightness (they werent flaming!)...the whole night i was like goldilocks and thinkin "they were just right"...in american samoa, all we have are fafafinas...transgendered people...ew...and in milwaukee, all there is are preppy, flamboyant boys that look all the same...blah...but these guys, in western samoa, were bad-ass...unique and rad...
2. there was no separate gay bars...i really appreciate that...i dont dig gay bars...but i also get bored with straight bars...these clubs had straight people and gay people dancing and drinking together...it was righteous...i dont think youd see this even in the most progressive cities in america...sure, you might see two guys dancing together at a gay bar...but in a straight bar?...with no one even noticing...it was pretty cool to have fun with my straight friends but still have a chance to dance with a guy...and with no problems arising...
k...thats enough of the gay talk...have i ever talked about the gay thing this much before?...sorry, your ears are probably bleeding gay...my bad...
this was our hotel room...it was not the greatest...i even saw more lizards in this room than in our fales...which is just sad...cause fales were like open tents on the beach...but the A.C. was splendid...im already fantasizing about air conditioning for when i come home this summer...today it was like 95 degrees with 80% humidity...oh, my lord...it was so hot...get ready to blast your air cons when i come home and stay at your house...i wanna freeze my butt off...mmm...coldness...
those were all pics of our hotel...kinda hawaiian, huh?...
this was a little tree house at our hotel...i thought it was kinda cute...
lisa and william sleeping together...well, laying in bed together...i have to say that us three have a lot of fun together...i mean, just 8 months ago we were complete strangers...all of a sudden we're on a random island together and becoming best friends...i guess the million dollar question is if we're friends only because we have to be...because we only have eachother...or do we really like eachother?...i think i actually like them...though they can be strange...one thing i do know is that i get along with them better than any samoan i have met yet...and i truly think thats a culture thing...as much as ive said in the past that i can be friends with anybody in the world (africans, asians, mexicans, etc.), theres nothing like connecting with someone that is part of your own culture...it sounds racist or something...and i cant believe that i, a liberal, would be saying something like this...but ive learned since being on this island that i love hanging out with white people...and people from the states...i just connect with them better...they talk like me and act like me and think like me...and it makes things so much more comfortable and enjoyable...i even love chilling with people from wisconsin more than any other place...im just on the same plane as them, ya know?...cheeseheads rock!...i suppose its alright to admit this though...i mean, i hate how people are always saying how everyone should just be friends and cooperate...i believe humans should do this, too...but i think we are in danger of losing whats unique about us then...its the whole melting pot theory i guess...for the past 50 years, america has been trying to just mix all the cultures and make them one glorious pot of stew...so we all become one...but theres obviously something very wrong with that...we all then lose our cultures and our individualities...so, i suppose, saying that we're all different is okay...and sometimes i just think that me and samoans are just hella different...and, dog-gone-it, thats perfectly satisfactory...alright, im gonna go now...im really sorry for the boring post...ill write something extraordinary next time...this was my final post about my trip, so thats good...now we can move on...remember to leave me a message...so i can feel loved...(unlike last time...meanies!)...
love ya and miss ya...and, grandma krumree, i hope you get well soon...i love you...
-JOE
"I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train."
"I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train."
-Oscar Wilde
posted by Samoa Joe at 2:10 AM
2 Comments:
All the pictures are just beautiful-I'm jealous! Love you and miss you too!!!
Oh great!!! Just when i was feeling safe that you would not fall in love with a foreign man and never come home!!!! Just kidding they sound nice :) i want to visit you so bad and go to New Zealand, WS, Fiji...Becky Chad's sister is moving at the end of June to Australia so i think us Salter's should plan a trip to New Zealand- you could meet up with us and then we could go fly in and see Becky's place. Too bad air fare is a bazillion dollars. Chad's grandma Shirley is flying w/ Karen to get Becky settled and she inquired about first class to Austalia since that is how she flew there in the past...guess how much...$24,000. Wow! o.k. enough-i loved your pics-
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