Tuesday

Port Vila

Vanuatu

The ship docked about 3km from the main shopping area of Vila. As the passengers exited the port gate we were surrounded by taxi drivers and tour guides. It looked like every motorized vehicle in Vila was at the gates looking for someone to take for a ride (both literally and figuratively). The recommended fare for the journey to town, one way, is USD15; which I thought a bit steep for 3km although I could have reduced that amount by sharing. Although in the mob outside the gate I heard the trip being offered for USD5 by the more enterprising or desperate drivers.

Also outside the port gate, along both sides of the road to the town for about 400m, there were scores of stalls all selling essentially the same trinkets, clothes and other stuff that the locals hope that heat affected tourists will think it essential to buy.

I decided to walk as I’m a bit sick of walking round and round on deck 3. Shortly after I set off it started to rain. I sheltered under a tree, knowing from my vast knowledge of Vanuatu weather data that rain here may be intense but doesn’t last for long. It got heavier. And then it got heavier still. As the rain got heavier the shelter provided by the tree reduced proportionately. Just as I became resigned to taking one of the taxis cruising past the rain stopped as suddenly as it had started and I walked on.

The government obviously doesn’t have enough money to properly maintain the roads so they certainly don’t have any money to splash out on footpaths; it was a walk and sometimes a scramble around to the town.

The shops were a mixture of “duty free” ranging from the air conditioned to the dim, dingy and dodgy as well as lots of souvenir and clothing shops that are all selling the same stock. There were a few cafes and restaurants but nothing that was particularly appealing.

I went into a supermarket. To remind visitors that Vanuatu was formerly jointly administered by the French and the British (an unusual arrangement known as a condominium) there was a large display of tinned meat, advertised with the slogan “tin meat blong Vanuatu” and not too far away a tempting display of French breads and pastries.

The most common form of commerce was people sitting under umbrellas or in small booths selling mobile phone credit. I must have walked past ten before I turned around to go back to the ship. This is in addition to every other shop also advertising mobile phone credits.

The Vanuatu market was in a large open-sided structure in the main street. Fruit and vegetables were for sale; the most popular items being bananas, coconuts, yams, taro and sweet potato. The vendors looked like they are well-used to having their photos taken tourists who don’t buy anything. Although later I did see a woman with a bag of coconuts getting back on the ship. Maybe she was hungry; she looked like she’d already eaten all the food on the ship.

After wandering around for an hour or so and finding that it wasn’t quite as exotic we’d led to believe by the briefing given on the ship yesterday, I walked back to the ship.

Surprisingly, a significant proportion of the passengers walking around at these tropical ports are not wearing hats, they all seem to be Americans. Unsurprisingly, there are many sunburnt people at the end of each day in port. Tomorrow we are going to anchor off Lifou island (one of the islands of New Caledonia) where there is a beach for swimming (and not much else); that should make for hundreds of sunburnt Americans tomorrow night.