We walked through the town - the main street - until we got to the Tourist Information place - we stopped inside to get cool - and to find out what there was to see in this town that we could walk to. It turns out that the Samoa Temple is in Apia and Mike figured that it was only a couple of kilometres at the most and so off we started to see it. Well, we ended up going on roads which were under construction and the roads were very uneven. I had only worn sandals as I didn’t think we were going that far and they were very hard to walk in. Add that to feeling almost nauseous due to the high humidity and I was not a happy camper.
We finally made it to the Temple and it’s a beautiful building. Just as we were going up to the front door to take some pictures, the Temple president and his wife came out of the temple. We told them who we were and that we had walked all this way from the ship and how hot and tired we were. They were so gracious and invited us back to their home which was right beside the Temple and gave us some cold water and cookies. They also told us that 18 members of the church on the island had died as a result of the tsunami - it was very sad to hear that. The president also offered to drive us back to the ship. We were soooo grateful to them for doing this for us - what a blessing it was!
When we got back to the ship, we got right into our bathing suits and almost ran to the pool. It was so refreshing to get in and swim around the pool. We read some of our books and then got in the pool again. After some more reading we headed back to our cabin to get ready for supper. As we were doing that, an announcement was made to say that there was going to be a performance by local Samoans on the pier. So we quickly made our way to Deck 7 where we could get a good view of the show.
The native people are amazing dancers and we loved watching the boys/men and girls/women dance to the music which was also played by local musicians. The boys are like warriors when they do their dancing and the girls are so graceful - it’s so beautiful to watch. Part of the program was a few of the young boys doing a fire dance - they were truly amazing! They had baton-like sticks with fire lit on each end. They would twirl these sticks in front of them, behind them, though their legs and even threw them into the air (sometimes to each other). Mike videotaped some of the show - we can’t wait to see that - they gave a fantastic show!
Since the show on the pier went ‘til 6:45pm, we were later going to dinner tonight. Mike had the surf and turf meal (shrimp and steak) and I had lovely sliced lamb. After dinner, we went back to our cabin to do a little more of our journal from yesterday while waiting for 10pm to come around so that we could go to the late show. I wasn’t feeling too well (Mike has given me his cold) and so I fell asleep way before the show was about to start. Mike watched a little tv and fell asleep shortly after me.
Samoan band greets us on the pier in Apia, Western Samoa.
View of the back of our ship, the Star Princess, in the harbour at Apia.
The harbour at Apia.
The shoreline on the way to town in Apia.
The harbour from the town of Apia.
Sign to 'Keep Left At All Times' to remind drivers to stay on the left as they had been driving on the right all these years. The reason they changed to drive on the left hand side of the road is because the import cars, which are right hand drive, are cheaper to buy.
Church in the main street of Apia.
Tourist Information building on the main street in Apia.
Police officer in Apia.
Apia Samoa Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
View from the ship of the docks in Apia.
View from the ship of Apia.
Samoan band on pier to see us off in Apia.
Samoan drummers performing on the pier in Apia.
Samoan fire dancer performing on the pier in Apia.
Samoan dancers performing on the pier in Apia.
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