A move from Tianjin Downtown to Eco-city

We had been advised to move house by our employers as a position as a Middle School Teacher was opening up in the Binhai Foreign Language School in Eco-city and the move would prevent Joel from having to continue travelling 1.5 hours each day to work in TEDA (Tianjin Economic Development Area). I was pretty adamant that I did not want to move from Tianjin downtown as I had only just become well-adjusted to the area that we were living in and had begun to become accustomed to where to buy the things we needed, the good places to eat out and how to get to local tourist attractions, but alas the decision was made and within a week we were to pack up our life and move an hour and a bit out of the centre of the city. The perks of moving are that by living in Eco-city we are practically neighbours with Ryan, and our apartment is bigger and nicer with running hot water in the kitchen! There is also less travel time to work for both of us, and our apartment complex offers a swimming pool, gym, pool table, and a basketball court. The life in Eco-city is quiet and there is no-where to really go in terms of tourism, shopping or partying, so it might be time to get fit instead I suppose!

Eco-city is situated about 40 kilometres from the Tianjin city centre and about 150 kilometres from Beijing. It is located in the Tianjin Binhai New Area which is one of the fastest growing regions in China.  Prior to the development of Eco-city the site comprised mainly of saltpans, barren land and polluted bodies of water. Quite oppositely, now days the city boasts great environmental considerations including power generation through the use of windmills and solar panels. All the water in the city is recycled and the government provides free public transport for reduction of carbon emissions caused by heavy traffic flow. Citizens are also encouraged to recycle; as a result rubbish bins are abundant with designated sections for paper, cans and other waste.

Prior to the move I had a day where my morning classes were cancelled thus I had approximately six hours to kill, I used this time to explore the local area. I requested the taxi driver take me to the Tianjin National Museum and ended up in a completely random location, so I walked to see what I could find. I managed to stumble across ‘Heping Lu’ shopping district, St Josephs Church and Porcelain House.  Joel and I also had a day available on the weekend prior to our move to check out things locally so we went to the Tianjin Natural History museum and the Tianjin Eye.

I spent my last week in the Experimental High School essentially just mucking around with my students playing games and enjoying their company. I skate-boarded to work every-day that week so I had my skate-board in my classes with me which all the students were very intrigued by. I let them all have a go which they thoroughly enjoyed. In one class however a student fell off, the skateboard flew from underneath him and rammed into the class-room wall. The sound echoed the corridors and within seconds a Chinese teacher came bursting into the room demanding answers, I discreetly moved my skate-board into hiding as the boy ‘responsible’ copped a lecture. Once the teacher had left the room I asked him what would happen and he said “she will kill me” and then “my parents will kill me again”. I felt sorry for him, firstly it was an accident and secondly it was at least half my responsibility for bringing my skate-board to school and for allowing the students to use it, so we went to her office and I explained that it was accidental not intentional and that it was my responsibility for allowing him to use it. The teachers just said that he is a very naughty boy and that he knows better than to play in the classroom. I think however he may have avoided receiving the wrath of his parents at least as he did some kind of fist-pump action after leaving the office.

As it was my last week at the school my international baccalaureate students who are studying to go to a Korean university took me out for lunch. We went to a local restaurant where they served a dish called ‘málàtàng’. The dish originated in Sichuan. A large number of skewers are presented with a variety of different ingredients. You select those that appeal to your taste, place them in a basket and take them to the cook who cooks them in a mildly spicy broth. I have never seen a cook so fast with his hands as the man who made our lunch! You generally pay one RMB per skewer. All the ingredients are served to you in the broth and then you add a selection of sauces including sesame seed sauce, chilli oil, garlic, vinegar, etc. In my broth I had dumplings (jiaozi), fish balls, lotus root, mushrooms, noodles, quail eggs, sausages, and tofu. After our lunch on the walk back to the school we spotted a poodle in a basket with died orange ears. When I went to give it a pat it responded quite aggressively, I thought to myself if my owners died my hair orange and made me sit in a little basket I would feel that way too!

On the last day at the Experimental High School one of my grade 8 students gave me a gift of a ‘shark bone’ necklace and a letter. He explained that it had come from Australia and would remind me of home. Although it was actually a Maori design and was made in China I found the sediment very thoughtful. The letter read:  “Dear Irena: we are still good friends even through you donot teach us and I know you like Baymax. So I draw one for you. I hope you like it. meanwhile I hope to make you understood that we all Love you kiss~ kiss~ Your student Daniel1 Huang Bing Chao 2015. 3. 25.” The letter contained a picture of the character ‘Baymax’ from the movie ‘Big Hero 6’. He was holding a skate-board. There were also another two pictures of Baymax in the bottom right hand corner of the letter with thought bubbles inscribing “leave” and “no!” The reason that he had made me a card with ‘Baymax’ is because he was watching the movie in one of my classes and I had made it known that I had watched it recently and that I thought it was a good film.

On the morning of my cancelled classes, as aforementioned, I ended up in a random location but with some walking stumbled across St Josephs Cathedral. It made a bad morning a little more pleasant, the quiet of the cathedral allowed for some much needed peace and tranquillity. St Josephs Cathedral (also known as Lao Xikai Catholic Church) is a Roman Catholic Church. The Church was built in 1913 and is one of Tianjin’s protected historical relics and is the largest Roman Catholic Church in the Tianjin Province. I spent some time there admiring the architecture and the art on interior and exterior. I sat in the pews gathering my thoughts on my desires for the future, my regrets of the past and sending love and thoughts to my mother. I also reminisced on the time I had with mum in St Barbara’s Cathedral in the Czech Republic. A Church seems the appropriate place for such reflections. Once I left the church I went to an area where a candle could be lit for the deceased. Just as mum and I had once lit a candle together in the Czech Republic, I lit one for her. There was an indoor area to protect the flame; it should burn a long time in her memory.

The Church borders a major shopping district, so after I had gathered my thoughts I wandered this area. The shopping area was so large that there are small buses taking people from one end to the other. I have never seen so many stores. Whilst I was strolling a young man approached me and beckoned me to follow him, he spoke no English and I didn’t know where he was leading me but I riskily went with him anyway. He ended up leading me into a hairdresser with pumping beats where he tried to persuade me to cut my hair as short hair is ‘very sexy’. I agreed to allow it on the condition it was free, but they were soon trying to get 70 RMB out of me, so I left. I then had my lunch whilst enjoying the scenery of window washer’s abseiling down a rounded building façade.

After lunch I hailed another taxi and attempted again to get to the museum, on the journey I spotted a museum, (not the Tianjin National Museum I was seeking) and a very bizarrely decorated building so I jumped out of the taxi with not a lot of time to spare before my classes to have a look. I had stumbled once again unknowingly to another attraction ‘Porcelain House’. Porcelain house is a historical colonial building situated in Tianjin which has been radically re-decorated by its owner using copious amounts of broken porcelain including 4000 pieces of ancient porcelain (some dating to the Han dynasty), 400 pieces of jade stone carving, 20 tons of crystal and agate and millions of pieces of ancient Chinese ceramic chips. It made for fascinating viewing.

A few days after my solo adventure Joel and I had a day spare on the weekend and thought we would get a little tourist taste of Tianjin downtown as getting there would involve far more effort in the future. We went to the Tianjin Natural History Museum. The museum has been a part of the city since 1914 and specialises in palaeontology and fossils and features a collection of almost 400,000 specimens of this nature. Within the collection are four main sub-categories – basic palaeontology, animals, plants and paleo-anthropology fossils. At the museum there were moving dinosaur robots, life size animal replicas including instinct species such as the mammoth. The whole museum was laid out in a time-line of the development of the earth from the ‘beginning’ of time to as we know it. Despite the minimal English signage we learnt a great deal about the development of man-kind. The museum was housed in a unique architectural dome with a walkway through a man-made lake to the entrance. Entry into the museum was free and visiting was a worthwhile afternoon spent. The most memorable moment inside the museum was when a woman casually spat on the floor nearby to us. It’s very normal for people to spit on the ground in the streets of China (they blame it on the air quality), but I found spitting inside much more horrendous than I usually find the act.

After a visit to the Tianjin Natural History Museum we went out for dinner at a nice Korean barbeque restaurant where we had sour tofu soup, and a variety of barbequed skewers including lamb, shitake mushrooms wrapped in bacon, squid, and more. After dinner we got a few beers (pi’jiu) and went for a walk through ‘People’s park’ where we were lucky to witness a man practicing his ‘chain whipping’ for Tai Chi – mind you it was difficult to pass as the echo of the loud crack carried for miles. The park was built in 1863 during the Qing dynasty and was originally the private garden of a wealthy salt merchant named Li Chuncheng. After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the Li family donated the garden to the state. It was officially opened to the public on the 1^st of July 1951 as People’s Park. The park is unique because in 1954, Chairman Mao Zedong presented the park with his calligraphy of its name, which was the only work of calligraphy Mao ever wrote for a park.

After a pleasant exploration of the park we hailed a taxi to take us to the Tianjin Eye (also known as the Tianjin Ferris wheel). I thought it would make for a pleasant evening but when we got there the ticket booth was closed. Despite this it was very busy there. In a short time we were approached by a man selling tickets to enter the Ferris-wheel, we thought he was selling them at inflated prices so it was better to not purchase them but we succumbed to our desires and paid a little extra than standard for entry. We walked through the front doors, lined up and prepared for beautiful views and romance but instead reached a desk where they asked us to pay for our tickets. Now we figured the guy who sold them too us was a scalper but we failed to realise until that moment the ‘tickets’ he had sold us were not tickets at all! They were ‘waiting’ tickets, quite possibly obtained somewhere for free and that only allowed us entrance to the ticket counter! We were infuriated. We went outside on a search for the man, but of course we could not find him anywhere! We did however come across another woman selling the same false entrance tickets, we tried to ward others off purchasing from the lady but no-one seemed to heed to our advice. In the end we became rather thuggish I must admit and harassed the woman for our money back for some-time. We tried talking to the police man on the scene but he was disinterested so we took matters into our own hands and followed her around saying ‘yībăi’ (meaning 100 RMB) for a good half an hour until she coughed up our cash. It was the last of our funds, thuggish but we thought it necessary at the time considering our minimal funds.

When we moved up to Eco-city a small van was arranged for us. It is interesting how when coming to a country with precise packing all ones things can fit inside a backpack. When we were to move housewe were not quite so precise with packing, we just shoved everything into various bags we had accumulated and wound up with about 8 bags between us. We dropped off our things at our new apartment where an American teacher named Paul was still resident. He was not leaving until the Monday so we were to stay at Ryan’s house for the next two evenings. I spent that afternoon with a teacher, also American, called Chris who had taken over Paul’s classes. He gave me a tour of the new school that I was to work at, and then Joel, Paul, Chris his wife Jessica and I all met at the community centre to have lunch. I had the famous Kung Pao chicken. It was good and it was cheap.

The Saturday night that we stayed at Ryan’s place was his birthday. We went out for dinner in TEDA (a nearby city) to a beautifully decorated Turkish restaurant. Accompanying Ryan, Joel and I was his Chinese teacher Nikki as well as Susana and Lisa who are both Kindergarten teachers also employed by ENLI school of East West Studies. Whilst there I requested that Nikki also provide me with Chinese language lessons during the week, she obliged, thus I added two evenings to my full-time work schedule to dedicate to learning Chinese! After this we went to ‘Jacky’s pub’ where I played some pool with Nikki and engaged in conversation with an Italian and a bunch of Germans. Following the pub we went to a club which I fail to recall the name of and danced the night through until the early hours of the morning. We were pretty stoked to discover that they were playing bounce music, one of mine and Joel’s preferred genres. Fascinatingly, at clubs in China if you purchase a large number of drinks you get staff allocated to encourage you to drink more and drink with you. Quite opposite to Australia where a bartenders training requires the ability to recognize drunk people and refuse service. After the club we went to KFC where Joel and I both passed out on the tables and eventually arrived back at the apartment at approximately 6.30 in the morning. The next day was spent sleeping until the afternoon and generally being horrifically hung-over.

Monday I was the begin work. The new school looks like a large shopping complex and is very modern. The layout is simple. As may be assumed by the name the school has a good emphasis on language learning so almost all the teachers have a good English speaking ability and the students level is higher than that of the Experimental high school. My first week was quite pleasant.  The teachers are friendly and invited me to have lunch at their table in the cafeteria. A perk of this school is that the lunches are free and very good! We grab a tray and some chopsticks and then from bane-maries have a variety of dishes to choose from, normally containing different meats and vegetables with spices, dumplings (jiaozi), stuffed buns (baozi) rice (mifan), yoghurts and fruits. My least favourite is the rice gruel ‘soup’ they serve. It is just rice in lukewarm water.

The students were all quite self-esteem boosting. I was showing them pictures of my family and in the majority of classes they stated that my face is ‘thin’ now, and I used to be very fat. Apparently I used to look like an old woman and they couldn’t believe it was me in the pictures. So flattering of them, but this is the Chinese culture. In another class a student said I was fat at the current point of time, I mentioned this to the grade nine teachers stating that I was aware that it was China and that I Chinese people are very straight forward but noted in Australia it would be considered very rude.  The teachers went on to inform me that in China it was quite standard upon meeting a new person to ask them their name, their age, their occupation, where they live and their salary. I said to them that we very rarely ask questions about salary or political preference in Australia, and if we do we normally state it’s a no-obligation question to save any uncomfortableness for the questioned. The teachers then said “we don’t vote here, so we don’t have to worry about that issue”. It was an insightful and also mildly amusing observation.

On one of the week days I was headed over to Ryan’s apartment as we were going shopping in Tanguu ‘Golden Street’ (another nearby city) to find the perfect outfit for his Beijing birthday bonanza. On the way I was stopped by a man and his child and was asked whether I was a ‘laoshi’ (teacher), upon confirmation it was requested that I give his child private English tutoring. So within a week of living in Eco-city I have managed to fill up five days a week with full-time work and four evenings a week, two of which will be utilised to learn Chinese and two of which will be dedicated to teaching English! We met up with Susana in Tanguu and went shopping in Zara. I purchased a lovely A-line skirt, and Ryan purchased some nice white pants, brown belt, and ‘linen’ sweater and blazer to wear in Beijing. In another shop I also bought some sneakers so that I can hopefully (when time permits) start going to the gym in our apartment complex. After shopping was finished we decided to get some dinner in TEDA. The place that Susana had recommended was unfortunately closed so we went on a taxi mission and a bit of a walk to another restaurant she had in mind. Here we had a dish with snow peas, scrambled eggs with tomato (xī hóng shì chǎo jī dàn), a dish with spring onion and chicken, and barbequed skewers of mutton, bread, tofu (dofu), and shitake mushrooms wrapped in bacon. It was a rather delicious meal, we chatted until rather late considering our early rise for work in the morning!

Our first weekend in our new apartment and I took Joel to see Tanguu’s ‘Golden Street’, we were deliberating what we should eat and eventually just settled for some street food. We had this incredibly delicious roll stuffed with pork and spices and a dish similar to ‘malatang’ with various skewers boiled in broth and added sesame sauce and chilli oil. For approximately two Australian dollars each it was an incredibly good purchase! After some time just browsing the streets we caught a taxi to the Tanguu Aquarium. The entrance fee was ghastly expensive, but we figured we were there so we should take a look inside. For our viewing displeasure there were polar bears, arctic foxes, penguins, and beluga whales all in tiny glass enclosures in completely unnatural habitats. The animals were clearly distressed, continuously running in circuits from door to door for escape from the spotlight. In another aquarium there were turtles, sting-rays and a variety of fish species this one was not quite as disturbing, perhaps because the animals were smaller and the tank larger or maybe it was because these particular animals have less obvious capabilities of revealing their distress. After we left we got hustled into a taxi where the meter jumped from the starting price of 8 RMB to 25 RMB within a minute. As soon as Joel noticed this rapid hike in price I told the driver to pull over and we gave him 20 RMB and jumped out. He proceeded to follow us in his taxi and berate us for the next five minutes. Risky business really, but we just continuously said ‘bye-bye’ until he drove off and let us be. We caught another taxi to TEDA (with a more honest driver) where we went to a shopping complex offering IMAX films and went to see ‘Kingsmen: the secret service’. We ordered popcorn and sadly my intense craving for salty and buttery goodness resulted in bitter disappointment as apparently the popcorn served in Chinese cinemas is off the sweet variety. I found the film quite captivating at the beginning but the plot became far-fetched and ludicrous.

Settling in Tianjin

Finally we were free and Ryan had the opportunity to meet and greet us in our new homeland China! He took us to a place called ‘Helens’. Helen’s is a great place with a bustling atmosphere. The walls are adorned with graffiti, and each table has its own mini book shelf offering English novels for your reading pleasure. Sheisha’s are offered on hire to smoke and beer is super cheap at about 10 Yuan or 2 dollars approximately. We stayed there for a while and played a Chinese drinking game in which each player has five dice. After shaking the dice in your cup you must guess how many of whichever number dice both you and the other player has. The number ‘1’ is a ‘wild’ dice and can count as any number. The other player must always up the number to your suggestion; otherwise they can call your bluff. If they are right you drink if you are right they drink! Whilst there the bartenders also offered us the chance to skull a beer in a competition against other bar-goers for the fastest! It was a selection at random, but Joel, Ryan and I all got chosen to compete! None of us came close to winning but we all got a free beer out of it! So why say no? After a few hours spent there playing drinking games and entering drinking competitions we quite drunkenly headed for another club in which the bartenders were Russian and the drinks were over double the price! We had good fun dancing there to Chinese pop. We also got the privilege of watching a band from the Philippines perform which quickly dampened the atmosphere considering their ear paining singing and their extremely slutty attire. Shortly after there was a bizarre incident in which Joel put his cigarette out in an ash tray on this table with a group of guys sitting on it. One of the men from the table stood up, grabbed the ash-tray up and proceeded to empty the contents onto the floor in front of us before dropping it at our feet! I had forgotten that they purchase the right to use a table in clubs here so a simple gesture on Joel’s part to avoid putting cigarette butts on the floor rapidly ensued a dispute especially considering that after the actions of the Chinese man I retaliated by placing a beer on his table. Soon there was a complaint to management and Ryan was resolving it with his exceptional Chinese lingual skills. He explained how both parties were drunk and we were told to ‘remove ourselves’ from the situation. So after leaving the club although another place was considered I was drunker than I realised and feeling like I couldn’t stand and may be sick I was the spoil sport who suggested home!

The next day we went to ‘Old town’ or ‘Ancient Cultural Street’ after a very necessary Mc-Donald’s lunch where (although formally opened in 1986) we could see all the cultural elements of China. There was vendor after vendor sporting Chinese ‘antiques’ and calligraphy brushes as well as the occasional scorpion lunch and a huge array of New Years decorations. There were also vendors selling Jade and other semi-precious stones, wooden carvings, leather goods and toffee art.

We spent the remainder of the week training for work and then Spring Festival was upon us! The Spring Festival or New Year’s falls on the 1^st day of the 1^st Lunar Month, which this year was the 19^th of February! Considering we had already some weeks prior celebrated the coming of 2015 in Australia, one could jokingly suggest that when we came to China we went back in time as now we were celebrating the coming of a New Year all over again! Chinese New Year’s day is an occasion for Chinese families to get together, they will eat dumplings or ‘jiaozi’ for breakfast as they think that ‘jiaozi’ in sound means “bidding farewell to the old and ushering in the new”. The shape of the dumpling is similar to a gold ingot from ancient China so people eat them and wish for wealth. We participated in this tradition and ate dumplings on the New-Year; however we did not wish for wealth! (I am seriously started to think we ought to have considering our lack of it now!) Another tradition for the festival is to decorate windows and doors with red colour paper-cuts or stickers containing themes such as “good fortune” or “happiness”, “wealth” and “longevity”. Lucky for us our land-lord had left us with a well-wishing on our door and several posters to place around the house! Another tradition which we without option participated in was the insane amount of fire-works that are set off every-day and night for 15 days! There is a law in China that no one person is allowed to store more than a ton of fireworks under their house which gives you an idea of how many are set off in this time! One night I went and purchased some fireworks and set off two, making for a fun-filled 20 minutes. The fireworks are set off to ‘ward off evil spirits’. Joel and I were sick with the flu the majority of the festival however we did we did make it to Ancient Cultural Street for at least one of the days in the break! We felt it was quite a feat as it was the first time we had really caught the subway by ourselves and negotiated with taxi drivers our route. We spent some time viewing the Confucian Temple, (established 1426) however, only from the outside as it was closed for Spring Festival. We also enjoyed eating spiced and grilled squid on a stick!

A few days later I was running out of my vitamin supply and still run down with the flu so I attempted to find a chemist nearby to us, I asked a girl on the street to speak with our friend Helen on the phone from work (who acts as our translator if need be) and direct her to direct us to the nearest chemist. It was explained to us that there was not one available nearby to us, however once we got off the phone with Helen the girl that I asked and her friend gestured that we follow them! So Joel and I, without any Chinese ability, and the girls without any English ability walked jointly for about 45 minutes without a word we could say to each other. We didn’t even know if we were necessarily being taken to a chemist! But eventually we ended up at a fairly large shop stocking Chinese medicines and vitamins! It gave me great faith in the selflessness of human-kind that they would take us so far in the opposite direction of where they were originally headed just to assist us. I offered them some money for the effort but they politely declined, showed us in their translator that we needed to rest and were off on their merry way.

After the Spring break I was told that I was to be teaching Middle school. I have 2 different grade 8 classes 4 times a week, 4 different Senior 1 classes 2 times a week, and a Senior 2 class once a week. Each class has about 50 students in it but the Senior 2 class has about 100 students! It was terrifying. I was thrown into the role without ever having the ability to witness another teacher’s class-room. To discuss some memorable experiences of my first week at work, on the first day of teaching a Senior 1 class one of the students came up-to me and said “oh, you are so beautiful” which was nice. (I secretly hoped that my alleged beauty would help me manage the behaviour in the class-room) The student disappeared for a few minutes and then came back and repeated his comments and jokingly ran into a wall at the sight of me. In another one of my lessons a student introduced himself as ‘Master’ which I still do not believe is his ‘true’ English name, anyway, he shook my hand and asked me whether he could dance for me. I responded “You want to dance for me? You can dance for everybody, I will call upon you!” so when the bell-rang I asked him to enter the ‘stage’ (the teacher’s have a raised blocked and pew to stand on at the head of the class-room) and dance for his class-mates, he reluctantly agreed and did moves such as ‘gangnam style’ which made for a great round of applause from his class-mates and an fun way to begin the lesson! In another class one of my students just casually had a ‘Carlsberg’ beer half finished sitting on his desk. I can believe drinking during school hours but to showcase it for the whole class and teacher to see was quite absurd.

Beijing

We arrived in Beijing, China at 1.15am on Friday the 6^th. When we walked out the gates at the airport there was a taxi driver arranged for us waiting with our names on card ‘Joel Stalker’ and ‘Irena Harrison’. After our long flight we were straight onto the road for a long journey to TEDA in Tianjin. The school we are employed by, the ‘Enli School of East West studies’ had arranged a hotel there near our office. The journey was long and arduous and after some hours I desperately needed to go to the toilet. With no Chinese to assist me I held on until I without choice desperately signalled the a ‘T’ with my hand and the taxi driver responded by signing a ‘W’ which I assume represented ‘WC’ for toilet and I gave him the thumbs up he pulled over on a 8 lane highway, I clambered out and peed on the side of the road which certainly made for an interesting first experience in China. Anyway, we arrived at 4.30am where it was straight to bed for us and then after a mere 6 hour’s sleep and suffering jetlag we went apartment hunting with Helen who works at the school office who had kindly come to escort us. I had told them that we did not have much money when we were still back in Australia so the apartments we had choice of were not in the best of areas, were rather modest and small. The apartment we eventuated with was chosen on the basis of it being the cleanest, odourless, and with a bigger kitchen than the 2 by 2 meter standard in the other apartments. Joel was not too happy with the selection; I think mostly because of the surroundings, we live in a community consisting of multiples of identical concrete apartment blocks. He also expected something a little more modern, perhaps not with paint peeling off the walls or a bedroom, door-less and only containing enough room for the bed or maybe it was the very old washing machine in which you have to take the washing out and put it in a different section of the machine for the spin cycle with the draining pipe running to the shower drain. Perhaps it was the lack of hot water in the kitchen. After we had viewed the apartments we went to a huge shopping complex in TEDA and bought a few groceries. It was fascinating just viewing the sheer size of the place let alone the mass variety of foods they had on offer and the way they were presented. There was a massive section offering alcohol and cigarettes, and section dedicated to Sushi and Sashimi. Perhaps the most interesting was the meat section offering delicacies of chickens feet and necks or the slightly displeasing fresh shark and turtles live in aquariums ready to be freshly slaughtered for supper. That night we went out for dinner at a restaurant called ‘delights’ with the Principal Lily and office employee Helen. It was a multi-cultural restaurant including Australian lamb chops and chips on the menu but mostly specialising in Italian, Mexican and Indian cuisine. Joel got burritos and I had Fajitas. I have to say I was fairly impressed by the three story layer of plates I was served with the meat at the bottom (prawns, beef and chicken), fajita bread in the middle and salad, sauces and jalapenos on the top plate. I had watermelon juice to drink and Joel tried the famous Chinese Tsing Tao beer. The next day we went and got our subway cards and our Chinese sim cards and then we headed back to the real-estate agent to sign the lease for our apartment in the ‘Li Xin Li’ community and obtain our key. We went with Helen and the real-estate agent Mr. Zhao to the apartment to check over any flaws to be amended prior to us moving in by the landlord. We discovered a lack of curtains, refrigerator, internet or working lights. As we were to leave Joel was given the key to practice locking and unlocking the door when he some-how deadlocked it stranding us all indoors. Just as we thought we would be there an eternity Mr. Zhao called his agent friend to come and rescue us, once he arrived we wrapped the key in some newspaper and threw it out the window for his fellow agent to heroically climb the stairs and unlock our apartment door from the outside! After this we opened our Chinese bank accounts and received our bank cards and then went for a walk around our local area to find we are relatively nearby restaurants, the theatre, an art museum and a luxiourous shopping mall stocking brands such as Prada, Dior and Dolce and Gabbana. Helen then took us to our local supermarket where we went and got some basic food and cleaning products for the apartment. That night we went out for dinner again with Lily and Helen to go and try the famous Chinese hotpot. Each seat in the restaurant had its own stove element where our soups were to be served and heated before our eyes. First we had to go and make our selection of sauces which we were encouraged to mix together. There was peanut sauce, sesame sauce, chilli oil, coriander, fish sauce, soy sauce, spring onion, oyster sauce, vinegar, etc. First I mixed sesame seed sauce with spring onion and oyster sauce and dried shallots. In the second tray I had coriander with chilli oil and fish sauce. After we made our selections an array of different food types were brought to our table to be added to our soups as they consistently boiled, including tofu, baby squid, silverfish, chicken balls, fungi, winter-melon, noodles, and lamb. The idea of the hotpot is to keep the pot hot and cook the ingredients as you feel the urge to consume them. After they have finished cooking you, chopsticks in hand dip them into your sauce selection. It was a delicious and variety filled culinary adventure! The next morning we packed up our luggage and checked out at the hotel before going to the famed Swedish IKEA to purchase any of our new homes short-comings, the enormity of the complex was astounding. There were rooms after rooms of show-rooms before getting to the massive restaurant inside. According to Helen much more people eat at IKEA than shop there. The restaurant housed at least 500 seats and the food was obtained in a canteen like assembly line. First you grabbed your trolleys which held up-to three trays and then you followed a cue in a counter-clockwise circuit to get your food. Some was self-service, pre-cooked and cold dishes from refrigerators and others were requested and served from huge bane maries. I tried Salmon with tartar mashed potato and brochili, a cold chicken wrap, some cold spicy chicken and a croissant, and Joel had steak with gravy and mashed potato and brochili, and a cold chicken wrap. Most interesting was that we then had to take our trays of food through to a check-out much like in a supermarket to pay.  We went on a decent walk to the train –station with two huge bags after this and caught a 30 or so minute ride back to our nearest train stop and then caught and taxi to our apartment complex, dropped off the stuff before getting another taxi, then another 40 minute train ride, and another taxi back to the Hotel in TEDA to obtain our luggage and take it back to our new apartment!

Mucaonga

It was a pretty big day. We were leaving Mana’s house that morning and going for a ‘tour’ of some of the major tourist attractions before being dropped off at Mucaonga in the afternoon to spend time with Sifa and his family before we were finally to leave back for Australia the next morning. We arose and packed our bags, did some minor cleaning and ate our breakfast said goodbye to the dog and then set off. Our first stop destination was the blow holes. It was so beautiful, there was a group of school kids there which was fun and like almost every other child they loved the camera, but the crisp blue waters crashing against the cliff’s edge, the whales in the ocean and the lovely natural shape formations of the rocks were enough for me to not want to move on and rather stay there forever. Alas, we did soon leave and I forgot to mention that on that day, again I was destined to be driver. Liam was to sit in the front seat next to me, and Mana who is a taxi driver was escorted in the back seat! The next destination was Captain Cook’s landing place. There is a plaque there that alleges that there was in the same place a Banyan tree which he sat and rested underneath, there was also a traditional shade shelter at the sight and a reasonable view, however here like in a lot of parts of Tongan the water was polluted so I would rate the destination average, at least in comparison to our prior experience. The next destination was some ancient ruins in Lapaha; unfortunately the only sign there was in Tongan so I still do not know what the ruins actually were. Near the sight there was an abandoned house with Tongan paintings covering the roof which was fantastic to see. After this we went to Ha’a monga A’Maui which is known as the Stonehenge of the pacific. It again was an ancient ruin no one knows exactly why it was there but there are a few theories. One theory includes the fact that it represents the bond between the king’s sons with the stone at the top being the unity and the two blocks of coral down the side being the boys. It is about 7 feet tall and 6 feet wide and the top piece they assume got there by a large mound of dirt underneath to help place it there. After this we went to the beach for a little bit waiting for Sifa to come and collect us from there, we missed each other however, so we just navigated our own way to his house with some deep thought as to how we got there in the first place. We were welcomed upon arrival and then were taken out into the bush so that we could see the work Sifa and his family do there. We both attempted climbing the coconut tree but although we probably both reached a metre or two the slipperiness of the tree, the lack of branches and upper body strength made it an unlucky feat so we watched Sifa fetch us some fresh coconuts instead. I forgot to mention that prior to this he had shown us his yam and watermelon farming and his uncle and little cousin Moses (1 year old) and Sisa (2 years old) were with us. I had carried little Moses to the coconut tree area and was somewhat baby-sitting him I suppose why the men worked on our van which had broken down. The van’s sliding door did not close, the windscreen was broken and it was generally very dodgy but the men in Tongan seem to be able to fix every car and with some new petrol and the replacement of the car battery all was well. Back to the coconuts. With Sifa’s machete he cut them open and provided a drink and a meal in one for us both, shaping a spoon out of the hard surrounding shell. It was the most delicious coconut I have every consumed, but I suppose I had never been lucky enough to have one straight off the tree before. So once we had piled back into the van and it was  “ehmmm, cough” running smoothly again Sifa picked some more coconuts to feed the pigs they farm at their home and then we set off back. We chilled out back home for a couple of hours and waited for dinner to be cooked outside on the open fire, with coconuts used as tea-towels to pick up the hot pots. We very shortly after heard terrible news that one of the men who had helped us with the car in the farm fields and we had spoken to had died shortly after we left from “working too hard”. He was over 70 years old and still working the land in the heat of the Tongan sun and it was a bit of a shock to hear the death of someone after they had so recently seemed fit and well. I made a note of having and minute of silence in respect. For dinner we had a delicious chicken and cabbage dish in a broth with some breadfruit which I had never tried before and some minoke. It was delicious and I think Liam especially thought so because he had two bowls which everyone seemed to find great humour in. After dinner we were to head off back to town to go and look at the Heilala festivities apparently, but it seemed realistically we were probably only there so that Sifa could check his Facebook, so we both did so and then to make the most of our time in town Liam and I bought a round for John, Sifa, Noah and us. It turned out though that after we had purchased the shot’s the boy’s weren’t allowed in the club to drink them. I went downstairs and spoke to the bouncer who said that they had no I.D and thus they weren’t allowed in, so I argued for a little bit and said they were older than me and that they forgot it and could they at least drink it outside. The bouncer agreed as long as we were quick and got out of there straight afterwards as the police might come, but when I went back upstairs they insisted on checking with the bouncer again! This time they apparently they weren’t allowed in. inside because they were wearing sandals; I promptly stated that I was wearing sandals but apparently it’s acceptable for me because I am a tourist. Either way we had the shot’s and then we left, I think they just didn’t really want any locals in there at that point in time at least. After this we headed back home and were invited to join them at the Kava party. I can’t say why but I was so beyond exhausted at that time that I simply could not have gone so we decided to make the mission to bed. They were to cook us a pig in the morning but when we arose they were cooking something else, apparently the boys were too sick from drinking too much kava and had been throwing up and gotten home at 5am so they didn’t quite have two or three hours’ worth of energy to cook it for us, which was fine. So for breakfast we had some beef sausages with tomatoes sauce and white bread and onion in a true Aussie way and some onion and tea they had cooked up for us, we then took our last photos, had our last hugs and said our farewells before we were to board our flight for Melbourne.

Heilala Festival

It was the Heilala festival , specifically the block party. We went to that and it was pretty damn good. As much as we tried to have specifically Tongan food whilst we were there we did admittedly cave in and purchase a snow cone (which Liam has never tried before? Um what?) and some fairy floss. Prior to this we tried some coleslaw like substance with some BBQ pork and chicken as well as the traditional local vegetable the minoke. Now, for a pescatarian and a vegetarian it was a positively awful experience. The combination of guilt succumbing me and my body’s readjustment to the proteins resulted in me eating very little and feeling rather sick. My conscience is so conflicting in this regard. I don’t want to eat meat, but I just as strongly believe in eating local food (for it is a large aspect of culture) and I also think it is a lot better to eat it than to throw it away, but alas my stomach simply could not handle it Then and there I vowed that I wouldn’t be eating meat again. The next time I ate meat was the very next morning. But anyway, I suppose I should discuss the happenings of that night. There was music left right and centre covering the entire long strip of the street. There was modern western pop with traditional Tongan music in-between and even a pacific island cliché’ of Guns N’ Roses. I thought it would be a good idea to go to a bar and have a drink or two or three to get myself in the mood for the festivities. Upon arrival the owner of the bar offered us some liquor made by their company, and my God! It was coffee flavoured and amongst the nicest beverages I had ever consumed! I asked him what else he had and he listed off a reel of lemon, coffee, orange, gin, vodka, whiskey, and Sambuca! So naturally I insisted on trying all of them and finishing again with the best (being coffee) by this point I was pretty drunk! I was approached by a Tongan guy who worked at the pub and introduced me to his uncle (insuring I told him we were good friends). The owners kept insisting he departed from the bar and it seemed he was using us as an excuse to stay there. We had a dance, shared a cigarette and I found great humour in his attempts to hit on me despite Liam’s presence. “I like you” he said, “Is Liam angry?” he pursued. The dancing is crazy sexual in Tonga. They seem to be stuck in the 90’s and Jak was showing us a variety of ‘moves’ such as ‘ride the horse’. It was rather humorous. I might also mention the huge queer culture present in Tonga, with quite a few obviously man-woman roaming the streets. Anyway, after the drinks I fully intended on going to the massive tent area and partying it up, but I drunkenly ended up home.

The next morning we awoke with full intentions to go to the tourist café ‘friends’ but on the way I saw a run-down little restaurant full of local people and I just couldn’t resist the urge to be amongst them. We went in, and as per usual the only options were meat. One may expect in a tropical island that there would be a large amount of fresh fruits and vegetables, but the only fruits you can buy seem to be the standard apples and bananas and the only vegetables are root vegetables like minioke, taro, and yams. So I got three different types of food with minoke and Liam did the same. We shared the food, but my! Again we could nowhere near complete our meals, the Tongans eat a lot! On my plate there was pork wrapped in taro leaves and cooked in coconut milk as well as cabbage coleslaw like substance with pork and another meat dish which I do not recall clearly. Liam had a kind of curried fish, which was nice! But I have always been a bit cautious with fish so I couldn’t enjoy it to the best of my ability! He also had a spicy like curry and again another meat dish which I cannot recall!

We then went on our way to ‘friends’ café as intended. On the way we ran into a sailor from California and we invited him to join us. I had the most delectable iced coffee I have ever had, you could feel the texture of the beans, but it should be noted it was much more similar to a thick shake than the typical ice-coffee we drink at home. After this we hired a scooter and set of in a random direction, essentially hoping to run into something exciting. We stopped on the way to admire some tombs. They are incredibly decorative here with woven doilies and flowers and posters covering them. Some seem to be rather specific to the deceased tastes, covered in Heineken bottles or seashells. We were nearby to a village so we thought we’d take a wander. I enjoyed there patting a baby goat and untangling it from its ropes as well as playing soccer with the local children.

I guess it starts getting pretty crazy and exciting after this. We kept riding downwards towards the water’s edge. Upon arrival I declared that I would live peacefully there for the rest of my life. It was gorgeous, the local’s pigs were just drinking and eating in the water and the canoes rested upon the shore. It wasn’t your typical clear bright blue water and white beaches as expected but it was tranquil and beautiful in its own right. I was busy trying to catch the piglets and taking photos on the way when a local came up-to us and started chatting. Soon enough he invited us to his house to eat pig. Now as much as I really didn’t want to do so, it was an excuse to go into a local’s home and experience life there, so I couldn’t really refuse on those grounds. We intended on leaving the scooter by the roadside but Sifa insisted on pushing the scooter up the hill to his house. He walked along feeling very pleased with himself that he now had foreign friends in his village. We went to the house and were introduced to his many cousins, brothers, sister and uncle. It turns out that his parents were divorced and now deceased and that is why they lived with the uncle. He promptly jumped into the pig pen and after some squealing knocked it on the head and it was dead. He then gutted it, left it for a while to bleed out and then through the ass to the mouth put it on a spit to roast over the fire. For some hours his brother Noah turned the pig whilst Sifa took off its fur. I hate to admit, but watching the skin slowly change from pink to golden brown over the warm fire was ridiculously mesmerizing. We had a wander around whilst it was cooking, and saw the vegetable garden and the pig pen, had a chat to the village dogs, who were eagerly hoping to have some meat left over for themselves. Once the meat was cooked and they had enough photos taken, Sifa grabbed a few banana leaves to set the table and the meat was in a very much barbarian manner thrown onto the leaves and cut up with one large knife or broken with the hands and eaten without cutlery. His uncle was lovely enough to have walked to the shop and purchased us some salt and some water without our knowledge. We had with the meal cooked bananas and minoke also referred to as tapioca. I must admit, my guilt was wearing off by that point and the pig tasted absolutely delicious. After our meal we paid his uncle a modest amount of money for welcoming us into his home. He refused initially of course but we had already pre-decided to do so for a pig at the market could have made a good profit for the family and Sifa had commented prior that after we leave his uncle would get angry for killing the pig! His uncle also apologised profusely for the state of his house insisting that they are a ‘poor family’. I suppose it’s all comparative, their house was rather large although not nice, but the poor man did unexpectedly have a few extra children to care for. Also note-worthy is that he is the town police officer. One of the more fascinating things was that Sifa told us to lie to his uncle and say that we had met him on Facebook and he had invited us to com and stay in Tonga because his uncle would have been mad if we had just met him on the beach. I found this rather bizarre; I would suggest that the majority of the time in Australia the opposite would be a better story to suggest happened to your parents, although I’m pretty lucky. Mine don’t care either way.

After we had finished our meal Sifa suggested that we go in a van to town with the scooter in the back because it was dark, a little bit wet, a long journey and unsafe. We agreed because quite frankly we couldn’t really be bothered riding back anyway. Issues occurred though when they tried fitting it in the back with the greatest of difficulties. It was pretty hilarious until they smashed and broke the light on it. We decided to rent it out an extra day and get it fixed elsewhere instead of paying the $100 dollar deposit on the bike, for it would be a lot cheaper. So we drove off to town incredibly crammed, it was funny and typical of such as place and we all laughed at the discomfort of the situation. Once we got to town we dropped the scooter off at the guesthouse and then I expected that we would have a drink in one of the bars in town. It turned out however that they had brought along their own bottles of something and we pulled up at the ferry terminal to consume them. It should be mentioned that on our first night of arrival we dropped some other tourists off there and there was a group of loitering teenagers about, now I understand what they were doing there. The ferry terminal, undercover seems to be the Franklin Square of Nuku’alofa (the Capital city, by the way).

So the intention to have one drink was soon erased when we decided to have a few more. Noah kept topping me off and I suppose I recognized my drunkenness when I found ridiculous hilarity in the fact that Liam had never before gone fishing, actually we all did. I was dancing with Noah whilst now becoming seemingly cliché’ of the place Sifa whispered in my ear “I like you” and “Is Liam angry”, my response of course being “he knows no rage”, which is not untrue. With that occurring the ‘other guy’, I have forgotten his name was rubbing my leg, so I guess I figured I was in a bit of trouble but I was just a bit too trashed to do anything about it. Plus, it was still fun despite their perhaps not so positive intentions. I don’t actually remember being bundled into the van, and I only got reminded of stopping at the shop the next morning when I said “what am I going to do without cigarettes” as in Tonga, on a Sunday, due to the it being a highly Christian nation there is not a single shop open! It seems I actually had a pack which was great, but anyway…at the shop I apparently got out of the car and ran off to pee behind a big crate and I must have been pretty drunk, as was Sifa’s sister because we peed side by side and laughed about it. It was pretty degrading to remember it the next morning. So yes, after this we somehow ended up at Sifas sister’s boyfriend’s house (I think) so that he could take a shower. We were only to be there for twenty minutes and I was feeling pretty sick and desperate to get back to the guesthouse at that point. They took me into a bedroom and told me to sleep, but I didn’t want to, I did however throw up pig all over the floor. I recall Liam mentioning something about the pieces of pig but when I went to look all I could see was a huge blur. I stumbled outside at some point and then again proceeded to throw up and fair few times. I find it pretty fascinating that when I am drunk I seem to believe in God. I was told that I repeatedly cried out “God help me”. I would have hospitalised myself at home, but it’s Tonga so I didn’t expect them to say or do much other than shake their head at me for being a stupid tourist. I have never been that drunk.  At everyone’s touch I said “go away” because it made me feel absolutely shocking, although I admittedly succumbed to some of Noah’s ‘moves’ and one point. I remember having a cigarette shoved in my mouth and the next thing that happened I woke up wondering where the hell we were and wondering why we were there. I decided we should leave so we weren’t forced to pay a large amount, and that I’d rather leave a bit of money on the table. Upon leaving though we awakened Sifas sister by accident and I still drunk stumbled along following her back to our guesthouse where after throwing up again a few times I passed out until afternoon, I was way too seedy for church that morning! One I arose again we decided to go for a ride. Perhaps a little drunk still and feeling pretty cheeky I stated that I was going to ride the scooter and for the first time ever used one singing out as I drove off “I’m going to do a blockie”. So yes, I fully intended on doing a blockie but got pretty damn lost on the way and ended up being gone and good 20 minutes at least and I only nearly crashed once until I remembered where the breaks were and what their use was! I pulled back up the guest house and saw Liam wandering back in the distance, he was just grateful that I was lost, rather than dead. Anyway, after that short journey I declared that I didn’t really want to go anywhere at all; it made me feel pretty sick both from drunkenness and fear I suppose, so again I slept of the alcohol poisoning. After I awoke the second time we enjoyed some more Tongan food with locals, this time it was beef wrapped in taro leaves and coconut milk as well as a similar lamb variety and taro and minoke. The taro and beef were pretty damn good! After this we decided to set off to have a look at the royal palace. We figured that it would be all lit up and night time. As we walked out the door we were informed that as a part of the Heilala festival there was a Christian choir concert on, so we thought we’d check that out too.

There was a variety of different choirs from a variety of different Christian organizations and yes some of the singing was absolutely incredible and the dancing was no doubt entertaining, however I could only listen to God speak for so long. “That’s not what you said last night” Liam chuckled. It kind of saddens me that the missionaries have taken away peoples culture, but they still do retain a fair bit, more so than a lot of pacific islands perhaps as they have never been colonised. Mostly being their dress and food. After this we walked to the royal palace. Upon initial sight we were convinced that it was a rather large home instead of the palace, but the crowns on the gate suggested otherwise. As we walked passed there was a man on the inner palace walls standing in the shadows of the trees and he shyly said hello, now I could be completely wrong but he looked like the man in the pictures of the king that we had seen and I wouldn’t expect they would hire a gardener at that time of the evening, and the security was already standing place outside. We could have well said hello to the king, he is known for his modesty and I wish I had asked the guy! We took some photos, loitered around there for a while and then head back home to spend the rest of the evening patting a local pregnant cat, boiling up some water and drinking cups of tea.

Church

Yesterday we didn’t really do anything much because I wasn’t feeling that well, so the day was still productively spent doing some homework and watching travel documentaries, we had some garlic and onion chicken was cassava (another root vegetable) for dinner. Today we arose early so we could go to church, I enjoyed dressing up in traditional Tongan formal wear for the occasion which included the weaved plant skirt and the long top and sarong. Church was totally bizarre, initially I gathered the impression that it was more modern version of our churches back home, there was no drinking of the blood and body of Christ but there were still songs and donations made. The major difference was that they had a band and the singing was a lot more upbeat, everyone was dancing and singing and they had the lyrics up on a projector so we could even sing the lyrics in Tongan. The church was founded by a man from Zimbabwe so it combined the ‘African’ style with seemingly American influences. One man went into a seizure like state from the ‘love of God’ which is something I have only really seen in the documentaries about church life in America. Two people were trying to hold him up and he eventually fell and hit a table and pushed it aside. We had corned beef for lunch shortly after which is apparently a favoured dish of the Tongans. I know we sell it at home but I had still never had it before, it was cooked with garlic and onion again, soy sauce, mixed vegetables and vercemilli noodles. It seems I’ll be a master of cooking Tongan food in no time! Mana had slept all day because he had a big night at the Kava party again and later in the evening we were on a rush to Macuonga to drop of a package and he preferred to eat, he asked who was driving and I promptly took the keys despite being unaware that he was not joking! The ride was pretty scary, the visibility was minimal as the street lights are scarce here and there were small children and local street dogs running all over the road, I was also in a diesel car which I had never driven, it was a huge van, and it was a manual which I haven’t driven in a while. There were also two Tongans, i.e., Mana and his wife Isobel bickering the whole way minus the occasional comments about how I shouldn’t hit someone or I’ll go to jail, hah! So once we got to the destination, Mana left his wife there after their argument and told her to make her own way home! I was shocked I tell you! They were only bickering about whether to turn the inside car light on or not because she had lost something! Afterwards the evening was just spent packing and cleaning dishes, we’re in our last few days here!

Rainy Day

Today we just went to the internet café’ and caught up with some people online and finished off my postcards and sent them off, I also inquired about a few jobs, but I think I have left it a little too last minute and I am technically supposed to be at university so I might leave that idea for now. We also went to the market and did some basic shopping for vegetables; fruit, etc. as well as a few souvenirs. When we got back we ate dinner with Mana and his wife. She cooked a Tongan curry with onion, garlic and curry powder with a bit of oil and rice. The food here is very simple but the meat was tender and delicious. It should be noted that the bananas here are so soft and sweet, they are much smaller but much nicer that the bananas we have access to at home! I think I’ll be living off them from now on! I dared Liam to pick up a huntsman today; it was pretty funny to watch him so squeamish. It’s so amazing human’s fear of spiders even if they won’t really hurt you or kill you. The weather was shocking, it rained all day!

Whales in Tonga

Early in the morning we arose so that we could take our bags to friend’s café to hold them for us whilst we went to swim with the whales. We checked out of Selas Guesthouse in order to stay at a place called ‘Toni’s’ which was cheaper. After walking to ‘deep blue’ our boat had been cancelled because of the weather, so we headed back to friends, used the internet for a little bit and then head off in a taxi to Toni’s, initially we were dropped off at the wrong place called ‘Misa’s’ Guesthouse, we disputed but the taxi driver insisted so we had to order another taxi which after taking us a fair way away from the city centre we asked to turn around and take us to Misa’s because it was a lot closer to town.  There was an adorable puppy there and we only had to pay a few dollars extra so we stayed there a night. We had a fairly simple day at the market trying on different traditional clothing at the market and purchasing a few gifts and souvenirs and then in the evening we met up with our friends Sifa, Noah, and John and went to the model pageant and traditional dancing at the Heilala festival with them and just walked and talked around the city. The next day we arose early again to go whale watching, this time was more successful, we were out looking for the whales for about four hours and I like most of the people on the boat napped, kudos to Liam because he was sea sick and throwing up the majority of the journey but didn’t insist on us turning back, so that was good! We saw two whales and they were pregnant, if you’ve ever heard someone say that we spend so much time behind the camera that we miss most of what’s happening, then that was the situation. The whales weren’t around for long and I kind of which that I had been more observational, but I did see them and they were definitely beautiful! Considering we weren’t allowed to swim with them because they were pregnant and moving about we were instead taken to a reef where for some amount of time we swam around looking at the fish! It was Liam’s first snorkelling experience! It was almost meditational, I felt like a big fish in a big fish tank and the different colours swarming beneath me was so mesmerizing. I could be wrong but I think it was the parrot fish I saw, one with orange purple and green colours and the other with green and blue, there were also many little electric blue fish, stripy black and white ones and numerous black fish! I could have stayed there for hours if we weren’t called in by the people on the boat. After we jumped back on board we headed off to a nearby island to eat our lunch, it was pretty shocking weather by that point but it was definitely the cliché’ palm trees, white sands and pale blue water that everyone images when they think of the pacific. Luckily despite the wind and the rain some locals had just left the island and left us a nice tent set up there, so we were fairly sheltered at least for some part. We then, after our lunch and some discussion head off back on the boat to shore in some pretty cold and windy weather! We were surprised to see upon arrival on land that our friend Mana was there waiting for us and was going to take us shopping and then back to his house to use his cooking utensils, before I knew it I was cooking a feast for him, his wife and for Liam. After this he took us to a Kava party which was a very valuable experience indeed! As a woman at the party it was my role to serve the men the drinks, there was only about 5 women there serving about 100 men. The kava is a type of soft drug that traditionally only men drink. It is a root plant that tastes a looks like mud. It was surprisingly difficult to serve the Kava and I constantly had men assisting me to improve my technique. It was served in a big wooden carved bowl and I had to stir it in a particular fashion. Every-time I stirred the kava all the men in my circle had to drink. Although the women shouldn’t drink the Kava the men in my circle insisted I did because I am a palangi so I don’t think it matters as much if tradition is broken. The men were ‘paying’ for the women and throwing money into their circle to raise money for the church. The circle that raised the most money won a prize of food. We were all sitting knees cross in a hut but unfortunately at about 11.30pm I simply couldn’t stay awake as I was rather exhausted from a long day swimming. Mana dropped us off at our guesthouse and said he would pick us up the next morning. It should be noted that the guesthouse is run by a Chinese man and earlier that day Mana had an argument with him saying that he was taking us away from there because it was a filthy Chinese place, which was slightly awkward for us. Mana was picking us up to take us to his home, where we will be living for a while until we move in with Sifa. The rest of the afternoon was relaxing, we just did simple things like write postcards and writing this blog and doing our washing, there is not a lot we can do as the weather has been very bad. Mana’s wife made us some simple but delicious Tongan chicken with vegetables and a root vegetable which I don’t recall the name of! But it was similar to minioke.Bottom of Form

Scooters

So, what I have gathered from today is that we are complete assholes and Tongan people are amazing. Liam awoke me this morning so that we could go renew the scooter so we could get it fixed and get an iced coffee on the way. I ended up just babbling some nonsense about how I had a scooter accident at MacDonald’s but it was okay because they gave me a Macintosh pro, needless to say Liam let me carry on with my bizarre dreams and went and renewed the license himself. Upon his return I was ready to arise and we set off together to go and get the mirror fixed. It was a long and arduous process. Generally at home the mechanic would simply suggest that we purchase a new piece, but here with a combination of creating new parts from scrap metal and proxy glue they quite solidly re-stuck on the mirror. The only problem of course was the fact that the glue dried white, so sneakily we went to the Chinese shop, bought some kids textas and coloured it in black. It was a masterpiece! Without close analysis one could never guess that we had coloured the bloody thing in! We went off for a drive after this hoping to head down the entire coast, which has been our plan for some days! Alas, we didn’t get far before we booked a swim with the whales (something we definitely had no intention of missing out on) and then the scooter started being dodgy so we intended on taking it back! First thing first though we wanted to stop of at the guesthouse and get my bank card so I could activate it, as we went to leave and return the scooter it stopped working though! We got on the phone to the guy who rented it out to us and he managed to get it working well enough for a very dodgy drive back to his garage! He didn’t notice the mirror (yet) though, so that’s always an added bonus! We are changing accommodation tomorrow half because it’s cheaper and half because we don’t want him to come and find us in search of that $200 deposit back! We did fix the mirror though…so we aren’t that bad! It was very time consuming, but admittedly we did only take this method in order to save some money! After this we had some dinner at ‘friends’ café. Liam let me chose his dinner, so he had a toasted sandwich with Dijon mustard, tomato, cheese and onion and I had a toasted sandwich with asparagus, cheese and chutney! We also shared a fruit salad and I had a drink of guava juice and he had mango. I might also mention that for lunch I had salad and garlic bread with an iced-mocha and he had fish and chips! I know, it’s not particularly exciting but that guava juice was goddamn incredible! After we had finished our dinner I went to the bathroom and gave Liam that time to decide something exciting to do. I came back, and alas he had not decided on anything so I walked off, made a quick phone call to a tattoo artist, convinced him to open and then suggested the idea to Liam. He was down, so with the call of the taxi we were very shortly off! I made a pretty rapid decision with the assistance of the taxi driver, tattoo artist and Liam to get written on my arm, ‘turn your fear into faith’ in Tongan with a small design underneath, I think its pretty G! And not really regrettable considering the circumstances of the piece being done. I naturally went first and felt like a celebrity with the amount of pictures being taken of me! And I am fairly happy with my design, until I saw Liam’s which is just goddam brilliant! But anyway, that quote is close to my heart and a good memory goes with it! In the time there we had some pretty decent conversations with the guys. The taxi driver stayed and watched for the majority of the time! After the time spent there the taxi driver only charged us $10 dollars which we thought was incredibly sweet, in exchange for spending a day experiencing further Tongan food, which of course we happily accepted. Tongan people are wonderful; Captain Cook named it the friendly islands for a bloody good reason!

My first impressions of Tonga

I went to university on the Wednesday to finish my tutorial sign ups and go to my lecture. It was completely not worth it, considering the lecturer is not good, not nice and is not willing to let it slide that I’m spending two weeks in Tonga instead of chilling with her in the classroom. We’re pretty blessed, everything is accessible online so I do not know what the problem is! I hadn’t packed yet, despite the fact that we were leaving a few hours later, so I raced home to pack my bags. Mum and I met Liam and his family at their house, we did some final bag checks and then we went to the airport. Our flight got delayed for an hour or so, but at least I had time to do some of my uni work in the airport. The flight was short and we finally arrived At India’s house at about 10pm!  Once we arrived there we did a lot of catching up with a lot of drinks inbetween and then after ‘putting on our faces’ headed to the Melbourne CBD to do some partying. We danced and drank like crazy at this one bar and stayed out til’ about four in the morning! It was a good night, we headed back to India’s where I signed her passport applications as her guarantor and discussed her French boyfriend Stefan’s travels throughout Australia and New Zealand, it was rather multi-cultural is it was! and I knew I was amongst the loveliest like-minded people! That morning we had to get up at 7am to get our flight to Tonga! It was good that we woke up drunk rather than hungover, we stumbled out of bed, grabbed and packed up our bags and gave India a warm hug thanking her for her hospitality (thank you!!). Our first flight was to Sydney; upon arrival there our flight was once again delayed, so whilst Liam fell asleep in the airport I enjoyed a few too many games of angry birds when I should have been studying! We boarded the flight, and it seemed to go on forever, although I was not feeling impatient it definitely seemed more than four hours. I suppose that was due to the falling in and out of sleep! I did some studying on the plane also! Once we arrived I was greatly surprised by the huge amount of local onlookers as we walked out the gates as well as how placidly the customs officials dealt with the food etc., we had in our bag! I had a cigarette, and then was roused by a taxi driver. When you think taxi, think that there were people in there we had never met and it was simply a car. It was a nice enough drive, although exhaustion was ever-present! We simply asked the ‘taxi’ driver where a cheap place to stay was and he dropped us off at a guest house for approximately 7 dollars each a night, 10 minutes from the centre of town. We went for a brief walk to try and discover both the opening hours of the shops here as well as the expected cost of food etc., we found that everything is almost exactly half of what it is in Australia – making for easy conversion!  We didn’t see much on that walk because we didn’t really know where to go but we were surrounded by a pack of wild dogs going crazy which makes for a good time! I have my rabies shots, so it’s all good… I don’t know about Liam though… :/.  We also saw a nice church with fascinating architecture. The guesthouse was nice, simple and cheap! I think we had a fairly good sleep too which was nice! In the morning we spoke to some ‘once’ locals who now live in Brisbane, they told us how to get to the market. Speaking of locals, they are all absolutely massive but so sweet at heart. I really like the people here! At the market we experienced a variety of flavours, colours, and sounds. The Tonga traditional music played in the background as we browsed the hand weaved clothing on offer and traditional sarongs whilst we pondered the fruits and foods to have for our breakfast! I ended up settling for a coconut paddy and a donut. Again one must consider that despite the names of the cuisine being similar they have their own twist to the ingredients and cooking style, with seemingly much fresher produce and natural ingredients! Liam had a pineapple cake of form, but my lord that coconut paddy was incredible! The flavours were something I have never before tasted but my senses were enlightened by the surprise of the beautiful combination of tastes and smells. The rest of the day was spent gathering our surroundings, lounging by the beachside and inquiring about scooter hire and swimming with the whales. Hello Tonga!