Vanuatu

Vanuatu

This year started on a good note. Past 3 years I did not travel as much as I normally do. I have been to few places in the past 2 years but not many new countries. Always new cities but same countries in Europe. But this year I travelled to a small new country called Vanuatu. This is my 42^nd country. The new year started good, and I am hopeful that this year I will visit a few new countries.  I feel lucky to have this opportunity to travel around the world.

I never heard the name of this country before, but my sister suggested me to travel there during my stay in Australia. I agreed immediately and started searching for this country. Vanuatu is a South Pacific Ocean nation made up of roughly 83 islands. It is a beautiful small island country. Their currency is called Vatu. The country is not very chip for the tourists, and it is always better to have cash with you when you go around.

I never saw in any country such a happy and smiling immigration officer as in Vanuatu airport. When we landed there and went through immigration, the officer smiled at us and asked about us and wished us a happy stay in his country. This one thing we experienced during our stay is that everyone is very thankful to the tourists and says often that they are thankful to us for choosing their country as a tourist destination.

People are very relaxed and always ready to help and smiling. Most of the population is Melanesian and some Polynesian. There are More than 100 local Melanesian languages and dialects are spoken; Bislama, an English-based Melanesian pidgin, is the national language and, along with English and French, is one of three official languages. They also write in a broken English e.g. True is written as Tru. Or belong is written as blong.

The main attraction for me was to go to the Tanna Volcano Day trip but unfortunately all the trips during my stay were full and I could not go there. I was very disappointed. But this means I will go there again who knows. I was then in the main city called port vila during my visit to Vanuatu. I was still able to enjoy it there. Did a few good day trips and the rest of the time just relaxed in our resort.

One day I went to 83 island distilleries for Rum tasting. The interesting thing about this rum is that it is made from sugarcane. Normally rum is made from molasses but in Vanuatu distillery they make it from locally produced sugarcane. This way the local farmers get some money. This distillery is new, only 6 years old and small. Currently they supply the rum to all the hotels and resorts on the island but soon they will export it to Australia and New Zealand too. I got to taste 6 different rums. The sugar cane rum was very smooth. In the rum production area, there was always this sweet smell of sugarcane which was very similar to the jaggary we use in India. Also, this smell made me nostalgic and took me back to the old days in Pune where we used to drink this sugarcane juice very often.

The lady who gave me the tour was very nice and friendly. Luckily, I was the only one on that day for the tour, so it was like my private tour.

We also did the bush walking tour with the tour company Vanuatu Ecotours. This was the best tour. The walk was very easy and informative. Our guide took us through pure nature, showed us different trees and fruits and took us to the house of the village chief. This chief was very nice and generous. He gave us the taste of the fresh fruits from his trees. Showed us how they really live ecofriendly. He told us to become a chief you should have many trees, pigs and chickens because if local people come to you asking for help you should be able to give them something. His garden, well it’s much bigger than the garden, was full of fruit trees and vegetables, chickens, and pigs.

One day we also did a trip to see the culture and the traditional ways the people follow in small villages or in some tribes. One can also do many day trips to nearby islands where you can go snorkeling, kayaking, or just walking on the sandy beach.

The island people are very relaxed, and they are not very rich, but they are happy and enjoying their nature and ecofriendly, sustainable lifestyle. Thanx to my sister I was able to travel to this beautiful country this year.