Arriving in the Kingdom!
Getting here was wonderfully easy. The flight out of Suva wasn't cancelled last-minute (unlike some others on the same day!) and I had the slightly unusual experience of sharing a table for coffee with the man who turned out to be my pilot at the only cafe in the aiprort.
We came in very early- nearly an hour before we were scheduled- but luckily the guy who owns my hostel noticed and was still there to pick me up from the airport. The place I'm staying is really nice, and convient for both the hospital and the centre of town, but the biggest downside is that I'm the only one here at the moment. I'd sort of thought that travelling solo wouldn't be too much of an issue because I'd meet other people at my accomodation etc. but there's no one else arriving till the 6th, so I'm going to have to get very used to my own company!
After getting unpacked, the owner, Will, took me into one of the popular bars where a lot of expats go, for a couple of drinks, and I met up with some of the other medical students who are here at the moment. There's eight others (two I know from Cambridge) and most of whom are here a little bit longer, but not quite as long as me. They seem like a nice group, if a little bit done with Tonga at this stage!
It ended up being quite a big night- we had several rounds of drinks at the bar, and then a few more at another, before heading to a Tongan club. That was quite an experience, I can tell you! Tongan is a very Christian, conservative place most of the time, but here there were women dancing on all fours with their bottoms stuck up and waggling in the air. We didn't end up staying long.
After the excitement of last night (!) I took it a bit easier today, and got some basic chores done before everything shuts down tomorrow (it's illegal for most people to work on a Sunday here). I walked into town and explored a little- not too difficult as most things are on one straight road!- before grabbing some french toast at the popular 'Friends Cafe'. There were an awful lot of young white girls around my age in there, but I'm not sure what they're all doing- are they volunteering or are they tourists? Either way, I wish some of them were staying at my hostel!
I noticed on my way into town that oddly, people seemed to notice me more and more the further away from the hostel I got, which I thought was a bit strange given that the number of palangi (foreigners) was much higher in town than anywhere else. It was only later that I realised my hair had been dark and wet when I left the house, but as the morning went on it had dried in the sun to its usual light colour!
After food it was mainly boring stuff to be done- changing some money, setting up a data sim for my phone, buying in food, and then a wander home. I've spent most of the afternoon reading in the garden, as there's a good pile of donated books here (phew!).
I'm not sure what to make of Tonga yet. It's a very pretty place (much more modern and clean-looking than Fiji) and the very centre of town is probably closest to somewhere in the states in terms of appearance and seems very safe. I'm still not sure about getting into a taxi solo to suss out the sites though, so we'll have to see what I end up doing! My main grumble is with the midges- I've been here two days-ish now, and have only had my legs in shorts for a few short hours, and yet I've already been bitten to pieces even with despite a liberal coating of DEET!
We came in very early- nearly an hour before we were scheduled- but luckily the guy who owns my hostel noticed and was still there to pick me up from the airport. The place I'm staying is really nice, and convient for both the hospital and the centre of town, but the biggest downside is that I'm the only one here at the moment. I'd sort of thought that travelling solo wouldn't be too much of an issue because I'd meet other people at my accomodation etc. but there's no one else arriving till the 6th, so I'm going to have to get very used to my own company!
After getting unpacked, the owner, Will, took me into one of the popular bars where a lot of expats go, for a couple of drinks, and I met up with some of the other medical students who are here at the moment. There's eight others (two I know from Cambridge) and most of whom are here a little bit longer, but not quite as long as me. They seem like a nice group, if a little bit done with Tonga at this stage!
It ended up being quite a big night- we had several rounds of drinks at the bar, and then a few more at another, before heading to a Tongan club. That was quite an experience, I can tell you! Tongan is a very Christian, conservative place most of the time, but here there were women dancing on all fours with their bottoms stuck up and waggling in the air. We didn't end up staying long.
After the excitement of last night (!) I took it a bit easier today, and got some basic chores done before everything shuts down tomorrow (it's illegal for most people to work on a Sunday here). I walked into town and explored a little- not too difficult as most things are on one straight road!- before grabbing some french toast at the popular 'Friends Cafe'. There were an awful lot of young white girls around my age in there, but I'm not sure what they're all doing- are they volunteering or are they tourists? Either way, I wish some of them were staying at my hostel!
I noticed on my way into town that oddly, people seemed to notice me more and more the further away from the hostel I got, which I thought was a bit strange given that the number of palangi (foreigners) was much higher in town than anywhere else. It was only later that I realised my hair had been dark and wet when I left the house, but as the morning went on it had dried in the sun to its usual light colour!
After food it was mainly boring stuff to be done- changing some money, setting up a data sim for my phone, buying in food, and then a wander home. I've spent most of the afternoon reading in the garden, as there's a good pile of donated books here (phew!).
I'm not sure what to make of Tonga yet. It's a very pretty place (much more modern and clean-looking than Fiji) and the very centre of town is probably closest to somewhere in the states in terms of appearance and seems very safe. I'm still not sure about getting into a taxi solo to suss out the sites though, so we'll have to see what I end up doing! My main grumble is with the midges- I've been here two days-ish now, and have only had my legs in shorts for a few short hours, and yet I've already been bitten to pieces even with despite a liberal coating of DEET!
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