Intro

After years of living in Asia, I finally had the time & means to explore some new places. I selected the South Pacific because the climate was similar to Southeast Asia and I thought I might find something there that was missing in Asia.

Part of the plan was to get away from too much alcohol and good food for three months and to hopefully shed a few pounds. Because of this, you won't see many comments about the lobster at Trader Jacks, or the all-you-can-eat buffet at some five star resort.

COMMON FACTORS TO THE AREA

1. Virtually all the places I stayed in the South Pacific had free coffee, tea, sugar, etc in the rooms along with a device for heating water.

2. McDonald's was present in most countries, but the menu varied from the McFeast in Tahiti to the huge Double Quarter pounder and monster fries of American Samoa.

3. In most places religion plays a major role in the work week. Most businesses are closes on Sunday. This was especially true in Tonga (where about 90% of the population attends Sunday mass), Samoa, and American Samoa.

4. Almost all the residents in the South Pacific region are aware of the environment and take steps to protect it for future generations.

5. There are no squatters or shanty towns in any of the countries. This is a pleasant change from Asia.

CEMETERIES/BURIAL

I found the handling of burial to be so different than what I was used to that I found it worthy of mentioning. In most of the countries that I visited the graves were marked by mounds of sand decorated with shiny or colorful objects (from beer bottles to plastic flowers). The more affluent or important individuals had cement or cut stone monuments. The bigger the monument the more important the individuals.	16th century burial mound on Tonga

TONGA: The Tongan's consider the land by the sea, that American's value so much, to be almost worthless because you can't grow crops there. So, they use it for cemeteries. Most cemeteries contained one family group and it wasn't uncommon to see 6-8 cemeteries on a short stretch of beach.
SAMOA & AMERICAN SAMOA: It was very common here to see grave sites in front or on the side of the house. It was surprising to me to see kids playing on these graves as well as people napping on them on a hot afternoon, or even using them to hang laundry.

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS/THOUGHTS: Although I enjoyed seeing new places, I found the South Pacific to be a let down when compared to the Asia/Pacific Rim.

The beaches were one of the biggest disappointments. Although you will see some great scenic photos, most beaches were shallow beaches with too much coral or stone fish to make swimming practical or enjoyable.
Snorkeling was also a disappointment. Although the islands have wide varieties of coral, shells and tropical fish, underwater visibility was marginal to terrible (6-10 feet) due to high silt concentrations inside barrier reefs that surrounded all major tourist islands. In places like American Samoa where there was no solid barrier reef, the surf made snorkeling impossible.
Beautiful Island Girls! Forget the movies and postcard propaganda. I saw very few cute island girls anywhere. There are more stunners in any one nightclub in Angles City, Bangkok, or Pattaya than in most countries in the South Pacific. The strange thing was that the one island where I didn't expect to see anything but "Big Mommas" was Samoa and instead I thought they had the highest percentage of cute girls.
Night Life (as I know it in Asia) was virtually non-existant. Except for a few "drinking bars" like Trader Jacks on Rarotonga there was nothing like the nightclubs of Asia.
Dining Out ranged from world class (expensive) restaurants to small cafes with good to marginal chow. I cooked most of my meals on the trip, but have included menus from many popular restaurants so you can see what is available.
Hotels were good, but priced two to ten times more than equivalent hotels at Asian beach resorts throughout Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, or Indonesia.