The double title is no typo, but it does shed some light on the confusion of the multiple Samoas — namely “Samoa” and “American Samoa.” As you know, we last saw our heroes on American Samoa, or as it is sometimes known — Eastern Samoa. “Western” Samoa would refer to . . .Samoa. You follow? They are two different countries. Now, you may ask, but why are they two different countries? They both share the Samoan language, culture, and are only separated by a short thirty minute flight, yes? Correct. But like most things that don’t make much sense in our modern world, we can trace the roots back to colonialism and a treaty made with Germany in 1899 when they and the United States wanted to start claiming things as their own to be like Britain and France. Western Samoa was part of Germany’s expansion and the United States got Eastern Samoa. It would appear that Samoa itself did not have much say in all this.
Above was the view from our room when we woke up this morning. Yes, the room is a bit shabby, and sure we were greeted by cockroaches, but that’s not a bad view from a dump all things considered. That leads me to the next part of this insightful essay — why do people think Samoa turned about better than American Samoa? Isn’t mighty USA pumping in lots of money to make American Samoa great again?
One — yes, but not as much as other pacific islands like Palau. Second, American Samoa is actually less entwined with the rest of the United States than Puerto Rico or the Northern Marianas and Guam. American Samoans are not American citizens. It is ostensibly an unincorporated territory which runs itself and frankly has very little to do with the U.S. With that being said, American Samoans have the highest rate of enlistments in the U.S. military of any U.S. state or territory . . .or unincorporated territory. Oh! It’s because they can become citizens through military service, right? Wrong. It doesn’t fast-track their citizenship. They could possibly be sent by the U.S. President to die in a war zone while also having zero say as to who that president is. That doesn’t seem . . .right.
In any event, we went to the visitor’s center for the National Park of American Samoa. Yes, it is run by the U.S. national parks service . . .or what’s left of it. Thanks, Trump. We also passed a U.S. post office enroute to the visitor’s center. Are you confused? I am. You see, you could hypothetically fly all the way to Guam or Saipan with just a driver’s license. You need a passport for American Samoa. It is, its own thing. The visitor’s center was quite small, by the way, but provided a bit of insight into the history of Samoa (or American Samoa or also Eastern Samoa or maybe AmSam) as well as other interesting flora and fauna one might expect to find in this region. The national park exists in part to protect the fruit bats, some of which we saw flying around during the day near our hotel, and which the internet tells me is okay as these are their normal hours of operation.
The weather was quite stifling and the heat was slowing us down a bit, so we decided to try our luck with a local taxi rather than the 25 minute walk back toward Sadie’s. American Samoa also has normal-ish taxis that operate like one would expect, but they also have these old converted bus things that carry multiple people at a time. I would call it a chicken bus, but apparently that terminology only refers to such modes of transit in Guatemala or parts of Central America. Either way, we tracked one down, climbed on board, and for a very modest sum of $1 were deposited back by our hotel in no time. We had lunch at the Goat Island café, which is part of Sadie’s and evidently one of the best restaurants on the island. I had Katsu chicken and a local-ish beer (it was from the other Samoa).
Even though we had planned on being closer to the airport and getting out of here sooner rather than later, I felt the day was not the total loss we envisioned, and we enjoyed looking out at the nice scenery of Eastern American Samoa as the sun enhanced the vibrancy of the many shades of blues and greens. We eventually arranged for a regular type taxi to pick us up and take us to another hotel for the night — one closer to the airport named the Tradewinds. It took us about 30 minutes as we had to go to the western district of American Samoa and there was traffic if you can believe it.
The Tradewinds did not share the same sweeping views as Sadie’s (pictured above), but had the outward appearance of a more put-together hotel while simultaneously also looking a bit tired. American Samoa doesn’t really have much infrastructure set up for tourism like its western neighbor. Their primary export is canned tuna. Furthermore, there is apparently an issue with stray dogs on American Samoa, though maybe a bit overstated. Many (including a nice Samoan woman waiting on standby with us for the flight yesterday) suggested carrying stones or sticks to protect oneself from the aggressive ones. They are evidently very rambunctious at night and can get bitey. We saw some while walking, but they tended to at least mind their own business during the day and I’ve definitely seen more strays in places like Peru or even Santorini.
We dined at the hotel’s Equator restaurant, where we had fish and chips and Nicole went all in on side dishes. There were four dinner rolls, a bowl of rice, and some boiled bananas which incidentally tasted like potatoes.
But tomorrow we will see with our own eyes if what they all say is true about the other Samoa being more polished than its not quite American neighbor. Unfortunately, I just received an email stating that our flight has been delayed 90 minutes. It is on a DeHavilland DHC-6 Twin Otter, which is a rather small aircraft, but we will cross 24 time zones in it. Samoa is also on the other side of the dateline from American Samoa. Thusly, when we do eventually arrive, we will fast-forward an entire 24 hours within the span of a 35 minute flight and won’t have to book a hotel for March 29th at all.
passports & pepto bismol 