Still setting on the deck, and having just ordered dinner we’ve made it to Wednesday! This day was uneventful, I didn’t do much of anything at all! To be fair, it was drizzling most of the day so it wasn’t the nicest weather to be out and about. I really don’t think I did much. I slept, probably wasted time on my iPad, tried to make plans for activities I wanted to do for the rest of the week. I think I had coffee in my room. For lunch I had the lettuce, chicken and mayo sandwich. It was nice, it was a sandwich. In the evening I started my cocktail tour with a Pina Colada – it was good! I’d had normal fish and chips the night before, so I thought I’d have the grilled fish and chips at the pool bar. I wasn’t disappointed.
Wow, what an uneventful day. However it does give rise to a dilemma I have, especially with holidays on the shorter side. On one hand, I’m in another country, I flew 7 hours to get here, I want to explore, go about and do things. The other hand, I’ve just come of an exhausting camp, the few weeks before that were also exhausting, I want to eat, sleep, read and watch mindless TV shows. Yes I can do that at home. But it’s not as relaxing, it’s not away, it’s not the same. I don’t have a solution, but it is a tension I feel.
Dinner has arrived and I’m back in my room, so let’s make this a short post. No pictures sorry, but I promise the ones in the days to come are pretty good. Let’s see if I manage to pick the blog up again after I’ve eaten. Then again it might be a good airport / plan activity tomorrow…
It’s now Saturday, so I haven’t done a great job of doing any updates for most of the trip. In fact I’ve spend a surprisingly and refreshingly small amount of time in front of my computer. I have watched some TV shows on my iPad, but I’m pretty sure that counts as relaxation.
Let’s go back to Tuesday. Just before my flight was due to board I found an ATM and then got ripped off by the currency exchange people – I got VT6k for just under $100. By comparison the xe rate would have be at about VT8500. I guess that’s why the currency conversion place didn’t charge fees! I know the airport is a bad place to get currency (at least exchange rate wise), but the lead up to this trip was pretty rushed and I felt it would be prudent to have some cash. Anyhow, we boarded, not business this time, but I can’t complain about 4C with the whole 3 seats on my side to myself! I elected for no food and coffee. But I think I still dosed for a decent portion of the trip. I watched some of the Taylor Swift documentary but a lot of it’s a blur.
Immigration was quick and easy – Vanuatu is one of the countries that still does stamps, so I actually have a stamp in my passport now! As promised, the driver was waiting with a sign with my name on it. It was a slightly shorter drive that I thought, it took less than 15 minutes to get to the hotel. Meaning all said and done I was at the hotel pretty close to 1pm from memory. My room was ready which was nice. It gave me time to get in, get unpacked (I actually used the draws, which I almost never do) and rest for a moment before I dialled in for our Camping Ground review meeting.
The accommodation is nice. As I’m typing this, I’m sitting out on the back deck, looking over the ocean and sipping on a Pacific Island Ice Tea, I’m thankful for the blessings. I think I got the lowest quality room, in terms of view and amenities but it’s more than adequate for what I need. I liked the idea of having a kitchenette, but in hindsight I’ve used the kettle and the fridge – many hotels have these. I like the location, despite the fact that is is a bit out of Port Vila itself. I love the convenience of the Pool Bar and the food. The rooms are comfortable, albeit with too many bugs but I think that’s the climate. The internet is starlink and decently fast, even if I do get occasional instances of drop out. I digress. There are photos below.
The rest of Tuesday wasn’t much. Meeting. Nap. Dinner at the Beach Bar. Sleep. Holiday = started. Well this got long, silly me thinking I’d cover the whole holiday in one post! If you made it this far, well done – you get photos!
So I’m off again. Turns out the I do like travel, especially cheap travel! (As in travel that doesn’t cost me to much, not really low quality). I’m currently in the Brisbane International Business lounge. I was reviewing my previous posts and noticed that there are two (recent) incomplete drafts – one from my USA trip and one from my Gold Coast long weekend (June and November respectively). It’s unlikely I’ll finish them at this point – my memory of them is limited, but I might post what I have just for fun one day. Anyhow, back to this trip.
Qantas had a DSC promo going and a sale so I was looking for what was available. When I managed to find very cheap points flights to Vanuatu, in the windows for my post camping ground holiday I was sold. It was pretty cheap – only 46,000 points – got to love frequent flyer! It actually worked out to be 80,000 after I upgraded the first leg of the 4 flights to business. (excuse me I’m just going to get a class of sparkling wine. OK I’m back. Yes, it is 6.30 in the morning, but I’m on holidays and in an international lounge!) So the first leg is over – I left Perth at 10.50 last night and we landed just ahead of schedule just before 5am in Brisbane.
Red eye flights aren’t fun and that’s part of the reason I used more points to upgrade to business, but on a 737 that only helps a little. I felt like I got a bit of sleep, but maybe it was worse than I thought, my Phone is telling me I got 1 hr 22 mins but it definitely felt like more I read, ate and then we descended and the flight was over 4 hours. I took sleeping pills to help me get off but maybe it was just poor quality sleep. At any rate I’m here now and don’t feel too dead. I’ll probably need a nap when I get there but we’ll see what happens. There’s not much else to report yet, so I’ll leave this as a short post but we’ll see if I can document some of my Vanuatu adventures.
