Answer The Call of Vanuatu
This Series of a real, raw, unedited update on what I saw, felt, and smelled in this little mysterious island country called Vanuatu.
Vanuatu
"One of the happiest places on Earth" Accordingly to Happy Planet Index.
Photo from Author
Answer the Call
I felt the call to go back to nature and leave the big city behind. When I heard the country/island named Vanuatu. It called me. I read, watched, and absorbed everything I could possibly find in the cyber world. I took it all in, and here I came to Vanuatu. This Series is a real, raw, unedited update on what I saw, felt, and smelled in this little mysterious island country called Vanuatu.
Connect to the Land
The first day in Vanuatu, I just felt so connected to the land. I don't know if because I had read and learned a lot about Vanuatu before I came here.
The airport was still using old fashion and slow, the weather is quite like Thailand.
People are so sweet and kind. We stay at a water bungalow that full of sea life underneath!
I felt the island is so rich and abundant in nature.
Water Bungalow
Organic Paradise
We got fruits in the room. We ate without fear because everything here on the island is organic! Everything is organic! The tap water on the mainland is clean to drink.
Woman's Water Music Spirit
Today, there was a mama water dance by locals at the pool of the hotel. It is a dance when women and children go to the river for a shower or washing. The spirit was so high. They danced, they sang. They use water like a drum. It was very powerful.
At the end of the show, they invited us to dance with them and sang a song. It was so sweet. I felt the spirit. The spirit of nature that came through them. My heart was opened.
Primitive Living
I read from an article that people of Vanuatu still very connect to their land. The majority of people still live in a tribe and wear cloth made of leaves. I couldn't believe there is still something like this.
Pricing
Something, I do not quite understand yet is how the Vanuatu system works overall.
I observed and guesstimated base on what I saw and felt. First, the living cost as travellers or foreigners is quite expensive, the hotel and restaurant are for tourists only and it as expensive as you are in Developed countries.
Local people seem to make little money to nothing. Anyway, around 70–80 percent of popularity still lives in a tribe wearing leaf has no electricity and road access. They are not the one who relies on the economic system anyway.
Port Villa Main Market
The domestic product, fresh fruit, and vegetable are cheap. Once it came to import items that mostly came from Australia and New Zealand, they are more pricey than in Australia.
There are no industrial of their own, so most everything is imported. One good thing is there is no industrial that can contaminate the environment. But it rather difficult for the people from civilization to adapt to a new lifestyle as everything we got used to are pricey as the effect of import tax. If you are Vegan or Fruitarian, then life is less complicated here. Still, you will have to cook a lot!
The product from the local market is mainly fresh fruits and vegetables, which look like they came from the local people backyard or otherwise jungle. It doesn't seem to have big agriculture going on here. The good side is they are truly organic. On the other hand, the fruits and vegetables we mostly get used to are hard to find, and if you find one, it won't be a local prize.
I talked to some locals and what I heard from them as they usually don't buy from the market but grow their own food. They are happy no matter they have a job or money or not because they have a solid connection in the community. Why worry? When you always have food to eat and roof to stay and people who care.
People are very opened, and no hesitate to start a conversation with you. They are easy to smile.
Economic
The primary income seems to come from tourism and the resident/citizenship program, which including real estate investment. It comes with the benefit of passport to around 120 countries visa-free, including England and Europe, and the potential of a Free visa to China in the future. They have a good relationship with China until some local jokes that their government is for Chinese people.
Still there is a lot more to learn. I felt like I got to see how it was before western culture came in and how it transformed society. This is based on the observation at Port villa, the capital city, and the most developed city in Vanuatu.
Human Connection
Driving around Efate Island, Vanuatu, where Capitalism, Port Villa located, without stop, it will take two hours and thirty mins. That emphasizes the small country Vanuatu is. No GPS needed, as there is only one route. I wonder what it is in the deep middle of the island. The two lanes road around the island is rather good, have some big holes once in a while, and some dirt road at some point, but a small car like Toyota Yaris still could take us around.
This island is the most developed among the other eighty islands around. As I heard from local people, there are no more Vanuatu people who still live in a primitive tribe (Which is called Kastom traditional) on this island. Still, there are cultural centers that were set up to show how people used to live. I wish to see and feel those people who still maintain their way of life as an old day, and the only way is to visit other islands.
Espiritu Santo and Tanna islands are the most accessible places as the airports are already established. However, the geography of Espiritu Santo is divided by mountains where trekking is the only way to reach Kastom village. Still, it requires a minimum of three days, three nights trekking through the unknown jungle. Hope shines through Tanna Island, where a car is possible to reach them. On top of that, the still-active volcano, Mount Yasur, is very tempted to visit. After tap into our feeling, Tanna is our next destination.
Back to Efate Island, as we drove around, we could see the local people living in the middle of nature. They now wear clothes like us but much much more colorful. Their houses were rather simple and small yet colorful. The open-air church, a stage, and benches made of wood shading by a thatched roof.
People were interested in our existence. As I looked at them and amused by their way of life. They were looking at us, probably feeling the same way. They waved their hand with friendly smiles as we droved by. Some shouted "hello" as if they would like us to stop by.
"Come play with us." One girl shout to us from the field where she was playing with her friends.
Follow by "Hello" "Hello" "Hello" from her fellow friends.
Old men, young men, old women, young women, they are all in mood in connecting to the visitors like us.
We were feeling very welcoming. I couldn't count how many times I waved my hand back to them as if the friendship would never end.
I connected and interacted with a fellow human in one casual afternoon in this little island, where only about 65,xxx people are living.
If I could count all people I have connected with in number, it would be much higher than all the amount of new friendships I have made since starting to travel a year ago combined.
Arriving at Port Villa, the capital city, people were still friendly, but their shininess much less than people outside the city. That made me thinking, what happened to people's happiness once the civilization has taken place.
Next on Tanna Island...
Subscribe for the email list and stay tuned for the more.