Not a bad place to spend some time, eh?
We’re going to spend a couple weeks in Samoa to explore ‘Upolu, the most populated of the country’s islands. This stop is something of an experiment, considerably more rustic than the standard we’ve come to enjoy.
Lalomanu is on the far eastern tip of ‘Upolu and supposedly has the most beautiful beach in Samoa. Much of the area was devastated by a tsunami in 2009 – there were pictures of the aftermath in our little resort and there was really nothing left standing – but the area has recovered remarkably. At the same time, the “resorts” are pretty basic. Litia Sini Beach Fales, where we stayed, is a step up from most, as the beach huts – known as fales (fah-lay) – have doors with locks and actual beds instead of just mattresses on the floor. Electricity, even! Still, it’s pretty basic, as in “shared bathroom” basic. As I said, not our usual standard.
That’s our fale in the middle, little baseball-cap-like huts with limited facilities. But you couldn’t get closer to the beach and the porch there was a perfect spot for a night cap.
Still, with a couple exceptions, we loved it. The beach really was spectacular. There were no beach loungers, but they had blue tarps strung up that somewhat shielded you from the sun so you could spend long, leisurely days doing pretty much nothing. (The young New Zealander in the neighboring fale discovered to his sun-burned dismay that the tarp doesn’t fully protect you from the sun’s UV rays, though.) And the shared bathroom wasn’t a problem. Meals were on the not-quite side of OK, but we weren’t too keen on the limited, set hours for meals. The biggest downsides were unbelievably aggressive, small mosquitoes that just ate me alive and the heat at night with no AC made it really difficult to sleep at night, even with all the windows open.
The highlight, though, was clearly the beach. White sand, blue water. Doing nothing. The little porch on our fale was pretty great for a little scotch at night (we’d come prepared). We spent time over meals with a fun German couple who love to travel but otherwise it was a few days of sun, sand, and not much else.
Mark enjoying what Lalomanu has to offer. You can see that the waves break far from shore making the area like a great big warm lake.
Up the beach from our fale.
Our porch was great for reading and crossword puzzles, too
For all of the “paradise” aspects, you were often reminded that for most people, this is the village where they work, too