The Happiest Country on Earth: Part III: Port Vila

For the second part of our holiday we stayed in Port Vila which is the capital of Vanuatu - we stayed at a resort near the centre of town called "Coconut Palms Resort". Although it wasn't quite as tropical as Hideaway Island, it was a pretty great place to stay and look - it has a chair shaped like a hand!

We had the chance to hand out by the pool - although we only saw one person actually swimming in it.

When we arrived our bed was covered with tropical flowers - although it turned out they were all fake! I guess its harder to get flowers in town than it is at Hideaway Island.

Even thought we had one of the cheaper rooms - we still had a view of the pool from our outdoor area - not too bad at all.

Very near our resort was the local market which was pretty huge and a buzz with the locals selling fresh fruit, veges, crabs and other seafood, flowers and cooked meals.

One day we ate lunch at the market - I had curry egg rice and Rich had curry fish rice - this lovely lady cooked our meals in her tiny "kitchen". I just loved how everything was bright and cheerful!

Whilst traveling around town we found the local library - which was a perfect photo op for Rich! (He works in a library and his Masters Degree is in information studies).

Here's a few photos we took a round the waterfront area - I love the little waterside, although I don't think I would want to use it myself!

We were really lucky whilst we were in Port Vila as a fleet of Waka arrived whilst we were staying - the waka had crews from a whole lot of different Pacific Island countries - The Cook Islands, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu and of course Aotearoa (which you all know better as New Zealand).

There was quite a lot of local art in town - here's a few of my favourite things!

Those of you that have traveled to the Pacific before may have tried kava, its pretty freely available in New Zealand as well (they used to sell it in the supermarket Rich worked at whilst he was studying the first time around). But this was the first time I'd ever seen a shop devoted to kava and selling kava. I think kava is pretty gross - so I didn't try any!

We also visited the museum and parliament - but it was kind of rainy when we went there so I didn't take many photos - but here is a view outside of the parliament.

Near our resort there was the high security prison (formerly the British prison) and the Ministry of Health - I really liked this sign as you can see the three languages of Vanuatu - English, French and Bislama.

Here is another building in Port Vila which was absolutely amazing, it's the "court of the chiefs" apparently if you do something bad, your tribe will send you here to be judged by chiefs from all over Vanuatu. If they find you guilty - you will be told you have bought shame to your family and your tribe and be swiftly handed over to the police. The outside of the building is all woven and its really beautiful.

Here's a couple of photos we took at a place called "Island Chicken" - Rich and I both had the chicken/rice combos! We liked the sign - don't forget your fidelity card!

Whilst we were out and about in town we decided to pick up a snack and have a "good time"!

We also had the chance to take in a Melanesia Feast whilst in Vanuatu - complete with a "Vanuatu String Band" and we had SO MUCH FOOD!

Finally on the last night at the resort there was a fire show - here a few of the photos I took of the night.