Tonga pt 2 night from hell

Side note to start -- the last blog I said how Gen and her friends were "stressed" about finances, that isnt actually the case... It was more that they had a certain way of spending money... divide things up and everyone pays there fair share. This was different from how I had been traveling. Somebody pays, and we catch up with it later (or not). After all, Rick would treat us with all sorts of perks -- use of the car and driver (together with tolls that he refused our re-payment), Even Bar would buy us random items -- a drink here or there, etc. So it was different when I paid for the rooms at the Bunglaow resort, and they all fairly had to immediately pay me their share of the bill right away. I had interfered with their modus operandi and messed up how they were going to pay that with a credit card vs. cash etc. So "stressed about finances" really wasnt accurate.

The islands of Tonga are all flat, coral islands without volcano mountains. I mentioned the excellent swimming and the snorkeling.

One of the things that Tonga is known for is that humpback whales come here to breed, birth their young and train them to swim, before heading back out into the ocean. They sell tours where you get to "swim with the whales" and this is one of the things I wanted to do, but it turns out that the season was just over and the whales have already moved out -- just missed it!

So after the wonderful dive/snorkeling trip, we were off to find new lodgings as the nice bungalow resort was filled for the remaining time we were on Tonga. So we went back into town and stayed at Fafita's Guesthouse which was above the one and only restaurant/bar -- Mariner's Cafe.

I would not receommend this place to anyone. While they tried to keep it clean, and it was superficially clean, it was rather dirty. Wall edges had ages of grime along them. Cockroaches came out at night, i swear that a rat (or two) scampered first up the hall to the kitchen then down the hall just past the door sometime during the night -- i thought i could see it under the large crack under the door. Also, the place had walls about the thickness of a piece of paper, so I could here Kevin and jolene in the next room whispering (or talking quietly, not exactly what they said, but ...) And this was the nicest and cleanest of the guesthouses in the Town.

So starts the night from hell. I woke up numerous times to various sounds. For one, the Tongans seem to go to bed around 11 PM and wake up at 4 AM. During the night there were the women in the kitchen jabbering on until 11. Then a group of other tongan men (who were guests) had a little party, then there was some pigs squealing, then a dog fight broke out in the middle of the night. At about 3 AM I woke up for good to the sound of one of the Tongan guests snoring quite loudly. I decided to get up at that point and see what was what. The Tongan was staying in the room across the hall, but it sounded like he was in our room. Then I heard drums beating in the distance... real heart of darkness kind of stuff. This gave way to church bells going off all over the town, followed by this incredible beautiful music. It sounded like african music, but with a polynesian flair. That's the best i can describe it. Truly remarkable harmonizing of human voices. And of course, roosters ... seemingly hundreds of them crowing all around. It was quite a din.

At this point, i knew i was not going to get back to sleep, and so I went off on a walk, to search for the source of the music. (It turns out it was a good choice not to try to sleep anymore as Gen told me the noises of the rest of the night ... someone pounding on the doors of the rooms looking for Anna, followed by the pre-breakfast sweep, sweep, sweep of the "maid" doing the halls, and of course the non-stop rooster/pig/dog/human's talking, that started at about the 4 AM hour.

Anyway, I follow the sounds of the singing to one of this tiny village's 8-12 churches. I think I have described how the Tongans, like many native culutres, first struggled with a crippling alcholholism problem and resolved it by "turning to Jesus". A far better opiate for the masses I say. Anywho the singing from this church was beautiful as i said and so loud! There couldnt have been more than 20 people in this church but i was mesmerized by the sounds. And indeed, it looked as if most of this town was up and about in the pre-dawn darkness. I saw the southern cross and orion in the night sky.

I wandered all thru the little town (pictures are coming I promise) which was somewhat smaller than Crested Butte, and as churches let out around 5:30 - 6AM I asked if I could get to the eastern shore of the island, as I could hear the waves crashing on that side -- the opposite side from the big protected lagoon. They said, yep just follow this road it will get there. So off I walk down this dirt road, that i had shied away from in the darker hours cause it looked spooky, but in the pre-dawn light it was OK.

I arrived at the far end, perhaps 1/2 KM from the town's edge, to a glorious sun rise (no pictures I am afraid, but it was great). I then noticed a side road and went and saw one of the many cemetaries on the island on the sun-rise side of the island, including one expecially grand, covered by a roof and with a nice marble headstone for a minister of the Tongan government for the island of Ha'apai, the Island I am on.

I returned to the guest house in time for breakfast at 7:30 AM, and saw as the Tongan guests (the noisy ones) departed looking about as pleasant as hungover and up and away by 7 AM people look. The tongans in general are huge people, physically, and I figured out why as the cuisine consists of bread, fried bread, fried meats, fried fish, fried vegetables, fried .... you get the point, and this includes both deep fried and pan fried.

Anyway, my time is running out and i want to post this before i get kicked off, so

until next time, newo- out