Dreamy Vanuatu

Heads up: Lots of pictures coming up so if you don't have bytes to spare, escape before my lovely photos suck you in.

This is a piece of freedom taken from where else but my window seat. If only i could really be out there instead of caged in an air-borne metal monstrosity. I shall have to try sky diving sometime.

On our first day, we went to Chill for dinner. It was by the waterfront, with simple but tasteful decor and familiar oldies tune playing from their stereo. There was air-conditioning to boot. Nothing really quite beats the ambience there.

That's Iririki island, 5 minutes by a free ferry from Efate. When the locals asked me if i've been to the other islands, they laugh when i mentioned Iririki because of it's size and proximity to Efate.

We went Kayaking at one of the Lagoons. Can't exactly remember the name anymore. But it leads out to the sea and to Roundabout river where there are swing ropes.

If my childhood backyard had a river, i'd like to have a swing rope there. Can you believe it was the first time in my life playing with a swing rope? Man did i live a deprived childhood. Spoilt city brat i am.

We got to feed the turtles in the lagoon. I got to pat one too. At one point i was afraid that their powerful jaws might clamp down on my fingers in addition to the papaya. Thankfully, my fingers are still intact.

Unfortunately, both of us got thoroughly sunburnt, especially my hands and feet due to my position in the kayak.

My back hurt so bad that i couldn't lie flat on it for the next two days. I also ended up with wet cool towels wrapped around my hands, feet and back for the entire 2 days.

I don't tend to burn easily but 4hrs in the afternoon sun in addition to the skin sensitivity bestowed by our trusty malarial prophylaxis Doxycycline... i'm blessed i didn't break out in a rash as well.

We went horse riding near another lagoon. However, it didn't turn out as planned because after half an hour on horseback, we rode into a torrential downpour. Thinking that it was going to end soon, we forged on but we ended up turning back at the 1hr mark and so in total, we rode for 1.5hr in heavy rain.

I was so fortunate and impressed that my camera still worked after the whole incident.

Ni-Vanuatu children having a go at fishing. Something i've never done before either.

MOAO and i went scuba diving at Twin Bombies where i puked into my regulator, abseiled down Mele Cascades Waterfall, ate out at lots of nice restaurants like Waterfront, which has a great live band, etc. But as my camera is one fragile non-waterproof piece of equipment and we're both too uncomfortable about posting our faces up on the net, that's all the pictures deemed suitable up till this point of my journey.