I started my trip in Australia. I’m on the Villa Vie Odyssey. You may recall this ship making headline news some 18 months ago when it was launched as a new concept; people purchasing cabins on board, rather like you would buy an apartment. Only trouble was that the concept launched successfully but the ship didn’t, at least not when it was supposed to.
It’s an old ship that had been refurbished by Villa Vie, but it failed its seaworthiness tests. All the passengers/owners had arrived to join the ship in Belfast but had to wait four months before they got underway. It cost the company millions as they had to provide alternative accommodation, given that most of the passengers (95% of whom are American) had no homes to return to, having sold up for a life on the ocean wave. I have not purchased but am subletting from an owner for four months. Our schedule takes us to (I think) every country in the South Pacific, a couple of Australian ports, then New Zealand. I will disembark in Dunedin, NZ in early March, and backpack for three weeks through the South and North islands before returning to Blighty from Auckland just in time for British Summertime – ie likely snow.
My last big cruise journey was to various continents, so I posted from each of them. This trip is only one continent – Oceania – but 14 or 15 countries (I haven’t quite figured that out yet!) so I will do an article from each country. The first of these, having embarked the Villa Vie Odyssey and left from Cairns, Australia, was Papua New Guinea. Specifically, the small and tatty port of Alotau. As we approached, my attention was pleasantly distracted from our scruffy berthing point by a dolphin welcome party.
Alotau
Alotau – probably because the whole town largely matches the port – only attracts one or two cruise ships per month. As is so often the case however with places like this that are seriously challenged by poverty, the warm welcome from the polite and smiling population more than compensates for their shabby environs.
I wandered into town, having avoided the usual expensive tour options being touted on the quayside, hoping to follow my usual plan of finding a taxi to cheaply ferry me round the main points of interest. I’d walked half a mile before I found one. As Noel drove me around for an hour or so for $20US I asked him why he and other cabs had not stationed themselves at the port to pick up rich Americans and poor Europeans as we fell off the ship. It was clearly a revelation to him; an idea that he had not previously considered.
It became clear that one of the reasons for Noel’s entrepreneurial shortcomings was that he was stoned. On betel nut and lime powder. A natural and legal stimulant which he even stopped to purchase from a roadside kiosk as he conducted my brief tour. He offered it to me, and I must admit I was tempted, but googled it while he was at the kiosk and decided that discretion was the better part of valour, given the potential allergic reactions. It was interesting to note that his driving speed slowed to 20mph after ingesting his fix. Betel nut aficionados (i.e. mostly everyone) may be identified from the red staining of their teeth and gums. They spit it onto the ground which leaves unattractive red blotches almost everywhere…
