Kingdom of Tonga - Day 1

31 Oct 2015       Saturday     Sunny

We travelled from Auckland airport to Kingdom of Tonga by Air New Zealand. Excited. Enjoyable three hours flight , watching the rugby game (not live one). Arrived at the international airport in Nuku'alofa. It was about six in the evening.

The sky was getting dark. We were not sure if the taxi was arranged for us as there was no signs of any boards that our names are written on it. More and more passengers had left the flight terminal.  While my mind was running wild to sort out a way to go to the guesthouse or find another new accomodation, there was a man that approached us, asking us if we needed a taxi. I told him that we are all good. However, he insisted to help us and introduced himself as Edward. We left no choice but try to seek help from him. He borrowed me his phone to contact the people in Noa guesthouse for us and found out that there was no taxi for us. I was quite disappointed as I had confirmed with them for several times. And, they said they are going to send someone to pick us up and hang up the phone. Then, Edward seemed unhappy and complained to me that I should have let him speak to them as he wanted to fetch us there. Plus, he had no credits now to call them to offer them the alternative - to pick us there. He told us that the journey from the city area to the airport would take about thirty minutes - which meant we had to wait for another thirty minutes. He was pissed off and did not want to leave.I tried to use my phone to call the people-in-charge in Noah guesthouse again so that he could pick us up to the guesthouse instead.

The next five minutes, we was already on his taxi (a quite old van). He told us that whenever we saw a car plate with initial T, it is a taxi in Tonga. He also told us that he was a tour guide as well and was willing to show us around in Nuku'alofa - the main island of the kingdom. He informed us that he was keen to show us how the people survive on the island where the natural resources are quite limited. We were quite interested at that time and jotted down his phone number in case we wanted him to be our tour guide on the coming Wednesday. On the way to the city centre, he stopped by a petrol station to fuel up the tank. To my surprise, he did not even stop the engine. OMG. The weather in Tonga was just like the one in Malaysia - hot and humid. I could felt the sweats under my armpits. It was quite a long time I did not experience this. And, the suburban area was quite rural - did have the "kampung" feel as in Malaysia. I could see small groceries stores along the road. They were just a small stores, with bars separating the owner and the customers. Behind the bars, the groceries were displayed on the shelves. It was a bit more rural than I thought. Edward told us that we should not drink the pipe water. Mineral water was the best. Rain water in the storage was another option. Believe it or not, we met Edward's son-in-law on the way to the suburban as well. Edward stopped and had a wee chat with his son-in-law and grandsons and topped up his phone credits. I saw him buying loaves of bread for them too.

After a forty-minutes drive, with the two stops he made, we arrived at Noa guesthouse. We paid Edward 40 TOP (TOP is Tongan Pa'agan- Tongan dollar). The one who welcomed us was a lady (I thought she was a Tongan, but eventually found out that she was from Fiji). After checked in with her, she told us that there would be no stores open until Tuesday. She asked us to get some groceries so that we would not starve for the coming two days. We were shocked. Frankly, I did not see this coming. I had no idea that Monday would be the public holiday. I had a lot of questions to ask her. But, she just kept telling us to chill and relax, and of course,  getting our necessities from the grocery store opposite the road. Well, when I was planning the trip,  the person who replied me told me that we could even had an island tour around Nuku'alofa on Sunday. What I found out was people are prohibited to carry out any business on Sundays in Tonga. According to Edward, Sunday is a sacred day for Tonga people and all of them should spend their precious time with family and go to church and not allowed to work. I was a bit upset as they never told me in the email when I was asking them what sort of activities on Sunday. They just said there would be a tour guide around for us and how much I should pay for it. The reality was no shops would be opened and I had no idea what would happen on the next day and all my plan seemed to be useless now.

Anyway, we needed to solve our first problem - the food for the next two days. I was grateful that we brought two packs of instant noodles and two bottles of 1.5 L mineral water. The town area was 5 minutes walk from the guesthouse. However, one of the tourist warned us about the safety to walk in the dark at night.  Therefore, we decided to go to the store opposite the road. The store was operated by Chinese. To our advantage, we could speak Chinese to them. I tried to ask her about what we could do the next day. Surprisingly, she had been here for two years yet she had not really travel around on the island. We bought some eggs and biscuits for our next two days. She told us that it was against the law to operate the grocery store on Sunday. However, if we really need any help, we were more than welcomed to seek help from her. We thanked her for that.

We had a discussion in the room, trying to sort out what we could do tomorrow and the coming days for our trip, with the tourist information pamphlet provided by Noa guesthouse. Only more questions rather than answers we got when we tried to sort out our plan. Frustration overwhelmed us. Yen was panicked. So did I. I told Yen that we should do what we did last time in Roxburgh. ( That time, we were also clueless when we first arrived at the backpacker accomodation and we decided to ask the other backpackers for help). This time, there was only two of us. We had to be brave enough to talk to the others. (Indeed, both of us are not extrovert, making initiative to talk to others seemed rater hard for us.) In this case, we were left no choice but to make a "bold" move. We had to "survive" the trip and we did not want to spend our whole trip "rotting" in the room. We noticed there were another three tourists who stayed in the guesthouse. So, we decided to have a chat with them and see what we can do the next day - perhaps even travel together with them.

Standing outside their room for almost five minutes,we needed time to gather our courage to knock on the door. LOL. So our little plan was- I knocked the door and Yen did the talking. Here it goes: Yen introduced us to them and tell them we would like to ask them a few questions as we just arrived here and felt rather confused about this island. And, they invited in. Phew! Three of them were Americans, and they studied in university in Wellington. So, theoretically, we all came from NZ to visit Tonga. Two of them were just arrived today too - same flight with us. The other one - McK had arrived few days before. She told us that they were planning to go to the church the next morning. The church would be usually atttended by the King and Queen of Tonga. We might have the chance to meet the King and Queen if luck was on our side. Next, they would be heading to Pangaimoutu island as it was one of the few places that operate on Sundays. Guess what, they invited us to join them if we were keen. We were more than happy to join them as we did not even know the directions to the town area.

15 minutes later, we were back in our room. We felt more relieved now as we had a plan. Then, we tried to sort out some plan (plan A, B, C.. lol)  for the following days. Anyway, there was no certainty that any of our plans would work. Therefore, we decided to follow the flow. As the Chinese proverb goes: 船到桥头自然直。

After our showers, we decided to go to bed early. An adventurous day was awaiting us.