What a Wonderful World

After having had rather poor weather during our first week in Tonga, we were happy that the conditions improved from Sunday on. Everyone who is now expecting us to tell you some spectacular story will be disappointed, because we simply spent some days relaxing at the beach. But what a beach! We were mostly all alone, the long strip of white sand is lined by a forest of coconut palms, the water always has a comfortable temperature of about 25 degrees and going to the sea is like jumping into an aquarium: the whole ground is covered by coral reef and you see hundreds of different fishes of all sizes, shapes and colors. They come close to you, some blue sea-stars are relaxing at the bottom and you can find many mussels and crabs everywhere. Since it was my first time snorkelling and I was so amazed by this underwater-world, I did not see a bigger wave coming, which pushed me towards the reef where I scratched myself a bit. And exactly at that moment, when I was slightly bleeding, I saw a 1.5 meters big reef shark swimming 3 meters away from me …. scary experience when you have no idea whether they are dangerous or not! However, the shark did not seem to be interested in further interaction (or was disgusted by my blood) and later the hotel owner told me that such a meeting is quite common and that at least in the past 40 years no incidences occurred. So the next days we swam to the area where I had seen the shark and we looked hours for this guy to come back again, but unfortunately in vain. You see, also in the South-Pacific not everything is perfect :-) At the resort we also met lots of travellers of all ages who had interesting routes and a great way to discover the countries they are visiting: almost everyone took the public bus to the “city” (with respect to the Tongan definition), couples in retirement cycled across the island to see the sights and all were interested in getting into contact with the local people. So it seems you can do large and challenging travels when you’re retired, but though they were experienced travellers maybe it is hard to first learn it in that age.

Soon we had relaxed enough and wanted to explore another island of the 171 ones in Tonga. So we made a very last minute booking for the ferry (thanks to the bus driver who decided to go home instead of working) and hopped to ‘Eua. On the way, the ferry was accompanied by dolphins and we saw crazy flying fishes (or maybe swimming birds, as they were really flying, not just jumping). In ‘Eua we stayed two nights at The Hideaway and went for a long hike to the untouched interior of the island. The trails (optimistically called roads) are totally overgrown, you have to cross tons of spider-nets but when you are up at the outlook on top, you are rewarded for everything: the view is gorgeous, you look from the cliffs to the sea over the crowns of the huge rain-forest trees, thousands of white birds of different species circle beneath you, sometimes ascending up to your height. You would not even be surprised if King-Kong or a T-Rex came around the corner :D By the way, the ocean you look at covers the second deepest point of the world located in the Tongan trench, 10.8km under the sea. On the way back, the ferry arrived at the up-normally late time of 5:30 in the afternoon, so of course no one should be surprised that no buses are running anymore. Luckily (except for the taxi drivers), hitch-hiking is super easy in Tonga. While he took us towards our resort, one of the two drivers we met told us what we had already heard from several people here. The younger persons watch TV a lot and choose the western way of life as a role model, what the older ones regret. But our driver said this without any abnegation against Europe or the US, he only wants to continue living like he is used to. And at least the religion holds the culture and society together.

This is what we could experience again the next Sunday, unfortunately our last day in Tonga. This time we went to the Mormon church, which accounts for more than 60% of the Tongan population, according to their own indication. They sing less and worse than the Methodists, but their welcome was even warmer. During the ceremony, which consisted mainly of personal testimonies, crying and a humorous way of preaching, they translated simultaneously what was going on, for me in Spanish and for Steve in English. Then we joined the Sunday-school classes and learned a lot about Mormon peculiarities and history. Afterwards we had private communication with two young missionaries, who did not want to convert us, but patiently answered all questions we had. As expected, it was not their aim to doubt their own believe, but surprisingly they seemed to like especially our challenging questions like the theodicy problem. They appear to have a rather naive and concrete way of faith, but are not afraid of communication with critics about their religion. We have an impression why they have such a big popularity. They are welcoming, friendly and open-minded, missionary work has a high priority, they offer simple explanations about the most important things and community-feeling is strong.

Today we left Tonga and will miss it but we are now waiting at the airport, looking forward to go to China and dive into another completely different world. And we would like to say thank you to Alex & Till and Magda & Henryk for the nice evenings we spent together ;-)

2 thoughts on “What a Wonderful World

  1. Ich möchte mich gern mal bedanken, dass ich eure spannende Reise mitverfolgen kann:-) Auch wenn “nicht viel passiert”, klingt es aus eurer Feder immer wieder sehr interessant und informativ. Schön, dass ihr auch an die reisenden Rentner denkt!!!
    Auf China bin ich nun mal sehr gespannt, da das eines meiner Wunschreiseländer ist. Viele Grüße und weiterhin viele positive Erfahrungen, Thea