Kingdom of Tonga

Tonga was a very new experience for me. It was my 1st time in a 3rd-world country and totally not what I had expected. We flew into Nukualofa at 2 a.m. on a Saturday morning. The flights only come and go a select few times a week, so the airport was bustling with people - they are all used to it. After getting all of our baggage (I was dragging 3 bags + a backpack at this point) we walked outside to find our taxi driver. I had made reservations online at a hotel and had requested transportation which I was told would be there. The next thing I knew there was this guy approaching me asking me if I had a ride. I told him yes, and who I was looking for. He said they weren't there, but that he would give us a ride there for $5 less than the price we would have paid with our reserved taxi. It was late, I was tired, he seemed harmless and I just wanted to find a place to sleep, so I said okay. I was traveling with 2 different girls, Angela and Megan, at this point. We hopped in his van and loaded it down with our 500 lbs. of luggage and took in our first sights of Tonga the best we could - the stars were bright at least!

On the way to this "reserved" hotel of ours, which was located several miles outside of the city, this guy encouraged us to find a place closer to the city because there was no way we could conveniently walk around. We asked for some other suggestions of places to stay and he took us to Misa's Guesthouse.....

He knocked on the door and woke the owners up in the middle of the night to get a room for us. They were so nice, as the man stumbled up the windy stairs of death carrying our luggage for us (Tongans are always insistent and kind), and she threw on a robe to put clean sheets on the beds. Such a sweet couple. There were 2 twin beds in one room and a bigger bed in a 2nd room, so we got situated and fell into bed pretty fast. It was hot and humid and the mosquitoes were thirsty, but I managed to get a few short hours of rest. I don't know if it was this area of Tonga or if it is a commonality all over but there was a dang rooster that crowed ALL night long. Not just when the sun was coming up, but all night long. Maybe his clock was just messed up. That got old the 1st night we were there, but I just took it as part of the whole "Tonga experience."

I woke up earlier than the other girls and got ready then went and sat outside on a balcony area to really take in my 1st sights of Tonga. There were old trucks and vans driving past full of people hanging out of them or riding in the back. It was so exciting just to think I was in this country. My temporary roomie, Megan, woke up and we were anxious to hit up the marketi (market). Saturday morning is supposed to be THE time to go. We walked down what looked like the main street, found an ATM, and asked some directions as to where we could find the market. We asked one employee at a cafe and I was shocked when she answered in a little bit of an American accent - turns out she lived in Indiana for a while. We found the market and walked around for a few minutes, scoping it all out. I wanted to go back to the guesthouse to get Angela because we had all planned to go to the market together.

We stood out a little bit, but people were friendly and very anxious to sell us their items and show us how beautiful they were. :-) So many carvings, jewelry, crafts, fans, fruits and vegetables, etc. The Tongan dollar is about 50 U.S. cents, so in our eyes everything was so cheap! Too bad it was the end of the trip and I had limited space and funds left.....
It was pretty busy but a fun scene to take in. Several people asked us where we were from and recognized us as LDS. Lots of them were members as well. Everyone smiled. That's the thing I loved the most about Nukualofa.


And, of course, since I was on a tropical island I was excited to try some fresh coconut milk. Angela even managed to capture my 1st sip on camera..... fun to taste, but I'm thinking one time is enough for me! ;-)

We all bought FANS! And we used them like crazy. Bless those fans! They're amazing and I depended on mine more than ever. Plus, I felt like I fit in better with the locals.

After we were done at the market, we were walking back and browsing some shops when lo and behold, our taxi driver (Mana) found us. Turns out he had been driving around looking for us all morning. He ended up taking us to a super market so we could get some food, especially because NOTHING is open on Sunday. Several people warned us of that. Saturday is truly a day of work and preparation and Sunday is a day of rest, country-wide. Isn't that great? I got some bread, peanutbutter, and apples to live off of for the next few days.....

He then gave us a ride to the beach - turns out Tonga really only has 2 small beaches. It was off of a resort hotel. I enjoyed relaxing in the sunshine for a couple of hours! Got to watch some locals spearing fish out in the water.....turns out they caught an eel.

It was a long, slow drive there. There are really only 2 speed limits in Tonga: in-town and out-of-town. It was fun to see more of the country though. We rode holding the sliding door in the van open for some air circulation. There are coconut trees blanketing this place! Loved it!


On the way back into town we pulled over on the road and Mana bought us a fresh watermelon to taste. Gotta love those island fruits!

We went home and got cleaned up a bit and relaxed until Mana came back and picked us up for Kava night! This was SO COOL! We 3 girls basically attended a "mens saloon" type of thing. Kava is a drink made from root that is crushed up and refined, then mixed with water. It's a non-alcoholic drink, but I guess it somehow gives you a little bit of a buzz the more you drink. For the rookies, it makes your tongue and lips numb. Veteran kava drinkers are used to it so there is no effect.
They brought it in by the bucket! Everyone just kept on filling up. It looks like muddy water...and tastes like it too....! I had a sip just to experience it. Traditionally, only men are allowed to drink the kava, although women who serve it are present. In the past, this was a position reserved for unmarried girls as a form of courtship. In the early days I guess if a guy was interested in a girl, he would hint towards the chief to have this girl serve the kava that evening. In this way, the men were able to respectfully talk to or "court" the woman as she was serving the drink. There was girl serving the kava when we got there - they like to keep it traditional. However they were paying her about 30 bucks to sit there and serve kava all night. Talk about easiest job ever.
The kava is served in rounds and is drunk out of coconut shells that are continually being passed around and refilled. Everyone takes off their shoes, sits on the mat and remains sitting cross-legged. I guess there is also some kind of status system to drinking as well. The oldest, most respected men sit on the outer edges of the room and drink the kava first. The youngest sits closest to the giant kava bowl (made especially for these occasions) and helps serve it out then drinks last. Very interesting. They told us all where to sit when we first walked in. The men start doing this at 4 or 5 p.m. and sometimes it will go until 5 or 6 a.m. You can come and go as you please. They just sit and socialize; some men play the guitar and they all pipe in and start singing. Tongan voices are solid! I sat by a guy who had been to the States before and spoke pretty decent English. I was asking him several questions as I took in this whole new cultural experience. Some of the younger fellas would try to get my attention - waving their fans in my direction and whatnot. They would all speak in Tongan, look my way, then laugh. Love when that happens.....and not obvious at all. I had fun with it though. I became good buddies with one guy (pictured below) named Sosiah. He even took my fan from me and fanned me for quite a while. I told him all I needed now was some grapes - but I don't know if he got it. :) He was sure to give me his phone number before I left and gave me special instructions on what to do when calling from the U.S., haha. A couple other boys got my phone number too. Too bad it's not that easy in Provo, eh?
Since we are guests, it was custom to to thank everyone before we leave and give a little speech, then go around and shake everyone's hands. Several of them wanted a kiss on the cheek, so I appeased them.
We stayed for a few hours. It was really weird at first and a bit of a culture shock, but the longer I was there the more I decided how cool it was that I got to experience it. Not a lot of tourist get to do that.



On Sunday the rain was bucketing down all day, and of course I woke up to that dang rooster. We had asked a boy where the nearest chapel was the day before at the market and what time the wards met. It was pretty standard - 9, 11, and 1. We decided to shoot for the 11:00. We walked to the chapel and found it after a few detours; the sign can be recognized anywhere, despite the language! :)

So, we ended up attending three different wards that day.....
We went to 11:00 Sacrament Meeting in one ward, 12:00 Sunday School in another, then finished off with 1:00 Relief Society in a third. Each ward ended the block with Sacrament Meeting but we didn't figure that out til later. It was so interesting - my favorite was when everyone would sing. Tongans are seriously the best singers! We obviously stood out, and were asked to stand up in SS and introduce ourselves. It got dead quiet for a second then a girl in front of us turned around and translated, explaining what we were being asked to do. Phew! In RS the teacher occasionally would turn to a woman and ask her to translate what they were talking about so we could still be part of the lesson. So sweet! Everyone was really friendly.
We just hung out at the guest house for the rest of the day. Angela saved my life and sanity with all of the TV shows and music videos she had on her computer. We watched several of them and had some good laughs.
We also found a Tongan spider in Angela's room - she was a trooper and took care of things...

On Monday we took a tour of the island. Mana came to pick us up around 9 a.m. and there was a couple from NZ that joined us. We went took a quiet, slow drive for several hours. We saw the royal palace, the home of the prince, some historical sites (i.e. where Captain Cook 1st landed in Tonga), blow holes by the ocean, a tiny museum, and the LDS temple.

Throughout the day we were constantly hearing banging noises and finally asked where it was coming from. Mana pulls over on the road in front of a home and we all get out and watch some local ladies making tapa - cloth - by beating it. Really fascinating procedure. They let me try it out.

The blow holes were awesome! The huge waves come crashing up to the rocks, which have cracks in them, creating the water to explode upwards. I was just enthralled.

Graves can be seen all around the island. There is no specified graveyard area - there are just random graves here and there. Most of them are decorated, and all of them have tall mound of dirt on top. I was really curious about that, but Mana said there was no reason for it.

On our last day in the Kingdom of Tonga we went to the market once again, packed up, then went to Cafe Escape (an air-conditioned cafe with wireless internet....we were in heaven!) for a few hours to wait until our flight left. Mana took us to the airport around 5:30 p.m. Once I got through security and customs, I saw this sign and chuckled to myself because of the fact it's not something you see everyday:

It was a good experience for me to be in Tonga, but at this point I was sick of suitcases, living meal to meal and usually off of fruit and PB sandwiches and was anxious to be home again!