Next morning after breakfast, we transferred on the resort's boat back the wharf in Nuku'alofa, and were taken to the Tongan National Museum. We were treated to traditional dance, and demonstrations on how they make Tapa (mangrove tree bark pounded into flat, sort of cloth-like, then coloured and dyed) and weaving, and their cooking. In the actual museum, they have many photos, ancient bits of pottery, many things that help to explain the history of the Tongan people. I found it very interesting and a must see if you go to Tonga. We went back to Nuku'alofa's main street and wandered for a couple of hours.
For lunch, a few of us went to the 'Friends Café'. I would highly recommend this place to anyone who goes to Nuku'alofa. We all had jerk chicken panini sandwiches. Very yummy. Chicken, mayo and pineapple in panini, accompanied by Pineapple Fanta soda pop (I wish I could find it here!). Then we went into a few shops (not many there), and also checked out a Talamahu market just around the corner, off the main street. Some handicrafts and lots of produce (bananas, roots, etc).
All ready for our Western Island Tour: we went to the whistling blowholes. It was really neat. Next we went to see the Peka (Flying Fox bats), and it is like a scene from National Geographic magazine! The trees were just 'dripping' with bats. They were all screechy and sound almost like monkeys.
There are no such things as grocery stores really that I saw. They have grocery 'stalls'. I have not seen anything like it. It's an enclosed stall with bars over the front, and all the food is on shelves inside. You place your order from outside at the counter. There are a few larger ones that you can walk into yourself, but most are these small almost jail cell looking things. They are located every couple blocks. They stock shelf foods and toiletries (except sunblock!!!), nothing fresh.
Across from the bat trees, we had ice cream (imported from New Zealand). They ran out of vanilla flavour, so I had orange and choc chip. It was so hot, and we had to eat quickly because they were melting so quickly!
We got dropped off at our next accommodations for the night: the Lagoon Lodges. It's 2 levels and self-catering. The balconies face diagonally, so they all get a partial view of the ocean.
Our dinner at 'The Good Samaritan Inn' located on the western side of Tongatapu. It was dark, but we could hear the ocean which was right behind the stage. Every Friday evening they have a traditional buffet and floorshow. The place was full (need advance reservations), we said 'Grace' then lined up for our food, and we each got a ticket that we had to hand over to get a plate and cutlery. It was the traditional food once again (roast suckling pig, raw fish, potato salad, etc.),and dessert of fresh fruit and pineapple cake.
After dinner the floorshow got started. Some of the other people attending that evening were a bunch of doctors from NZ who were in Tonga to launch a partnership with Tonga to help children fight cancer. We saw many people wearing yellow that day, but weren't sure why. It was because the official start of the partnership that day, so everyone wore yellow.
The hostess would explain the dance we are about to see and she would dedicate each dance to a group of people or person in the audience. We got a few dances dedicated to our group. The hostess' year old daughter was in there dancing with the girls in her little pink dress, and she definitely stole the show! There was also an amazing man who did fire-dancing. At the end of the evening, two of the main doctors received tapa mats, a very high honour, for all their work. It's the Tongan way of showing appreciation.
On the way back to the hotel, took us about 45 mins and arrived back to Lagoon Lodges about 11:15PM, we were informed that our 6:30AM flight to Vava'u had been changed to 4AM and that they were picking us up at 3AM. So, always give the airline a local phone number where you can be reached in cases like this one! Or, you could also phone the airline the day before as well, just to make sure of the flight time.
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