Nov 232014
 

I should subtitle this entry “because there hasn’t been enough drama already” but I’ll resist. Woke up to an email…my Virgin Australia flight had been canceled. For some reason, the inbound was canceled so might flight was canceled as well. Called Virgin, and they said “no problem, you’ve been rebooked for tomorrow.” Um, I don’t want to go tomorrow, I want to go today. Ugh.

Fortunately, my good friends at Solomons Air also had a flight that day…but Virgin wouldn’t rebook me on it. It actually took nearly 30 minutes of fighting to get them to agree to give me a refund. Ugh. There was an upside though – the new flight on Solomons wasn’t actually about $100 cheaper booked day of…so in the end, things actually worked out well!

Got to the airport only about an hour before the flight after all the drama, but no problems at all. Checked in, got the exit row again, and life was grand.

IMG_5208

Oh look, same plane as a couple days prior! That’s because Solomons only has one jet…

IMG_5210

Welkam on board!

IMG_5211

Solomons Airlines flight 700
Honiara, Solomon Islands (HIR) to Brisbane, Australia (BNE)
Depart 15:00, Arrive 17:15, Flight Time 3:15
Airbus A320, Registration H4-BUS (ex Air Canada) Manufactured 1992, Seat 15C

The flight was only about half full today, which meant I had the entire exit row to myself. Score! Double score…there was no sketchy sandwiich on this flight but a proper meal. It was described as “beef” and was actually reasonably tasty:

IMG_5212

Quick shot how the “other half” lives on the way out.

IMG_5215

Landed right on time, and decided to give the eGates at Australian immigration a try, not wanting a repeat of my experience coming into Darwin. It worked like a charm, and soon I was on the airport express train downtown and back to the Four Points hotel. The downtown area was an absolute security nightmare, with the G20 set to happen in a couple of days.

Checked in, had a quick shower, and headed out to get some dinner. While I was talking to the front desk lady about something, I heard a loud popping sound, kind of like if someone had popped a giant piece of bubble wrap. I looked around expecting to see something broken, on fire, something. What I didn’t expect to see is a giant flying creature that apparently I had stepped on.

IMG_5219

Quiet evening, caught up on sleep a bit, and then had another full day to decide what to do. With the giant security mess, I decided I would get out of dodge for the day and see something new. Caught the train down to the Gold Coast…or at least attempted to. It took me like three tries to figure out the trains…because not every train goes to every station. Then you need to take a bus. Then, your iPhone decides to die when the bus drops you off, so you have no idea where anything is in town. Yeah, that.

Grabbed some lunch, and my iPhone decided to come back to life. I had an email from my hotel…note this was about 2pm. The email told me they were sorry, but needed me to move out of my upgraded room to my original room no later than 4pm. Um, you told me at check-in I had the room for both nights. Replied that I’m sorry, at the beach for the day, but happy to discuss with them when I return. This was followed up by an email instructing me if I couldn’t move on time, I would have to pay for the upgraded room. Uh, you expect people to sit around their hotel all day waiting? Then, they offered to pack up my belongings and move them for me. Um, no. That’s a recipe  for things to get lost and the blame game to start.

Finally, sent them an email saying I was really disappointed in the way they were treating a platinum member over what is a $50 a night upgrade. (It was just a high floor room.) They went silent. When I got back later, the new manager on duty was very apologetic, offered Starpoints in compensation, said I could keep the room, and said “this whole situation could have been handled much better.” Ok, apology accepted.

Back to enjoying the beach. Wandered around for a bit, and what do we have here:

IMG_5235

Couldn’t resist, and had a very fun hour or so trying! Sometimes, the most fun travel experiences are the ones that are totally unplanned. I went down to the Gold Coast with no plans what so ever, and ended up having an unexpected great time.

A few shots of the beach at Surfers Paradise:

IMG_5237

IMG_5238

IMG_5240

Post-surfing lesson reward. Mmmm…

IMG_5243

Surfers Paradise has this meter maid thing down. I think I’m going to suggest to DC that they make this the meter maid uniform in DC as well:

IMG_5245

Caught the train back in time to get some quick dinner before crashing early. It had been an unexpectedly busy day going down to the beach (rough life, I know) and was going to be an even earlier morning with the flight to Auckland!

Nov 222014
 

Taxi driver was quite chatty, which I later learnt was because he was hoping to negotiate with me to be my driver for the entire time I was in the country. Decided to pass on his generous offer, and in no time was at my hotel, the King Solomon. Online reviews of all the hotels in Honiara were rather mixed, so I decided to go with this one since I was told it had the most local character, and met my three C requirements: clean, cool, and comfortable. Well, the lobby was certainly festive at least:

IMG_5150

IMG_5153

Check-in was…interesting. No credit card asked for, no nothing, more of a here’s your key…enjoy. Um, ok. Unfortunately, the first room had broken AC and the second I tried was just marginally better. Decided to stick with the second, because the room was at least a bit larger. When I’d booked online, it was very unclear what the difference was between all the room categories, so I decided to book the cheapest one and hope for the best. It seemed based on the AC muck up I might have gotten upgraded, but it was hard to tell since the staff never wanted to say more than two or three words to me.

Spent my first afternoon just walking around central Honiara, and taking it all in. There really wasn’t too much to see it appeared, but it was one of those places where people watching was the highlight. Unfortunately, it was late Sunday afternoon so everything was closed, and that combined with the sweltering heat and humidity cut the afternoon short. I decided to decamp to the hotel pool, which seemed to be where all the local long-term expat residents congregate on Sunday afternoons and get absolutely trashed. I mean fall down drunk. It was a rather depressing example of expats behaving badly. I mean, I’m far from a teatotler but it always surprises me in some of the more developing countries just how much drinking / partying / smoking goes on in the expat community. Is it a case of “nothing else to do” or something else? Observations?

After pool time and a drink at the hotel bar, decided to stay in for dinner as I was advised nothing was open on Sunday evening really, and safety is a concern. Plus, I was told the food at the hotel was probably better than anything I’d find outside anyways. Seems some nights, the hotel does dinner and a performance. I was seated right next to the stage:

IMG_5154

The King Solomon restaurant. I sat down for nearly ten minutes before I realized the staff had no interest in waiting on me and if I wanted anything I was going to have to go up to the front counter and order. The choice was some meat and potatoes dish, or pizza. The pizza was recommended online as being pretty good, so I decided to go with that:

IMG_5155

Chicken satay pizza and a SB beer. Pretty darn tasty:

IMG_5156

Gee, I wonder where the hotel stole…I mean got…their napkins from…

IMG_5157

An observation on dinner..I was getting the impression that the Solomon Islands are kind of like Australia’s Thailand. There were two tables in the restaurant where groups of heavyset middle-aged Australian men (40s-50s) were having dinner with the Solomon Islander “girlfriends” who looked to be barely 20, if that. The poor girls were eating like they’d never seen food before, until in a few cases the men informed them they were done and going back to the room. Ugh. Honestly, it made me really uncomfortable and was rather depressing.

I ended up chatting briefly with an American guy who was having dinner alone, and he said that in many cases people come here for a few months for work, live at this hotel, meet local girls, and then end up staying for years in some cases. He said that the majority of the people at the hotel were long-term residents, several months minimum.

Onto more interesting topics, did I mention the hotel had a funicular for getting to the rooms? Awesome!

IMG_5161

IMG_5164

IMG_5166

Slept in slightly the next day before going diving. The visibility wasn’t all that great, but dove two different World War Two wrecks that were easy dives from shore. Both gradually sloped down to between 110 and 130 feet, and were really cool to see. The first wreck was the Hirokawa Maru, also known as Bonegi I. It’s a Japanese transport ship of 6860 tons with an overall length of 508 feet. The bottom sits at about 160 feet, although we didn’t go that far down.

The second dive was the wreck of the Kinugawa Maru, also know as Bonegi II. This was a 436 foot long transport ship as well, with part sitting just above the water line. The stern sits in about 90 feet of water, so was really easy to explore. Overall they were both great dives, and I’m bummed I forgot to charge my camera battery so didn’t manage to get any pictures.

After the dives, grabbed lunch at a local cafe which seemed to be where all the wives of the local expats hung out. It was seriously like a ladies who lunch convention.

IMG_5171

Back to the hotel, where I chilled out for the evening, had more pizza, and just relaxed since I was leaving rather early the next morning. The entrance to the hotel. Welkam!

IMG_5172

Posing with the goofy lobby statue:

IMG_5190

The next morning, settled the bill…which took nearly 30 minutes partly because the staff weren’t interested in moving quickly and partly because there were so many slips of paper to sort out and add up. Finally got things sorted, and it was off to the airport for a few relaxing days in Brisbane and Auckland before continuing with more island hopping!

Nov 202014
 

I seemed to remember the airport in Port Vila being rather small from my trip a few years ago, but Priority Pass also promised that there was a lounge, so I made plans to get there around two hours before flight time just in case Solomons Air  presented any problems.

Took nearly 30 minutes to check in due to a long line…I mean, based on the sign it was an incredibly busy airport today!

IMG_5131

Checked in, got the exit row, no problems about having two bags and likely being slightly overweight, and soon it was time for “pre-boarding metal detecting” whatever that is. I mean, it’s not like this has been going on for nearly fifty years now!

IMG_5132

Our plane was already here (from the night before it appeared) so that was a good sign!

IMG_5133

Found the lounge, which was a rather tiny room, with this impressive snack collection. Although the crisps were asking “BITE ME!” on the package, I resisted, having already bitten brekky back at the hotel.

IMG_5134

The lounge. Yes, this is all of it.

IMG_5136

It was still early. Too early for a beer. However, leave it to Kiwis to set a bad example. After I’d been there 15 minutes, a guy waiting for the New Zealand flight came in, plopped down next to me, and headed straight for the serve yourself bar…where he put away three rather large glasses of white wine in the span of 15 minutes. When he went for a fourth, I decided it wasn’t too early for a beer after all:

IMG_5142

More pidgin in their slogan “bia blong yumi” Bia, obviously, being beer, and yumi being self explanatory. Blong is a pidgin word that seems to appear everywhere. I ecountered it during  my first trip to Vanuatu when the then-Le Meridien gave me a sheet of helpful local phrases. One of them was “baskit blong titi.” Baskit being basket, titi being, well, breasts, and blong showing possession. They translated it as “coconut bra” which I guess made sense as a “basket for titis.” So Bia Blong Yumi is a way of saying Yumi is a quality that is owned by the beer. Got it? Good.

Boarded about 15 minutes late, but no biggie.

Solomons Airlines flight 703
Port Vila, Vanuatu (VLI) to Honiara, Solomon Islands (HIR)
Depart 11:00, Arrive 13:00, Flight Time 2 hours
Airbus A320, Registration H4-BUS (ex Air Canada) Manufactured 1992, Seat 15C

The flight was completely full today, but I had the exit row so no worries. I saw many of my new friends from the diversion to Espiritu Santo on this flight, and it was really showing the impact that cutting direct flights was having. Quick shot of the airport from my seat:

IMG_5145

Oh, look what we have in the in-flight magazine. An explanation of what’s going on!

IMG_5147

One hour forty minute flight, and the interior of the aircraft was absolutely spotless. Looking on line, I saw the plane was ancient and spent a previous life with Air Canada, but it had obviously been refurbished lately and was very well taken care of since then. If you didn’t know how old it was you’d have no clue.

“Meat sandwich” was the snack. I opted to stick with a SolBrew and the cookies. Scary mayonnaise and I don’t mix.

IMG_5148

Landed right on time, and immigration was a zoo. It was boiling hot in the immigration waiting area, and the lines were moving at Solomons speed. There was one person checking passport, and another half dozen or so standing around doing God knows what. “Supervising” would be my guess. Took over an hour to get through the passport line, and when I did the promised hotel transfer was of course no where to be found. No problem negotiating a taxi, and it was time to explore country #166 visited…Solomon Islands!