Vanuatu

What a remarkable place was Vanuatu. I bragged about the private swimming pool we had, the deck overlooking a coral lagoon and the warm and balmy weather. But this is what the tourist thinks make a good holiday. Sure, the luxury was amusing and novel, but here is what I actually enjoyed about Vanuatu.
There must be something about island folk which they all share in their genes. Visiting Jamaica some years ago was my first island experience and it was as laid back and magical as purported to be through anyone’s imagination. Just the name conjures up a sense of chilling by the beach with daiquiri in hand. Travelling around the south pacific these past has amplified this impression, regardless of the island. Samoa and Niue made me envious of the simple lifestyle which produces such happy smiles and healthy lifestyles. Vanuatu blows them all away, with a charm and seduction I wasn’t expecting. Before travelling in that direction, I read that people from Vanuatu have been judged the happiest in the world by an international grade – two years running! A likely story, I chuckled to myself, just wanting to get the tourist dollars I bet. But walking around the streets and villages, in areas that often have no electricity or running water, and all you see are big flashy smiles. Children running around, playing and laughing, and not an iPod or Nintendo Wii in sight. Adults sitting and watching the kids, cutting wood or just talking quietly amongst themselves before exploding in riotous laughter. Youths displaying the typically slow walking style I call the ‘tropical shuffle’ while walking to a market. It was so refreshing to see that we don’t all live in a hectic and stressful world and that maybe, we can all be like that. I know I am romanticising the island way a little, but do we really need everything us civilised westerners have? Do we really need to do everything we do in a day to validate our existence and to make us happy? We have a different lifestyle which will not tolerate radical changes. But I realise there are little things we can do to emulate an island style. I plan to smile more as I pass people, not avert my eyes to the ground or star vacantly in a shop window. I can walk a little slower when I am around home or doing the shopping. Really, who am I hurrying for? I can take pleasure in what is outside, not the television, this computer, or even a book. If I can do little things like these, then what I have learnt last week will always remain with me. One of life’s lessons.

Queensland...are you still there?

I'd like to be thankful that the previously mentioned tropical depression passed Vanuatu and didn't ruin our tropical vacation which is due to begin tomorrow.  But then I see the news and how the storm turned in to the largest cyclone to ever hit Queensland and has had a devastating impact on thousands of people, and I begin to feel selfish.  What a trade off - a holiday inconvenience or wide spread damage of my homeland?  I wish I had been in a position to have made a choice.