Left Hand Drive???

Other more important things take precedence over doing the blog PLUS we only brought one computer along so Sandy has first dibs on it (she bought this minicomputer just before leaving PDX-land). Anyway, we haven't had much internet access for the last month. Who knew that Western Samoa would have this wicked fast internet... our theory is that they plugged into some fiber optic cable from American Samoa. Anyway, it's great to be back in the land of internet, if only for a few days. We still want to get to Tonga in about a week or so. All of the longer passage making is behind us for this visit. Tonga is only about three days away and then we will have the jump to Fiji when Dietmar gets back from a trip to the States. Right now we are just happy as clams at the one and only dock in Apia (or Western Samoa for that matter)!!

There is a developing storm here by way of something that will drive these people crazy. It seems that their elected officials have decided to change which side of the street they will be driving on!! The big change will come September 7th and we would love to be here for this event. Well, sort of. When you look at the cars on the streets they are split pretty evenly between Left Hand Drive (LHD) and Right Hand Drive (RHD) versions. There is a connection with New Zealand/Australia and Japan here so there is an argument to be made for RHD. The big BUT in this is that ALL of the busses are LHD and the passenger doors open to the sidewalk side which will be the traffic side when the change comes. Of course the government mandated that all the buses put doors on the opposite side for safety but the bus owners aren't going along with any of it!! This will surely result in lots of accidents and an article in the local paper mentioned that insurance costs for LHD vehicles is going to go up... and the costs for RHD's will go down. This is will all be something to watch. We hope that nobody is seriously injured in the process but it is not looking good. Just ask anyone on the street. As an ex-insurance guy this is a sideshow that I am interested in.

[Update: We have more information on the switch due to a conversation with a Kiwi woman that Sandy & Suzanne met. Apparently there was a practice road set up for trying out the switch. Things don't look good for this however, in the one month it has been set up there have been seven accidents and one fatality!!! This does not bode well at all. The Prime Minister had been rumored to have said that God told him to do this and that statement shakes up this overly missionaried country. There is real fear here about the change. Additionally, the courts are going to make a ruling on Friday (it is Wednesday as I write) and this may settle the issue but I am not counting on it.]

Separately, we are getting provisioned for the next hop to "New Potato", as the cruisers call it. It is actually Niuatoputapu and it will be the stop that lets us check into the kingdom of Tonga. The great thing here is the island hopping we are doing... it adds some great stamps to our passports!! We have collected some coins and small bills too for the grandchildren. The money here is very fun and colorful so they should like this stuff even more than the Pesos we brought back for them last time we visited. There is not opportunity to collect shells here as it is forbidden but if we could we haven't found much in any case.

This is such a wonderful place in so many ways. We have a place across the street from the marina that we like for breakfast (Wildfire) and the people there are fantastically friendly. We have been chatting and kidding around with one lady there and a good friendship is developing. She said today, "I don't want to ask the wrong question here but are you Dietmar's father?" This produced a bit of a laugh, while am technically old enough to be his father, his Austrian accent alone should be a clue on that. We then asked all sorts of questions about her family and got a view of life here. It was a fun conversation like so many we have had. Another aspect is that we are still collecting CD's of local music wherever we go and Western Samoa has some of the best we have heard!!