Port Vila, Vanuatu
Port Vila is the capital of Vanua where the majority of commerce and tourism gake place.
Vanuatu’s culture and customs vary widely, yet there are common themes, particularly the obligation to pay for all services rendered and the finality of anything labelled tabu, which means ‘sacred’ as well as ‘forbidden’. If a part of a traditional ceremony, a section of beach, a cave, anywhere at all, is tabu, it must be respected.
Vanuatu’s population is almost entirely ni-Vanuatu (Melanesian, although some islands have a strong Polynesian heritage), with most people living in rural areas, in villages of fewer than 50 people. There is a drift into towns, particularly Port Vila, in search of work. Ownership of ancestral land, sea and reefs, and everything that comes from them, is fundamental to ni-Vanuatu life. It is held by ni-Van for the future, but land disputes abound. Visitors should always carry some local curency with you as one never knows when you’ll have to pay a fee for swimming, fishing, or looking at or walking on a property. We ran into this issue and it is non-negotiable.
The centre of village life is the nakamal, a men’s clubhouse and clan meeting place, where men meet to discuss village and national issues. A traditional nakamal is always strictly tabu to women. Women, too, have a meeting house, where they produce goods for sale. Women spend many hours in the family garden and watching over the husband’s pigs, while men tend their cash crops, fish, hunt, build boats, carve artefacts and discuss village matters. While the women prepare the evening meal, the men talk in the nakamal and drink kava.
The ship docked at a pier about 1.5 miles from the center of Port Vila. As we left the gated port area, there was a mele as the local taxi drivers were aggressively jostling for the tourist business. We pushed through the crowd on our 45-minute walk to town.
Aside from the ship's passengers, we did not see any tourists. As we wound our way through the local crafts market located next to a seaside park, we found the Nambawan Cafe with open-air seating where we settled down for an espresso drink and try out their Wi-Fi. With other passengers trying to do the same thing, the network was too jammed to enable uploading.
In most of the Melanesian (Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, New Caledonia) parts of the South Pacific, you'll have to pay landowners to visit many island beaches, caves, hot springs and blue holes.
Vanuatu is often called the 'Land of Smiles' – it was named the 'world's happiest place' in a 2006 Happy Planet Index poll but both Debbe and did not find it that way in Luganville and Port Vila. As the country is situated along the Ring of Fire, it is also one of the world's most dangerous places for natural disasters – cyclones, earthquakes, volcanic activity and drought.
Vanuatu’s culture and customs vary widely, yet there are common themes, particularly the obligation to pay for all services rendered and the finality of anything labelled tabu, which means ‘sacred’ as well as ‘forbidden’. If a part of a traditional ceremony, a section of beach, a cave, anywhere at all, is tabu, it must be respected.
Vanuatu’s population is almost entirely ni-Vanuatu (Melanesian, although some islands have a strong Polynesian heritage), with most people living in rural areas, in villages of fewer than 50 people. There is a drift into towns, particularly Port Vila, in search of work. Ownership of ancestral land, sea and reefs, and everything that comes from them, is fundamental to ni-Vanuatu life. It is held by ni-Van for the future, but land disputes abound. Visitors should always carry some local curency with you as one never knows when you’ll have to pay a fee for swimming, fishing, or looking at or walking on a property. We ran into this issue and it is non-negotiable.
The centre of village life is the nakamal, a men’s clubhouse and clan meeting place, where men meet to discuss village and national issues. A traditional nakamal is always strictly tabu to women. Women, too, have a meeting house, where they produce goods for sale. Women spend many hours in the family garden and watching over the husband’s pigs, while men tend their cash crops, fish, hunt, build boats, carve artefacts and discuss village matters. While the women prepare the evening meal, the men talk in the nakamal and drink kava.
The ship docked at a pier about 1.5 miles from the center of Port Vila. As we left the gated port area, there was a mele as the local taxi drivers were aggressively jostling for the tourist business. We pushed through the crowd on our 45-minute walk to town.
Aside from the ship's passengers, we did not see any tourists. As we wound our way through the local crafts market located next to a seaside park, we found the Nambawan Cafe with open-air seating where we settled down for an espresso drink and try out their Wi-Fi. With other passengers trying to do the same thing, the network was too jammed to enable uploading.
In most of the Melanesian (Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, New Caledonia) parts of the South Pacific, you'll have to pay landowners to visit many island beaches, caves, hot springs and blue holes.
Vanuatu is often called the 'Land of Smiles' – it was named the 'world's happiest place' in a 2006 Happy Planet Index poll but both Debbe and did not find it that way in Luganville and Port Vila. As the country is situated along the Ring of Fire, it is also one of the world's most dangerous places for natural disasters – cyclones, earthquakes, volcanic activity and drought.
RSS Feed