VANUATU - APX
VANUATU - APX
VANUATU - APX
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<strong>VANUATU</strong><br />
FACTS:<br />
Visas: Nationals of Commonwealth countries, the<br />
EU, Fiji, Japan, Norway, the Philippines, South<br />
Korea, South Africa, Switzerland and the USA do not<br />
require visas for stays of up to 30 days.<br />
Health risks: Tap water in urban areas is generally<br />
safe but not in rural areas. Visitors to the outer<br />
islands should take precautions for malaria. No<br />
vaccinations required.<br />
Time: GMT/UTC + 11 hours.<br />
Electricity: 220 to 240V 50 Hz.<br />
Weights & measures: Metric<br />
Currency: Vatu (VT)<br />
Full country name: Republic of Vanuatu<br />
Area: 860,000 sq km (533,000 sq mi), 12,336 sq km<br />
(7,650 sq mi) of dry land<br />
Population: 189,000<br />
Capital city: Port Vila (Efate)<br />
People: Melanesian & Polynesian (94%), French<br />
(4%), Chinese, Pacific Islanders and Vietnamese<br />
(2%)<br />
Languages: Bislama ('pidgin' English), French,<br />
English and more than 100 indigenous languages<br />
Religion: Christian (84%), animist (16%)<br />
The southern winter is the best time, from April to October. Expect clear, warm days with an average<br />
temperature of 23°C (73°F). Summer is the wet season and brings warmer weather but it can be<br />
unpleasantly steamy, with the heaviest rains in January. From April to June the islanders on Pentecost<br />
practise land diving to guarantee their yam harvest and from August to November the spectacular clan<br />
alliance dance, or Toka, is held on Tanna (check with the tourist office for the current dates).<br />
Attractions<br />
Port Vila<br />
Efate is the island Cook called Sandwich, after<br />
Lord Sandwich, and is home to Port Vila and most<br />
of the tour operators. An ideal base to plan trips to<br />
the outer isles, Port Vila curves around Vila Bay<br />
and creeps up its steep hillsides. The central<br />
commercial district falls neatly into a small block -<br />
about 1km by 250m (0.5mi by 820ft) - bounded by<br />
the harbour on one side and steep hills on the<br />
other. Kumul Highway is the main drag and the<br />
best thoroughfare from which to explore town. It<br />
winds around the waterfront and leads you past<br />
major landmarks such as the Cultural Centre, the<br />
Constitution Building, the GPO, the fish market<br />
and the covered market.<br />
The French Quarter (Quartier Français) lies just<br />
to the north of central Vila and boasts a handful of<br />
colonial-style houses with French louvred<br />
windows. Rue Emile Mercet affords excellent<br />
views over the harbour. Chinatown is sometimes<br />
called Hongkong Street and lies mostly around<br />
rue Carnot in central Vila. Not far from the<br />
upmarket inner suburb of Nambatu are the<br />
waterfront markets, with the best prices in town<br />
for food, no haggling over prices and no hustling if<br />
you don't want to buy.<br />
The cemetery in Anabrou is worth a visit if you're<br />
interested in old bones and wildly decorated<br />
Chinese and Vietnamese tombstones. It also<br />
gives you an insight into the background of Vila's<br />
population. Independence Park, up the hill from<br />
the Post Office, is where the Condominium was<br />
proclaimed in 1906. It's also where petty British<br />
officials rubbernecked during Condominium rule<br />
to check that the Tricolor fluttering in the breeze<br />
at the former French Residency wasn't upstaging<br />
them by flying any higher than the Union Jack.<br />
While the French and Chinese quarters are in<br />
town, the area around the park is like a corner of<br />
a foreign field forever England, with a village<br />
green, quaint little houses and an English church.<br />
During the dry season you'll even hear the thwack<br />
of a cricket ball on drowsy Saturday afternoons.<br />
Vila is not the cheapest place to stay in Vanuatu,<br />
and while the best accommodation there rivals<br />
the best anywhere in the world, so do the prices.<br />
You can console yourself that Vila offers some of<br />
the best and most varied dining in the Pacific.<br />
Apart from a few hostels, backpackers' lodges<br />
and church-owned accommodation, most of the<br />
rooms are in the middle to top end of the price<br />
range and better suit business travellers and big<br />
dollar tourists than budget travellers. Although<br />
camping is not generally encouraged, you can<br />
pitch a tent in the grounds of the Vanuatu<br />
National Women's Council Guesthouse in<br />
Anabrou, which also offers rooms at a reasonable<br />
rate. There are several backpackers' lodges and<br />
cheaper guesthouses scattered within a short<br />
walk of the city centre.
Mele Bay<br />
There's little at Mele Bay above water level, so if<br />
you're not into diving keep on driving. Underwater,<br />
the attractions just keep on coming; coral heads,<br />
shipwrecks and an undulating topography to keep<br />
you on the edge of your flippers. More sites are<br />
being discovered all the time, but Black Sand<br />
Reef is one of the most popular sites around,<br />
replete with coral caves, tunnels and outcrops.<br />
Gotham City is an extravagantly colourful reef<br />
named for the large resident population of batfish.<br />
One of the best dives, with a spectacular array of<br />
tunnels and underwater holes, is at The<br />
Cathedral, and Tuki Tuki has excellent visibility<br />
and enormous chasms that divers can swim<br />
through. Semle Feders and MV Konanda are<br />
two accessible wrecks scuttled in 1985 and 1987,<br />
for the not-so-serious and the very-serious diver<br />
respectively. Mele Bay is 4km (2.5mi) north-west<br />
of Port Vila, and you can reach it on foot or by<br />
taxi.<br />
Erromango Island<br />
The population of Erromango, once estimated at<br />
10,000, is now around 1500. Some locals say the<br />
depopulation - caused by introduced disease and<br />
blackbirding - was in retribution for missionaries<br />
killed last century. The Martyrs' Church at<br />
Dillon's Bay has small tablets in memory of the<br />
preachers welcomed with open mouths by locals<br />
yet to kick their boutique meat habit. Sandalwood<br />
first brought Erromango to the attention of<br />
Europeans, and the forests on this mountainous<br />
island are still a fine reason to visit. Many people<br />
come to trek independently along myriad paths<br />
that cross the island, but you need to hire a guide<br />
for some of the more rugged walks. Huge kauri<br />
reserves, sheltered estuaries with white sandy<br />
beaches, caves full of bleached and mineralised<br />
skulls, and tropical rainforests with diverse flora<br />
are highlights. Erromango is just over 100km<br />
(60mi) south of Efate, and Vanair has return<br />
flights from Vila.<br />
Pentecost Island<br />
Pentecost is home to the spectacularly frightening<br />
naghol, as land diving is known there, and under<br />
the maxim that you should fall before you can<br />
walk many boys are primed for land diving from<br />
an early age. Despite a flimsy overlay of<br />
Christianity many islanders live traditional<br />
lifestyles and adhere strictly to indigenous beliefs.<br />
If you aren't interested in watching the land dive<br />
you can do your own underwater diving at Laone<br />
or visit hot springs at Hotwata. Melsisi is a fine<br />
place to see kava and cocoa plantations, and<br />
from south-west Pentecost you get splendid views<br />
of Ambrym and its actively puffing volcanoes.<br />
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Pentecost is 190km (118mi) due north of Vila, and<br />
there are return flights from both Vila and<br />
Luganville.<br />
Luganville<br />
Luganville is a messy collection of corroded,<br />
corrugated iron WWII huts, ugly concrete slabs<br />
and rusting steel sea walls, with no decent<br />
beaches unless you like walking on coral the<br />
consistency of broken glass. Dining out is limited,<br />
although the market is reasonable for the budgetconscious.<br />
There's no night-life to speak of other<br />
than numerous nakamals (kava bars), and they'll<br />
become very attractive if you have to spend too<br />
much time here. Nevertheless Luganville is a<br />
good base for trips to the northern islands, such<br />
as Pentecost, Maewo and the Torres group.<br />
Down the road from town is Million Dollar Point,<br />
where the US military dumped tons of equipment<br />
- including canned food, bulldozers, trucks, jeeps<br />
and crates of Coca Cola - at the end of the war.<br />
Most of that is now encrusted by coral, making for<br />
great diving in the still, shallow water. More good<br />
diving is to be had 10km (6mi) across the Segond<br />
Channel from Luganville on Bokissa Island,<br />
which has a resort, restaurant, bar and swimming<br />
pool. Luganville is the capital of Espiritu Santo<br />
Island, 260km (160mi) north-west of Port Vila.<br />
There are daily flights from Vila to Pekoa Airport,<br />
6km (3.7mi) outside Luganville.<br />
Off the Beaten Track<br />
Torres Islands<br />
When the South-East Trade Winds are blowing in<br />
the far north of the archipelago the surf is up in<br />
the Torres Islands, and even if it's not, the brilliant<br />
white beaches are still worth a laze. Only four of<br />
the six main islands are populated, and the<br />
Polynesian influence is at its strongest here. They<br />
get so few visitors this way that the shops are not<br />
geared up to tourists, so you'd be wise to bring<br />
some of your own supplies. Coconut crabs,<br />
elsewhere a delicacy, constitute an important part<br />
of the local diet and you can pick them up<br />
cheaply. On Toga Island, children as young as<br />
seven smoke tobacco, using coconut crab claws<br />
as pipes. Hand stencils are visible on the walls at<br />
Yeyenwu Caves on Hiu Island, the northernmost<br />
island in the group, and they will keep stalactite<br />
and stalacmite buffs entertained for hours. You<br />
can see Vanikolo in the Solomons from Mt<br />
Wonvaraon on Hiu. Flights leave from Luganville<br />
for Linua, and from there you can get around in<br />
outrigger canoes or speedboats.<br />
Gaua Island
Dominated by Mt Garet, which puffs steam, ash,<br />
sulphur and smoke into the air, Gaua Island is<br />
renowned for its natural beauty. Lake Letas lies<br />
on an ash plain at the top of the mountain, and<br />
the lake's extraordinary ability to carry the<br />
reflection of passing ships hundreds of metres<br />
below has earned it the more prosaic name of<br />
Lake Reflection. At 7km (4.3mi) long, it is one of<br />
the largest freshwater lakes in the South Pacific,<br />
although volcanic sulphur has stained the waters<br />
orange-brown. Thousands of birds come here to<br />
feed, and incubator birds lay their eggs close by,<br />
abandoning them to incubate in the warm mud.<br />
De Quiros estimated that 200,000 people lived on<br />
Gaua, most likely a gross exaggeration to impress<br />
the Spanish king, but dozens of stone ruins and<br />
dry stone walls reclaimed by forest attest to a time<br />
when Gaua supported a larger population than<br />
the 1300 it does today. Trekking on Gaua is<br />
strenuous, but the lake and Siri Falls are worth it.<br />
The falls drop away into dense forest shrouded in<br />
mist. The Banks Group, of which Gaua is the<br />
second largest, is serviced by air from Luganville,<br />
and speedboats ply between the islands. Small<br />
trading ships also service it from Luganville.<br />
Maewo Island<br />
volcanoes, Mt Inrerow Atahein and Mt<br />
Tahentchai. Accessible reefs, such as Port<br />
Patrick and Inmal Reef, are ideal for diving and<br />
hot springs at Umetch, Itchepthav Bay and<br />
Anwunupol offer a rewarding soak at the end of<br />
a long day. The locals at Anawamet have created<br />
an offshore marine sanctuary to protect the<br />
numerous turtles that feed there, whereas they<br />
are hunted for food elsewhere on the island.<br />
Vanair links Aneityum to Vila.<br />
History<br />
Some of the islands have been populated<br />
continuously for thousands of years and others<br />
are still uninhabited today. The earliest known<br />
settlement was on Malo Island, where pottery at<br />
least 4000 years old has been unearthed.<br />
Prehistoric cultures in Vanuatu were plagued by<br />
inter-tribal warfare. The tribes' rich spiritual life<br />
attributed all natural and human-induced bad luck<br />
or calamities to sorcery, and they staged lavish<br />
festivals to appease the gods. The elaborate<br />
burial chamber of a nobleman buried in AD1265<br />
was excavated on Eretoka Island, off the coast of<br />
Efate, and bears evidence of human sacrifice.<br />
A needle-thin chunk of land on the maps,<br />
Maewo's central mountainous ridge draws more<br />
than 4000mm (that's 4m, or 13ft) of rain annually.<br />
Not surprisingly, the rivers run fast and the jungle<br />
grows thick. A magnificent waterfall surrounded<br />
by deep waterholes lies near the airstrip. Two<br />
coral monoliths at the village of Kerembai<br />
represent people turned to stone in the island's<br />
mythic past. Sorcery, secret societies and a rich<br />
mythology flourish on the island despite, or<br />
perhaps because of, its tragic history. About 90%<br />
of Maewo's population was wiped out by disease<br />
and blackbirding during the 19th century. Avoid<br />
Maewo during the mid-year yam harvest, when<br />
the mid-year hurters, masked men wearing sacks<br />
and banana leaves chase and beat people with<br />
thorny sticks. Hot springs at Lolarouk and<br />
Gaiofo, and cascades at Naone make Maewo<br />
worth more than a flying visit, and you can dive on<br />
a wrecked blackbirding vessel at Talise. Reach<br />
Maewo by air from Luganville or on the Aloara,<br />
that sails from Vila and Luganville.<br />
Aneityum Island<br />
The southernmost of Vanuatu's islands, Aneityum<br />
arguably has the most pleasant climate. Tropical<br />
fruits and vegetables grow luxuriantly and a<br />
walking track that loops around the island makes<br />
trekking an attractive prospect. It is harder work<br />
in the interior, but worth it for the magnificent<br />
mountain scenery punctuated by massive kauri<br />
pines and ancient waterfalls. Three mountains<br />
dominate the interior, two of them extinct<br />
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Explorer Pedro Fernandez de Quiros laid eyes on<br />
the islands in 1606, naming the first one he<br />
sighted Nuestra Señora de Austrialia del Espiritu<br />
Santo, known today simply as Santo. His lofty - if<br />
quixotic - ideal was to found New Jerusalem in<br />
the Pacific on the banks of a river he called the<br />
Jordan. But the locals didn't really want to be<br />
saved and the prevailing south-easterlies<br />
continually hindered the Spanish landings. De<br />
Quiros wandered off into the Pacific not long after<br />
he arrived, presumably believing his failure had<br />
condemned the unsuspecting ni-Vanuatu to burn<br />
for eternity. Among the Spanish, Portuguese and<br />
French explorers who followed was Louis Antoine<br />
de Bougainville, who wrote that he had been<br />
'transported to the garden of Eden'. The<br />
Englishman Captain James Cook was perhaps<br />
less starry-eyed in 1774 when he wrote that the<br />
traditional manner of preparing kava 'is as simple<br />
as it is disgusting'.<br />
Vanuatu's more recent history brims with a<br />
panoply of pulpit-pounding priests, scurrilous<br />
slavers and fumbling colonial bureaucrats. Hot on<br />
the heels of the explorers came the adventurers<br />
to harvest whales and sandalwood and the<br />
missionaries to harvest souls. The Europeans<br />
brought epidemics of influenza and measles,<br />
venereal disease and the slave trade, and the<br />
populations of some islands, particularly in the<br />
north, have never recovered. The English and<br />
French, often at war with each other last century,<br />
settled uneasily next to each other in the New<br />
Hebrides, as the archipelago was known until<br />
independence, and formed probably the strangest
colonial administration the world has seen. Two<br />
declared enemies were sitting in each other's<br />
pockets and forced to cooperate in a far-flung<br />
outpost of the European empire. They finally<br />
settled on a joint mandate early this century with<br />
the Anglo-French Protocol (the 'Condominium',<br />
sometimes referred to as the 'Pandemonium'),<br />
establishing equal influence for both powers.<br />
By far the greatest misery inflicted on the<br />
islanders was 'blackbirding', the South Seas' own<br />
version of slavery that continued into the early<br />
years of the 20th century. Thousands of ni-<br />
Vanuatu were persuaded and downright<br />
kidnapped to work on the sugar and cotton<br />
plantations of Queensland and Fiji, and many<br />
never returned. WWII brought a massive influx of<br />
US military personnel to Efate and Santo, which<br />
became crucial bases in the Pacific War. The<br />
country was awash with American know-how and<br />
dollars, and many ni-Vanuatu earned real wages<br />
for the first time in their lives. More importantly,<br />
the islanders observed black Americans enjoying<br />
the material benefits and luxuries afforded the<br />
whites, and this played no small part in their<br />
agitation for independence.<br />
In the late 1960s the Nagriamel movement began<br />
to attract thousands of followers, mostly in the<br />
northern islands. Its leader was Chief President<br />
Moses (Jimmy Tupou Patuntun Stevens), and it<br />
was originally confined to obtaining rights to the<br />
'dark bush', the land Europeans had never<br />
claimed or settled. Nagriamel became<br />
increasingly politicised, however, and petitioned<br />
the United Nations in 1971 for an 'act of free<br />
choice' over the archipelago's independence.<br />
Britain and France agreed that under the terms of<br />
the Condominium neither would withdraw without<br />
the other, which became a recipe for inaction.<br />
They were finally dragged to constitutional reform<br />
by 1974-75, and as the islanders agitated for<br />
further rights they conceded to elections.<br />
Condominium bureaucrats could see the writing<br />
on the sand by then - even they were aware of<br />
the stink of colonialism in the modern world.<br />
Independence was set for mid-1980, but amid<br />
widespread secessions the Condominium<br />
fractured over its inability to agree on much more<br />
than the height to fly their standards. Anglo-<br />
French troops could not halt the violence and<br />
looting that broke out even in the larger towns,<br />
and the local government finally called in troops<br />
from PNG to restore order and declared<br />
independence on 30 July 1980. The 1990s have<br />
seen bouts of instability in government. A scheme<br />
by the paramilitary Vanuatu Mobile Force to<br />
overthrow the government and establish martial<br />
law over a pay dispute was thwarted in 1996.<br />
Allegations of massive bank fraud by members of<br />
the Carlot Korman government were aired the<br />
same year, and continuing political uncertainty<br />
has seen the economy slow down, foreign<br />
investment fall and the economy shrink despite<br />
the flood of money that has washed in owing to<br />
the country's tax-haven status. In February 1997<br />
the government signed an agreement with the<br />
Asian Development Bank to significantly<br />
restructure the economy with private investment<br />
funds.<br />
In November 1997 Vanuatu's president, Jean-<br />
Marie Leye, dissolved parliament and called fresh<br />
elections. He made the decision so Vanuatu could<br />
find a solution to its problems and because the<br />
current government had not kept its promises.<br />
Despite elections and a new governement in<br />
March 1998 there was another change late 1999.<br />
Around the same time Vanuatu was hit by an<br />
earthquake and tidal wave which caused<br />
extensive damage on Pentecost Island.<br />
Getting Around<br />
Hiring cars, 4WDs and jeeps is relatively<br />
straightforward, and the taxis are plentiful and all<br />
metered. Mini buses are frequent but<br />
untimetabled; simply flag down the driver, tell him<br />
where you want to go and pay a set price per trip.<br />
Efate has around 240km (148mi) of sealed roads<br />
and Santo has 370km (230mi), but sealed doesn't<br />
mean free from potholes. Many of the roads on<br />
the outer islands are off limits during the wet<br />
season. If you want to island-hop it's usually<br />
better to fly because inter-island passenger boats<br />
are irregular.<br />
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