22nd February
Friday. Went for another exploratory walk through the gardens, it’s a tropical botanists dream world. Found some dendrobium orchids growing high up in the canopy, a lot of butterflies, and birds, all living happily 100’ above everything. There is a tree with large brown fruit like an over grown kiwi fruit, hanging off the branches on long stems. I had a fairly good idea, managed to get one of the fruit down, and checked in my reference files. It’s a tamarind tree, about 3 months away from the fruit being ripe yet though. I asked the crew at work about it, but they said they never knew what it was, and just left the fruit to rot on the ground when they fell. I’ve found another couple the weekend, so I’ll be collecting the fruit when it’s ripe. The pulp is great for Asian style cooking, sour/sweet flavour that is good in soups and drinks.
I’m getting to recognise all the different palms now, they have come from all over the Pacific area, and a few from as far as Madagascar and Australia. Very few Draceana, I was hoping to find more than the few I’ve seen, and I think those have been imports rather than native.
Went out for dinner with Steve and his wife, Debbie from World Vision, and Bruce and Gwen to the Taj Mahal restaurant on the airport road. I’m still not used to the prices here, side stuff like pappadoms, (1) were $10, paratha and naan bread the same for each. Most of the entrée dishes were $30 - $40, and the mains started at $70 for dhal curries, and up to $90 for prawn curry. The meals are nice though, it’s a mix of Indian and Sri Lankan styles, I was hoping for a bit more chilli, they were a bit bland for me.
Thanks Steve for paying!
Just for interest, here are Fridays exchange rates
SBD$100 = US$12.84
= CAD$16.25
= NZ$25.30
= AUS$20.23
= €10.20
= ₤9.01
My poor Nikon digital has finally given up on me. It never recovered from being drowned in the rain a year ago in Scotland at the Runrig concert at Drumnadrochit, it has limped along, sometimes sticking and other times working.
I walked into Honiara this morning, (Saturday) hoping to get some pics of the town. I made it to the Museum grounds, taking pics along the way. Managed to get pics of all the different island houses, each province has it’s own distinctive style, when the lens finally stuck shut, and refused to work again. It’s either some grit in the lens barrel, or the water has finally corroded the drive. I’m trying the last ditch method of putting it in a container and freezing it, if it is grit the contraction by freezing may shake any grit loose, but I’m not holding my breath over it. Back to the Pentax film camera for a while, I’m dreading to find out how much it costs to have film developed here, although I can get away without prints, and just scan the negative as jpeg images.
Something I really noticed walking into Honiara, is just how much rubbish is everywhere. Plastic bags, bottles, cans, household rubbish dumped over the nearest wall or beach edge, into the river, the main shopping area is strewn with cans, betel nut husks, paper, rubbish, even though there are rubbish bins everywhere. The footpath is a mix of concrete, ashphalt and stones and dirt. You find yourself wishing for a major flood to clean it all out. The council do have a crew that go around emptying the bins, but it is a bit haphazard. The YWCA where I was going for Toktok lessons, had waited 2 weeks for their bins to be emptied, the crew from the Botanic gardens are responsible for the bins in the parks and gardens, they go out every Friday on the pick up round, well, half of them, the rest rake the lawns and tidy the Botanic garden area up for the weekend
I’m slowly building up another album in my Webshots site
http://community.webshots.com/user/VWKombi
if you’re interested.
It’s close to another rain burst here, the air is hot, muggy, and you can feel the pressure building. The sky over the mountains is black, or it was just before sunset, I’m hoping for a good rainfall tonight, I planted out some bean, courgette and bush cucumber seeds earlier today, in the little garden patch I’m working on. They’ll need a good soaking, although the ground is still moist from the other day.
At some time in the past there must have been a really good earthquake here, the ridge I am living on, and all the other high ground around Honiara is made up of coral reef. It’s been uplifted about 300’ or more in places, although the higher ledges may be from earlier earthquakes. I’ve got a few pics of the exposed coral just down from my house.
I finally got hold of O2 in Ireland about my mobile phone. They want me to buy €150 worth of prepay card before they will give me the unlock code, about NZ$430, I can buy another better phone for less than that, so it’s bin time for the nokia. I sent off a reply to O2 about how I felt. Buy time for a phone I’ll probably never be in Ireland again to use? Excuse me.
I’m not sure about this laptop, I’m used to being able to use alt codes on the number pad for symbols, trying to find a € through insert/symbol/sans serif/scroll is a pain. Anyone know a quicker method?
Other than hooking up a separate keyboard
Edit: Found out, reassigned some commands so I’m all happy again alt + 1 =
€ alt + 2 = ₤. I’ll be playing all night now, so long as I remember what I’ve assigned without having to keep going back and checking.
$600 doesn’t go far here. I needed a few more plastic containers, there’s only one store in town that has good ones, as opposed to the really cheap ones that crack when you try to get the lid on. $114 for a set of 4 round containers, from about 10” diameter to 4’ diameter. I did score well on the coffee though, 2x 250gm packets of Café Aurora Medaglia D’oro expresso for $117.20. A loaf of bread from the Fresh Bread Shop is $10. They have small denomination coins here, 5, 10, 20, 50 cent, but no one uses them, you get them as change, then just throw them in a drawer until you get enough to make it worthwhile going to the bank and changing them for notes.
Everything here is shipped in, and then sold by the weight and/or freight cost, every shop is full of the really cheap (elsewhere) Chinese and Indian made stuff. Pots, plates (plastic type) knives forks spoons, are all the lightweight stuff that gives up quickly. It’s all lightweight, but still priced at quality prices.
There’s a thriving black market in beche de mer here. The marketing is meant to be regulated, but some of the more distant provinces are being targeted by Korean and Singaporean fishing boats, and areas are being totally denuded of beche de mer and being sold illegally for the Singaporean and Korean markets.
I found out how everyone prepares for the ferry trips here to the outer islands. Near the wharf is a patch of open ground, with a large shade tree (Delonix regia) and everyone gathers there around the betel nut sellers, chews furiously for a while, then wanders aboard the ferry blissfully stoned.
Got caught at the Bulk Bin Shop earlier today, that’s happening to me a lot, I’ll eventually get used to everything here. I was after some flour to make paratha and puri, and one of the bins was labelled gluten flour, which is good for paratha and puri as it allows them to stretch. Anyway, I bought 2 kilos, $60.50, wasn’t till I got home and checked it, it’s pure gluten, great for making glue on it’s own, but I’ll have to get some plain flour to mix with it. I’ve now got enough gluten to last me most of this year, a tablespoon or so in a mix is all I need. And it’s Saturday afternoon, so everything is shut now.
Still no rain, it’s humid, sticky and hot. Thankfully I have my sarong still, it’s almost too much to wear at times though, and I’m sure the locals would have **words** to say if I wore less. You don’t wear brief swimming suits here, other than at the hotels and resorts, everyone wears board shorts and T-shirts to go swimming at the public beaches.
Sunday
Still no rain, if yesterday was hot and humid, today is 20% over that. Pulled the Nikon out of the freezer, and it’s working, sort of, so took the chance and went for a drive up Skyline Ridge and got some pics of the USA War Memorial, then continued on west of town to Turtle Beach for a swim.
It’s about 12 km out of town, past Bonegi beach, which is the one you see in pics of Honiara, all palm trees and sand beach. Turtle beach is a series of small roadways off the main road, down to small, about 5 – 6 car parking places, and not a lot of beach. The water is like a warm bath, and very salty, well, compared to New Zealand. Spent a couple of hours swimming, getting dry, swimming, getting dry, once I had a layer of salt on me I thought enough. And it’s one of the few places you can get away with wearing briefer swimming suits.
The water is really clear, even with out a mask, you can see down 20 – 30 feet, I’ll get a mask and snorkel and swim out to the wrecks next time. One is only 20 m off the beach.
Asked the man collecting the money ($20) what the fishing is like there, he recommended it, so once my rods arrive I’ll go out there for the day.
All the beaches are family owned, you pay on average $20 for access, a few charge depending on if you’re going swimming, fishing or diving. Then it can rise quickly.
Just west of Honiara you go through the Fishing Village, Malaitans who have moved to Guadacanal over the years, some are 3rd generation, and have lost any land tenure on Malaita, so they are landless with no where else to go. The ethnic riots of the last few years were partly caused by the native people of Guadacanal objecting to the Malaitans, and others moving to Honiara and settling. Most of Chinatown was burnt out, approximately 80 people were killed. It was a rather interesting time to be here. Steve was here for most of it, there was little or no law enforcement, some of the more astute sellers were selling bunches of marijuana heads on poles in the Central Market and the Police were powerless to stop it.
Nikon didn’t last for long, a few pics around the War Memorial, then stuck again.
Went to Kukum Market on the way home, the fish didn’t smell the best today, even the stuff in the ice bins, so vegetarian this week. 2 large pawpaw for $5 each, 2 eating coconuts for $1 each, large island cucumbers $3 each, about 2 kilos of kumara for $10. Bunch of spring onions $5, with the rice and curry I have, I’ll be eating well. If I can get the coconuts open that is. I’ll try with the bush knife to crack them.
My fisherman that was meant to be getting me some squid wasn’t there, so I guess my stir-fry chilli squid isn’t going to be happening this week.
Later the same day. Cracked the coconut, only one, I’ll keep the other for later in the week. Pierced an eye in it, drained the liquid out and used it to cook the rice in. Then whacked the husk with the back of the bush knife. It cracked really easily, and the meat inside came out in large pieces. I’m having some success with this island living finally. Munched about half the coconut meat already while cooking, it’s probably one of those really tasty foods that is bad for me.
It’s 6pm, and it feels like a sauna. I don’t know what the temp is, nor the humidity, but I do know I’ve got sweat running down my face, arms, chest. Almost sunset, and the sky is gloomy and dark, perhaps tonight it will rain and cool everything down.
I’ll post up 3 pics, one of Honiara East from the War Memorial, a pic (finally) of everyone in a flat bed truck, and one of the coral formed hills that Honiara is built on.
Friday. Went for another exploratory walk through the gardens, it’s a tropical botanists dream world. Found some dendrobium orchids growing high up in the canopy, a lot of butterflies, and birds, all living happily 100’ above everything. There is a tree with large brown fruit like an over grown kiwi fruit, hanging off the branches on long stems. I had a fairly good idea, managed to get one of the fruit down, and checked in my reference files. It’s a tamarind tree, about 3 months away from the fruit being ripe yet though. I asked the crew at work about it, but they said they never knew what it was, and just left the fruit to rot on the ground when they fell. I’ve found another couple the weekend, so I’ll be collecting the fruit when it’s ripe. The pulp is great for Asian style cooking, sour/sweet flavour that is good in soups and drinks.
I’m getting to recognise all the different palms now, they have come from all over the Pacific area, and a few from as far as Madagascar and Australia. Very few Draceana, I was hoping to find more than the few I’ve seen, and I think those have been imports rather than native.
Went out for dinner with Steve and his wife, Debbie from World Vision, and Bruce and Gwen to the Taj Mahal restaurant on the airport road. I’m still not used to the prices here, side stuff like pappadoms, (1) were $10, paratha and naan bread the same for each. Most of the entrée dishes were $30 - $40, and the mains started at $70 for dhal curries, and up to $90 for prawn curry. The meals are nice though, it’s a mix of Indian and Sri Lankan styles, I was hoping for a bit more chilli, they were a bit bland for me.
Thanks Steve for paying!
Just for interest, here are Fridays exchange rates
SBD$100 = US$12.84
= CAD$16.25
= NZ$25.30
= AUS$20.23
= €10.20
= ₤9.01
My poor Nikon digital has finally given up on me. It never recovered from being drowned in the rain a year ago in Scotland at the Runrig concert at Drumnadrochit, it has limped along, sometimes sticking and other times working.
I walked into Honiara this morning, (Saturday) hoping to get some pics of the town. I made it to the Museum grounds, taking pics along the way. Managed to get pics of all the different island houses, each province has it’s own distinctive style, when the lens finally stuck shut, and refused to work again. It’s either some grit in the lens barrel, or the water has finally corroded the drive. I’m trying the last ditch method of putting it in a container and freezing it, if it is grit the contraction by freezing may shake any grit loose, but I’m not holding my breath over it. Back to the Pentax film camera for a while, I’m dreading to find out how much it costs to have film developed here, although I can get away without prints, and just scan the negative as jpeg images.
Something I really noticed walking into Honiara, is just how much rubbish is everywhere. Plastic bags, bottles, cans, household rubbish dumped over the nearest wall or beach edge, into the river, the main shopping area is strewn with cans, betel nut husks, paper, rubbish, even though there are rubbish bins everywhere. The footpath is a mix of concrete, ashphalt and stones and dirt. You find yourself wishing for a major flood to clean it all out. The council do have a crew that go around emptying the bins, but it is a bit haphazard. The YWCA where I was going for Toktok lessons, had waited 2 weeks for their bins to be emptied, the crew from the Botanic gardens are responsible for the bins in the parks and gardens, they go out every Friday on the pick up round, well, half of them, the rest rake the lawns and tidy the Botanic garden area up for the weekend
I’m slowly building up another album in my Webshots site
http://community.webshots.com/user/VWKombi
if you’re interested.
It’s close to another rain burst here, the air is hot, muggy, and you can feel the pressure building. The sky over the mountains is black, or it was just before sunset, I’m hoping for a good rainfall tonight, I planted out some bean, courgette and bush cucumber seeds earlier today, in the little garden patch I’m working on. They’ll need a good soaking, although the ground is still moist from the other day.
At some time in the past there must have been a really good earthquake here, the ridge I am living on, and all the other high ground around Honiara is made up of coral reef. It’s been uplifted about 300’ or more in places, although the higher ledges may be from earlier earthquakes. I’ve got a few pics of the exposed coral just down from my house.
I finally got hold of O2 in Ireland about my mobile phone. They want me to buy €150 worth of prepay card before they will give me the unlock code, about NZ$430, I can buy another better phone for less than that, so it’s bin time for the nokia. I sent off a reply to O2 about how I felt. Buy time for a phone I’ll probably never be in Ireland again to use? Excuse me.
I’m not sure about this laptop, I’m used to being able to use alt codes on the number pad for symbols, trying to find a € through insert/symbol/sans serif/scroll is a pain. Anyone know a quicker method?
Other than hooking up a separate keyboard
Edit: Found out, reassigned some commands so I’m all happy again alt + 1 =
€ alt + 2 = ₤. I’ll be playing all night now, so long as I remember what I’ve assigned without having to keep going back and checking.
$600 doesn’t go far here. I needed a few more plastic containers, there’s only one store in town that has good ones, as opposed to the really cheap ones that crack when you try to get the lid on. $114 for a set of 4 round containers, from about 10” diameter to 4’ diameter. I did score well on the coffee though, 2x 250gm packets of Café Aurora Medaglia D’oro expresso for $117.20. A loaf of bread from the Fresh Bread Shop is $10. They have small denomination coins here, 5, 10, 20, 50 cent, but no one uses them, you get them as change, then just throw them in a drawer until you get enough to make it worthwhile going to the bank and changing them for notes.
Everything here is shipped in, and then sold by the weight and/or freight cost, every shop is full of the really cheap (elsewhere) Chinese and Indian made stuff. Pots, plates (plastic type) knives forks spoons, are all the lightweight stuff that gives up quickly. It’s all lightweight, but still priced at quality prices.
There’s a thriving black market in beche de mer here. The marketing is meant to be regulated, but some of the more distant provinces are being targeted by Korean and Singaporean fishing boats, and areas are being totally denuded of beche de mer and being sold illegally for the Singaporean and Korean markets.
I found out how everyone prepares for the ferry trips here to the outer islands. Near the wharf is a patch of open ground, with a large shade tree (Delonix regia) and everyone gathers there around the betel nut sellers, chews furiously for a while, then wanders aboard the ferry blissfully stoned.
Got caught at the Bulk Bin Shop earlier today, that’s happening to me a lot, I’ll eventually get used to everything here. I was after some flour to make paratha and puri, and one of the bins was labelled gluten flour, which is good for paratha and puri as it allows them to stretch. Anyway, I bought 2 kilos, $60.50, wasn’t till I got home and checked it, it’s pure gluten, great for making glue on it’s own, but I’ll have to get some plain flour to mix with it. I’ve now got enough gluten to last me most of this year, a tablespoon or so in a mix is all I need. And it’s Saturday afternoon, so everything is shut now.
Still no rain, it’s humid, sticky and hot. Thankfully I have my sarong still, it’s almost too much to wear at times though, and I’m sure the locals would have **words** to say if I wore less. You don’t wear brief swimming suits here, other than at the hotels and resorts, everyone wears board shorts and T-shirts to go swimming at the public beaches.
Sunday
Still no rain, if yesterday was hot and humid, today is 20% over that. Pulled the Nikon out of the freezer, and it’s working, sort of, so took the chance and went for a drive up Skyline Ridge and got some pics of the USA War Memorial, then continued on west of town to Turtle Beach for a swim.
It’s about 12 km out of town, past Bonegi beach, which is the one you see in pics of Honiara, all palm trees and sand beach. Turtle beach is a series of small roadways off the main road, down to small, about 5 – 6 car parking places, and not a lot of beach. The water is like a warm bath, and very salty, well, compared to New Zealand. Spent a couple of hours swimming, getting dry, swimming, getting dry, once I had a layer of salt on me I thought enough. And it’s one of the few places you can get away with wearing briefer swimming suits.
The water is really clear, even with out a mask, you can see down 20 – 30 feet, I’ll get a mask and snorkel and swim out to the wrecks next time. One is only 20 m off the beach.
Asked the man collecting the money ($20) what the fishing is like there, he recommended it, so once my rods arrive I’ll go out there for the day.
All the beaches are family owned, you pay on average $20 for access, a few charge depending on if you’re going swimming, fishing or diving. Then it can rise quickly.
Just west of Honiara you go through the Fishing Village, Malaitans who have moved to Guadacanal over the years, some are 3rd generation, and have lost any land tenure on Malaita, so they are landless with no where else to go. The ethnic riots of the last few years were partly caused by the native people of Guadacanal objecting to the Malaitans, and others moving to Honiara and settling. Most of Chinatown was burnt out, approximately 80 people were killed. It was a rather interesting time to be here. Steve was here for most of it, there was little or no law enforcement, some of the more astute sellers were selling bunches of marijuana heads on poles in the Central Market and the Police were powerless to stop it.
Nikon didn’t last for long, a few pics around the War Memorial, then stuck again.
Went to Kukum Market on the way home, the fish didn’t smell the best today, even the stuff in the ice bins, so vegetarian this week. 2 large pawpaw for $5 each, 2 eating coconuts for $1 each, large island cucumbers $3 each, about 2 kilos of kumara for $10. Bunch of spring onions $5, with the rice and curry I have, I’ll be eating well. If I can get the coconuts open that is. I’ll try with the bush knife to crack them.
My fisherman that was meant to be getting me some squid wasn’t there, so I guess my stir-fry chilli squid isn’t going to be happening this week.
Later the same day. Cracked the coconut, only one, I’ll keep the other for later in the week. Pierced an eye in it, drained the liquid out and used it to cook the rice in. Then whacked the husk with the back of the bush knife. It cracked really easily, and the meat inside came out in large pieces. I’m having some success with this island living finally. Munched about half the coconut meat already while cooking, it’s probably one of those really tasty foods that is bad for me.
It’s 6pm, and it feels like a sauna. I don’t know what the temp is, nor the humidity, but I do know I’ve got sweat running down my face, arms, chest. Almost sunset, and the sky is gloomy and dark, perhaps tonight it will rain and cool everything down.
I’ll post up 3 pics, one of Honiara East from the War Memorial, a pic (finally) of everyone in a flat bed truck, and one of the coral formed hills that Honiara is built on.
No comments:
Post a Comment