November 21, 2012
One of the things Big Mama’s offers is ferry service to Nuku’alofa. It’s about a 10 minute ride in a small motorboat that can seat approximately 20 people. It leaves Big Mama’s around 9am and then takes you back at an agreed-upon time in the afternoon. (This means the everyone all has to agree on a time, but it was never a problem.)
The group this morning consisted of nine people, and all of us needed to check in with customs. We were dropped off with some very loose directions to the customs area: it’s about a block down amid the dock buildings over there (pointing). And so began the unscheduled surprise Palangi Parade. (Palangi is the term used for non-natives, often light-skinned touristy types).
The nine of us walked through the dock area, out to the sidewalk and down about a block. We checked out one building and no, that wasn’t it. We marched on to the next building area, going through an opening in a chain-link fence to get there. We went to the first building, but that wasn’t it. We filtered into a bigger building that actually said Customs on it and confidently marched up the stairs, single file, to the second floor. That wasn’t it, either. Down we went. I should point out that every building we went to we’d ask for directions, but every time they weren’t specific enough, always saying, “over that way.” We marched on down the road, asking at another place. Nope, but we were getting closer. We finally ended up marching down a long side street to a loading dock area. After asking at least one more person, we found it, a small unmarked room in a small, unmarked building. We had probably walked a good mile at this point.
Only a few people could go in at a time, and we learned a lesson quickly from the first people to check in. They said they had arrived yesterday evening, not yesterday morning. They are very serious about customs protocol here and you are expected to check in immediately if customs is open. (Sadly, the one person who arrived day before yesterday had gone in first and ended up with a severe verbal spanking when he was honest about his arrival day!)
We all waited for each other, then continued our parade back down to the main street going to town. We were all offered a lift downtown by a guy in a truck for 1 pa’anga each. Too tired and hot to walk any more, we gladly took him up on it. We all piled into the truck and after a 5 minute ride we were deposited downtown. We all had different agendas at this point and the group split up. The Palangi Parade was officially over, but I’m sure there will be more such parades next season. -Cyndi
