From an exhausting full day in proper Samoa, we had breakfast at our hotel, a quick morning tour of Apia afterwards, and drove over to the local sorta-international (but definitely not the main one) Fagalii Airport outside of Apia for our 10:30 Samoa Airways flight-aka-time machine.
When you check into this airport, they also weigh you with your carry-on to make sure you can meet weight restrictions for the smaller planes here:
Once you make weight they write you your boarding pass up like this:
Then you walk through a small security room that consists of the type of metal detector and bag x-ray you’d see at the front of nice hotels and government buildings. Then you open a door to a basic departures lounge:
We boarded promptly at 10:20am:
I had said time machine earlier because although the flight is only 35 minutes, it takes you across the international date line. Notice the dates of the departures (left) card and the arrivals (right) card:
That means although we departed at August 30th in Samoa, those 35 minutes in the air arrives us on August 29th in the American Samoa. Therefore we’re repeating August 29th TWICE!
Instead of telling, I’ll just show you — This is what my phone showed on takeoff:
This is during the 30 minute flight:
This is upon landing:
Get it now? A double Thursday! Groundhog Day is real! And once landing, we took advantage of being USA passport holders to enjoy the free access we had to these islands, being that they were property of the US government.
We were stamped back into the USA pretty quickly.
After customs and at arrivals we were picked up by Lu of Tour American Samoa.
Too early for checking in at our lodgings at Tradewinds Hotel, we drove to south of the village of Vaitogi for a geographic feature off the southern coast known as the Turtle and Shark.
A U-shaped cove set between Vaitogi Beach to the north and a basalt cliff to the south, the topography here is frequently assaulted by high-energy waves, with spray thrown high into the air through some of its blowholes:
The cove is believed by the Samoan populace to be the location of the climactic scene of the Turtle and Shark legend, one of the island’s best-known and popular tales.
A story is told of a woman and her child, who in a time of great scarcity were neglected by the family. One day they cooked some wild yams, but never offered her a share. She was vexed, asked the child to follow her, and when they reached a precipice on the rocky coast, seized the child and jumped over. It is said they were changed into turtles, and afterwards came in that form at the call of the people of the village.
We then drove up high to the Aoloau Overlook, the highest village settlement and where you can see all of American Samoa:
Afterwards we swerved around these beautiful rock formations, the first of which is Fatu Rock, a natural landmark and offshore islet of American Samoa. Notice the shameless political campaign advertisement they built on top of the islet on the right:
This rock is said to resemble that of a swimming 2-humped camel:
We then reached the main town and capital, Pago Pago, which means ‘harbour.’
We parked up on a hill for a sandwich lunch with a view:
Craving something to drink after, Lu took us for a private seating at Tisa’s Barefoot Bar for locally made and fresh piña coladas. This site is also famous for an international Samoan tattoo gathering.
After 45 minutes enjoying our time looking at the sharks and fish underneath, we then drove up into the National Park of the American Samoa and for a view of the island’s highest peak, the “Rainmaker.”
We stopped for an easy half-mile hike down to an opening and freshwater natural swimming pool below.
The tides can get up high here if you’re not careful; don’t get swept away!
After returning from our hike with a little bit of sweat we earned along the way, we stopped for some snacks at a Chinese-owned shop nearby in the national park and drove back to check into our lodgings at Tradewinds. Don’t miss the industrial mascot on the way:
The gym at Tradewinds needs a bench:
After checking in, we walked 7 minutes over for one final formal dinner together at Cecilia’s, at the edge of the world and time itself. Watch out for stray biting dogs on the way!
Go to Cecilia’s for the most massive poké nachos and combo platter I will never ever forget:
The next morning we woke up for breakfast at our hotel, which was briefly interrupted when I had to get on customer service with Expedia’s virtual chat agent Jessa when I found out that Tradewinds double charged me for Stephanie’s room. Surprisingly Expedia managed to resolve it within 10 minutes by giving the manager a call herself and agreeing to refund me.
Apparently when you book through Expedia, they pay the hotel through a “virtual card” on my behalf. There was no “virtual card” sent for Stephanie’s room, and hence the confusion.
After resolving this, Lu then picked us up just in time at 8:30am for a drive into the Western District of Tutuila Island. We first stopped at the locally loved Pritchard’s Bakery for the best baked goods and doughnuts on the island.
Along our drive west we passed the Leone Healing Garden which pays tribute to those who lost their lives in the village of Leone during the 2099 tsunami:
…a felled banyan tree that has recently retaken its roots and now is regrowing today:
The tree is near John Williams’ Church, which is the oldest church in American Samoa.
Don’t confuse it for the other church across the street which in our opinion, looks much older:
There’s also a fun little rock perch you can climb up if you dare. The winds were blowing very hard here so it was a little dicey getting up without falling over, but “I ain’t neva scurrred.”
Proof I climbed it, if one ever really needed any:
We then weaved around Cape Taputapu, an important site in Samoan legends and marking the westernmost point of American Samoa:
This region and “the end of the road” is the last place on earth to see the day end.
You are literally facing the invisible international date line from here.
Take a little longer here to stare at the edge of time and earth.
Once we had our fill of the extreme end of the world, we turned back and passed by a few bunkers left over from WW2 on the side of the road:
Lu then stopped back at our hotel so Stephanie Liu could run for a pee break, and then made our second to last stop at the Turtle and Shark café so they could do last minute souvenir shopping:
Lu then finally dropped us off for our 11:20am Samoan Airways flight, aka time machine, back across the international date line.
After getting weighed and checked in at the departures lounge above, you then perform immigrations before entering departures.
Even more surprising since we’re on U.S. territory, this probably is the only airport and flight I ever took that skipped security. Even the very same flight to American Samoa from Samoa proper performed x-rays and security on us yesterday.
For this direction and 35 minute flight, leaving on August 30th Pago Pago time would send us flying forward back to August 31st Apia time within 35 minutes.
Be careful when booking flights and hotels considering the date line as you could really screw yourself over getting the wrong dates (which happened to me and I had to pay a $30/ticket change fee to sort it all out).
So if you’re leaving at 11:20am on August 30th, the 35 minute flight will still have you land at 11:55am but crossing the date line will jump you to the next day on August 31st.
Once arriving at Fagaliʻi Airport, Chris picked us up for curtailed mini tour of Samoa before dropping us off at Faleolo International (APW) Airport for our 4:55pm onward flight to Nadi.
Since we still had 5 hours in between our arrival from American Samoa and our onward flight out to Fiji for our international flights back home, he ensured us a necessary visit to Fugalei Market, the biggest in Samoa where locals sell locally made products for souvenirs as well as their fresh produce.
Next door is a “food court” where we enjoyed a local Samoan lunch with fresh oka, eggplant, and pork/lamb mixed in:
Stephanie Liu got us authentic breadfruit to try!
After lunch, Chris tried to take us for bubble tea at Stephanie Liu’s request. But then we were told they rain out of tapioca after the fact. Fail. Then it was another 45 minute’s drive from Apia to the main Faleolo International Airport before saying goodbye to Chris and boarding our final flights home.
For $30 USD or $WST 80 you can access their VIP lounge:
After an hour nap on the 2 hour flight into Fiji, I said my final goodbyes to both the Stephanies as I hurried to catch my onward flight to Sydney with less than an hour to spare before the gate closed. Had enough time to catch this sunset at my gate:
…as well as barely a minute in the new Premier Lounge for Priority Pass holders:
Sleeping another 3 hours on the flight to Sydney, I checked into my Airbnb and banged out another 5 hours before having a whole relaxing day to myself on a quiet Sunday walking through Potts Point and Darling Harbour.
And guess who I was able to catch up with on a last minute message that I was in the area? Terri whom I met 7 years ago at the top of Kotor!
- At time of posting in Pago Pago, it was 29 °C - Humidity: 70% | Wind Speed: 18km/hr | Cloud Cover: n/a