Just waiting for a bus..

When I started this blog, I didn't think it was solely going to be based on travel, yet at this stage, a fair percentage of my posts are about episodes and adventures in foreign lands.

People say 'life is not a destination, it's a journey' and for me it has definitely been a special one, not only because I have got to see and do some magical things, but whether my journey was to the supermarket or Spain, I have learnt all kinds of lessons that if I was going to try and describe would be harder than trying to smell the colour 7....

So rather than go through moment of 'you had to be there' moment, I will break the last 4 days in Tonga (an country comprising of many islands in the South Pacfic) down into posts about what I have found on this island and the treasures it will teach me. 

Right now, I'm waiting at the fale kaloa for the bus. I have been here for 20 mins and the uncertainty of whether it will actually come is rising.

If I had been waiting for a bus in a city for 20 mins, I prob would have gone to find coffee, then be on my iPhone checking various social networks. Here, it would be more likely for me to find a rooster dancing with a pig than a soy latte.

But for the first time in a long time, I can just sit and listen and see. Open my eyes and my mind to the palm trees blowing, roosters, dogs and pigs roaming and making various noises, the laughs of the locals sauntering slowly down the street, and the grunt of the old cars that come by (any time I heard an engine I stood up expectedly like someone waiting for a blind date).

It's an experience I have added to the album of mental snapshots, so when I am stressed or panicked in times to come, I can just close my eyes and teleport back to this bench.

I recommend the mental snapshot photography to everyone! Consciously push the shutter button on certain situations and you will want to give yourself a high five later.

A man with a t-shirt on his head coasted past on his bike and told me the bus was coming. And what a structure it was. The door stays open, which is a relief since there is no aircon.

A boy got up straight away and moved for me, the whole bus service is a pure example of the Tongan attitude. It doesn't have any sort of timeframe, appears to stop wherever there is someone on the side of the road standing out for it, except at one fale kaloa where about 5 guys were sitting down and the bus went straight past. The other passengers just laughed. They loved it! I don't know if they know each other but they are conversing, some are singing, others just looking out the window. 

And they all farewelled the ones getting off.

I imagine if on any metropolitan bus service I tried to farewell a random or ask to be dropped anywhere, I would get more than a few strange looks. Everything we rattled past was like seeing through a whole different set of glasses.

Most journeys that stand out in our minds are because we meet or share them with someone, go through an amazing canyon or have incredible service. This one stands out not because it's in an incredibly unsafe vehicle, but because it's in an environment incredibly simple. 

I am vaguely sure where to get off, but I am happy to do this all over again.