Magic Man

At first, our marriage bond was checked, and we survived the test and received a blessing for our life together.

the blessing

Then Robinson took a big leap of faith by trusting two guys to lift him up just by holding on to leaves laid out on top of each other, no ropes or other solid stuff, just magic:

Robbie flying

The family of magic men casino online performed a magic dance for us, very drum-driven and tribal. We were not quite sure what it did, it must have been fresh rain or a big fish in the net or maybe just the eternal love of the local girls who were waiting to become a woman (it was not a new car or Ipod or flat screen TV, we know that for sure).

Soon, I was invited to share in the dancing, and after some stomping the group decided to let me be chief for a while. Within minutes I was given a traditional look, although they were not quite sure what to do with my hair (I sometimes share this feeling). I was given the chief’s stick, and all magic men followed me through the magic zone around the massive banyan tree, to the little hut where I was given a bowl of kava to symbolize being welcomed by the magic family.

yummy kava

Following some happy tunes – they called this string music – I was relieved of my chief duties and we headed back once again to our village just in time for a sunset swim in our own little bay.

tranquility in paradise

The Chief

We drink some refreshing coconut out of the shell while we walk to the village center: About 30 kids welcome Robinson and Sienna and share with us their games and singing, but more impressive are the smiles and giggling and laughing they share with us.

catch me if you can KASTOM style

we are ready to play…

a young Tarzan

We see how to prepare cooked banana with coconut over the open fire.

the kitchen

Kids were sliding on banana leafs down the hill and swinging on long roots like Tarzan.
Then we followed the sound of a pan flute, which led us to an amazing Banyan tree with a tree house, where a man played beautifully the flute for us. Some men sit together and make fire:

a real tree fort…

working hard for that spark

With the following traditional dances they make the earth tremble and thank the gods for the harvest.

everyone loves Sienna\’s hair

This is made for tourists, but a very impressive and authentic journey into the KASTOM world, a world of village life full of rituals and pure living.

racing around the volcano

It takes only a 5 minute walk to be a the crater rim and to see the glowing lava in the crater, some grey steaming sulphur clouds and every few minutes an impressive firework of glowing magma shooting out of the crater high up in the sky.

right at the crater rim, toxic vapour rising, waiting for the next explosion

This volcano is powerful and very much alive, rumbling loudly, earth vibrating, spitting rocks and lava and exploding and putting on a magnificent fireworks display for us. This is from all volcano experiences the most impressive nature experience, which shows us again the power of nature and the relative insignificance of us human beings. We are so close to flying lava rocks that we watch each explosion closely in case we need to take a dive to evade another piece. Massive dark clouds of toxic steam drift towards us, and somehow the wind saves us again. Surely, in the safety and fear-driven Western societies, government bodies would not have allowed us anywhere near this rumbling mountain. Here in Vanuatu, it is no problem, the intensity of the experience is worth the risk (1 to 2 visitors get hit by rocks every year).

the most impressive firework I have ever seen (photo courtesy of Xenia Aurora Corvin who we met on our trip to Tanna)

After almost 2 hours drive in Jack’s strong Land Rover on a rough dirt road through dense jungle we reach our little paradise village again.

With Jack in his red Land Rover we drove over to Sulphur Bay to meet Isaac One, the chief. On Tanna, when the driver tells you he is going a road, he actually does not refer to anything that comes even to close to a road in our belief system. It basically means that someone has taken an engine-powered vehicle to the destination before, and brought it back. The tracks we drove on were so dodgy, they made Australian coastal access tracks look like Kindergarten. Many times I was looking ahead in disbelief, gripping the passenger seat tightly as Jack powerde through yet another seemingly insurmountabel obstacle. The drive across the island was a real action adventure in itself, we all felt like Indiana Jones for a few hours…

view to the East side of Tanna with Mt. Jasur, a seemingly gentle volcano (little did we know of his character at that time…)

Jacl was certain that descending into this riverbed was a good idea, Mt. Jasur starting to show his muscle with steam and roaring in the background…

We arrive at the John Frum village on a plateau next to the constantly steaming and roaring volcano, decorated with a very large American flag.

welcome to … the land of John Frum

Every 5 minutes there is a very casino online loud roar, and the ground shakes and trembles. It is as if the earth is angry. No one in the village seems even slightly alarmed, this seems to be the sound they live with all the time. When we ask for Isaac, a wise looking old man invites us into the chief bure. Some more men join and sit down to listen.
We take the time to talk with Isaac about the Ni-Vanuatu people, happiness and what the future will bring. He is a man of great respect, who spent several months travelling in the states to get an idea about the American values. He even was invited to the white house talking for a few hours with Bill Clinton.
He remembers his time in L.A. well: “Too much pollution, too busy, too many poor people…”
We ask him, why the Vanuatu people are happy, when they live in his village.
Isaac: ”Freedom . Everybody has total freedom here. You have a house and everything to eat from nature. You can walk into the village, you always find a place to sleep and there is no danger anywhere.”
For us, there is always the big need of achievement. Why does this not really matter for the Vanuatu people?
For Isaac One, the most important thing to live together in harmony is respect. Respect for nature and the people. Respect for the customs. Many religions tried to destroy all customs and took away the identity of the people here. He provides the space for about 250 people to live in custom and in harmony with traditional values. In a very powerful and beautiful place.
What about John Frum and the promised cargo? “It will come” is the answer from Isaac One, but I get the feeling that he is not that keen for it to arrive as life is good in the village.
What is their biggest problem? Carrying the water up the hill every day. I suggest a solar-powered water pump and get some nods from the younger men. Maybe some of them will pick coffee for a few weeks…

We spent the afternoon just down from the village at Sulphur Bay, a beautiful bay next to the Volcano with dark sand, and a hot river floating into sea, with pools deep enough to take a hot bath. The locals smile in their baths or go body surfing in the large surf. Pigs run back and forth. Kids play and smile. Moms chat. Boys talk story. Life is good…

Vanuatu is also paradise, simply because it offers the perfect South Pacific dream. Warm waters and temperatures, lush vegetation, beautiful sunsets under palm trees, a sea breeze to keep you fresh, a coral reef as home to all those beautiful fish, friendly locals, tasty fresh food, ancient cultures, and smiles everywhere. But it has one other major ingredient that most other “paradises” lack. Vanuatu is one of the last corners of this planet that has been “largely untouched” by the white man, or modern civilization. They have had their share of visitors of course in the past centuries, including the merciless Spaniards, and James Cook, followed by ruthless traders who raped the land of sandalwood and took slaves to plantations on other South Pacific islands, and its fair share of various missionaries. However, a substantial number of these encounters ended in bloody warfare, often with the result of the visitors being prepared as a tasty dinner. And, more importantly, the KASTOM traditional rituals and ways of living still exist, mostly as a revival after years of colonial and missionary efforts that most often banned any KASTOM tradition. Especially in the smaller remote islands such as the Banks and Torres group to the North, life has not really changed in the last 1000 years or so.

But, you need to hurry, since globalization is a big beast whose tentacles reach to the farthest corners of our planet. In Vanuatu the biggest novelty is the mobile phone, largely pushed by DIGICEL on World Bank grants. They have the most incredible sales network I have witnessed. We drove through the remotest jungle, and sure enough there is a little shack out of nowhere with a little red sign on it, proudly offering prepaid top up credit for your mobile (we had seen this in Fiji already). They use old Nokias and are so excited about texting and speaking to their relatives on other islands. Is this only the beginning of the modern world?

We actually picked Vanuatu as one exotic location on our travel because it was just about as far away as we could get from home and because neither of us had any preconceived ideas about what we would expect there, in fact we had not really heard of it. Once the routing was set we stumbled upon a relatively recent study that showed that Ni-Vanuatu are the happiest people on the planet.
The New Economics Foundation NEF published the results of a comprehensive 2006 study on happiness entitled the Happy Planet Index. It considered a range of variables and was looking at the level of contentment, environmental footprint to ensure sustainability, health, economic development, etc. (see http://www.happyplanetindex.org/ ). Well, Vanuatu topped the list of over 150 countries. The happiest place on this planet! We were eager to find out why…

We have found many people here who are very satisfied with their lives, who do not need anything else to make them happy. I cannot recall any place on Earth that has given me so many sincere broad smiles. How can this be, with them not working very much and not owning very much? The Ni-Vanuatu are in that blissful phase between slaughtering each other (which every part of the world went through for centuries at different points in time) and not having been reached by modern industrial technology-driven capitalist society. The key reason for satisfaction among the people here is clearly that they live in relative peace and that they have everything they need to lead a pleasant free life. In fact, some islands still to this day do not use official money, since they would not know what to do with it (they trade and use shell money or pigs instead). Life in the village is completely self-sustained, it is not hard. The mountainous geography and climate provides ample fresh water and natural gardens that supply more than needed of everything. Wood everywhere for the fire and coconut oil for the lamps makes cooking easy. The houses are built of sticks and palm leafs and can sustain quite a bit of weather. After a heavy cyclone you quickly build a new one. The village chief decides what needs to be done. The kava root supplies the local drug to get stoned without waking up with a headache the next morning. There is not much work to do and plenty of time to play in the ocean. WOW, what a life!

Beachfront property

More Pampelmouse than an entire village can eat

you want fish? just grab a spear and step in the ocean…

Then there is the lost ART OF THE IDLE MOMENT (this also happens to be the title of one of my favourite albums by Carmen Rizzi). The Ni-Vanuatu are great masters of this, sitting around for hours under a tree or on a beach doing nothing, just enjoying the moment. Not once did I see a person in such an idle moment who seemed to be bored or antsy.

Of course, not all is good in such a self-sustained world, there is no perfect world as we know. The Ni-Vanuatu have their share of conflicts within and between families, land disputes etc. But clearly a roof over your head, access to clean water and more tasty food than you need goes a long way to create satisfaction. Plus there is a bit of dancing and bungee jumping to entertain the soul:

drumbeats and stomping

to this day on the island of Pentecoast, young boys and men jump of towers with roots at their ankles to impress the pretty girls

Needless to say, it is a seemingly insurmountable challenge for us to live like this. We just cannot sit still, we are a restless tribe. We are driven by time, projects, growth, adventure. We would miss inspiration and all those amenities that we have become used to in the Western world. But is it just the fact that the Ni-Vanuatu have not been exposed to “Western” lives, or is there something deeper, some simple secret to maintain a blissful balance in their own free and stress-free world? What will happen if all those little towns get their first little Walmarts over the next ten years? Can we and should we warn them about all the devils of Western capitalism? Back in Port Vila, I got a really good insight into this from Norman Torres, a Peace Corp worker from Puerto Rico, who teaches on the very remote island of Mota in the North, once the stronghold of the Anglican missionary drive under Bishop Patteson aboard the Southern Cross. He has seen a lot of 3rd world and developed world misery and issues and here is his take on the issue: We, the people from “Western civilization” are the ones who can and should make decisions to consume and own less, live a greener life with renewable energy sources, avoid and clean up garbage etc. We are in the luxurious position to consciously give up the television or SUV, since we have had it, experienced it and decided for ourselves that we do not need them and/or that they harm the planet. We should live by example, that is the best way to communicate lessons about what we believe is important to others. Regarding the people of Tanna in Vanuatu, we cannot treat them like children and tell them they cannot have a taste, after all we have had a lot of taste. They have seen or will soon see our lives and “things” in American movies and they will want them as well, more and more. I am worried, and would love to find a way to support maintaining all those authentic smiles…

There seem to be two main ways to make it happen:
1. Live by example, i.e. be happy with less and green lifestyle, devoid of greed and hunger for power
2. Develop goods such as cars and electronics that are better for the soul and the environment, and make these more attractive for everyone
One thing that amazed us is how hard it is for Ni-Vanuatu to grasp the concept of money. Because they have everything they need they act very spontaneously with money. A few examples: Employees often come for a while until they have earned enough money to pay for their relative’s plane ticket, then they just do not show up any longer, they see no need. Rather than filling their tank and then driving, minibuses will head to the gas station several times a day and get fuel for 5 or 10 $, often simply because they are just using the fare they just received from guests to pay for the fuel. Basically, Ni-Vanuatu will spend instantly what they get, the concept of saving has not entered their space yet. Solar is another great example. Their little huts are just screaming for self-sustained natural power, but even an investment of a 5 month power bill is beyond their savings horizon. This is even more surprising considering that Vanuatu is a great place to bring your money from abroad, as it is largely tax free. It has 55 banks, of which only 3 have an actual counter. The story of Tanna coffee is a great manifestation of why people in Tanna are happy. There is excellent coffee on Tanna, we had some and even brought some back to Australia. The climate and topography makes for near perfect growing conditions. The traders could take all the coffee they could get their hands on and sell it for a premium. But only a small amount of coffee is picked and roasted, twice a year to be precise, when the school fees for a term of approx. 20$ are due. Locals go and pick coffee to pay for the school fees and then they just do not pick any more. The point is: there is no need for them to pick more because they do not need any money because they have everything they need to live and do not long for anything beyond that.

very pure…

Vanuatu has a large bag of traditions, religious beliefs and cults, and most people use some combination of whatever works for them. There is the mother of all bungee jumps on the island of Pentecoast which is still practiced to this day by young men trying to impress and show their manhood the girls. There is water music on the island of Gaua, where skilled women hit the water in choreographed efforts, creating wild natural sounds. There is the snake dance and the dances of Kastom villages. There is black magic! And yes, it was common practice to prepare the enemy for dinner after a fierce battle, mainly to take on his “mana”, or life energy. Sometimes, when surrounded by 5-10 young men carrying machetes and coconuts, I could not help myself but think that maybe the practice has not died yet and that in the far corner of their brains they were dreaming of marinating some white flesh in coconut oil and roasting it later. The last documented case of cannibalism took place in 1967, but certainly there have been some dark corners of these islands where Kastom took a bit longer to change.
Life here is so different, pleasant, strange, exotic, happy…

relaxing on the beach at Sulphur Bay… far away from any sign of the “Western” world

We have our own house built out of palm leaves, beautifully decorated with flowers.
From our terrace we look into the beautiful gardens while we listen to the waves crashing onto the reef.

living the Vanuatu way

This little village has many components we believe create a happy place:
You have your family and friends all together. People from other villages are always welcome and can stay if they like. Everybody has time to help each other or to just enjoy the time together.

It is a great example of “living off the grid” and enjoying the rich beauty of nature with a very small “environmental footprint”:
The gardens offer sun ripe bananas, coconuts, pineapples, pawpaw (papaya), passion fruit, oranges, limes, pampelmouse, mango, nuts, avocado, taro, sweet potato, tomatoes, cucumber – everything grows everywhere and is fully organic.

Then there are chicken around your huts, pigs and cows running around the forest, and plenty of fish, mussels and crabs on the reef.
The food is served decorated with beautiful flowers, butter or jam comes in beautiful shells instead of industrial containers. We begin our mornings with a wonderful breakfast with fresh pineapple, papaya, watermelon, banana, lemon leave tea, omelettes from very happy chicken, home baked bread , self made jam,….

Today at dinner we have had chicken with rice. It was the first time that Robinson experienced the full supply chain of chicken for dinner. On one hand I knew it is a healthy free range chicken, on the other hand, I have had a hard time not to think about it running through our house this morning. This was the day, I blessed my food with deep inner devotion, thanking the earth, the trees, the animals and the hands which provided and prepared this dinner for us.

There is fresh water from the well that is used for drinking and cooking. The cooking is done with coconut oil, wood or cow dung that is taken from nature surrounding us here.
They have built a little hut out of palm leaves, where you can shower under the blue sky or the stars at night listening to the birds’ singing or the cicadas and the waves.
There is also a toilet that offers a private space with fresh air.

All food rests feed the pigs, paper is At spille blackjack er en af de mest popul?re aktiviteter i kasinoer verden over. burnt or recycled, plastic is collected in the ground and gets covered with earth.
The only thing they still get from outside is electricity for some lighting and the fridge. But even for that, the sun would deliver a sufficient supply of solar energy.

Robinson is incredibly flexible to enjoy his new home and friends. He runs around and chases chicken, he tries to get some fruits from the trees, he plays boccia with coconuts or runs around with the other kids.

He eats the food without complaining. Sienna is persistent in asking for her preferred juice and asks for things that you simply cannot get here. And then, minutes later, she dives into her world, collects shells, arranges them in various different formations, bakes sand cake with coconut halves and decorates them with flowers.

At the beach you see the locals play around for hours, climbing trees and jumping into the water. Girl’s wellness rituals on the beach: opening coconuts with a big machete, pouring the milk onto the hair and rubbing it with sand over the skin.

Today we met Joe from the neighbour village. He knew we were from Germany and pulled out a letter he received in July 2001 from the NKL – Norddeutsche Klassenlotterie in Hamburg.
It was promoting the “chance of your life” to win money and cars and a new life. How ruthless can these marketing people be?
And sometimes these people here also need to earn money. What for? To pay the school bills or to build a cement house as the palm leaf supply is getting scarce or as better protection during cyclones.
Clever business men from New Zealand offer to pay the flight from Vanuatu to New Zealand for fruit pickers on kiwi farms. That means that they work the first month for free to pay the flight ticket and then come back after 3 to 6 months of hard work with a bit of money in their pockets. They have also seen a part of the “modern” world and learned about Western farming practices. And they appreciate the things they missed, mainly life with their family and community in their village.

Every time, it is a surprise, if we book based on recommendation and internet pictures. This time, it was an amazingly great surprise. We arrived in paradise at Amanda and Mike’s resort Pandanus Bay. We have a spacious house with the magic view of ocean and palm trees for the next three days.



Especially at sunset and sunrise the colours of the sky with the silhouette of the palm trees calms my soul.

From our oasis we dive into the Vanuatu life. We take a minibus with our kite gear to explore the next kite and surf beach. Everything seems to be perfect: a light breeze and a smooth break. Playtime!
Pango is the major local surf beach in Vanuatu, and Thomas David has placed his surf shop strategically about 20 meters from this beach, and can rent boards of any size to you. You can only go around high tide, but then it is so much fun. Thomas is the most pleasant friendly man who will go out of his way to put a smile on your face. He has found his paradise.
I paddle out for a surf to the reef, where already about 10 Vanuatu kids play around. It was one of my most enjoyable surf sessions ever. Why? Because I experienced a very welcoming form of localism in the water. When I was coming, they were all welcoming me, calling me to sit right next to them in the water, cheering me up, when I got a wave and having big smiles after a good ride. No angry crowds, beautiful waves breaking outside the reef, beautiful scenery, this is what surfing was always all about.

We meet at the beach the other local crowd which is from France, New Caledonia, Australia and everyone has a big grin on their face (long before the kava bars open).

Even though the corals at the coast reminded us of our Fiji shore, where our kite was ripped into pieces, Gerry went out kiting in the warm water. Very soon, he played in the waves and reached for the sky with some nice jumps.

The Vanuatu people have a very relaxed living. They have their houses at the beach, live in community, have enough fruit and fish to live. They do not really need money. So if they work, they only do it, if they want to buy something. If they have enough money, they stop again and enjoy the life in their village. Why work more? They feel rather sorry for those, who have a job in a hotel resort, as they cannot enjoy the day.

The people have almost African black skin and frizzy hair, that can be styled easily into a pumpkin-sized afro. And amazingly, you see again and again people with dark skin and blond wild hair, far wilder than what Gerry has to show by now.

We have had another kite surfing session at Pango. I tried my best to get out, but ended up with my legs in the coral jungle, blood running from my knee down my leg. We just have heard the night before all the stories, how infections can lead to nasty things like amputations. So I spend the afternoon with the “save-my-leg-ritual”:
– rubbing my leg with a luffa sponge and soap to clean it from any stuff
– putting antibiotics cream on my leg
– putting tamanu cream on
– keeping it away from water, sand and most importantly flies

The evening we were invited for a dinner party from Amanda and Mike, our hosts in the Pandanus Bay resort.
While the kids played with their grommets Emma and Kye, we listened full of fascination to the life stories of the people at the table, all “white-skin” residents of Vanuatu (there are about 5000 of them). Most of them have a long history on Vanuatu’s different islands. While having delicious cheese they shared the latest gossip about Kate Blanchett being in town.

We moved from Pandanus Bay into a more price-appropriate location at the Le Lagon, which featured – among other things – three catamarans to cruise around the lagoon. From here we took for Valentine”s day a trip to the island of Erakor.

This is a tiny island with an authentic style restaurant and some huts to stay. Definitely a place for a big big party one day…

We found a great and much more leg- and kite-friendly beach, Mele Beach near the remote Hideaway Island: a beautiful sandy bay, where we have had a great kite session as the only kiters out in the bay.

Port Vila, the main town on Efate, has an interesting mix of French, English and of course Melanesian influence. A busy market with Melanesian madrons offering their breadfruits, coconuts, bananas or pineapples, two Bon Marches for those with a bit of money to spare, and some excellent restaurants with French “cuisine” ensure that everybody has access to various food options. In the small restaurant next to the harbour, Cafe de Village, we felt a bit like in Cannes at LaCroisette sitting in a marine style restaurant and enjoying delicious French Soup de poisson, Crevettes au sambuca with a French wine and of course crème brulee and mousse au chocolat as desert.

The people here speak Bislama which sounds a bit like a Frenchman speaking English (sorry Alexandre if you read this)
Yu stap go wea? Means Where are you going?
Men blong ski. Means SURFER
On Sunday we have had the pleasure to go on a trip around the island with our driver Timothy and 3 of his kids and his wife. They have 6 kids and one grandson, who will be raised by Melanie, the mother, as well, while she is still running her hair dresser salon.

We hop into the minivan and the tour begins with some stops along the way: first we buy a big knife – bigger than any knife in our kitchen at home. Then we get some napkins, a roasted chicken, some baguette, some ice and some gas, until we hit the road. Along the way we buy coconuts, a pile of live crabs, two bags of mussels, as well as some fruits, fresh fish, fruit, nuts, … It appeared as if Timothy and Melanie wanted to say hello at every road stall they found.
After a kite session we passed some sight seeing highlights like waterfalls, the location of the TV series “survivor” and hot springs. The hot springs were so hot, that in the mornings you could find dozens of cooked red crabs in the water. In former time they cooked the pigs, and sometimes even the “long pigs”, in these hot tubs.
All the land belonged to the different chiefs of the villages. Some chiefs started to sell land, others take some fees, if you want to stay at their beaches.

We stay at a beautiful stretch of beach on the East coast called ETON for an unforgettable picnic experience.

While we play in the turquoise lagoon, Timo gets the barbecue going and grills the fruits de mer.

They serve us refreshing cold coconut water in the coconut shell, while our fingers hold the flesh of the juicy fish.
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