I wear my sunglasses at night

TONGA! After 8 hours in Transit I arrived in Tonga. It was a bumpy ride to say the least, most people on the plane were vomiting and it was really gross. I just watched a few shows about Working Holidays, those people were homesick and their trips were just 6 weeks, come on!

So at the Tongan airport, while awaiting baggage the power kept shutting off. It actually was really scary. Each time, the police would start yelling in Tongan. Great way to calm down tired people...

Luckily my ride was waiting for me to take me to Toni's Guest House. The hostel left a lot to be desired. We drink rainwater and the toilet has no sink in it. Gross, you have to go all the way to the kitchen or use the shower to wash your hands. The hostel is actually in the ghetto, beside us is a shack with like 10 Tongans living in it. Not what I was expecting at all. Stayed up getting to know the 3 guys staying in the same house as me. I fell asleep with my mosquito net tucked around me and awoke in the night to it falling on me after the nail broke away from the ceiling. Gave me a fright!

The next morning I went on an island tour and saw Tonga's Stonehenge, surfer's beach, a big cave and about 300 Mormon churches. I'm not even kidding, Mormon's are trying to make Tongan the first Mormon country. They spent 49 million US$ on one church. Its insane, especially since these people live in huts, there are better ways to spend money I think. There are a bunch of signs from Japan reading "pipe work" which is supposed to help the Japanese get UN votes from Tonga to allow them to continue whale poaching. China practiced building roads here a while ago (they actually don't go anywhere useful) so there are like 4 random paved roads, while the rest are just dirt. No seatbelts here!

Last night I went to Cava night, its the ground up root of a tree here and its supposed to make you feel lightheaded but after a few coconut shells full I felt nothing but tired and just went to bed.

Today I'm in town at Friends cafe with a few new mates, the staff actually remember everyone's name, I like it. Granted it is low season for tourists, its still cool. The good thing about being in a place like Tonga, where its unsafe to go out alone and you get yelled at by overly friendly Tongans every step of the way is that it makes it pretty easy to bond with the other travelers. Unfortunately most people I've met are going to the more touristy islands tomorrow that actually have beaches, here the closest beach is quite far. But since I'm just here 8 nights and flights here are very unpredictable (cancelled often) I don't want to risk it. I'll take a ferry to Eua tomorrow to stay a few nights and do some hiking, that should be nice. And tonight I'm going to a Tongan cultural experience night in a giant cave. I'm excited for that!

LOVE!