Nandi, Fiji 
Friday, May 11, 2012, 05:15 PM
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,
Last day of my trip. Tomorrow i fly back to California via Auckland.
With the exception of the very last few days in the Solomon Islands, this trip took me to Pacific islands that mainly cater to couples (hence the most frequently asked question "where is your wife"). I have to say that it reinforced my feelings against traveling with a significant other: not only is your freedom greatly reduced (you have to negotiate every single move) but you cannot mingle with the natives the way i usually do. I get more in one hour of a local bus ride than these couples will get from an entire week of "cultural activities" organized by the local travel agency, no matter how much they spend in "local guides" (who mainly specialize in taking them to souvenir shops).
The Solomon Islands rank very high in my list of countries to re-visit. An incredible amount of the country is unspoiled and relatively unexplored, pretty much like New Guinea, but traveling around the Solomon Islands feels a lot safer than traveling around New Guinea. There is generally respect for the foreigner, vendors are not aggressive, and very few people try to take advantage of tourists.
I still have to see Western Australia, and now i'm toying with the new of a trip from Western Australia to Papua to Solomon Islands, maybe adding some of the states of southern Oceania that i did not see this time (Nauru, Kiribati, Tuvalu). Northern Oceania (Micronesia) is more easier visited from Hawaii or Philippines.
But let's first see if i survive the return trip to the USA. In recent years, no matter how adventurous the trip was, the worst thing always happened when i landed back in the West (eg when i came back unscathed from the Congo but then freaked out in New York's Harlem, or when i arrived in Paris from West Africa only to be stranded in the middle of a national strike). Not to mention the obnoxious stone-age customs & immigration officials of the USA that, still blissfully unaware of the existence of Google, Facebook, Flickr, etc, ask you such creative questions as "Where did you go?" and "For how long were you gone?"

Pictures of Solomon, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, Vanuatu
www.scaruffi.com/monument/oceania

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Auki, Solomon Islands 
Wednesday, May 9, 2012, 06:39 PM
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Honiara, SOlomon Islands 
Tuesday, May 8, 2012, 12:06 AM
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Port Vila, Vanuatu 
Sunday, May 6, 2012, 05:04 PM
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Lautoka, Fiji 
Tuesday, May 1, 2012, 11:24 PM
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Savai and Apia, Samoa 
Monday, April 30, 2012, 04:12 PM
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Fiji/Tonga/Samoa 
Thursday, April 26, 2012, 03:56 PM
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Tongatapu, Tonga 
Wednesday, April 25, 2012, 09:12 PM
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Nukualofa, Tonga 
Tuesday, April 24, 2012, 02:22 AM
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Nadi (Nandi) and Suva, Fiji 
Monday, April 23, 2012, 02:03 AM
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Preparing for Oceania 
Sunday, April 15, 2012, 02:29 AM
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or

and


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Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 
Saturday, March 3, 2012, 09:11 AM
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Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei 
Friday, March 2, 2012, 12:34 AM
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Brunei 
Thursday, March 1, 2012, 08:10 PM
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Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 
Tuesday, February 28, 2012, 09:52 PM
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End of Bangladesh trip 
Monday, February 27, 2012, 07:13 AM
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Bangladesh 
Saturday, February 25, 2012, 01:48 AM
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Dhaka, Bangladesh 
Tuesday, February 21, 2012, 01:51 AM
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Ready for Bangladesh 
Sunday, February 19, 2012, 06:14 AM
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Hanimadhoo, Maldives 
Friday, February 17, 2012, 07:35 AM
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