Tonga, day 2

Up at 6:30, breakfast server by the ever so grandmotherly Susanna. The Taxi driver shows up at 7 for my 7:30 pickup and then proceeds to listen to radio loud enough to ensure that I know he’s there. By the way, Tonga has one, count ‘em one, radio station that will play Karma Chameleon back to back with 50 Cent (like John Ailee in Austin, but admittedly worse). Tonga also has one TV station that plays movies from pirated DVDs, even included the caption “Not for Distribution, For Award Consideration Only”.

Made the 5 minute drive to the domestic terminal at the airport. The sign reads “mest erm nal”, but you get the idea. After all there are only three buildings to choose from: the international gate, the Tongan Air Force, or the domestic terminal – all together are smaller than an HEB. Luckily I make the 8:30 on standby and I’m in for a treat. A 1953 DC-3 (picture coming soon). I thought it was fun to drive in a 1953 Ford, here’s to flying in a 1953 plane. We take off and I’m aware that the FAA isn’t in Tonga when they just leave the door open to the cockpit. The flight attendant then tells me during flight I’m welcome to walk into the cockpit and put on a headset to chat with the pilots – you better believe I didn’t pass that opportunity up! Then it was a long walk back to my seat in row 6 out of 7 where I find myself a bit chilly from the A/C. It takes a minute for me to connect that there is no A/C, the wind is hitting my hip, and I’m in the emergency row. That’s right, the breeze is coming through the emergency door. This leads me to walk to the back to check out the main door that you can see light coming through around the entire thing. Now I’m convinced I love Tonga.

We land at the smallest airport I’ve ever seen. It’s about the size of an ice cream stand. The baggage claim is a long hole in the wall and the airport consists of a single 15’x15’ room (I’m curious why we just didn’t carry our bags from the plane?) Nonetheless, it is labeled the Vava’u International Airport.

Caught back up with an English girl I met on the plane from Fiji and her boyfriend who has just finished a med school rotation in Tonga, we’re all staying at the same hostel – the only one – and share a cab. Check in, meet the other 3 people in the hostel, meet the other 1 tourist in town, and put around for the day until we find the a local bar on the water and watch the sunset with a cold drink. I pose the question again, “Trey, how are you ever going to go back to work?”