Dance me to the end of time....

January 16, 2007 - Rarotonga

My introduction to night life in Avarua was nothing if not memorable. Imagine you have been stuck on the same deserted island for 20 years. Over those years you have accumulated a stash of bad hip hop and dance music, as well as some surprisingly good local stuff. You play DJ for a night and mash it all together and you'd get a close approximation of what I heard last night.

The Banana Court is not a particularly esthetically pleasing bar. The dance floor is at the front and the bar is done up like a tiki hut, complete with wooden gods carved into the posts, and it reminds me entirely too much of Everybar in Anysmalltown I've ever been to. The crowd was a mixed bag - a handful of backpackers acting in ways that made me feel old and a whole lot of islanders. It was a dance in the way small town bars have dances. Except this one had a dance competition thrown in.

To my surprise, once the brave few had taken their places on the dancefloor, what came out of the speakers was not bad early 90s hip hop, but Island drum music. Music you can only move a certain way to. Watching the locals I had the distinct feeling that I could have probably held my own with them, more than that, that I want to learn from them. I don't even know where to start asking for that one. Ripe mangoes I can probably find an answer for. It's probably at the market as we speak. But dancing lessons? They'll either be impressed and think I'm brave or laugh at me until I go away.

I have acquired a few of the triangular shaped coins. Turns out they are worth 2 Cook Islands Dollars. I have also acquired enough foreign coins to keep my collection happy. After the Tahitian coins, more money here: a scalloped piece, I forget how much it is worth, along with new and old NZ$0.20 pieces. The new ones are quite small, about the size of our nickle. The old ones are huge and bulky. Now all I need is a $3 bill and my life will be complete. Question for readers: who else has heard the expression queer as a $3 bill? I was throwing it around friends from work who said they'd never heard it and I wondered if it was that unique or if it was yet another age difference. (I love working with 18 to 21-year-olds. They make me feel out of the loop and very grown up.) I ask the question because I was thinking about bringing one back as a souvenir for a friend who is openly queer but if the expression isn't widespread or if it is going to prove a generation gap, there really is no point. It completely loses its tongue in cheek humour if I have to explain it.

I am amazed at how quiet it is. Wind in the jungle, stream behind the chalet, infernal roosters (that is probably the real reason why I woke up) and not much else. Very little sounds of human habitation aside from the occasional motor scooter. I'm really not convinced I ever want to leave.

Plans for the day:

1. Find Paul. He is here somewhere. I want to make coffee for him and get my battery charger converter kit from him so I can keep blogging.

2. Mangoes. I feel like I could eat five of them here and now.

3. Yogurt. It would be amazing next to the mangoes.

4. Ocean. I didn't get out for a swim yesterday. I had a nap instead and the weather was pretty hit and miss and mostly miss but today is supposed to at least not rain.

4.a. Acquire board shorts. The island isn't as conservative as I thought but I 'd still feel uncomfortable wandering around in a bathing suit that shows off as much as my underwear. Maybe I just haven't worn one in a long time but the thought doesn't make me keen on going out in public. Upshot is that there are board shorts for sale everywhere in Avarua.