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News – March 2009 (Suva/Fiji, March 30, 2009)
- Website statistics: In February we were able to welcome on our website 34'107 visitors who did 1'163'251 hits.
- (January = 36'359 visitors – 1'226'591 hits)
- The visitors are coming from about 132 different countries!
- Record day since 12/17/1998 - the birthday of our website: 11/5/2007 = 13'407 visitors and 787'456 hits
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- Our stay on Viti Levu draws slowly to a close – tomorrow we shall fly with Air Pacific in the middle of the night to Samoa
- and are gaining a day in crossing the actual dateline. This 180º meridian parts the earth into "where a new day begins" and
- "where everyday ends". Due to various reasons, some deviations from this longitude are allowed, firstly that the whole of a
- country is to "experience" the same day and secondly also as a catchphrase to be the first in a New Year!
- Our LandCruiser leaves already today in its 15th container for a sea voyage on the "Tropical Islander" of the shipping line
- "Greater Bali Hai" to Apia in Samoa, where it should arrive after three days. But before that, we visited with the Fiji car-
- ferry "Spirit of Fiji Islands" – called short "SOFI" – in a free ride of the "Consort Shipping Line" also the two bigger Fiji
- islands of Vanua Levu and Taveuni. While the first one leaves an incredible tropical impression, the second gives the feeling
- of a peaceful and laid-back place.
- To allow us to visit the former Western Samoa, a Cabinet decision in Apia was necessary. This authorization procedure
- remembers us totally to the Caribbean six years ago, but the two regions cannot be compared at all. Thus the Caribbean
- offers many more possibilities to public beach access than the Pacific, where often the best places have been taken by the
- big and costly resorts. If this isn't the case, these areas belong to the locals living there who also administer them.
- Moreover, the distances between the islands in the Pacific are much bigger. It's possible that this is one of the reasons why
- there are nearly no private small boats plying the islands doing a brisk trade, which leaves us the only remaining solution of
- using the huge and expensive container lines that in turn have to call at the high priced commercial harbors.
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- Closing our stay in Fiji means also to leave behind the most Eastern country in Melanesia. Entering our 163rd country of
- Samoa means meeting Polynesia – where another but similar culture starts. While the people of Melanesia (consisting of
- Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Fiji) are rather of dark color, the Polynesians
- (Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Hawaii, the two French territories of Polynesia and Wallis & Futuna, as well as the three New
- Zealand regions of Niue, Cook Islands and Tokelau) look more light-skinned.
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Temples, Pagodas, Shrines | |
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| The visit of 5 Pacific Islands with our LandCruiser | Pacific February 2008 - |
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| The visit of 13 Caribbean Islands with our LandCruiser | Caribbean June 2003-Dec. 2004 |
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| + added from the United Arab Emirates: | Fairytale Wedding in Dubai (March 1999) |
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| + added from a earlier visit to the USA: | Las Vegas (Millennium change) |
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| + added from our Arabian Peninsula round trip: | Pictures from Yemen (May-June 1996) |
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| + Flashbacks of our Worldrecordtour: | Pictures from "all the continents" (Oct. 1984 - April 1997) |
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