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News – May 2009 (Apia/Samoa, May 26, 2009)
- Website statistics: In April we were able to welcome on our website 34'630 visitors who did 1'203'787 hits.
- (March = 39'931 visitors – 1'337'231 hits)
- The visitors are coming from about 145 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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- Unfortunately the "surprise" that we announced in our last News April for the time from May 19th, to 29th, dropped out.
- The intent we were looking forward to was to do a special "visa-run" to Tokelau. Not only that we could have renewed our
- 60-days Samoan permit, but we would have been able to explore at the same time also an extreme rarely visited still
- New Zealand territory. The atoll consists of three small islands, which – like other island countries (Marshall Isl., Tuvalu,
- Kiribati, Micronesia, Nauru, Tonga, Maldives, etc.) – are threatened to be swallowed virtually by the rising sea level.
- In our case the reason of the disappointment wasn't the usually difficult and only shipping connection from Samoa
- that lasts more than 20 hours (there are anyway no flights), but in the recent outbreak of the swine flu. Because Tokelau
- had to fight already back in March with a "common" flu – 10% of the population of the 1'500 residents were sick – the
- local government closed simply the "border"; not even the crew of the supply vessel is allowed ashore.
- Well, we shall survive without having been in Tokelau – a reopening of the shipping connection isn't anyway in sight – at least
- not until the WHO reduces the epidemic's level to 4. Hence we shall remain a little longer than intended before in the former
- "Western Samoa" respecitively "Samoa-I-Sisifo". June 1st, is Independence Day in Samoa. Once the festivities are over,
- we shall visit in-between Upolu's somewhat larger sister island Savai'i. The two islands form since 1962 the sovereign
- state of Samoa and are connected by an 1½-hour ferry sailing.
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- The final continuation on another ferry vessel, the "MV Lady Naomi" from Apia to Pago Pago in American Samoa –
- our 164th destination – will be only on July 1st. At that time we are allowed with our car to visit Tutuila, the third of the
- bigger islands in the Samoan group. For once the Governor there allowed exclusively that our 1982-model LandCruiser is
- permitted to visit temporarily his country, because since shortly all vehicles older than 1999 are banned from entering the
- island. More and more "dark clouds" are visible on the horizon for our "old-timer" – not only that the spare parts for it are
- becoming sparse and difficult to find, but also that it isn't anymore welcomed due to its age.
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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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