Day 9 - Port Vila

After the rough and tumble of the Tanna Taxi, we decided to have a quiet and relaxing day today, our second last of the trip. We woke late and decided to go to Port Vila town around lunch time, to look for souvenirs and have lunch. We caught a taxi into town and hit the local streets. We soon realised that Vila really isn't set up well for retail, and tourist shoppers in particular - all the shops and even the local market all sell the same or similar stuff, making it hard to find nice souvenirs that aren't tacky.

Anyway after a few hours of wandering and searching we found a few bits and pieces and decided to head for lunch. We wanted to try out the food at the Waterfront Bar as we had heard they did a good steak, unfortunately though, their kitchen was closed as it was now 4pm! So we wandered back down the road to The Grand hotel they had an all day menu. We were tired and a little muddy as it had been raining, which is probably why we were escorted to the most hidden seat in the whole restaurant - I don't think they wanted any of their hotel guests seeing us in our shorts and thongs. 

Now, The Grand may sound like a nice and luxurious establishment, based solely on the name, however it is reminiscent of a 1980's Gold Coast hotel, tall and ostentatious it has a small pool, no grounds and looks out onto the busy and noisy Port Vila harbour. After waiting for nearly an hour for our food we wolfed it down so that we could get back to our nice and friendly luxury resort. 

But we were not getting away that easily. Our lunch deal included a voucher to use the slots at The Grand's casino. We entered and had to leave our bags at the door before being assigned a machine. An attendant loaded our credit so we could play. Thankfully the credit expired in less than 2 minutes so we could get our of there, but while we were there we noticed a number of locals playing the machines, which was a little sad.

We left and jumped into the first available taxi back to the Holiday Inn, and even though the last thing we wanted to think about was food had to book a table at the Indian@Seaside restaurant as we didn't want to miss out on trying their food. We were not disappointed, and our late booking was advantageous as they had been swamped by diners earlier on. We had an entree of small and tasty samosas with a sweet and spicy sauce, followed by a Butter Chicken, and Pepper Chicken main, both of which were very tasty, although the butter chicken was nothing like back home, and the Pepper Chicken had a scorching heat that took us by surprise. 

We were pleasantly surprised that dinner came with a show! There was a 50 somethings couple about 3 metres away, and the lady was tanked and speaking rather loudly. The conversation was nothing exciting until we heard her say "...your dad was an arsehole...", at which point Mick's ears pricked up and he started rubbing his hands thinking, this will be gold! The lady then accused her man of going off and spending time "...with who knows who, any Tom, Dick and Harry...". We then hear her question the guy as to why he answered mobile phone calls from private numbers, why he was still in contact with his ex who was now 5 months pregnant, and then she fired a direct missile, loud for the whole restaurant to hear "...is she having your baby?...". It was so awkward yet entertaining at the same time. Amazingly the man just sat there and took it all, not once raising his voice in return (unfortunately). The conversation, and their dinner ended with "... well, you can go home and w@nk yourself on the bed, cause i am not sleeping with you tonight!" Pure gold! A perfect end to our night and final day of our holiday