The bus in tropical paradise vol.1

I come up to a bus terminal in Apia, the capitol of Samoa. Yeah, there are colorful front engine buses which were shown in the travel guide book. Fiji, Tonga, Samoa ... I picked up possible destinations for the travel. A beautiful beach was guaranteed any of the countries. But Samoa was appealed one step closer to me by the classic bus.

I've taken the front engine type bus several times in my life. The oldest memory on the bus is in early 70s. I took it at my father's home town, Nagano. It's not the one-man operated. A conductress was on the bus. Many years later, I experienced it in Malta, the Med Sea island. It was also round shaped antique one. The colors and designs of Samoan bus is perfectly match to the air of tropical paradise. That's why I'm so impressed when I see the real buses at the terminal.

However when I take a close look at the bus, I notice one thing. It is a truck based bus. The cargo deck is modified to a cabin. Surprisingly, all of them are Japanese brands. I see logos like 'TOYOTA' 'NISSAN' on the engine hoods.
Looks very old although the steering wheel is settled on the right. It's not long ago, I think 2009, when Samoa's traffic changed from right to left following New Zealand or Australia. It makes harder to me guessing how long the classic bus has run as a main transportation of Samoan people.

A bus is decorated in the owner's taste. A silver hose ornament jumps on the front grill. A name of bus company's and destination village is credited on the body. Meanwhile, Elvis Presley holding guitar is painted on the rear end.
As you may know through that, the bus is not the public. Apia is one and only town in Samoa. The rest of them are small villages. The bus is run by local between Apia and each village. Every morning a bus packs commuters and comes up to Apia from villages all around the island. It shuttles once or twice during the day time. Then at the end of the day, the buses all go home villages with fully loaded passengers. No bus is left in Apia's bus terminal at 6:00pm.

In short, the transportation system is quite inconvenient for tourists who put the base on Apia and try to make a day trip to a countryside. Take a bus in late morning for getting there but gotta catch the last bus for returns at 3pm. If they miss it, then gotta hitchhike. Of course, there is no bus touring around the island neither. Do you know why? Coz it means nothing for the local people.