Hitchhiking in Vanuatu: Siviri Village
7th of September, 2025.
Emas stops for me. I have to walk for quite some time until a private car finally passes. Here in Vanuatu, very few people own their cars in the countryside. The majority of them rely on the sprinters they use for public buses, and they are everywhere. Emas is a very nice guy and we talk about my travels and life. He has a regular job but also farms pigs. He says that he can have about 200 piglets at a time. When we arrive to Siviri village, he tells me that if I need help, I should just ask around for Malcom, and tell him the he sent me. Nice!
As I start walk towards the village, somebody talks to me. That’s when I meet Mili (short for Milgrid), a fact which would change my stay in Siviri. Well, better saying, Mili would change my staying in Siviri. She is a very lovely girl, only twenty years old, and she’s coming back from a weekend in Port Vila, where she was attending a festival of local music. As we start walking together and talking, she tells me about an event which will be held in her home this afternoon, in consideration for the one month that has passed since her grandmother died. In the villages of Vanuatu, when one month has passed since someone died, they will cross this person’s name from the church’s book. So Mili invites me to come for lunch at her house, where many members of her family will gather later on. I’m honoured with the invitation!
We pass by her house, and then she walks with me to the caves. I can imagine that years ago (and I would figure it out that Covid-19 changed all that), this site and many others in Vanuatu, used to be an actual tourist attraction. There is a nice enough sign saying about prices to visit the cave and to use the kayaks as well (500 and 1000 Vatu respectively, which is quite expensive, but then again, everything tourist wise in Vanuatu is expensive); and also, a cabin which could either be a toilet or a ticket boot. Even the fact that you have kayaks to “rent” and go kayaking the caves is a sign of development. But that was long ago, as know you can see the signs of abandonment and deterioration.
The cave is massive and quite nice but it seems that it’s also deteriorating itself, which is a shame. I don’t know how to preserve a cave.
We then walk shortly to a beach where I will stay until lunch time. We talk with the ladies living right in front of it, and Mili tells them that in case I need some water I will come by to ask. Then she leaves me to be and go back home.
Siviri village is tiny and the houses are spread all over the place. You have some houses by the main road; then a few ones on the way to the main area of the village, right at the end of it, where there’s a church and the cemetery. This part of it is very tidy and organized, but again very small. The beach at this time of the year (perhaps it changes in other months, I don’t know), has a very low tide for most of the day, so you would have to walk for about hundred metres, among the corals, in order to get to a place where you might be able to swim. I don’t do that. I only stay by the beach and do some sunbathing. No need to say that there’s nobody here but me. A few locals pass by the road while I’m here but nobody comes to talk to me.
When I’m walking back to Mili’s house, I first notice a blister on my left foot. The beginning of a long-lasting nightmare. I should’ve been more careful with that. Once there, I can’t see her so I talk with some other people. One man, with whom I start talking to, it happens to be Malcom (laugh), and we laugh when we figure that out. When lots of people come from the church, I meet Mili’s parents and nieces. She soon comes and start introducing me to everyone. There’s a whole tent set for the event and a lot is going on, as many family members from other parts of Vanuatu are staying over for a few nights. Many members of the family are matching their dresses and shirts. They have prepared a lot of food, mostly done in the same way they cook for special occasion in Fiji, there called Lovo, here called Punia. The difference is that here they prepare some actual meals, called Laplab and cook on it, while in Fiji it would be mostly the entire pork and cassava only.
Laplab is all made in layers and layers of banana leaves. You can finely grate bananas, yums, cassava or taro (the most traditional root from Vanuatu), add freshly squeezed coconut milk, and add some toppings like tomatoes, cabbage, chicken or even shellfish on top, and that’s it. I like it, but it’s too plain for me, as they don’t add any salt or pepper, or any spices at all.
I mostly watch they doing their own thing but I also help a little bit. I’m surprised how very little surprised they are by my presence, mostly by Siviri being so tiny as it is. I’m only guessing that in the past they used to have a lot of tourists. And there’s also the daughter of a previous peace corps man, who is doing some kind of studying in the local communities culture, so they might be used to her already, as she’s being hosted by some of the local families.
Mili makes me a massive plate, with bit of everything. We sit away from the crowd, under the shade of a huge tree in the back of her house. I have the feeling that she’s a bit of an outsider inside her family. Although later on I would get the same feeling from her older sister. I would not expect that in such a tiny village of Vanuatu. Perhaps in Port Vila but not here. That’s something which Mili and I have in common.
Earlier Mili has shown me a place almost right across her house where I can camp for tonight. And the only reason why they haven’t invited me to camp in their big yard is because of all the family members already staying there, and they would be up at night for a long time. In Fiji the story would be very different, as when I was staying with Christine and Johnatan and they have had family members coming to stay with them, I was still invited, insistently, to stay with them and spend time with them through their late-night activities.
But truth is I’m really happy with my camping spot. I come here late afternoon, and even though some family members invite me to join the family for the afternoon tea, I decide to stay in my tent and do some reading before going to bed early. I sleep like a baby! And I see what I think it was the full moon (not! Just a harvest moon).
8th of September, 2025.
Early morning Mili comes and brings me some breakfast. There’s some bread with peanut butter, many different biscuits and crackers, and a thermos with black tea. How adorable! I’m overwhelmed about her kindness. We were supposed to have breakfast together a bit later, and then go to a nearby beach for a swim, but as it happens that she must to go to Port Vila again, she brought me breakfast so I can have it whenever I feel and she can also explain the change of plans to me. She says we can go for a swim in the afternoon, when she will be back.
After having breakfast, I was planning to take a short walk around the village, and then stay by the beach. Sunbathing and swimming, until Mili comes back. But when I come by her house to drop off my backpack, as she’s still there, she tells me about what’s going on soon there. So I only go to the village for a 10 minutes walk and then I come back.
The mums from the village gather together to help some of the local families at a time. So today, for example, they are coming to Katy, Mili’s mother house, to help cleaning the garden. Then they also prepare some food, and I help them to make Simboro. Again, you finely grate either bananas, yums, cassava or taro, and you use some green leaves, which they call it cabbage but it’s actually some other plant, to roll it. Then you add coconut milk to it, and cook it. The difference is that, once its finished, a mix of fried onions, garlic, ginger, tomatoes, salt and pepper is added to it, so it’s a bit more seasoned than Laplab but still quite plain on itself. Laugh.
One thing I start notice about people from Vanuatu is that, even though they are nice, they are still really rough, edging rudeness. And it’s not their fault, either it means that they are mean. At least I don’t think so. I believe it’s simply their roots. Vanuatu people have their roots in African people. Mostly coming from Ethiopia, they sailed here, about 3000 years ago, and were the first ones living in these islands. With the pass of the years, miscegenation naturally happened, with the up-coming of people from all over the world, but still, their roots are African. And I’ve had the same experience with most African people during my almost two years travelling there. They are nice, lovely and kind people, but in their brute way.
Another thing is that, here in Vanuatu everything has a price. Kind of like in Bali. While in Fiji people would try and give you stuff for free all the time, not letting you pay for things, here in Vanuatu people are always selling things to you, constantly telling the price of everything and anything they offer you.
I go back to the beach after lunch, just chilling, and doing some reading. When I come back, they are making Laplab again. Laugh. This time I make a full video on it, step by step. Check it out. But I also help, of course. And even though I’ve had always offered help and helped the ladies since yesterday when I arrived, I have to hear Mili’s father telling me at some point: “Ah! Somebody is finally working.”. That would never happen in Fiji.
When I was in Fiji, someone once told me that people from Vanuatu were even kinder than Fijians. I disagree. In my opinion, Fijians are among the kindest people I’ve ever met, together with Thai people. I was extremely overwhelmed by their kindness, generosity and lovely way of treating foreigners and guests. But here, people are pretty much regular, with many cases of not so nice people.
So when I eat the food at night I’m feeling a little bit weird, as I should be paying for it or something. Tonight I camp in their yard, and it’s nice when Katy says that they were worried about me camping by the beach last night. But I don’t sleep as well as when I was in the beach.
9th of September, 2025.
Mili and I have some breakfast together. Her brother, Johnathan, is very nice to me. And he is kind of cute too. His daughter, Alicia, looks like a doll but is very naughty. She’s only two but already has got a very strong temper, with an attitude which will not do her any good in the future if she doesn’t change. Johnathan’s wife is also a lovely lady, but she’s very shy so we talk just a little here and there. Mili’s big sister is also a very strong and outside kind of woman, doing her own business and looking after her baby girl (another doll) all by herself. Well, kind of it, as Mili tells me, and I see it, that she’s actually the one spending more time with the baby.
I leave Siviri village towards Emua village soon after breakfast.
10 Years Around the World 