I’m off to Western Samoa for a holiday. This means I will be swapping my laptop and internet connection for a pair of jandals and a good book (Seven Troop by Andy MacNab). I won’t be completely technology free, I am taking my trusty Canon EOS 400D with 2 x 4GB memory cards and a spare battery pack.

I started wondering what internet on this relatively small country in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is like. The answer is very very expensive! www.samoa.ws Rates and Deals page gives you a good idea. The rates are in Samoa’s currency, the exchange rate to the New Zealand dollar is 1.65 and the $NZ is 0.65 to the $US (today at least). Time to break out Excel 2010! Distance, limited infrastructure and small market size are obvious issues for low cost internet in the South Pacific.

Enough about that, who needs the internet when you are staying a resort with a swim up bar, beautiful white sand beaches, sea turtles and a speed limit of 40km/h in town and 55km/h on the open road. I will write again in two weeks!

Cheers and pass the sunscreen
Steve