First Day in Tonga

Running on about 2.5h of sleep total (didn’t really fall asleep until 7am because of the roosters, napped a bit in the morning) first order of things is to find food and a SIM card. The eSIM I bought and tried to figure out last night only connects to 3G and so is so super slow, definitely feels a bit stressful not being connected in a new country. Bought some food at a store and found the Digicel head offices where I bought a SIM card w 7GB for $20 Pa’anga. I thought that would be enough for the time here but turns out you go through a lot more data when there’s no wifi. Got a top up on Saturday.

Tonga is a very interesting country. Very not developed, very religious, was never actually colonized (hence why their slogan is ‘the true South Pacific’) and is the only monarchy in this part of the world. The people are very friendly and always wanting to help here, in a way that feels very sincere. But it’s always hard being a white person in a non white majority, you feel a bit out of place. They call foreigners here ‘palangi’
There’s also a decently sized Chinese population from what I can tell

Walked around to get a lay of the land a bit, but the priority was definitely getting an early good sleep after last nights sleep.
Took some cash out, had lunch by the water, finally booked my flight from Vanuatu to New Caledonia, saw the Royal Palace (Tonga is a monarchy) and war memorial. Managed to turn off my light before 11pm!Read more