After a day-long meeting in this South Pacific paradise, it was time to venture and explore a bit of Apia...
The Apia clock tower - the Apia Town Clock as it is called looks pretty ordinary but there is an interesting history behind it. It was built and gifted to the Samoan people in the 1920s by Ta’isi Olaf Nelson, a Samoan businessman, politician and freedom fighter. The clock was erected as a memorial for his son, who had died in the 1918 influenza epidemic that claimed the lives of nearly 9000 Samoans. After the First World War, the Town Clock has also served as a monument to the Samoan-born soldiers who fought in the war. This is where the ANZAC Day is celebrated and so was the momentous realignment of the International Date Line in December 2011...
A building owned by an overseas Chinese clan...
The Central Bank of Samoa building...
The Samoa Government Building that is the main secretariat complex...
A glimpse of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral...
The tourist office designed as a fale...
A sudden storm lashes Apia, and we are forced to take refuge in the Immaculate Conception Cathedral...
The interior of the cathedral looks pretty lavish.
While protecting religious freedom, the state has declared Christianity to be the official religion, with 98 percent of all Samoans being Christian...
And the devoted come to pray...
It is also interesting that Samoa is also home to one of the few Baha'i houses of worship, that includes the Baha'i Lotus Temple in Delhi, which is an architectural marvel...
The storm abated and we were free to leave...
Beach Road is lined with the butea monosperma trees or the "flame of the forest". The tree is native to the Indian sub-continent but is now here in the heart of the Pacific...
Colourful buses operate in Apia...
Another church...
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