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Social Profile
Food & Drink: Restaurants have table service, and are found mainly in hotels. Apart from hotel dining rooms, there are restaurants featuring Tongan, French, German, Italian, Taiwanese and Japanese cuisine. Local staples are ’ufi (a large white yam) and taro. Other dishes include lu pulu (meat and onions, marinated in coconut milk, baked in taro leaves in an underground oven), feke (grilled octopus or squid in coconut sauce), devilled clams, ’ota (raw fish marinated in lemon juice) and lobster. Tropical fruits and salads are excellent. Feasts play a major role in the Tongan lifestyle. Up to 30 different dishes may be served on a pola (a long tray of plaited coconut fronds), and will typically include suckling pig, crayfish, chicken, octopus, pork and vegetables steamed in an umu (underground oven), with a variety of tropical fruits.
Nightlife: Nightlife is sedate, limited to music and dancing in the hotels, clubs and occasionally at the Yacht Club. Floorshows are held on some nights in the main hotels and the Tongan National Centre. Tongan feasts and entertainment are also organised.
Shopping: Special purchases are hand-decorated and woven tapa cloth, woven floor coverings, Ta’ovala pandanus mats, woven pandanus baskets, ‘Ali Baba’ laundry baskets, polished coconut-shell goblets and ashtrays, model outrigger canoes, tortoiseshell ornaments, brooches, earrings, rings and silver-inlaid knives. Tongan stamps and coins are collectors’ items; complete sets are on sale at the philatelic section of the Tongan Treasury. There are duty-free shops on Tongatapu and Vava’u. A government tax of five per cent is added to all bills for goods and services. Shopping hours: Mon-Fri 0800-1700, Sat 0800-1200.
Special Events: For a complete list of special events in Tonga, contact the Tonga Visitors’ Bureau (see Contact Addresses). The following is a list of special events occuring in 2003:
Jan New Year Celebrations. Mar 10 Commonwealth Day. Apr Easter Festival. May Vava’u Festival; Red Cross Festival and Grand Ball. May 4 HRH Crown Prince Tupouto’a’s Birthday Celebrations. Jun Ha’apai Tourism Festival. Jun/Jul Heilala Week Festival. Jul 4 Birthday of His Majesty King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV. Sep Tonga International Billfish Tournament, Vava’u. Nov Miss Galaxy Contest (beauty contest for fakaleitis or transvestites), Nuku’alofa. Dec King George Tupou IV Memorial Week.
Social Conventions: Shaking hands is a suitable form of greeting. Although by Western standards Tongan people are by no means rich, meals served to visitors will always be memorable. A token of appreciation, while not expected, is always welcome, especially gifts from the visitor’s homeland. Casual wear is acceptable, but beachwear should be confined to the beach. It is illegal to take off one’s top in public. Sunday is regarded as a sacred day, an aspect of Tongan life thrown into sharp relief by the controversy surrounding the so-called ‘Tongan loop’. The International Date Line forms a loop around the islands, thereby making them a day ahead of Samoa, even though Samoa is almost due north of Tonga. Members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church therefore maintain that a Tongan Sunday is really a Saturday, and are unwilling to attend church on a day which is only a Sunday because of an apparently arbitrary manifestation of international law. This complex and almost insoluble problem may cause visitors a certain amount of confusion, but travellers to Tonga are advised to respect the religious beliefs of the islanders. Tipping: Not encouraged, but no offence is caused if services are rewarded in this way.
Copyright © 2003 Columbus Publishing Ltd.
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