My teenage daughter is standing in a lineup of tribesmen and she is angry with me. As I lift my camera, she says, “I look hideous,” unaware of the irony of being surrounded by tribesmen wearing next to nothing.
我十几岁的女儿正站在一群部落居民中间，生我的气。当我举起相机时，她说：“我看起来丑死了。”被几乎什么都没穿的部落居民围绕着的她并没觉察到这刻的讽刺意味。
We are in the Yakel Village on the South Pacific island chain of Vanuatu. I grew up in the South Pacific. Back then, Vanuatu was one of the poorest nations in the region, with little to recommend it to tourists. Within the last five years, however, it has become a hot spot for adventure travelers and now boasts several swanky resorts. In 2006 it was voted the happiest place on Earth by the think tank Happy Planet Index.
我们正身处位于南太平洋瓦努阿图列岛的雅克村。我在南太平洋上的岛屿国长大。那时候，瓦努阿图是该地区最贫穷的国家之一，几乎没有什么值得观光的。然而，在过去五年里，这里成为了探险者的热门旅行区，已经建成了几个一流度假村。2006年，瓦努阿图被智囊团“快乐星球指数”评为地球上最幸福的地方
。
The reason they’re happy is not that Vanuatu have the most stuff. But Vanuatu has idyllic white-sand islands, clear waters, waterfalls, great diving, the world’s most accessible live volcano and food that grows faster than it can be picked. They share almost everything and, most important, there’s no cultural yearning to keep up with the Joneses. I decided this concept would be good for my family, and so my husband, Greg; daughters, Indigo and Sofia; and I spent 10 days here last July.
瓦努阿图当地人之所以幸福，并不是因为他们拥有得多。而是瓦努阿图有诗意美妙的白沙岛、清澈的海水、瀑布、很棒的潜水区、世界上最易到达的活火山，还有收割不尽的粮食。那里的人们分享几乎所有的东西，而且最重要的是，这里没有爱攀比、追潮流的文化。我觉得这个观念对我的家人很有好处，所以我和丈夫格雷格、女儿茵娣格和索菲亚去年七月在这里度过了10天的假期。
After several hours with the Yakel, we said “tata” (goodbye) to the tribesmen, and our driver moved on to Mt. Yasur, one of the most spectacularly active volcanoes in the world. If you’ve ever fancied getting close to a volcano, here’s your chance.
与雅克村人度过几个小时后，我们向那些部落居民说着“塔塔”（再见）道别。司机载着我们驶向了亚苏尔火山，它是世界上最壮观的活火山之一。如果你曾幻想近距离看火山的话，来这里你就能圆梦了。
We pulled up before sunset, watching as gray cloud as tall as multi-storied buildings mushroomed from the crater. We climbed its flank and approached the rim. It struck me as odd that there were no railings, no warning signs, no ropes and no rangers keeping visitors away from the edge. A part of happiness, I figured, must be managing one’s own fate.
我们在日落前到达，看着灰色云状物如雨后春笋般从火山口处升腾，足有几层楼高。我们爬上火山的侧翼并靠近其边缘处。让我感到诧异的是，这里没有栏杆、没有警示标志、没有绳索、也没有管理员阻止游客接近火山口边缘。我想，幸福的部分含义就在于掌控自己的命运吧。
As darkness fell, we could see the gray, ashy plumes turning brilliant scarlet, red and purple, shooting fireball rocks wildly into the night sky. We were transfixed. We had expected to spend two hours there and we spent five, trying, in vain, to capture the exhilaration on film.
随着夜幕降临，我们可以看到灰烬似的灰色羽状烟云变成了绯红、赤红和紫色，将火球岩石胡乱地投射向夜空。我们被震住了。原本打算在那里呆上两个小时，但实际上我们呆了五个小时。我们想尽量把那些激动人心的景色留在胶片上，却发现那根本是徒劳的。
Accommodations on Tanna were basic. White Grass Ocean Resort is as good as it gets and is pleasant and fun, although the rooms are Spartan and small. You don’t go to Tanna for luxe digs; our three days there were sufficiently stimulating.
塔纳岛上的住宿条件比较简陋。白草海洋度假村则很不错，房间虽然简朴狭小，但住起来还是很舒适有趣。去塔纳岛并不是为了住豪华寓所。我们在那里玩的三天时间已经够振奋刺激了。
In 2004, a French businessman cashed out, bought a yacht and he, his wife, and two small children sailed the world looking for their dream island. They spent more than a year looking, eventually wandering into the friendly waters around the large northern island of Espiritu Santo. There they discovered Ratua, a 146-acre coconut plantation surrounded by turquoise water, tropical fish, powdery white sand, and abundant plant life.
2004年，一位法国商人把资产套现，买了一艘游艇，带着妻子和两个年幼的孩子航行世界，寻找他们的梦之岛。他们花了一年多时间寻找，最终徘徊在圣埃斯皮里图岛北面那片美丽的水域。在那里，他们发现了勒杜瓦岛，岛上有一个占地146英亩的椰子园，岛的四周环绕着绿水白沙，热带鱼遨游水中，植物生长茂盛。
Indigo and I decided to visit the mainland of Espiritu Santo to explore the Millennium Cave, which, as evidence of Vanuatu’s remoteness, was first explored in 2000. We left behind Greg and Sofia because the trip was labeled unsuitable for kids under 10. I rarely pay attention to things labeled “tough” because it’s often an overstatement, but “tough” in Vanuatu really means, “Holy smokes, what have I done?” After a jarring one-hour drive, a 45-minute walk through a steamy bamboo forest, a stop at a village long house and an incomprehensible briefing from our village guide, we were off.
茵娣格和我决定去圣埃斯皮里图岛探索千年洞。千年洞见证了瓦努阿图长久以来的与世隔绝，该洞穴在2000年才被探险家发现。我们把格雷格和索菲亚留了下来，因为该行程不适合10岁以下的孩子。我很少理会那些标榜“艰难”的警告，觉得往往言过其实，但“艰难”二字在瓦努阿图却名副其实——“上帝啊，我究竟做了什么？”先经历一个小时颠簸的车程，再在潮湿的竹林里步行 45分钟，接着在村庄的长屋里稍作停留，费解地听当地导游解说一番之后，我们才真正出发。
There was a one-hour trek through knotted jungle and several steep descents on ladders fashioned from branches lashed together with palm fronds before we finally descended into the cave, which stretched, pitch-dark, for two miles. Any pride I had about my fitness was dashed, and I emerged with my legs shaking. Indigo, a sprightly 13, was grinning madly and claiming she wasn’t tired at all.
我们长途跋涉一小时，穿过枝缠叶绕的丛林后，再依靠以棕榈叶捆扎树枝制成的梯子走下几条陡峭坡路，最终进入了山洞。山洞宽约两英里，洞内伸手不见五指。我颤抖着双腿行进，对自己体力所怀有的任何骄傲都消失殆尽了。13岁的茵娣格则活蹦乱跳，在肆意地咧着嘴笑，声称自己一点都不累。
But wait. There was more.
然而，等一下。还不止这些呢。
After a sit-down and a sandwich, we were handed a child’s blow-up swim ring and told to get in the river. The only way out was to swim down a canyon, get out, portage your body around rocks, swim under waterfalls, get out again, climb a cliff and then traipse back through the jungle. I had never been more exhausted, but it was a true-blue adventure and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
坐下来吃了一个三明治之后，有人给了我们一个儿童充气游泳圈，并让我们下到河里去。出洞的唯一办法是：游进一个峡谷，然后出来，绕过岩石，游到瀑布下面，再出来，爬上一处悬崖，然后穿过丛林走回去。我从未试过如此精疲力尽，但这是一次真正意义上的冒险，如果再有机会，我还是会立马答应。
Back at Ratua, guests were invited to go outside on a deck cantilevered above the lagoon. Below us, a group of women in grass skirts waded into the sea up to their waists. They began to sing and rhythmically beat the ocean with their hands, performing the water music. An ancient ritual performed only by women, this performance seemed to prove that humans will always find a way to make music.
回到勒杜瓦岛后，游客被邀请去悬架在泻湖上的平台上。在我们下面，一群穿着草裙的妇女在深至她们腰部的水中涉水。她们开始唱歌，并用自己的双手有节奏地敲打大海，表演着水上音乐。这是一个只由妇女来表演的古老仪式。这样的表演似乎证明了人类总能找到创造音乐的办法。
Vanuatu had become one of my favorite places. In a world where most places are thoroughly explored and exploited, it felt untouched, blessed with abundant nature and kind people.
瓦努阿图已成为我最喜爱的地方之一。这个世界上的大部分地方已被人类深度探索和开发了，而这个有着众多自然风光和友善居民的地方，却还是一片圣洁无染的处女地。