The happiest country on earth — kava, cascades, and coral
Port Vila is the capital of Vanuatu, a 13-island nation regularly ranked the happiest country on earth in global wellbeing surveys — partly due to its spectacular natural beauty, partly due to its self-sufficient kastom (custom) culture that predates colonial contact by 3,000 years. The harbour is ringed with colonial French-British condominium-era buildings, the daily market overflows with lap-lap (root vegetable pudding wrapped in banana leaves), and the Mele Cascades waterfall is a short tuk-tuk ride from the city centre.
Vanuatu was jointly administered by France and Britain from 1906 to 1980 as the New Hebrides Condominium — one of the most unusual colonial arrangements in history, with two separate police forces, two school systems, and two legal codes operating simultaneously. The Melanesian people had lived on these islands for at least 3,000 years before European contact, developing the extraordinary nambas custom culture and the Naghol land-diving ritual (the original bungee jump) on Pentecost Island. Independence came on 30 July 1980 under the name Vanuatu, meaning 'Land Eternal'.