Experiencing Fiji

Bula!

Fiji has been no 1 on my list of places to go for about 10 years for various reasons, the main reason being the tv programme Red Dwarf because they describe it as the best place in the whole of the known universe! It exceeded all my high expectations though, I love it here. The main towns Nadi and Suva are pretty crap, but once you get into the countryside or onto the smaller islands it is a beautiful place. It is also home to the Feejee Experience...

Sunday

I arrive on Sunday morning in a bad mood, because not only have I spent all of Friday night travelling, but the whole of Saturday has just disappeared, not impressed. So today I did what Sundays were designed for; lazing around by the poolside, the most energetic thing I did was to get up to go to the bar.

Monday.

I got on the Feejee Experience bus and travelled to Natadola Beach, where we played volleyball with some local Fijians and swam in the sea. In the afternoon we went sandboarding down Sikatoa sand dunes - this is basically lying on a body board and chucking yourself down a very steep hill. A bit scary, especially at the top of the hill looking down, but it was brilliant fun. I did it twice, wanted to go again but climbing up to the top was really hard - for every step up you slid half a step down in the sand.

Later that day we visited a traditional Fijian village, the children showed us round. It was basically a load of tin huts, but very interesting. The kids were lovely and insisted they hold my hand as I looked round.

Tuesday.

Tuesday we did a 3 hour trek through a rainforest, including 30 mins of wading through a stream. Being a rainforest, it obviously chucked it down with rain for most of the trek, and we got drenched. No-one minded though, because it was still warm and very funny! The rain poured down my face so fast my contact lenses nearly fell out. I had to buy some new sandals that morning because my old ones fell apart a couple of days before, and the new sandals gave me loads of blisters :-( I was glad I bought some though, as another girl, Courtney, had to trek the last 30 mins in bare feet as her sandals completely collapsed when we were in the river!

At the end of the trek we got in rubber tubes and floated down the main river. I was the only one to fall out when we hit the rapids, but apart from a nice bruise on my leg no harm done. Then we had a nice long boat ride back to the hostel.

Wednesday.

On Wednesday we visited a Fijian orphanage, I was expecting it to be horrible but it was a really nice place, and of course the kids were lovely. They sang songs to us and showed us round. We bought them pens and colouring books to say thanks.

Afterwards we went to a Sevusevu ceremony - a kava drinking ceremony. Kava is the Fijian national drink. We appointed a 'chief' to be head of our 'tribe', and went to meet the chief of the village.

Then we drank the Kava. It looks and tastes like dirty dishwater, and it makes your tounge go numb. Apparently the strong stuff is good if you are about to visit the dentist. The kids handing it round were quite cheeky and kept giving us more and more, and we couldn't really refuse as it would have been rude. Luckily I didn't get as much as some of the men, who had to drink about 2 pints worth. Yuck!

After the ceremony we went Bilibili racing. This involves lying on your stomach on half-submerged bamboo rafts, and paddling like mad with your arms like you do on a surfboard. My team won of course, probably helped by the fact that we had the chief on board.

That evening we ended up on Nananu island, and we cooked a really nice meal between 8 of us (the cost was 50p each).

Thursday.

I stayed on the island an extra day, mainly to chill out after all the activities but also because I wanted to do another dive, I think I'm getting addicted to diving. It was brilliant, I swam past a wall full of Coral, and saw 2 sharks, Nemo (the clownfish), and big schools of what looked like sardines shooting quickly around me. Like most things here, it is difficult to describe how amazing you feel diving. Even snorkeling on Nananu was amazing, I'm using my snorkel that I bought in LA loads, and persuaded lots of my friends to try it out.

In the evening we played a drunked game of volleyball - we were all crap so we changed the rules so that if the ball didn't stop moving it was still in play, very funny considering we had to keep running down to the beach and kicking the ball back again.

Friday.

Friday wasn't quite as good as the group who I had started the Feejee experience with had got split up because some stayed and some didn't, there were only 4 of us (Olly, Chaya, Segal & me) left from the original gang. The new bus wasn't quite as friendly. I did meet up with Siobhan & Kath though which was good.

For lunch we stopped off at a local Indian restaurant (not a tourist one), and I had Goat Curry. To be honest it wasn't very nice, full of fat and bones, but the meat was tasty if you could get to it. Nothing at all like curries in England.

After lunch we went to some hot pools which were full of mud. It is fantastic for your skin, I would have scooped up a bottle of it, but I don't think the NZ immigration would be impressed. There were different pools, some were far too hot to even think about getting in. After covering ourselves with mud we went to the showers to discover they weren't working (everyone else on the bus had got there before us and used up the water). Lucking after attempting to clean ourselves with a soggy t-shirt, they started again.

Saturday.

Saturday I spent with Siobhan & Kath just chilling out at Nadi Bay. The best thing about the hotel is that you can spend the entire time barefoot, which is good for blistered feet.

In the evening the rest of the gang from FJ Exp. turned up & we had dinner together which was fun. We also attempted to have a Vodka drinking session, but after pouring us one drink, Siobhan dropped the bottle and it smashed everywhere! Probably a good thing, to save the hangover.

Sunday.

Pete & I went to Beachcomber island, where we already knew some people there. Beachcomber is basically a lump of sand with a bar in the middle, and also a massive dormitory (for 120 people) to sleep in. The island is a party island so it was quite lively, and good fun.

In the evening we had an International crab race - I bought a crab called 'Viking' from Norway, because I have a Viking keyring from Norway who is traveling with me! I didn't win anything, but my friend Ben's crab came second - it was from Denmark - & he won $150. Afterwards we had to do the 'Bula' dance, a bit like the Macarena set to Fijian music. It was Chaya's birthday so we made the band, and everyone on the island, sing to her.

Monday.

Monday morning I went parasailing, where you get to towed behind a boat with a parachute tied to your back so you float about 50ft up in the air! The height was quite scary but it is very peaceful up in the air. I got an amazing view of the island, it looks very small when you can see all of it at once. Unfortuantely I didn't take my camera as I was scared of dropping it.

In the afternoon it was far to hot to do anything so we just played cards in the bar.

That evening we went back to Nadi Bay again, & had dinner with 12 people I had met at various points in Fiji. Also, in true backpacker style, I met 2 people catching the same flight as me to Auckland the next day.

Singlalinga! (No Worries!)