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Published: January 12th 2014
Mmmmm
A green one On the trail again..had amazing 9 days in fantabulous Fiji with the most friendly and happy people (despite 78% of pop living below poverty line) Puts our lives into sharp perspective. The Yasawa islands were beautiful and the weather was fantastic. Hope to live long enough to revisit sometime. Fishing again yesterday..again unsuccessfully, tho this time our skipper caught 7 beautiful fish to our zero bites..same bait, same boat..D'oh...must have poisoned our bait I think. Snorkeling was magnificent and finally got the secret of a good mask seal....unfortunately the tash had to go.but worth it. We were told plane would come at 3 pm which was ideal as oz flight 6.30. So, as is my want, I dived in for a last snork over the reef, not wanting to waste life lying around. After about half an hour I happened to glance shoreward to see Shirley gesticulating frantically for me to come in...Uh Oh, I thought, cos last time this happened it was to tell me there was a tiger shark taking a keen interest in my snorkeling technique in shark bay, western Australia a few years ago well the clue was in the name really. Anyway, it wasn't a shark,
Mmmmm
An orange one but tell me I had 5 mins to get ready as the plane was on its way...change of schedule. Result was.watching clown fish and blue starfish underwater one minute and 15 mins later looking down on the reef from a few hundred feet up! Fantastic. Downside 6 hr wait at airport though.
Then Sydney. Long way found to Bangkok but no direct flight Fiji to Bangkok so choice either hong Kong or Sydney. No brainer as one of our favorite cities , though admittedly quite a short list...we don't really do cities if can be avoided. Well they're full of shops! However going to be quite a list this trip. Seaplane trip from Fijian island to nadi on main island as was 5 hrs so too late to connect flight so chose 1/2 hr seaplane flight instead. Was elderly De Havilland machine held together by elastic and string but it did the job, and was fun. Finally got to Sydney 12 hrs after left resort at 10 pm.
Hotel had no record of our booking due to 'system failure' (don't you just love that catch all excuse, guaranteeing anonymity for the culprit). So kept at desk for 1
Time to go
Farewell to friends hr whilst they 'see what we can do' ed'. Luckily they found a spare room So all ended well, though slightly fraught tired and de-Fijied.
Next day our single day in Oz) dawned dreich or whatever the Oz equivalent is, and damp and distinctly cool for Sydney summer. But we headed out to Darling Barbour, just 500 mts from hotel for breakfast and by time finished it was warming up. Nostalgic walk down George St to Circular Quay by the opera house to get the ferry to Manly, our favorite suburb. We'd booked a hair appt for Shirley ( well it wouldn't be me would it?) In Manly so I had my favorite Sydney dish of Barramundi & chips on the beach, followed by kangaroo steaks at Darling harbour for dinner...yumyum! Washed down with a couple of stubbies! Wonderful. Of course it all went too quickly
So now off to the bustle of Bangkok to start our Indochina loop which will take 30 days. Should be fun with their election on Feb 2 and street demos already in full swing. Ttfn.
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Brian & Sandra
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Tally Ho
Well done you guys, looks like you are both still very much into the tourist mode. Will be interested to see what you say about Vietnam as never been there - just don't spend too much time in the tunnels. Fiji looks brill.