Mana Island, Fiji

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Bula! Greetings from Mana Island! After 25 grueling hours of traveling from NY, a layover in LA, connecting to Nadi, Fiji and a ferry ride later, I am finally here! I was so tired I barely knew what day it was, especially with the whole hopping over the international dateline maneuver, so I checked into my romantic island bure for one at the Mana Island Resort, ate lunch, and passed out on the beach. It is gorgeous down here! Clear turquoise waters, white sand, and everything tropical island dreams are made of. And the beaches at the resort come with lounge chairs under thatched straw umbrellas that kept me from burning to a crisp while completely out cold that first day. So after peeling myself off the beach and wiping the line of drool off my face, I took a little walk around the resort, which is huge and pretty damn nice for riff-raff like me, and then ventured off to the other end of the island where there are a couple backpacker lodges and another beach. I actually ended up hanging out down at that end the other night because my resort was just a bunch of couples, families, and japanese tour groups. I also went on a dive this morning with the group from the Ratu Kini backpacker hostel because they were so much nicer than the pricks at the dive shop at my resort, who told me I should just do a beach dive. Lame. So we went out to this site called "the supermarket" about 15 minutes offshore. Saw a couple reef sharks just hanging out, which I was reassured only eat fish and not people, along with a couple giant sea turtles, some type of lobster with really long antenae, and a whole rainbow of colorful tropical fish I could not tell you the names of. I guess that's why they call this "the supermarket." And 59 minutes later, I was back up on the boat and feeling very hungry. No joke! So later on I'm going to head back and have my divemaster put the dive into my log book which I found in my backpack from 3 years ago, the last time I dove in Thailand, and buy her a beer. Sweet girl from Australia, had to reteach me everything I'd forgotten over the past 3 years. Thanks Tracy! I also just booked my hotel for the next couple nights and I'm off in the morning to another island in the Mamanucas group called Malolo Lailai. I'm doing the fancy resort thing again at Musket Cove, but if they break out the Bingo during happy hour there too, I'm searching for the closest backpacker hostel... The price you pay for air conditioning and an en suite bathroom! Call me a princess but it is really freakin' hot down here. They say the ozone layer is particularly thin over the South Pacific and I think it's true. Everything just broils under the sun all day. Anyway, off to hit my open-air, polished stone inlay shower... It's luxurious.

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Comments

[jen]

South Pacific
I just went to see the musical, South Pacific, last week. It was just like what you're doing except totally different. Fiji doesn't sound like a bad place to pass out. I guess I'm just going to have to resign myself to passing out in the corner of some dirty bar under a pile of coats.

[dw]

fiji water
just today at lunch we were discussing bottled water with someone in the business. apparently while fiji water is all the rage here in the US for its image, when traveling to fiji, the US govt recommends people to drink the bottled water since their local water supply may not be good for you! looks beautiful out there!