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Published: November 24th 2007
Bula everybody, so first off a bit of a rant, I left the cook Islands on the 26th of October and had a four hour flight but didnt arrive in Fiji until the 28th, the 27th did not exist in my world this is due to crossing the international date line. Im annoyed at this as it is one day i can not get back, the world has thrown me for a loop, im confused and bewildered, but i have thought of a way to get around this, basically once i am done with this trip, i will have to go on another one but in the other direction so i can get my day back otherwise i will be in a state of time confusion forever and that just cant be so, surely you all agree that this is the only option for me.
So when i arrived i went straight to my hostel, it was basic but did the job as the plan was to only stay here for tonight and tomorrow and then hit the Islands, which was a good plan as i was actually the only person in the whole hostel, just little me, i have to
Rain in paradise
raining on our parade in Mana Islandsay that i felt like i was in a film that you know doesnt have a good ending.
Fiji has over 320 islands so choosing which ones you wish to go to can be hard work, in the end i decided on heading towards the Mamanucas and first stop was Mana Island, I was supposed to be picked up the next morning at nine but because the Fijians work on "Fiji Time", i wasnt actually picked up until quarter past ten, (i would learn to get used to fiji time), i was bought to the boat where 8 other people were waiting to head to Mana Island to so we aboarded our little speed boat and off we went, it was about a hour and a half to get there but once we did we were greeted by the staff all singing their welcome song, the beach was pure white sands and the sea so clear, straight away i knew i was going to like it here, after throwing our stuff into the dorm rooms we had a look around before lunch, this island is great because our dorms are in with the community, we walk through the village
and past to the church to get to our dorms which is right beside the school so we have the school children shouting Bula to us at every time we pass and in the mornings just in time for breakfast we were awoken by them singing their school songs, better than a alarm clock anyday. On the Islands your 3 meals are included in your accommodation as there are no kitchen facilities for us to use and def no supermarkets. so we are treated to cooked meals 3 times a day, result! so we been on this marvelous island for a total of 20 minutes when the heavens opened and it started to rain bad, and i mean bad, we all ran for cover to where else but the pub and we could see mini cyclones on the sea it was good to see especially once we were told it would clear up and for the rest of our stay it would be sunny so we decided to enjoy the cyclone show while sipping away at Fiji Bitter, it may not of been sunny but good beer, good company and pasta poker, its still paradise hey. The next three days
were spent doing the usual beach things such as swimming, kayaking, numerous and i mean numerous games of volleyball. The guys here are great and i bonded with them straight away, the days were always good times. In the night the staff always had something going on, we had a kids concert where the kids from the local school did traditional songs and dances, a traditional Fijian night where we had the kava ceromeny, traditional fijian food cooked under the ground and this time the adults doing the singing and dancing and on the last night we had the crab racing. Now i have a story regarding the crab racing, so about 2 o clock that day we set off on a mission to find the crabs, this was suppose to be a massive group effort but by this point most of the guys were settled at the bar, so it was just me, catherine and Jo the organiser. Finding crabs is not a easy task and i was not at all fruitful which i was annoyed at myself over as its not exactly hard, we saw loads when we werent purposly looking for them and it was boiling hot.
once Jo had found enough we headed back and was telling the guys at the bar that i didnt find one when we saw one scuttling along the beach, i ran as fast as i ever had and caught him, memorised his markings and called him George, i was now happy. That night we all headed in for the crab racing, there was eight crabs and we had to bid on the ones that we wanted, as soon as george came out i starting the bidding only to find out theat paul wanted him too, we were in a bidding war with people even offering me money to get George for myself but it got too much i didnt have enough faith and i let paul have him, he even changed him name (that paul i will never forgive you for), of course george won in a spectacular fashion, winning paul a free dive trip, to say i was gutted was a understatement- i should of had more faith in George. The day after we headed to the Island where Tom Hanks filmed Castaway but dissapointly we did not find Wilson but we had fun being on a deserted island
for a while until the boat came to pick us up, that afternooon i made a coconut necklace and if i do say myself, im quite proud of it, it was hard work but its good to make something yourself that i can keep as a memory of Mana Island. The next day it was time to go and i was really sad to leave, i loved it here, the staff, the friends, the whole place, as i boarded the speed boat, the staff came out to sing their farewell song Isa Lei and a lot of the others came down to the beach to have a go at singing (thanks for trying guys) and to wave me off. I will have to get a copy of the song to remind me of this day as it was so sweet.
The next Island was Robinson Crusoe Island and this is when Fiji Time really started to come into play, a taxi collected me from where the mana boat dropped me off and took me to the place where i get the boat to Robinson Crusoe which was due at 3 o clock. The taxi driver while completly nice and not
at all untoward towards me did freak me out a bit so i was glad to get out at the boat dock which was 1 in the middle of nowhere and 2 completly deserted, it was just me.
3 o clock came and went, so did 4 o clock
so by this time im thinking that i have to be in the wrong place, the taxi driver dropped me in this totally deserted place and is going to come back and kill me, i had no idea what to do, there was no houses for miles and i had all my bags and even if there was one nearby was i really going to knock on the door and ask to stay at their house for the night, so i sat there and read my book, i felt that denial of imminant death was the best option but at 5 past 5, the boat pulled up saying hey, fiji time - i was in mixed emotions, i wanted to punch him but i was overjoyed that the taxi driver wasnt going to kill me so i just smiled and agreed Fiji Time and headed to the Island.
Robinson
Modeling the Leis
Kimberly, Catherine and Amy Crusoe Island was very different to Mana, the island was used purely by staff and visitors, there was no village life here, the beach was not as pretty either but they made up for that as they was loads of free activities to do, Beach Games, Volleyball (im like a pro now), Kayaking, Snorkel Trips so we were never bored. At night they did a welcome ceromony for the new islanders that arrived, followed by a fire Show which included Knife Throwing then if we were up for it a midnight bonfire when the bar closed (we always were) where we would bring our beers down the beach, light a bonfire and one of the guys would play the guitar and have a sing along where we soon realised that no one knew all the words to any one song but it was fun trying. The second day there I was doing the welcome song with the staff for the new islanders arriving when i see that its that its 5 of the guys from Mana who obvisously couldnt cope without me, it was great to see them. At this point it made the island count up to 7 as
that morning not including the staff, there was only 2 of us, we felt we had the whole island to ourself, it was great but it was great to have new recruits especially ones that i knew i got on well with. The following days i did every free activity that was on offer until it was time to go, once again i got the royal treatment with the farewll song, by this point i even know some of the words, well the first bit anyway.
The next island was Walu Beach and this was not a backpacker place, this was a full on posh resort, i got this luxury bungalow all to myself and the food here was amazing, for breakfast we actually got breakfast food rather than chocolate cake that was favoured on the other two islands. It was all top of the range, brand new facilities and a beautiful pool which i lazed around for the two days i was there, unfortunatly even in the posh places, the mosquitoes still get you, i have been bitten to death- im going to find the guy who invented insect repellent and give him a piece of my mind, he/she
Sunset at Mana
ok my this point, you can tell where I sat every sunset, enjoying my Fiji Bitter waiting for Dinner, but every sunset was so amazing , i had to take a photo is proberly a millionaire now for inventing a product that is useless and doent do what it says on the tin, whoever it is must be laughing. Another downside is beacuse its not really a backpacker place, its hard to socalise with other guests so i just chatted to the locals and lazed around for the days i was there which was needed after partying it up on the other islands. The next day i was off back to the mainland, my island adventure is over and i have one night left in Nadi before i leave fiji, (Time has gone to fast here). On arriving back in Nadi, i was reminded that today was Diwali. Our hostel was a family ran business who were fijian indians so as i arrived they were putting up the decorations. As that night they only had 7 people they invited us to their homes to celebrate with them, so that night we headed off to the managers house where we had indian sweets and had a firework show before being treated to a proper slap up meal at another member of staffs house, it was a great night mainly as it is something
that i proberly wont experience again and it was great to have a insight into their lives and good curry is always a plus.
The next day was my last in Fiji and i decided to do a tour of the mud pools which was great fun and they were boiling hot, it was just like being in a bath, i could stay there all day but the mud fights were getting a bit comkpetitive, I was covered and i needed to get back to the hostel to clean up and get to the airport so we headed back, getting the mud off was not as easy as it was getting it on but i managed it and then made my way to the airport. Fiji was magical even with the mosquitos, I really enjoyed it here even though i not the usual sun worshipper and it was hot, i will carry fond memories of Fiji.
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