FIJI : Sorry for delay. Been on Fiji time !

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Fiji : Local Beer - FIJI GOLD...... Save water, drink beer!


Bula! Bula! Bula! This means Hello in Fiji and If we had a dollar for every time we've heard or said it over the last 2 weeks then we'd never come home cos' we'd be loaded! Everyone says it to everybody over here. Total stranger walking down the street with 6 kids and that equals 7 BULA's !!! Needless to say, the Fijians are extremely friendly people.

Our plane landed at Nadi airport at around 5.30am, just as the sun was rising. The sunrise was beautiful (as you can see from the photo.) The airport is surrounded by big volcanic mountains and it looked like a scene from 'LOST' or 'Jurassic Park'. We were greeted in the airport by a Fijian band playing on their crazy little guitar/banjo type instruments. All very nice and amusing!

Our first trip Nadi town was a bit surreal. We noticed straight away that the shop owners were a bit full on and hassling to get punters in their shops so we agreed to 'be firm', say 'thanks but no thanks' and keep on marching. Errr, 3 minutes later we were sat in the back room of some shop initiating a traditional Fiji welcome ceremony. (Lets just say we let our guard down...useless!). So anyway, next thing we know we're sat around the ceremony mat, flip flops off, with our new best pals 'Dee Dee' and 'Ron'. Next we get told we are participating in an age old Fiji tradition, the 'Kava ceremony'. 'Kava' is Fiji’s national drink. Made from the pulverised root of a member of the pepper family, is supposed to be medicinal and give you a bit of a buzz. I was right up for it, a bit of a sesh with mi new Fiji pals but Kelly's face was a picture. As always she worries about the worse case scenario and was expecting to drink it, then wake up 3 hours later, naked in a cave, with a Fiji tribe poking her bum with blunt sticks!!!! Anyway, They made me the Chief of the Ceremony and gave me a shark tooth necklace (very fetching) = Chief Sharktooth! When we come back to England can you please all respect my new status and address me as either 'Chief' or 'Sharkey'. Thanks, that'll be nice.
"Dee Dee' n 'Ron' then went on to tell us that they grow their own Kava in their village and also grow their own marijuana!!! To cut a long story short, we walked out of the ceremony 200 dollars lighter, but definitely an interesting introduction to Fiji.

We decided to travel everywhere in Nadi (which is mainland Fiji) on the local buses. They only cost 60cents (about 20p) and have no windows. Half the people on every bus are asleep. God knows how they can sleep cos' the buses are about 200 years old and bounce you about like one of those bucking bronco machines! I had this little old Indian woman (48% of population in Fiji is Indian) asleep on me and dribbling all over my cream shorts, looked like I'd pissed myself! Kept elbowing her but she was spark out, I actually thought she could be dead! Kelly was wedged between 2 of the biggest Afro's you've ever seen (they put Jackson 5 to shame) and 3 or 4 little Fiji kids giving her high 5's and practicing their English.

I went for a haircut at this little barber shop which was interesting. Had a long conversation about the Rugby World Cup (They're all mad about Rugby over here) and he didn't do a bad job on mi old barnet. Could've been worse.

We only had 2 days in Nadi which was enough. Had a curry and a steady one that night and also realised that we were carrying far too much crap with us. We had 3 rucksacks all in all, full of pairs of jeans, hair straighteners, rain jackets (for New Zealand) etc etc. Boxed up all the excess and spent 50 dollars to send it back to Blighty. It should arrive in England by boat in about 3 months! (So Mam, keep an eye out for it! 😊

Next morning we were bound for 2 weeks out in the Fijian islands. We were expecting to chill and take things steady. Little did we know that things were about to go a little bit crazy....... but we'll leave that for the next blog!

Stay tuned.....

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Photos

Arrival in Fiji
Sunrise at 5.30am

Preparing the Kava
New bezzie pals Ron and Dee Dee mixing the Kava in the Kava bowl. It tastes pretty much how it looks, a bit like muddy water. It made our mouths go numb but that was it really. Other people we spoke to had hallucinations on it

Chief Sharktooth
Drinking the Kava. It's always dished out of a Kava bowl and served in a cocnut shell

Mrs Robbo
Downing the Kava. She was downing it like she almost 'wanted' to be dragged to a cave by big butch Fiji dude!!!

Fiji Gold
The local brew. And very nice too!

On the mainland
Not the crystal clear sort of water we were expecting in Fiji !?

Local school
with local cows.

Happy smiley face
These are painted outside peoples homes everywhere in Fiji. Everyone always seems to be happy smiley. Bit different from back home!!