Blogs from Mango Bay, Coral Coast, Viti Levu, Fiji, Oceania

Australia; a country which, for two months, had shown us an immense level of impressive beauty, a great deal of fun and a much different way of travelling to the first three months of the trip. I have spoken more than once about expectations and I think perhaps the biggest of all of these is that of "travelling" as a generalised term. Not just your own expectation but the expectations of the people standing outside and looking in; the friends and family conducting everyday life as normal or the ex-colleagues left behind in the jobs that you were once a part of. In all honesty, South East Asia probably conforms in the most idealistic ways, to the mass visions of "travelling"- those images of riding on silhouetted elephants against a backdrop of longtail boats and burnt ... read more

The local bus dropped us off at 7pm and we had to walk down a pitch black lane for 10 minutes until we found the resort, the security guard welcomed us and feeling sorry that we had to walk in the dark, he gave us a bowl of kava and showed us to our room! The next day we booked ourselves on a fishing and island trip, about 10 of us crowded on to this small boat and went off in search of fish and hopefully sun. After about an hour of smashing along the waves and needing to see a specialist about our new back problems, we reached the island with 2 tunas in hand, and whilst the hosts cooked them, we went snorkelling and played a bit of football. After lunch we went to ... read more

Arrive in Fiji and get a $140 taxi to our resort yikes! It's on the Coral Coast and we have our own private beach! During our stay here Jen went snorkelling, Hollie done jewellery making and had a massage, we both done fiji cooking lesson and basket weaving. We visited the nearby village and school. We met Taz and all dressed up for an Indian festival they celebrate. We also go on a waterfall hike to a great spot. When we leave we drag new friends Taz, Shane, Geoff and Matt with us to Nadi!... read more

Hi everyone, Just a short update as we find ourselves on a day trip to Suva the capital of Fiji and have found a modern internet cafe. The only thing to add from our last missive is that we have met some lovely people here including a guy who was one of the camera men on the recent Love Island series, a couple, the girl of which was born on exactly the same day as Linda, a brilliant pair of Geordies and a young Scottish guy who lived in the same street as the young Beveridge family in South Queensferry. We also went on a boat trip which saw Linda catch a fish! Today is Monday; we fly to LA on Thursday. We will keep you posted. Linda @ Ken Belated Happy Birthday to Jackie... read more

Hey hey My My, For the past week or so we've been doing the Feejee Experience, a bus tour around the main Fijian island, Viti-Levu. We stopped off to do loads of activities whilst travelling between our destinations. On Day 1 we left Nadi and headed to a nearby Beach, apparently one of the Top 5 in the world and then we visited a Fijian village. We had to wear a sarong whilst walking through the village as not to offend the vilagers' modesty- looked very chic?! The most enjoyable part of day 1 was sandboarding, basically (that word again) this is a bit like sledging, only down sand dunes rather than snowy hills. The walk to the top of the Sand Dunes was knackering, so steep- on reaching the top we had to lie down ... read more