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Published: August 8th 2011
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We arrived in Fiji late afternoon on Thursday and were greeted at the airport by many very friendly Fijians and each got a shell necklace! After a rather long transfer we arrived at our hotel late evening and as we arrived, 3 Fijian men played their guitars and sang a nice welcome song for us!! We were shown to our rooms and had our cases carried up to our rooms too. We had our tea in the hotel restaurant which was lovely and then after our usual card game of nomination trumps, we got some well needed sleep.
Friday turned out to be a rather cloudy day so we paid for a tour around parts of Fiji. Our taxi driver was called Alvin (Alveen) and loved the fact their was a film called Alvin and the Chipmunks!! He took us wherever we wanted to go, including a trip to his house - a proper Fijian house. We were showed where he usually hitchhikes to work and then we were taken down a dirt road leading to his house. Luckily the car managed to
just make it up the hill leading to his house! His wife and baby son came to
say hello and invited us into his house which was made up of a living room/kitchen and 2 bedrooms. His kitchen had the electrics hanging from the ceiling and were powered by a metal clamp (picture science experiments when you were at school, that's what his house looked like). They put their rubbish in a dug out hole and their water for everything was fed through something that looked like a hose pipe - obviously all cold. We made sure we got their address and have promised to send them some gifts from England. Times like that I wish I was a millionaire so I could give them the money to do the bits around the house they needed to do to help them live! After we had been struck with reality, we headed to a Fijian village where we were greeted with a welcome kava ceremony. At first we were a little frightened, but after we realised really how nice everyone is, we were loving it!! We were taken for a tour of the village and then returned to their little hall. Dad was named 'Mr Chief' and he had to go into the hall first, followed by the
boys and then the girls. We all had to take our shoes off and then sit on the floor while we had a kava ceremony. This involved clapping, saying 'bula' (which is hello in Fijian) and then drinking the kava we were presented with. Before we came to Fiji we were told that it was like muddy water, and it really was! Kava has something in it which numbs your mouth and can get you 'drunk' extremely easily, I can definitely say everyone was starting to feel the effects! Especially when we were all picked by a partner and had to do a dance around the room!! They then set up some stalls with things they had made themselves and we bought what we wanted. It really was an experience!!
On Saturday and Sunday we managed to have a sit out in the sun. Most of the staff at the hotel now know all of our names, as well as many of the guests staying here!! Johnathon (who works at the hotel) told us he liked our English accents and that we sound like the people off his favourite film, Harry Potter!! We booked our tea for one night
at the Outrigger, a hotel just down the beach. It was lovely but quite expensive! The next day though, Johnathon asked us where we were at dinner that night and we made sure he knew we would be eating at the hotel restaurant that night! We have been making the most of happy hour everyday which means half price cocktails! Dad and Matt have decided they are going to try to have every single cocktail each one night which isn't a great idea seeing as though there are over 10 on the menu.
On Monday Matt, George and I went out in the sea on a kayak which was fun. Although I refused to let George take me near the reef as I decided we would be extremely likely to see a shark (even though one has not been seen around the reef for many years). George refused to go out again with Matt as he enjoyed rocking the boat and typical of Matt, just annoying George in general haha. We saw a blue starfish, a sea snake and a sea eel! The sea eel looked particularly scary when we saw it at night and shone our torch on
it. We also got a taxi into the town today where in typical Fijian style, the car door was opened for us and we were taken in to the shops with our baskets all held for us! We also had a walk to a little stall today down the street and bought some extremely nice home made Fijian foods, including spiced beans, coconut balls and a whole coconut.
I'll update with pictures soon!!
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