The pools, loungers and beaches of mainland... v.holiday.

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12/4/09 = From Beach House to Mango Bay = Easter Sunday

Woke up lots of times in night itching. Not mosquitoes, not sandflies...but ants. I hate you ants of Robinson Crusoe! That was also way woke up at 7:30, itching. Got changed and went straight for breakfast. Found kitchen easy enough - couldn’t see anything when arrived in dark last night - and glad to see breakfast had already started, with plenty of options. Made cup of tea, started on cereal, then Deb came down too. Followed up ceral with toast and juice - got to make the most of these free breakfasts - and when totally full, went to reception to both check in and out. Moving on to Mango Bay resort today.

Orangised pick up for Mango at midday so at least had a bit of time to laze on beach and take in the set of Celebrity Love Island 2 = Beach House. I never saw that series, but as walked down to pool and onto beach, Deb said it looked just like it did on TV. Pretty cool. Pool was really nice and right on beach front. Sea looked good too, but a little churned up. Opted for a space on grass rather than sand. Laid and bathed for what felt like 30mins, but actually turned out to be hours; still so tired. Opened eyes and was 11:50. Had to rush back to reception for pick up, which was stupid in itself seeing that transport always runs on Fiji time over here. What a joke that was! At 1:15, after 3 phonecalls and a fair amount of bad language, taxi finally came for us. He was a really nice guy, but after more than an hour of sitting in a sweaty room, really were not in mood for pleasantries!

Pulled into Mango Bay resort at 1:30, checked in and thankfully didn’t have to pay for taxi! He judged our mood well. Went to dorm room then = a beach bure. V.nice and a v.nice resort. Lots of bures (which are wooden huts) and all v.clean. Even better that each bed had it’s own mosquito net. V.impressed. Dumped bags and then went on ridiculously expensive internet for 30mins. Fiji = not the place for internet. Then did next most important thing = head to beach. Had to do some washing first - oh the woes of travelling - then went to find Deb. V.suprised to find her sitting and chatting with Thara from Robinson. Just can’t get ris of the Robinson Crusoe gang. Sat on a lounger by pool and chatted/lounged. Another really nice pool right by the sea; hope all mainland resorts will be as nice as last 2 places.

Lounging unfortunately didn’t last that long because rain came out of nowhere. Had to run inside and do the next, next best thing = eat. Well actually...I’m pretty sure eating is always the first best thing, so scrap that order. Deb and Thara got ice cream, I got a toastie and chips. Toastie wsa beautiful and amount of chips was crazy, in a really good way. Could have fed at least 3 people, but then we are talking about me. And with vinegar and ketchup by my side, well, we’re nearly an unbeatable combination. Ate nearly everything (sometimes I even suprise myself) and then Deb got a toastie too. Thara couldn’t believe how fast and how much we both ate. English ay!

Had finished raining then, so went back to lay in sun again. Boiling hot. Crazy Fiji weather. Laid, chilled, read, snoozed - and other generally lazy holiday things - then it was 5:30 and sunset time. Did the 30second walk onto beach and watched as sun started to sink and dark clouds moved in...rain clouds. Had to sprint back inside just to avoid getting wet.
*Note* As soon as see Fijians start to pack away and move inside, quickly find shelter. Fijians have some kind of in built weather dial. It predicts rain approx. 2mins before it starts.
Raincloud covered all sunset and so missed what would have looked beautiful. Sat for a while just in case it blew over, but it didn’t, so ran back to bure with towels over our heads. Deeply regret washing and hanging clothes outside now...what a waste!

Wrote diary for a while, listened to music, then eventually got showered and ready for evening. Not much happening, was movie night, but movie night = always good for us. All got snacks for dinner - still full from big lunch - then moved into movie room at 8:30. Shame they were showing Wedding Crashers, only watched it a month ago in NZ, but still, hadn’t seen any kind of TV in ages, so still excited. Wish had never got excited. Was easily the worst quality film ever seen. Not all of picture would fit on screen, sound cut out frequently, picture was blurred and speech didn’t always move in sync with lips. Can’t believe we all sat through it, but that’s travelling for you.

Went to bad after film finished and even got excited for an early night. So tired. Listened to music to block out talking of others, then lights got turned out and drifted straight off to sleep. Love white, draping mosquito net; feels like sleeping in den...a really clean one.



13/4/09 = The loss of a valuable item...😞 = Easter Monday

Woke up a lot earlier than needed to because others were getting up at 6am. Snoozed for as long as possible, then admitted defeat and wrote diary for a while. Deb went for breakfast and I went to meet her at 8am; said goodbye to Thara on way. Pretty good breakfast again and muched down as much toast and fruit as possible. Pineapple slowly but surely becoming part of staple diet. Another grey and rainy day and rained pretty heavily in night. Glad to be leaving early; hope next place = sunnier.

Finished breakfast, packed up and went for first bus at 9:30...9:30 Fiji time of course. Today was our first experience of catching a local bus. Not the local local bus, but the tourist local bus...apparently. V.pleased that was sunny by time got to top of road and could wait for bus in open air. Wait = the operative word. 9:30 came and went without a bus in sight. 10am, still no bus. Fed up now and not enjoying standing in hot sun. Fiji time = ridiculous. 45mins later, a Coral Coast bus passed by. Didn’t know the name of the bus we were supposed to catch and this one looked a little posh, but after 45mins waiting, would have got on anything. Ran across road to flag bus down and thankfully it started to slow down. Not thankfully that it then speeded back up again. Stood in middle of road flailing arms around and all he did was drive round me. What the...?! Trudged back over to Deb and 2 Fijian guys that were waiting couldn’t believe it either. They were laughing at us, but also said that bus should have stopped. Oh no...what to do now?

Those guys left and another man came. He asked us where we were going and then when a bus came, he flagged it down for us. This time it stopped. It was a local local bus. I didn’t care what it was, I would have got on a local, local, cow, sheep, or chicken bus if it would have stopped. The lovely man told the driver where we wanted to go in Fijian and even loaded our bags for us; what a nice man! Bus wasn’t that busy, so easily made our way to an empty tin seat. Was a Sunbeam local bus and felt right at home sitting with Fijians; they are such lovely, friendly people. Bus on the other hand was a little crazy. No material of any kind inside of bus, just metal. Goes without saying that there were no seatbelts and the engine...wow. Not possible to listen to music on a local local Fijian bus. The sound of the engine growling can be heard for miles around and even on max volume, no i-pod can compete with that. And getting up hills...double wow! 2nd gear and 10kph. Fingers in ears at this stage, to stop sound of engine perforating ear drums. Stuggle = not quite the word.

Felt and heard every lump and bump of that journey, but it all adds to the experience. Sure, it’s not a bus for sleeping on and yes, you may incur a few bruises, but it’s definitely....interesting. Took just less than an hour to get to Pacific Harbour and drove through lots of villages on way. Again, v.interesting to see different way of life. Always sellers at sides of roads and always fruit. Friendly people on bus helped driver to find Uprising Resort and he dropped us right outside. Watched through thick cloud of black smoke as bus drove off, then made our way down path to resort. Looked like another really nice place and she showed us to our room = The Treehouse. Was a nice enough room, but lots of beds squashed in and not a lot of fans. Sweaty!

Didn’t stay long. Packed up beach bag and headed off towards sun. Enquired about beach horse riding on way = really cool and Deb went on free internet, yes, free internet. Brilliant. Beach horse riding not until low tide = 3pm, so had 3 hours to lounge in sun. Suits me. Got a lounger and read book for ages. Did I mention how good Russel Brand autobiography is? Suprisingly clever chap. Deb came back then, I went on internet for a while, and then the worst happened. One of the worst things that could ever happen on this trip happened. Looked in my bag to find my diary and it wasn’t there. 4months of writing and it wasn’t there. Oh no....oh no. Think...think. Then it dawned on me. Mentally re-traced my steps right back to this morning. Right back to writing my diary on my bed and then putting my diary under the pillow. Under the pillow. Under the pillow at Mango Bay. Oh no! Hot, sweaty, panicking. Rushed straight to reception and asked if they could call Mango Bay for me. It’s got to be there. It’s got to be under the pillow. She rang through and gave me the phone. I poured out my story with great speed and incoherance to the lady on the other end of the phone and she said she would go and look and then call me back. Please find the diary. Please find the diary.

20mins later, receptionist came over to tell me that Mango had phoned back and diary had been found. Thank you God. They had also arranged between then that my diary would be sent in the morning with the Fiji Experience bus that was due into Uprising resort anyway. Awesome. Checked several times that this was right and yes, my diary was coming back to me at 8:30am, I just had to wait for the bus in town and collect it from them. Thank you. Felt bit better then - won’t be fully better until get diary back - and headed back to pool. V.busy area with lots of families, especially Fijian families. Thought it an odd choice for backpackers, then someone reminded me it was Easter Bank holiday, so all families were celebrating. Easter came and went and didn’t even realise, let alone eat chocolate. Did you get me an Easter egg Mum?

Laid for 10mins in sunshine, then it started to rain...properly rain. Had to gather things and run inside. Next 2 hours was spent repeating this cycle. Sun for 10mins, lay in it for 5 mins, rain, run inside, sun for 10mins, lay for 5mins, rain, run inside...e.t.c. Both got fed up by 4th attempt and decided to order food. Already seen Manchester couple from Robinson eating a v.tasty looking pizza, so decided on that. V.disappointed to find they had run out. Run out? Other things on menu quite expensive, so went for next option = a walk into town. Did 10 min walk - managed to avoid rain - but didn’t find any cheap places to eat. After lots of searching and asking, found out the cheapest place was inside the supermarket, which was closed due to Easter Monday. Typical. Glad we managed to find a cheap bakery. Got and coconut and jam slice & an Afgan biscuit. Greedy, greedy. Then moved on to next cheapest place could find and got a sandwich each. Lovely jubbly (obviously ate cakes after sandwich, not before...that would just be wrong).

Not much else to do then. Internet = ridiculously expensive. Headed back to hostel. Still no rain, maybe could do beach ride afterall. Nope. Got back at 5pm to find activity desk had closed at 4pm. Guess it’s not meant to be for me and beach horse-riding. Laid on loungers just for a rest and nearly ended up falling to sleep. Went back to room to continue. Laid for a while, then eventually got up, got showered and got ready. Not much to do at Uprising resort. Like I said, is a weird choice for backpackers. Had already eaten, so didn’t order food. Just sat in bar area and got a drink. All v.quiet and chilled. Chatted, tried internet but it was down, so went to bed early. Planned to read for a while, but as put head on pillow at 8:30, knew that wasn’t going to happen. Fell to sleep almost instantly 😊

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Photos

Beach House
The set for Celebrity Love Island 2.