Livin' the life in Fiji

Well, it's been a little over a week since we arrived in Fiji. We stayed at the Beachouse for the first 7 nights and are now in Suva which is Fiji's capital, so we finally have access to high speed internet.

The Beachouse was amazing. It was filled with experiences that are totally unreal. The feeling of being on the road for such a long trip is indescribable. All I can say is that finally getting here and being surrounded by other travellers is the best thing ever. I expected to feel like a vagabond after I left New York, but it's turned out to be quite the opposite. I felt like more of a vagabond during the month after I quit my job and was crashing on friends' couches all the time while everyone else was at work. Now that I'm here, I'm constantly around other like-minded travellers and it feels more like home than I ever thought it would.

Our days at the Beachouse consisted of waking up, having breakfast, sitting in a hammock and hanging out until roughly 4pm when they serve tea and scones. Then at 4:30 our daily beach volleyball match would start and last until 6:00 when we'd all head over to the Beachouse bar for happy hour. At 7:00 we'd have dinner, and then we'd continue drinking and hanging out all night until whenever you felt like going to sleep.

We met lots of amazing people there. Two Brits, John and Dave, came along to Suva with us and will head up to Nananu-i-Ra island with us as well. They're quality kids. There were people from all over the world, although we were the first New Yorkers that anyone had run into. We became friends with these 4 British girls who were some of the most fun people ever. For some reason we started giving each other nicknames, and I think they wanted to give us British ones, so they dubbed Alan "Arnie MacPherson", and they called me and Bryan "Big Barry McBride" and "Bad Barry McBride". I have no idea why. One of the girls was then dubbed as "Patricia Fitzgerald Herbert Gibbons". (Josh and Sanjay I thought you'd like that one). Also there was a Dutch couple, Erik and Elizabeth, who were so cool and invited us to stay at their house in the Netherlands when we get to Europe. We may also meet up with them at Mana Island when we get there.

We also got a chance to see some real Fijian life. Fijians are ridiculously happy and friendly. Their traditional greeting is "Bula!" But they say it all the time, all day long. It's easily their favorite word. You could literally say "Bula!" out of nowhere and everyone will yell "Bula!" in return. I think you could have an entire conversation with a Fijian using only the word Bula. It's kind of funny actually.

The first day we got there, we were on the beach and met a local Fijian around our age named Ben who was the man. He took us to his village and we hung out at his place and met some of his friends. We all sat and drank Kava, which is this drink that Fijians are mental about. You mix it in a big bowl and sit on the floor around it, then go through this whole ceremony as you drink it. It looks like muddy water and doesn't taste much better. It numbs your tongue a bit and supposedly mellows you out, but I didnt notice much. But then again, we drank maybe 6 or 7 cups and they usually sit there and drink like 20 so who knows.

One day we went on a hike through the jungle to a waterfall, and our guide wound up inviting 4 of us to his village to have dinner with his family the following night. By the way, these villages are the biggest bugouts ever. They're just communities of shantys. It gives you the impression of poverty, and it's true they don't really have any money, but every single person there is so freakin happy all the time. Anyway, first we sat down for yet another Kava ceremony. Then we sat for dinner. We sat on the floor - I don't think a single chair exists in any of these villages - and ate with our hands. They served us fish in coconut milk with tomatoes and onions, spinach, and cassava which is similar to potato. Cool experience.

Leaving the Beachouse was a bit sad but Suva is really cool too. It's a pretty big city and very busy. We're staying about 10km outside of the city right next to a national park, so we took a hike through the jungle yesterday and found a massive rope swing which was easily the craziest and scariest rope swing I've ever seen, and therefore lots of fun. There were all these Fijians there doing insane flips and dives, we couldn't believe it.

Now we're in Suva city, we just ate a nice cheap meal at some curry place, and tomorrow we'll be heading north to the island of Nananu-i-Ra. It could be a rough trip because the roads aren't really paved and we've heard stories of people having to get out and push the bus. Cross your fingers.

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