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Published: March 24th 2008
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We arrived back at LAX airport from Houston with two days to go before catching our next flight to Fiji, when Karen suggested going to the flight desk and seeing if we could catch our flight any earlier! To our delight they had a flight later the same day, so without delay we changed the booking and a few hours later found ourselves boarding the biggest plane in the world and crossing the Pacific Ocean (losing an entire day on the way) to a very warm welcome on the Island of Viti Levu in a town called Nadi.
We booked a catamaran to take us to a group of islands known as the Yasawa's, where we had a booked a nights stay on the Waya island at the Sunset Resort. The catamaran passed many beautiful islands on the way, and with sun beaming down upon us we really had the feeling of being in paradise. After a couple of hours we reached our island and the catamaran was meet by a small speed boat, and we stepped aboard. From the speedboat we could see our resort with five or six locals dressed in Hawaiian shirts and sarongs playing guitars and
banjo's while singing along ready to greet us ashore.
Within minutes we had dropped our bags and headed into the perfectly clear, warm sea that gently lapped the white sandy beach in front of us, giggling at the fact we had really landed in the good stuff!
An interesting dinner was followed by the locals putting on a bit of a variety show, they were wearing ONLY grass skirts and started with a calm dance building up to a mental fire dance, Pyromaniacs the lot of them.
Surrounded by other backpackers from around the globe was all good, but we wanted to see how the Fijian people really lived. Therefore we took a boat trip from our resort with one of the workers to the local village, and wow first impressions were amazing they live in small huts built from wood with thatched roofs and walls, but before looking around we had to meet the chief and introduce ourselves to him, to his delight we were from England the mothership as he called it.
We then had a chance to look around and we were showed how they wash themselves and their clothes in the stream that
runs through the village. They eat what they grow and hunt the wild goats, pigs, and cows that wonder around the island, amazing.
After a few days of being surrounded in cockroaches and spiders we decided to try a different resort and rather than pay lots of money to use the catamaran again we tapped up the local boys and caught a lift in a small speed boat to our next desination the Octapus Resort.
This was a real step up in class, and looking at it was not the sort of place backpackers could afford. However to our supprise it was really good value and really good food, we were welcomed with a Kava ceremony which is traditional in Fiji villages. It is their form of natural alcohol made from pepper leaves. It looks like muddy water. It is meant to be narcotic but we didn't drink enough to feel the effects unfortunately!
We ended up staying here for four nights and for the first time on this trip we stayed in a mixed dormatory and got some of the best nights sleep in Fiji.
During our stay here Karen got involved in the basket
weaving class and made a little basket out of coconut leaf, i played beach vollyball with the men and they had some kind of entertainment every night.
A really nice aussie couple lent us their snorkling gear and we experienced some of the best snorkling ever with Karen seeing a reef shark and us both seeing a leopard shark resting on the bottom of the shore. On a very hot Sunday we walked to the local village from Octupus to attend their church service. This was quite an experience, with the service all in Fijjian! However there singing was lovely and it was interesting to have a further look into how they all live.
We really settled in here and this was like a little holiday with in a big one for us, and the most time we've spent at any one place so far! We were suprised to see how the local villagers live, which is worlds apart from our western lives.
So onwards we go to New Zealand but we won't be forgetting our wonderful experience's in Fiji for a long time.
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