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Published: September 22nd 2006
vh71
Another Fijian sunset (there were a lot)Finally this has photos.
I arrived in Fiji 24 hours later than planned - thanks to Air Pacific cancelling my original flight - and refusing any compensation other than some crappy hotel in an industrial area of LA. Advice to anyone thinking of flying with Air Pathetic ... don't.
However I did finally get there - and even made a few friends on the flight. As my luggage whizzed round and round and round the carousel I ignored it to exchange contact details with my new found friends.
I waited at the airport for the transport to take me to Octopus Resort - my chosen destination. The information desk waved in the general direction of the two dozen people waiting for various tour operators and told me to 'wait with the other couple going to Octopus'. I furtively approached several people, doing a good impression of a jet-lagged drug dealer, until I found a man who thought he and his wife might be going to Octopus. He informed me that they were going to several places and he was almost sure that Octopus was one of them and that if it was he was pretty sure it was
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First view of Fiji that day they were going there. This was so vague that I presumed whatever he got up to in the 1960's it involved a lot of drugs.
I sat down and waited hoping that Octopus (a) would turn up and (b) would remember me. When the bus turned up there were actually 2 other couples going - Roz and Dennis from Tasmania who were both very chatty - Roz had introduced herself at the airport, they had been to Canada for a trip and a cruise and were returning to Taz. The other couple was Mr Vague aka Andrew and his new wife Kristy. They turned out to also be a lovely couple - very friendly and funny. Andrew had merely been jet-lagged (and it was his honeymoon, he was entitled to be exhausted).
On the bus were another couple - Martin from Stuttgart with his New Zealander fiancee Shelley. They were due to get married at the resort on the weekend. Nate was the final addition to our bunch - a Canadian who had been working in New Zealand for a few months. Everyone was very chatty and friendly and excited about their prospective holiday - so
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Shergar? my fears about arriving in Fiji alone and not knowing anyone were soon allayed. The resort manager had met us at the airport. Ross was a shaven-haired Glaswegian with the obligatory collection of football shirts to complete the hooligan effect - he may possess other clothes, but we never saw them. He permanently looked as if he had been airlifted three minutes beforehand from the terraces of a Celtic match mid-punch up. He and his partner Polly ran the resort. Polly was definitely the one with the interpersonal skills, she actually managed to look you in the eye when she spoke to you, even if her answers were completely unrelated to any question you may have asked. e.g. her response to a question about being able to phone the UK "Yes we have some lovely trips available around the island".
Octopus Resort has three types of accommodation - a 13 bed dormitory, bure huts with ensuite bathroom and more luxurious lodge accommodation. I was in the dorm - no bunks, each person had there own bedside table with lamp and fan and the beds were encased in mozzie nets at night which gave the illusion of privacy. The dorm
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Fijian sunset was always spotless - Saloti or Laitai Bati cleaned up after us regularly as we tramped sand, sea and half the flora in and out of the dorm, put down the nets each night and were always chatty, friendly and approachable. Because of the varied accommodation there was a great mix of guests and the communal restaurant meant that everyone got to chat to all the other guests at some stage.
The food was excellent - vast, buffet breakfasts, a dozen choices for lunch and a set meal for dinner or a buffet or barbecue. The staff were definitely the best thing about the resort though - they chatted freely to all the guests, remembered everyone's name, played volleyball with the guests, and were always on hand to help and advise. Maybe they should provide some training for the management?
The beach was lined with sunloungers, hammocks and coconut palms. Diving and kayaking were available 6 days a week and snorkelling was available all the time - all you had to do was paddle out to swimming depth and there was the most amazing coral and beautiful colourful fish imaginable.
I am sure there will be times
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Kava ceremony when things will not go to plan and times when backpacking will be lonely, desolate or even tedious, but Fiji was spectacular. I had heard mixed reports of the islands, but I think it definitely depends which island you choose - and Waya in the Yasawas is definitely recommended for those who want to chill out in paradise for a while.
On the evening of our first day the newcomers were treated to a welcome ceremony. The resort's band played for us and then there was a kava ceremony. When you have drunk your bowl of kava it is customary for everyone else in the circle to clap you three times - but a standing ovation would be more appropriate because kava is a disgusting looking and vile tasting concoction which makes your tongue go fuzzy and your taste buds go screaming back in side your head.
As we arrived on a Tuesday we were in time for the weekly crab racing. Everyone who wants to join donates $3 to the school fund (the resort supports Waya island's only school, $3 is one pound sterling). You are instructed on how to find the hermit crabs along the beach
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Octopus resort beachfront and advised on a good place to start looking. As if by magic when we all tropped down to the beach to hunt for a crab the first palm tree we passed had about 30 hermit crabs scrabbling around - how amazing - they only appeared there on Tuesday nights. It was lucky for us that crab racing wasn't on Thursdays.
Two circles were drawn in the sand. Each crab had a number painted on its back - it doesn't hurt, it isn't their shell.... they are hermit crabs just in case any of you are running to the RSPCA's Fiji branch. The crabs are then placed in side the inner circle and race to the outer circle. They don't know they are racing though, no matter how much you try and train them, they are just wandering off. There were three rounds. My crab, number 7, did really well in the first two heats, but ran out of crab puff for the last race much to my disgust. Poor Kristy didn't even get to the first round - by the time she went to register her prize specimen it had deserted its shell and done a runner. We
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Learning how to Scuba never did find Shergar the crab but island rumour has it that a Saudi prince had a private jet revving up at Nadi airport which took off with a mystery cargo 2 hours after Shergar disappeared.
On Wed Dennis and I had a go at Scuba diving along with Kato from Tokyo. Our instructor was from West Yorkshire. We all managed to dive after a fashion, but Dennis couldn't equalize and Kato decided his English wasn't up to reading the course material so only I elected to undertake the Open Water Dive certification course. Once I had signed up for it I found out just how much studying I had to do and nearly decided that my English wasn't up to it, but then I figured that if fish can breathe underwater - and they only have a 3 second memory and four brain cells, then so could I.
I settled into a hammock to do a couple of hours studying before dinner. I spent 90 minutes struggling not to fall out of the hammock and 30 minutes studying. That evening I sat at dinner with Simon and Katy from Australia. Katy lived in NSW and Simon lived
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Drinks with Andrew and Kristy in Tasmania. Katy seemed very eager to chat and insisted that she and Simon were not a couple - just friends who had decided to take a holiday together. Simon clearly wasn't aware of this because he kept on looking daggers at me all through drinks and dinner and whispering to Katy - it was most uncomfortable. Tuesday is curry night which was, as ever, excellent. Katy took a second helping and then rather than eat it she seemed to suck it for a while and then spat it out into her napkin. The first time this happened I just assumed she had got a bit of gristle. When it continued to happen for every mouthful I realised I was witnessing some bizarre eating disorder. After dinner, however, I saw Katy feeding the sucked meat to the family of cats which occasionally ventured up onto the verandah. She explained that they were too thin and nobody fed them. They were feral cats - and there seemed to be plenty of birds around which they regularly ignored, but if someone wishes to suck curry sauce off their dinner and regurgitate it for the sake of a wild cat who am I
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Quiz night to stand in their way.
Thursday was my first proper lesson. Luckily it rained in the morning so nobody was around the pool to witness me choking whilst trying to practice exchanging respirators. My first lesson in the sea on Wed had resulted in what Jodie, the instructor, politely referred to as a mask full of 'bubbles' - snot! I was worried that this would happen all the time, but once I stopped constantly trying to breathe through my nose the bubbles didn't materialise. I was already getting slightly better at equalising and less clumsy. I still bounced around the ocean floor and walls whilst Jodie swam gracefully along in front of me - but wasn't destroying any more coral, however removing and replacing my mask could only take place after about 10 minutes of deep breathing for courage and quite a few tears. The first time my contact lens had doubled over in the corner of my eye, so I panicked it would happen again.
Thursday night was quiz night. I was in a team with Kristy, Andrew and Caren and Katena from New Zealand. Ros and Dennis sat next to us with Paul and Maria from
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Dive teacher and student Christchurch who were really friendly. As you may have guessed everyone I met in Fiji was really friendly - but they truly were.
Our team did really well and would have won if the team behind us hadn't been given a massive 50 points just for being the first, and only, team to jump in the pool fully dressed ... pesky kids!! For our talent entry Andrew had swallowed and regurgitated a dessertspoon - nobody else's talent came anywhere near. Katena was our resident artist for the pictionary round and Caren was our arm wrestler in a tie breaker round. Kristy and I were on board to drink the wine - such a strong team, we were robbed.
Friday I had to 'skin dive' - i.e. try and dive in normal togs. Jodie dove gracefully down to show me how it was done and stayed down for about 30 seconds. I dove down about 4 inches and thrashed my legs wildly about above the surface in a vain effort to go any deeper looking all the while like some synchronised swim version of the abominable riverdance. Eventually I did it and managed a whole 12 seconds.
On
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Newleyweds Martin & Shelley my way gasping and choking to the shower I stopped to say goodbye to Kristy and Andrew. They were the first of my arrival group to go and I was really sorry to see them leave - so sorry in fact that I didn't notice I had dropped my watch. So K&A if ever you should read this you meant more to me than an $8 Walmart watch. The watch never turned up - same colour strap as the sand. In fact right now it is probably a home for some hermit crab, maybe even Shergar if he escaped from the clutches of the Saudi prince.
Friday afternoon was normal diving in the ocean. I was plodding along the ocean floor thinking that actually the snorkelling at our resort was just as full of fish and coral if not moreso and wondering what all the fuss was about - when first I realised the ocean floor looked just like the cliff tops of Cornwall and secondly came to an abrupt halt when suddenly the ocean floor fell away as if it was a massive cliff. Which, of course, it was - just an underwater one. I was entranced. As
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Saying goodbye to Kato a child I was always convinced if I tried hard enough I could fly and would spend hours jumping off the coalshed roof trying to fly - I would flap my chubby little arms wildly and tried one umbrella, two umbrellas ... nothing. Believe me you get some odd looks doing that when you are 17. Anyway now I felt just like I could fly. I wanted to forget the fish and the lesson and just zoom backwards and forwards over the cliff. The sheer immensity of the cliff wall that dropped down was amazing. As I turned around to look at it yet again a ray swam gracefully by only a few feet away. This was what everyone raved about. It was breathtaking.
Saturday I passed my written exam and my practical. I now have an Open Water certificate and can scuba anytime I wish. Then to celebrate I went off for a massage. The staff take it in turns to run the massage shop on their day off - and earn $15 per massage rather than their normal $2 per hour. Saloti was running the shop that day - and beat me to a pulp, but
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The Beach we had a good gossip whilst she did the massage. Two men walked past on their way back to their bure. Saloti informed me that they were "husband and wife - you know one of them is the woman" then after a long pause she added "but you know - they are really nice people". I was helpless with laughter and she didn't know why.
After my massage the entire resort hid along the beach to discreetly watch Martin and Shelley's wedding. It was beautiful. I even had a few tears in my eyes.
Sunday Kato and Nate left - our arrival group was getting smaller and smaller. The staff don't meet or see off guests with songs and dancing as they do all other days - because of God, so we all trooped down to the beach to wave them off. Kato is the first Japanese person I have really met and he was always happy and smiling, and Nate is so laid back he made the Fijians looked stressed so we were all sorry to say goodbye to them.
Sunday night was movie night. We chose to watch Amelie - and the movie screen was
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Local children off to boarding school set up by the pool. We lay on the other side of the pool on sunbeds and watched the film which was really lovely. It was an amazing experience - all laid out under that beautiful sky watching a movie with our little bags of popcorn. Fiji was just getting better and better.
There is a little more on Fiji - but I am tired of typing now so that will have to wait. In the meantime do feel free to send me money so I can scuba a lot.
Viv xx
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jess
non-member comment
Viv, Fiji sounds fantastic! Your way of writing makes may feel I am there (wish Iwas instead of here at work). Not many people would admit to a snotty snorkel! Keep in touch Jess