Advertisement
Published: November 18th 2007
Photo 1
natadola beachWell what can i say about fiji... in a word... stunning!
Got into nadi on the first day and got picked up by the feejee experience bus... there were about 15 of us on the bus and they took us all to natadola beach, a white sandy beach where we swam, sunbathed and had a bbq... the local village boys were down there with their horses hiring them out for rides, so i hopped on one called sweety and had a gallop up the beach... it was lovely.
After that we went to a traditional fijian village called malo malo... it was custom that we wore a sarong and had our shoulders covered. Our guide 'miriam' taught us some fijian words before we got there so that we could greet the villagers (hello, goodbye and thankyou were as far as we got). The villlages have a chief... who is basically the big boss, a spokesman... who speaks on behalf of the chief, and they have different clans within the village who are in charge of different things, like entertainment, farming, religion etc. When you go to the village you have to present the chief with some cava as a gesture.
Photo 2
and again It was really laid back... half of them had their mattresses laid out in the sun in front of the house! it was siesta time though so they were all chilling out and the kids were playing, they were dead cute and really friendly. We went into their church and miriam gave us a bit of history on it all... not so long ago they still practised cannibalism and apparently the church we were sat in was built on top of hundreds of the victims... nice!
That afternoon we went to the sand dunes at sigatoka for some sand boarding... oh my god i nearly died when i looked up to see the slope we were expected to go down! i definately nearly died when i was trying to get up it! but i swallowed my fear and went for it... it wasnt as scarey as it looked, it was funny.
That night we drove along the coral coast and stopped at mango bay for the night... this place was gorgeous... right by the sea with a swimming pool and palm trees and lots of gardens. We all sat in the bar that night and played card games... that broke
Photo 3
me (looking pastey) and sweety the ice!
The next day we all peeled our thick heads out of bed ready for an 8 mile jungle trek! just what we needed that morning! We were not impressed at first when every corner we turned there seemed to be another never ending mountain to cilmb! eventually we started to enjoy it though, it was cool... we were wading through a stream deep in the jungle and you really felt like you were miles from anywhere. We got to the end of the trek after 4 hours to find a massive river with a bunch of rubber tubes ready for us all... it was the most random thing ive done, it was hilarious, 15 of us all floating down a river in the middle of the jungle fully clothed in the pouring rain! We stopped at some waterfalls on the way down and jumped off them into the river. The long boat sped us 45 mins down the river and back to the bus (we were all still dripping wet but were past the point of caring... i love that feeling!).
The bus took us on a tour through suva on the way to our stop, although
Photo 4
volley ball on the beach most of us were asleep so missed half of it. We stopped just outside suva for the night and had tea and a few drinks in the bar, one guy off the bus was travelling with his wife and baby (so cute), he got his guitar out in the bar and rocked out a few tunes. A few of the fijian men in the bar had had a bit too much too drink and as you can see from the pic... they were getting a little bit too friendly with us girls!
The following day we ventured along the bumpy 'banana highway' out into the sticks, the countryside is amazing, rolling hills and mountains with lush greenery next to white sandy beaches and crystal blue waters... heaven!!!
Stopped at a town first to get some food, of which there wasnt any... we all ended up buying cheese topped rolls and crisps... that was as imaginative as we got... crisp butties for lunch. There was a calf in the back of a pick-up truck at the side of the road... it looked so sweet, i took a picture of it and the owner came up to me and asked me
Photo 5
local horse to print the pic when i got home and send it to him... thought it was a bit strange but agreed, he wrote his address down for me followed by "i love you" ha! missed my chance there... he had a pick-up truck and a cow! could have given me a good life ; )
We drove to another village afterwards where we had a cava ceremony, we had to learn a few dos and donts on the way because its a sacred ceremony to them, we had to nominate one of us as our chief and another as our spokes person. We all sat around the cava bowl in the chiefs hut and had to introduce ourselves to the chief, then he passed us a bowl of cava, you have to clap once then take the bowl, say bula (hello) then down the bowl in one (it tastes of muddy water - but you get used to it) then pass it back and clap three times... complicated eh! Then the girls went over to make bracelets and the lads sat round and had more cava (equality obviously hasnt kicked in there yet ; )
After that we went to
Photo 6
fijian traditional village a local school, it was so nice, all the kids were really friendly and happy, they all sang a farewell song for us when we left and me being me got all emotional : )
After that (along with the chief), we jumped on some bamboo rafts and raced down the river, there were about four or five on each and we had the chiefs wife on the back of ours, think she was waying us down ha (we came last every time) not through lack of trying though... my competetive side was coming right out... another random experience.
That night we stayed at voli voli beach, another gorgeous place, we had such a good night, there was this lovely gay guy that worked there called sacha, he was so camp, he did a dance on the table for us to candyman by christina aguilera... it was hilarious. Then he got us all up and made us dance around the bar and play games, hed stop the music and shout a number which meant we had to get into groups of that many people, it got a bit aggressive ha... we were ragging people here there any everywhere... i was
Photo 7
local boy in the last 4 still standing though so got a free drink ; ) We had some more cava and then later had a bonfire on the beach, played guitar and led there looking up at the stars and chatting, its weird, all the stars are the opposite way round! the pan is almost unreckognisable ; ) looks like a baseball cap! had a really good night... such a laugh.
We had all planned to either go diving or snorkelling the next morning but there was only me and two others that got up... we went right out into the ocean on a boat... the other two were diving so went under water with the guide, i was snorkelling on a reef by the boat on my own (except for the boat driver who was constantly on his mobile) i jumped of the boat and had to swim to the reef... i tell you it was a scarey thought being on my own in the middle of the sea, when i first looked under there was nothing underneath me... dont think ive ever swam so quick... felt like shark bate!!! my heart was pumping like mad, finally got to
Photo 8
traditional hut the reef though and felt slightly better... slightly! (fish freak me out but think ive conquered that fear now), they were pretty so you couldnt not like them, there were all sorts of tropical fish, one was really cute... he was quite big... pink and turquoise with a blue beaked mouth, he was moving quite slowely so i followed him around. I keep thinking a was seeing things when i saw some little glimers of blue light close to the surface, but looked up and there were swarms of little illuminous fishes right in front of me. The second time i got in i looked up to see a massive school of big black fishes big blue beaked mouths, i nearly had a heart attack at first i thought they were sharks! eventually i plucked up the courage to swim closer and it was really cool... never quite got over the paranoia though. Gonna try diving in either oz or thailand.
We all went for an indian meal that lunch time and then headed back to nadi for the night.
Everyone had different things planned for the next day, some were leaving, some going to islands etc. Me and
Photo 9
traditional roofing two of the guys went to Manta Ray (one of the yasawa islands) it was a 3 hour boat ride from the mainland but it was worth it... absolute paradise... not luxury (the toilets werent flushable, cold showers etc) but we didnt care, it was just back to basics, like a desert island. There were hammocks on the beach and a reef just off the shore (i just chilled all afternoon in the hammock), the food was amazing and everyone was really friendly, they put a show on for as and we danced and drunk and played card games all night... the following day i went down to the beach and they taught us how the make jewellery from shells, i could only stay there one night but didnt want to leave.
I stayed the last night in nadi and here i am in new zealand... fiji is the most beautiful country ive ever been to and will definately be going back x x x
Advertisement
Tot: 0.092s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 9; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0456s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
