Fiji

Hey all or BULA as they say in Fiji , sorry its been so long since my last update but ive been having a ball and hardly had time to sit down and write .

Anyways so i left LA on the Air Pacific jumbo jet on a 13 hour flight which was one of the worst flights i have ever experienced , from the start of the flight to the end there was turbulance and im not just talking about a small bit the plane was all over the place and on an aeging plane i was trying to put on a brave face but i was really shitting myself , but i got there in the end arriving at Nadi aiport around 5.30am to 30oc heat and that was early morning , the humidity was unreal ,now before arriving in Fiji i had booked the Fiji experience which basically picks you up at the airport and takes you around the islands staying at different places each night , so this really camp Fijian picked me up and it turned out there was no bus as they didnt have anyone else on the trip as it was xmas eve , but they took me anyways in a jeep , stopping at Nadi for breakfast then heading down to Mango Bay where i would spend xmas and my first 4 nights there, on the way there we had stopped off at a Fijian village, now this wasnt your normal village in this place you where not allowed to wear footwear and you had to wear a sarong , a sarong i thought feck that , but if you where to enter the village you had to wear it , so off i went to buy a sarong , i got a little orange number which looked the part hehe and spent the next hour or so meeting the locals , now the Fijians are some of the nicest people i have ever met , everyone waves as you walk by or drive by and they all shout BULA which means hello goodluck and heaps of other words they use it for pretty much everything, everyone in Fiji says BULA and by the time i left i was saying it hundreds of times a day , after the village we stopped at some sand dunes and i was looking up at this mountain of sand, it was huge , then out came the sand boards , shit i thought this this thing is really steep and when i got to the top it didnt help matters , but the Fijian dude went first and it looked amazing so down i went breaking the speed barrier hitting the bottom with a bang , and it was awesome ,so up again i went and again and again i couldnt stop myself after that but time was getting on so had to make a move on to Mango Bay .

Arrived at Mango Bay and instantly i loved the place , i arrived at my bure and went around to see what the place was like , it was right on the beachfront with white sands palm trees crystal clear water , it had a pool right by the beach a nightclub and restaraunt this place was the buisness , it was out of this world , so i had settled in and had some dinner that night then got talking to a few people and had a few drinks , the next morning was xmas day and i was up real early again it must have been the sunshine it certainly wasnt because i wanted to see if santa came hehe , it was surreal to wake up on a beach on xmas day but it was awesome , i had breakfast then played beach volleyball , went out in some kayaks, played football which was alot harder than you think in the heat ,and then in the evening sat on the beach with a bonfire and got drunk , it was a perfect xmas day but surreal .The next day i had the chance to go on a waterfall trek in the jungle which i thought sounds fun , after reaching the mountain the heavens opened and im not just taklking a wee bit of rain , this was monsoon stylee walking through the jungle on a 2 hour trek in the pissing rain to see a waterfall wasnt my idea of fun or of Fiji for that matter , we eventually arrived at the waterfall and i wasnt impressed atal , i was like is that it ???? so we headed back down again in the pissing rain , got back to Mango Bay to discover it hadnt even rained there atal ,it was just in the hills , i wish i had just stayed on the beach and saved my money .The next day i went on a fishing/island trip , now ive never really taken to fishing but i thought it give it a go and i wasnt disappointed , as soon as we got our first catch i was hookeed (pardon the pun ) i had an awesome day and i actually caught a few tuna fish ,we then stopped off at a reef to go snorkelling and everyone jumped in , now ive never been to keen on snorkelling never mind doing it in the middle of the ocean , but i had to conquer my fears and give it my best go , i was actually quite enjoying it looking down and around the fishes and reef and i saw the cast of finding nemo ,it was at that point then i heard the boat engine start up and move away to the end of the reef which was quite some distance away ,i started to panic a bit ,out in the middle of the ocean no life jacket with just a snorkell and flippers , i then made the executive desicion to swim back to the boat which wasnt easy as it was pretty far . After everyone got back on the boat we headed to an island for lunch and played some volleyball and chilled out for a bit ,on the way back we stopped off at the other side of the island to visit another Fijian village ,we got off and again got a warm welcome ,we had a look around the village and its just amazing at how happy these people are living on an island with the most basic things ,after a while the chief of the village had a kava ceremony, now this was the first time i was exposed to kava, which is the drink that every Fijian drinks ,its a plant thats grown here and then crushed and mixed with water in a huge bowl , it looks and tastes like muddy water but if you have to much of it ican make you go numb ,its a type of narcotic so if you can put up with the taste then you can get a cheap hit lol we all sat around in a circle legs crossed and it was put out in half coconut shells , once you had finished it you yelled out mathasacka !!! which means thank you and respect for the next person to take , now everyone though this was amusing as it sounded like mother fu**er and we all trying our hardest not to laugh and not be disrespectful . On the way back to Mango Bay we where followed by a group of dolphins and got some quality pictures and videos .

The next morning i done a work out on the beach with a girl from Sydney who was a personal trainer , now i would consider myself to pretty fit but i was exhausted after what she put me through lol im putting it down to the heat ,later in the day i had my Rangers training top on , and as i walked past the pool there was a couple of girls and guys and one of the girls shouted oi (in an australian accent) what was the score last night ?? refering to the mighty Glasgow Rangers getting beated from some team 1 nil , i said got beat 1 nil why ? and she said her boyfriend was from Hawick and was a Celtic fan , and she asked would it be ok if she phoned him for me to talk to him as he wouldnt belive there was a Rangers fan in Fiji , i thought why not a bit of banter would be fine , so i was talking to this guy who was pissed and he was giving me pelters about rangers , but it was all in good fun though. Afterwards she introduced herself and me to her friend Lauren , they where from Adelaide and where ther on holiday for New Year , instanly me and Lauren hit it off and her friend who had introduced us later went in the huff as she said we were spending to much time together and she wanted her back lol i had a great time over the next few days as more and more people came and meeting new people , i was supposed to leave the next day but as i met Lauren and was having so much fun i decided to stay , but they had told me they where fully booked and couldnt fit me in but luckily the people that own the place Danny and Claire i got to know them with the time i was there and they said it would be fine and they would fit me in , Result !!! the next week i spent most of my time in the pool drinking all day and night starting the NYE celebrations early and on occasion went kayaking snorkelling ,beach volleyball and sheltered from the afternoon rains , now i loved Miami and had a ball there , but Fiji overtook that in many ways it was just paradise,New Year kind of creeped up on us as we had decided not to start drinking until the avo. to take it easy but that idea was scrapped as soon as we started the catchphrase BEER TIME ,which was something we had started earlier it the week which basically meant as soon as someone said BEER TIME you had to take a drink , so at 10am it was mentioned and that was it started drinking at 10am , we had a pool party during the day and it was awesome there was a dj playing by the pool and it was a real party atmosphere, i made it to about 8pm and i was so mangled and could hardly stand after drinking everything from beer to vodka ,shots and even popped a bottle of champange in the pool ,so staggered off to bed and sleep for a bit and Lauren dragged me up at 11pm and threw me into a shower , now i was still drunk buy then and from what i remember the NYE was awesome ,they had a massive outdoor party with djs and it was insane , we had lasted to about 7am and then decided to hit the hay , but some of the english guys we met went on drinking for the next 36 hours without sleep it must have been a record . the next couple of days where just recovery and chilling out then time to go as pretty much everyone was leaving at the same time , Lauren had left the day before me and we had arranged for me to go stay with her when i arrived in Oz ,so it was off to NZ

My Summary of Fiji

It is a beautiful place and it is everything that you would expect it to be , the clear waters the palm trees the white sands it was just a different world , and i thought i had the best time in MIAMI well FIJI has eclipsed that , i again met some really amazing people who i will meet in Australia and the magnificent journey continues , im in Australia just now in Melbourne and i will get the NZ blog done shortly now that i have a base .

hope all is well

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