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Published: August 7th 2007
Ocean
A view from our room.Bula from a far-away place called Fiji-
Unlike other blogs some of you may have been reading recently, our flights were on time, we made our connections and our luggage found us when it should. So much for the travel part. There were, however, a few interesting sidelights to our trip over. When we got our boarding passes for the long flight from LA, we did not have seats in row 32, 45, 57, but 69! A negative being our seats did not go back very much, which didn’t stop the people in front of us doing so, making for less than ideal sleeping conditions. A positive was that we earned a few coins as bathroom attendants as we had adjoining walls. On our first flight, the movie was “Blades of Glory”, which should not be preserved anywhere. On the long flight, we each had our own little TV screen to watch movies and-oh, no-it was “Blades of Glory” again, but there were other choices, but then, at midnight, we didn’t really need a movie anyway. We could also have entertained ourselves by watching the big screen showing our plane moving indescribably slowly across the waters of the Pacific. Instead,
Luggage
Did she over pack?? at 2:30 am, we were served pineapple chicken, not so tempting at that hour. But, after 23 hours of zipping through the skies, we finally landed in Nadi (pronounced Nandi) in Fiji. Despite the hour of 5:00am, cheerful local singers greeted us all. Statistically, our luggage should not have been among the last 5% of bags appearing, but we were grateful they did.
On the way to roughing at the Sheraton, we passed Sky Lodge, which was a stopover for Marc earlier in the game. I was happy to be heading to a real bed, however. Fortunately, our room was ready and we settled in to do some compound exploring. After lunch, we tried to read, but we soon collapsed for a few hours. We have a small balcony with vibrant flowers decorating the edges.
The next day, we went on a catamaran/sailboat cruise to the Mamanuca Islands several hours northwest of our island. A bit of geography - Fiji is really many islands - 300 - covering 18,000 square miles, with a population of 850,000. Two hundred of the islands are inhabited, others not due to topography. The island where we are staying is not known for
First journey
Follow the lines. great beaches so it is recommended to take off to these outer islands for prettier surroundings. So, we joined lots of folks, mostly not from the USA, to begin our journey by boat to some of the outer islands. Our captain was born in Glasgow, spoke English, Fijian and Japanese, at least, -and we thought we were so cosmopolitan. He began his presentation in a manner we liked and found quite interesting. He quoted John 3:16. Try that in the US with fanatical ACLU snoopers. Anyway, the skies were blue and the water an unbelievable shade of aqua marine. As we were motoring, captain said to look port and we saw dolphins jumping through our wake!
We stopped to gather other folks-many islands have resorts on them, but you really need to want to just veg at these places. We visited a remote island with a population of 600 Fijian villagers and attended a meeting with the chief in the communal house. No hats or bikini tops, please. Some folks partook in the kava ceremony. This is a cultural happening where there is chief and two helpers. The men sits cross-legged on the floor and the women in back
of the men sit sideways, facing the kava presenters and the tonoa (kava bow - a large wooden bowl), filled with the kava, a preparation made from the roots of a pepper type plant, which basically tastes like muddy water and can leave you tongue a little fuzzy. You can guess who partook in that ceremony. There is protocol to be followed and is taken very seriously.
After visiting the village, we hopped back on the tender and enjoyed a wonderful lunch on board the sailboat. From there, we went to uninhabited island, where the movie “Castaway” was filmed, for a swim and rest. The boat attendants mentioned that one could swim ashore if they so chose and, once again, guess who “jumped” ship?
Then, it was back to the boat for our return. We were sitting toward the aft of the boat, near a garbage can. I tell you this because while underway, the captain came back and grabbed a line he had been dragging behind the boat and hauled in a two-foot Spanish mackaral. He put it in the garbage can to get the hook out, but the guy didn’t want to give up, so -
Dolphin
Jumping behind our boat. you may want to skip ahead here - the captain took out his knife and stabbed the fish in the brain - that took care of him! Unfortunately in so doing, some of the blood splattered on Dan’s shirt due to our aforementioned proximity to the garbage can - ick. Otherwise, the day was quite pleasant. Singing by the crew, wine after lunch. On the way back, however, they played 60’s rock and roll - I guess some things are just universal!
One of the fun parts of the day was meeting folks from around the globe, most of them from Australia or New Zealand, due to their current cold weather. I really can’t tell those accents apart, but didn’t feel too badly as one nice lady pegged me as Canadian. One fellow didn’t really know where Illinois was, but knew David Letterman came from Indiana - close. He also had made a study of sports teams with the worst records and, by golly, that why he knew about the Cubs! I tried to explain Cubs fans are a different kind of breed. So, other folks don’t necessarily have a better grip on foreign geography than we do -
Orchids
Raymond Burr's jungle orchid gardens. a small comfort. And strange what cultural tidbits drift across the oceans.
On another day we took a short excursion on the main island which included a remote jungle-like park, full of orchids - it was started by Raymond Burr 35 years ago. He sold it in the late 80’s. Our guide was very informative and, though I will forget much of what he told us, gave us a better understanding of the country and its people. Areas are divided into villages, many folks spending their entire lives in these regions. We visited the president’s the village, which was quite a bit nicer than others we had seen. The chiefs elect the president. The people elect members of parliament. The main religion is Methodist and the church here was quite lovely. Sunday is taken very seriously as a day of rest and, church attendance, perhaps three times. For all their democratic government, women only get to lead part of the service in church on Mother’s Day - progress grinds slowly.
There are some Catholics, Hindus and Pentecostals all of whom the guide says live peacefully together. The best news is that they no longer practice cannibalism. You really
Long boat
Loading for the long trip up river to a remote village. don’t want to hear descriptions of some of the weapons used back in those days. Does the phrase brain-picker or neck-breaker do anything for you?
The major industry had been sugar cane production and now it is tourism. We took a picture of the little engine that could, pulling dozens of carts of sugar cane to processing. Our guide had done cane cutting, but now is a tour guide and most pleased with his new life although his schedule is terribl(12 hour day and a four hour commute). I still wonder where they can go from there. Unemployment is a big issue and half the people live under the poverty level. There is some construction going on, but our guide said many people are just too lazy to get out there-sound familiar?
Our third and last excursion was really interesting. We hopped the tour bus for a long ride almost across the island to a boat launch, where we boarded long boats and went up river 12 km to a remote village, stopping at a waterfall for those who wanted to frolic in the sea - I believe there’s a song there somewhere. The river was fast but
quite low, so it was interesting going up little rapids and around lots of boulders. The scenery was outstanding - huge bamboo plants, ferns and the popular botanical category called other green plants. Every so often, we would seen some cows grazing about, which doesn’t seem strange, except there was typically only about four feet of flat space and then straight up. I guess they have it figured out, maybe using boats to move the animals.
But, we eventually arrived at the village, greeted by lovely ladies in traditional garb. We wandered up the path to the community house, only to be greeted by a local warrior, meaning no harm, just for posing with us visitors. Our hostess said we needed a chief for the day and guess who - yep - Chief Dan. That made me Mrs. Chief, which sounded rather grand until I learned that Mrs. Chief gets to carry around the Chief’s bag all day - some native cultural aspects really need some work. So, anyway, after removing hats and shoes, we entered the community house for another welcoming kava ceremony, as briefly described above. This one, however, was a bit more elaborate, with dancing warriors
and singing. Then, the kava man quite seriously took the small filled kava bowl and presented it to our ‘temp’ chief first, then the rest of the men, sitting in front, of course, and then the ladies - mmmm, nummy. We then enjoyed some more entertainment and then we became the entertainment, dancing with the warriors, clapping and singing. We visited their health center, which was impressive considering they are in the middle of nowhere. The outdoor bathroom was not so impressive. Lunch was served village style-everyone sitting on the floor, food presented along a colorful cloth and no eating utensils-and no handi-wipes. This would not have worked so well for many of you. We had taro roots, taro leaves, wonderful fruits, chicken and fresh juice. There was more singing, time to buy crafts-oh, surprise-and then time to head out. Going back, with the current, was swifter, but sadly, much wetter - we got drenched by the rain. We also rode on a bamboo raft for awhile, but in the pouring rain, there was a certain loss of ambience. Back to the long boats finally and to the bus for another long ride.
Once again, the ride was amusing
Sunset
We leave for snow and cold in New Zealand. as people from all over are chatting-there were two dudes from Denmark who had just spent 8 months in Australia, doing some fruit picking and hiking about. They had hitched a ride with the bus to the airport, one heading to the western US for a month or so. Mainly Aussies and New Zealanders, however, escaping the winter weather we are about to head into. I think this place is like a U.S. Myrtle Beach where families come to play in warm weather, since their flight is only about four hours from New Zealand and Australia - it is winter there at this time of the year.
So, today we rest and organize for our flight to Auckland tomorrow. I hope you have learned a bit about this land and its people. Unlike Nestor the younger’s adventure tales, I know this sounds more like how I spent my summer holiday, but it’s that teacher gene and they way I babble coming through, plus our agenda has been and will be quite different as one is experiencing all this through the perspective of AARP. Vinaka, Fiji.
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reta
non-member comment
loved the blog
It sounds as if you guys are having a great time. I'm impressed with your culinary adventures. I really enjoyed reading about Fiji and look forward to the next entry.