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Published: November 24th 2008
Polly:
Before leaving Auckland we checked the weather and were a bit disappointed to see that for the next 2 weeks the Fiji forecast was for rain, rain, rain and a few thunderstorms.
As we landed on Friday evening the sky was grey but the rain was holding off. It was uncomfortably hot though and felt like it needed to rain. The airport was lovely and air-conditioned so we hung out there for a bit trying to work out where to go.
We went into one of the travel agents in arrivals and spent an hour or so putting together a bit of a plan. This is somewhere where an internet search prior to arrival is pretty fruitless, compared to some good local knowledge.
A guy had dropped by the travel agent earlier that day promoting a 3 day/2 night trip on his yacht leaving on Monday for F$299 each (£100). Not really having any other plans, we snapped that up. We also booked a 7 day/6 night island hopping package aboard the Yasawa Flyer for our last week.
The travel agent also phoned around some local hostels/hotels for us, but despite the reported drop in
tourism, we only got lucky on the 7th call! They had a double at Traveller’s Beach Resort on Wailoaloa Beach, about 15mins drive from the airport. They had no standard doubles available at F$60, so we settled for a beach front double at F$80. Baba from the resort came to pick us up in his battered minivan, stopping on the way so we could get some cash, weetabix, milk, & tonic water.
Everywhere we were greeted with ‘Bula!’ (meaning ‘Hello’) and smiling faces. Just over half of Fijians are indigenous & speak Fijian, whilst the other half are Indo-Fijians (from India) and are mostly Hindu. They all speak English though as it is the national language.
Traveller’s Beach was a pretty chilled out, small resort. The bedroom had a double bed, a single bed, toilet, hot shower, fridge, kettle & air-con. You opened the door to a small pool & deck in front of the beach. The beach was a bit brown, and the sea a bit murky, but nice all the same. As you walk down the beach you pass about 6 similar resorts (most of which the travel agent had phoned) and we think we got
lucky. Smuggler’s Cove, the ‘popular’ resort, was a bit too 18-30s and totally overpriced.
Back at Traveller’s Beach we had some traditional dancers arrive for our evening’s entertainment. They performed a series of dances from the Pacific Islands. The men were covered in sweat and wearing straw skirts, energetically jumping around (a bit like the Haka). The women were a bit more graceful, although on closer inspection, the one on the end had an Adam’s apple & men’s legs. We had a few Fiji Bitters and shared some Pakoras. Unfortunately the ants took a liking to Ross' feet, biting him 58 times!
The next day it poured with rain so we didn’t do a lot. In the evening we shared a bowl of kava, a local herbal drink. It’s made from the crushed, dried root of a pepper plant mixed in a sock in water. It’s basically like muddy water, with a hint of cinnamon. You drink it from a dried coconut shell, opting for a ‘low-tide’ (half a cup), ‘high-tide’, or a ‘Tsunami’! Before you drink you have to clap once and say ‘Bula’, then afterwards you have to clap 3 times and say ‘Vinaka’ (thank you).
Tasty feet
Ross yet again begins to feel victimised...Kava makes you feel happy and relaxed, without the grogginess of being drunk. The effects are mild though and you need about 5 cups to feel it. It also makes your tongue go tingly.
On Sunday we got a taxi into town, but a lot of things were shut. We walked up to the temple, but I wasn’t dressed appropriately so we didn’t go in. Nadi Town (pronounced Nandi), is pretty dirty, smelly and not somewhere you’d want to spend much time. You get hassled by all the shop-keepers, taxi-drivers etc, to the point of getting quite annoyed. They don’t take no for an answer. In the end we played ‘how many times will we get asked if we need a taxi’ - one guy asked us 4 times within an hour! We figured that the locals were just desperate for any kind of work, because they were haggling with you for products that you’d shown no interest in. I’m not sure how much the tourism has dropped since the recent military coup, but there are definitely about 20 times more taxi drivers than are needed.
On Monday morning we had a bit of an unexpected, early start.
We were due to be picked up for our yacht trip at 9am, and in ‘Fiji time’ that means about 10, so had set an alarm for 8am. At 6am, the night guard was knocking at the door saying we had to get up and get a bus as they’d had a call at midnight??? After a lot of confusion we realised that the girl next door was called Rose - which incidentally, sounded a bit like Ross - and he had got the wrong room. Along with ‘Fiji time’ we were starting to experience ‘Fiji style’ - for this you need to be patient, expect the unexpected, don’t assume common sense has been applied to anything, and go with the flow.
We got picked up as per the original plan and were taken in a minibus to Denarau Port. This is the swanky part of Fiji with the Hilton, Westin, Sheraton, Hard Rock Cafe and other out-of-place chains. It is unlike anywhere else in Fiji, in fact, you could have been anywhere in the world.
In our group aboard the yacht, Pelorus Jack, were Emile & Kari from Norway & Carolin from Germany. The five of us
Wailoaloa beach
Looking back towards the Traveller's Beach Resort sailed with our crew, Captain Charles, Skipper Joseph (aka Coconut), Chef Michelle and Sofia from Sweden. Well, we sailed when we could but due to a lack of wind we motored most of the time. Our yacht was a 50ft double-masted beast with a hull made from ferrous cement(?), and as such needed a fairly strong wind to budge.
The first day we travelled around the Mamanuca Islands stopping off for a snorkel at Malolo Island. We had a BBQ lunch on Malololailai (little Malolo) Island then snorkelled some more. Despite being cloudy & wearing factor 30, we both got a bit pink & tender. Fiji sun & cheap sun cream!
We had an amazing dinner of salads & meats on the boat then took the inflatable rib back to the island for singing & kava. Charles & Joseph joined the local band, headed up by a Fijian dwarf, with their guitars. The dwarf had an unusual, high-pitched singing voice, and belted out some classics. We sat round chilling with some Fiji Bitters.
That night most of the crew slept on deck as it was so warm, but we were a bit jammy and got the double
cabin at the front which had a nice big hatch. It started raining though, so the crew had to come back down below in the middle of the night.
On the second day we motored to Waya Island, at the base of the Yasawa group of islands, stopping at Monuriki Island on the way. The sun shone all day and the views of the many islands and their turquoise reefs were stunning.
Monuriki was where the film ‘Cast Away’ was filmed. No one lives on the island and only 2 boats have permission to go there so it’s fairly unspoilt. Before anchoring Captain Charles had to go to the neighbouring island to take the village chief a gift of kava and ask for his permission to moor. We walked to where Tom Hank’s character’s cave was, (although it was actually made of polystyrene leant against a rock), and to the rock where he speared the fish. Unfortunately Wilson was no longer there. Apparently, he had weathered so much that he'd disintegrated. When they made the film they agreed with the village chief that they would pay half of the film’s takings to the nearby island. They claimed that
they would make $1 million, so paid the chief $500,000. The film made $29 million in the opening weekend alone, but they gave the island no more money, so apparently Tom Hanks will be cooked alive if he ever returns to Fiji! Cannibalism stopped in Fiji about 100 years ago, so I think they were joking.
The snorkelling at Monuriki was amazing, with most of the coral still colourful & living. We saw a Moray eel, a lobster & loads of fish.
That night we spent the evening at Waya. Deckhand Joseph, as well as being a former Samoan international rugby star, is a member of an important Samoan family and had family connections with the Island of Waya. We were given a Fijian feast cooked in a Lovo (hot stones under the ground, covered in banana leaves - the pumpkin and corned beef dish was strangely tasty), followed by a kava ceremony and some dancing. It was a bit weird, and we didn’t feel all that welcome, more that they had to put on an act again for the tourists. When one of the ladies got Ross up to dance he asked her if they do this whenever
visitors come to the island, and she replied, rather matter of factly, that it was their main source of income.
On the final day we got up and went to Waya again to climb to the summit. The view was pretty impressive, but the climb was hot. The sun was already strong at 8.30am and we were soaked through with sweat after about 2 minutes of hiking. That day we got the sails up for a bit and sailed south for some snorkelling at Beachcomber Island (party island), and had a yummy chicken curry on the boat before heading back to Nadi.
We had a fantastic few days and would recommend a trip aboard Pelorus Jack to anyone visiting Fiji.
In an attempt to stay close to our budget we planned to stay in cheap hostels and eat cheap in between our activities. So after returning to land we headed straight to 'Nadi Downtown Backpackers', advertised at F$12 per person, including breakfast (actually worked out as F$14 with tax). The building was decrepit, apart from a small, freshly painted area on the ground floor. When I say 'fresh' I mean 'wet'! It emerged that this was all
to impress the council inspectors the following morning. They had also installed 3 new computers, but despite being available we were only allowed to use one of them unless we purchased a 'combo' pack including beers & a game of pool. The dorm room was on the 3rd floor and, whilst air-conditioned, was pretty basic. The air-con didn’t cool the room that well, but did go some way to blocking out the noise from the street and adjacent nightclub. Despite me sharing with three men the management couldn’t provide me with a light bulb for the toilet (which was pitch black when the door was shut) so in the end I had to use a candle. My bed had the dodgiest mattress, varying in thickness from 2cm to 20cm, and all bumpy. But what really made this the 2nd shittiest hostel so far ('Girl from Ipanema' in Rio being the 1st!) was the fact that for the low cost price, your dorm also doubled up as the luggage storage room for the rest of the hostel (including all the double rooms). So, when any guests arrived and were waiting for their room to be readied, or were checking out and
needed to dump their bags, they came to our room, turned the lights on, and generally spoke at full volume regardless of the fact that four people were sleeping. Also, the only room key was passed about the hostel freely so everyone could access their luggage, not only meaning that everyone had access to your stuff, but also if you needed the toilet (there were no communal ones) you may have up to five trips up and down the three flights of stairs and still not be lucky enough to intercept the key on the way. The staff were particularly unhelpful with any of these problems and at times quite rude.
Combined with the fact that this hostel is located in the middle of grimy Nadi Town, I would advise anyone wanting a peaceful night to head out to Wailoaloa Beach.
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