Blogs from Mamanuca Islands, Fiji, Oceania - page 11

Apres the Shark dive we took the rickety open sided local bus back to Nadi. Being a Sunday morning it was filled with locals on their way to and from Church. Sundays in Fiji are all about the church. Nothing is really open and all around you the churches which line the fields and beachsides are in full song literally. It is really nice and something different to see a real sense of culture still pervades this tourist hotspot. In fact the whole of fiji oozes this laid back local feel in abundance. It is like a step back in time. The buses have no sides and the locals are so friendly. A far cry from the misery of the number 8 which awaits us so soon. Best make the most of it. Our driver wore ... read more

We made a nervous return to Mana Island, keen not to repeat our previous experience of a bure full of monstrous spiders (refer 2002 blog entitled "Sacred Peaks and Eight Legged Freaks"). We booked a first floor room in a still-rustic looking building in the hope that Mana's spiders weren't of the climbing variety. I'm not quite sure what we were thinking - I'm pretty certain there's no such thing as a non-climbing spider. This all quickly became a bit irrelevant. We were told that we couldn't have our chosen room type for the first couple of days, and were instead shown to a ground floor room in a very modern block on the South Beach. We were about as far away from the arachnid infested bure of our previous visit and still be on the ... read more

We spent the first week of this sojourn at Castaway Island in the Mamanuca Group off Viti Levu's west coast. It was all very peaceful and relaxing. We spent most of our time lazing on the beach or by the pool, interspersed by the occasional very competitive family table tennis tournament. We still think that this is one of Fiji's very best islands - just rustic enough whilst still being very comfortable, great food, excellent beach and snorkeling, and super friendly and relaxed staff. After a few days Issy and I decided that we'd been overdoing the relaxing just a bit too much, so we made the brave decision to leave our offspring sleeping and head off for a morning hike up to the island's peak. The path was steep and rocky. Would we make it ... read more

hallo ihr lieben........haben uns lange nicht gemeldet........waren die erste zeit auf malola island und haben uns die sonne auf den pelz scheinen lassen. uns geht es soweit bombe ....man hat zwar eher das gefuehl , dass man in little india ist aber sonst alles tuti....... auf fiji gibt es naehmlich 50% fijianer und 50% inder....... und die haben es faust-dick hinter den ohren.... was armut und kriminalitaet an geht ....oh,oh,oh....... ist eben ein drittes welt land und das sollte man nicht vergessen. es ist schon komisch, wenn man das erstemal in seinem leben das gefuehl hat, als weise in der minderheit zu sein......was aber die natur angeht einfach toll. mein herz haengt zwar noch immer in neuseeland fest aber dieses blaue wasser und diese teils unberuehrte natur ist fantastisch....... melden uns spaeter nochmal und versuchen mal ... read more

Thursday 29th June: I was up at 6.30am, trying not to wake the other eight people in my dorm. I went and showered I realised I was about to embark on the most remote part of my trip so far and had just run out of shower gel and deodorant! Arse! So, no internet access for three weeks - means no contact with distant friends and no shower gel or deodorant - means no making of 'close' friends either!! LOL To top it all of, it is raining heavily. Not having a good start to Fiji... I went down for breakfast, I saw on the menu 'Full Fijian Breakfast', which was like a Full English. "Mmmmmm, yes please" I thought. I went to reception to get my breakfast ticket (you get a free 'Awesome breakfast' with ... read more