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Published: August 23rd 2007
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Once back on Viti Levu we headed straight for the Raintree Lodge where, as expected, there were plenty of spare rooms available. Because of the recent coup the hotels and resorts of Fiji are only around 30% occupied rather than the 70 to 80% usual at this time of year. It's the fault of the world's media, hyping up the event and scaring all the foreigners away from coming. Really coups are not unusual here and when they occur they rarely affect tourists.
Today was a Thursday, and we discovered to our chagrin that Thursday is the day that the Feejee Experience bus turns up. In other words the Raintree Lodge was invaded by moronic twenty-somethings whose idea of a Fijian cultural adventure is travelling round on a bus with similarly simple-minded cretins, wearing skimpy clothes designed for girls ten kilos less fat than they are, and whose idea of an intelligent conversation opener is "Oh my God, did you hear Paris Hilton has bought a new pair of shoes?!". Fortunately we weren't at the Lodge for much of the time. The next morning I was already out in the forest at first light looking for the golden dove. I
discovered that the Pacific robin chicks had left their nest and were fluttering around near the ground demanding food from their parents, but the golden doves remained as hidden as ever.
Then we caught the bus into Suva and went to the Fiji Museum. It is small but very good, with a replica war canoe and a very good collection of war clubs. Then it was on to the University of the South Pacific (USP) to buy "A Field Guide To The Herpetofauna Of Fiji" which enabled me to properly identify the skinks and geckoes we'd been finding. It cost $20 at the University, but up to $30 at other outlets. Next door to the University is the National Stadium where I wanted to see Java sparrows. Apparently the open fields here are a good place to spot them but there were none there, although I did get good looks at red avadavats, another species of introduced finch. After that we walked to Suva Point. It was high tide by this time so there were no birds around except great crested terns, reef herons and white-faced herons (the last self-introduced themselves to Fiji from Australia or New Zealand in
1997 and are already common around the south of the island). Despite the lack of seabirds we were still highly entertained by the antics of the crab-seller man. He had three strings of large paddle-crabs that he was trying to sell by the roadside. Every so often he would dip them in the ocean in an attempt to make them look fresh, but it didn't fool his customers. The buying of roadside crabs was obviously a regular thing because lots of cars stopped, but after a brief examination of the catch the cars would then leave quickly without a sale. I did an impromptu Cockney bit on his sales pitch (which Robyn took the liberty of putting in her own blog before I could write mine!): "Tuppence a crab Guv'na? String of ten for a fiver?...Guaranteed wet!", but you really had to be there. Further along the road when continuing into the town again we found a huge fruit bat roost in a tree in someone's front yard. Oh cruel fate that I have not a fruit bat roost in MY garden!
The highlight of the day were undoubtably the sword-sellers. We knew about these guys from Lonely Planet
The tree full of Pacific fruit bats Pteropus tonganus.
(probably best to click on the picture to get the large version) warnings but we were disappointed not to meet any on our first days in Fiji. This time round we finally met up with one. Sword-sellers are basically con-men. According to Lonely Planet they ask your name then carve it onto a cheap wooden sword worth about $1 and demand payment for it. We couldn't imagine how this could possibly work in practice but we were keen to find out. A friendly middle-aged Fijian guy soon made our acquaintance as we walked down the street near Ratu Sukuna Park. He struck up a conversation, asking where we were from, how long we were in Fiji for, the usual sorts of things. Then he suddenly produced a pair of small black-painted wooden daggers and said, "I have a present for you, these are for you to take home. They bring good luck.". "Oh thanks," I say, taking them and making as if to walk off. "Wait, I will carve your names on them, will make a good souvenir for you!". I carefully spelt out our names as he quickly and quite expertly scraped the letters out on the wood, while passing locals gave us amused looks at our apparent gullibility. "Wow, thanks," I say when he was finished and made as if to walk away with them again. "Wait, I have a mask to go with them," he says, producing a rough wooden mask from his bag of tricks. The daggers it seems are hung on the wall in a crossed fashion with the mask above them, and a light behind the mask makes it all look pretty. "This is what I do," he is saying. "So your job is just giving things away to people in the street for presents?" I ask innocently. "Yes," he says. "OK, thanks a lot," I say finally, taking the paper bag in which he had placed the mask and swords, and started to leave. "Most people give me $30!" he says loudly. "What? But you said you were giving them to us! You didn't say anything about money!" "I am a Fijian," he protests, "I'm not Indian or Chinese! $30!" "No we don't want them." "Then give them back." As we left he waved the bag at us and called "OK, five dollars!". We could have taken it but it would have just been encouraging him. Apparently many of them try the trick of "but it has your name on it now, you have to buy it because it is ruined and I can't use it." Our one didn't actually try too hard for the sale. Robyn thought maybe it would be different if the tourist in question didn't look like they would hurt him. I wanted to go find more sword-sellers later and see if I could trick them into carving swear words into their 'presents' but we hadn't the time. I love scam-baiting!
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