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Published: February 25th 2013
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Unfortunately our day started with me wingeing at James to get a move on for our 8am bus - which meant I disobeyed the rules of Fiji time! After scoffing down our breakfast in 5 mins we jumped on the bus to Navua. We had booked ourselves onto the Jewel of Fiji day tour, which would consist of a trip to a Fijian village and some activities in the Nausori highlands. Our first stop was the village; although still very much a traditional village the grass skirts and 'kava ceremony' was definitely put on for the tourists. The traditional Kava ceremony was very interesting and most of us had a try of the Kava (the root of a vegetable mixed with water). To be honest it tasted like badly brewed herbal tea with a helping of soil thrown in - having said that it was much easier to drink than I expected! The people of the village were very friendly and we saw the nursery children, women making traditional crafts and men collecting and opening coconuts (with their fists :s). Our 'village guide' Nem was great and explained everything so well. The women use the inner flesh of the mulberry tree
to create a material which they then paint on (using natural dyes) - this is used for clothing and house decoration and is called Masi. We purchased a Masi souvenir for our home! After another 'lovo' lunch we headed up the river for afternoon activities.
Bailey's bit: Kava is a narcotic known for its hallucinogenic properties, apparently the men of a village will drink 20 to 30 cups a night and as it does not have any alcohol there is no hangover! Ours was fairly weak, the proper stuff is 3 to 4 times stronger, I intend to try some before we leave! We had to take a 30 minutes boat ride up the river to 'magic' waterfall, along the way we past dense rain forest and the occasional waterfall breaking out over cliff edges. The magic waterfall was huge (and flowing for once - in Oz they were all dry) and we both had a refreshing swim in the pool below. We then had a short billibilli ride, (bamboo raft, like in Thailand) although this raft had 17 people on it and wasn't quite as manoeuvrable as our previous ride. All in all, a full and fun day!
We then caught a local bus to Suva after arrival and check-in we walked down to find the much raved about street barbecue stalls. There were about 6 stalls but they all sold exactly the same meals so we chose a stall each and ordered. Cat went for sausage, chicken, stir fry and dalo (the local root vegetable like a potato) I went for the mix of everything (sausage, chicken, lamb, egg, stir fry and dalo!) in total it was $18 or about £7! On the way back to the hotel we picked up some cupcakes and finished those off in the room!
Daily mileage: 5 after the thunderstorm from the previous night it was a little cooler. I headed the other way on the main road passing through a couple of villages before returning to the hotel!
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