Blogs from Coral Coast, Viti Levu, Fiji, Oceania - page 3

During the one hour drive from the airport to our home for the 1st week here, we realised quickly that Fiji is a very poor country.We drove through small villages, where the houses were constructed from corrugated iron sheets as walls, precariously propping each other up, with a few planks of wood at odd angles offering dubious extra support. Most homesteads have a tethered animal, usually a single cow, goat or horse and a small area of untended wild grass surrounding it . All have a washing line, usually strung between a fence post and tree, and hanging with the family's laundry including net curtains and sheets (I have since learned that the net curtains screen the myriad of insects in these parts) I suspect that the laundry is done by hand as washing machines are ... read more

Bula Everyone! 153 days have passed and we have visited 63 destinations in 11 countries, travelled on 24 planes, 5 trains, 9 buses, 7 boats, hired 11 cars and had the best five months of our lives. The trip has taken us to some of the world’s wonders and we have been lucky enough to experience many cultures and meet a lot of great people on our travels. Our last week was exactly what we planned: seven days in paradise with nothing to do but relax. Fiji is made up of 300 islands scattered across 20,000 square miles and is a stunning country. Some of you may remember the ITV programme ‘Celebrity Love Island’ (a reality show where z-list celebs are sent to an exotic island for a few weeks) which was filmed at the resort ... read more

The local bus dropped us off at 7pm and we had to walk down a pitch black lane for 10 minutes until we found the resort, the security guard welcomed us and feeling sorry that we had to walk in the dark, he gave us a bowl of kava and showed us to our room! The next day we booked ourselves on a fishing and island trip, about 10 of us crowded on to this small boat and went off in search of fish and hopefully sun. After about an hour of smashing along the waves and needing to see a specialist about our new back problems, we reached the island with 2 tunas in hand, and whilst the hosts cooked them, we went snorkelling and played a bit of football. After lunch we went to ... read more

The whole reason we went to the south coast of the country was to do this world famous shark dive of the coast of the island of Beqa (pronounced Ben-ga). We arrived the day before on the bus, which was pretty good value for money at fj$3 (1 pound) to get us to the other side of the country. Since it was a Sunday we had to wait for the bus for about an hour. We stood by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere & witnessed how Fiji gets its reputation for being one of the friendliest countries in the world. Every car, almost with out exception, flashed their lights, beeped or waved at us shouting "BULA!" as they went. It was a lovely touch which made me feel less like a ... read more

12th APRIL 2009 - RELAXATION AT BEACHHOUSE & ON TO MANGO BAY!! I woke up at 8ish after having a cracking nights sleep…much needed I might add and the circles under my eyes were a little lighter than before! We went for breakfast (in with the price) and then checked in and out. We then explored the resort a little and laid by the pool. Such a nice place and I would have happily stayed there for the rest of my time in Fiji. It was right on the beach, there were log swings out over the sea, the sun was out and it was a happy place! There were loads of activities on and even a tv room for rainy days! It was a shame that we only had a couple of hours there which ... read more