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Published: September 7th 2008
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I was relieved to be leaving Chong’s Place. Stu had been kind in his description. It was a state, there was clearly a lack of female presence for some time, I don’t think the house had been cleaned for 2 years, and there was a very dark atmosphere about it - and I won’t even mention the kitchen! I am happy to experience basic living and have embraced it many times on this journey so far, but this was just plain dirty and unkempt. So we were off to find a more traditional form of accommodation, the problem being that Fiji is not cheap and there are few budget options. The popular Beach House was located in the middle of the Coral Coast and seemed to be a firm favourite with those on a budget. It was easy to get to on the cheap, cheerful, yet strangely reliable bus service.
Unfortunately, there were no private rooms left so we had to go in a dorm again. To be honest it didn’t matter because the place was paradise compared to Chong’s. We had a six bed modern clean room and were sharing with 2 girls from Norwich who were lovely but
were only 18 - which sent us both into a midlife crisis…..We stepped out into the pool and communal area and realised that all the guests were about 18! It was a beautiful place set on a stunning beach with hammocks in the trees - check out the photos - It was a hostel that ran like a resort. The problem was that the atmosphere was like a hostel or boarding school even, with names taken at lunch time for evening meals with food queues and tick charts…..and a timetable of events. We pretty much kept ourselves to ourselves for the 2 days and just enjoyed recuperating and enjoy the stunningly clear warm waters and white sand beach, and other than a spot of volleyball, we gave the timetable a miss.
After a day or so of being there we knew it also wasn’t what we were looking for in our travelling experience, and besides, it was only a few days away from my birthday, time for a treat I thought. The girls had left and were replaced with 2 Austrian boys, also only 18. We searched through our options and there were not many, after phoning around for
a bit, and Stu having a little firm discussion with some inept reception staff, down the phone, we had reserved a room in The Seashell Cove at Momi Bay. It was a resort, as it was difficult to get anything different, but it was of the old style, so without pretentiousness. We had to take another local bus journey to get there, rather than a stupidly expensive taxi, and we were enjoying the local transport, as the locals were always jolly and wanted a chat. Bizarrely, they play Europop on local radio in some buses - we actually had the Vengaboys ‘Vengabus’ at one point. However, this journey was painful, the road was dusty and potholed for 30km, and was very slow. The Fiji bus service stops whenever the bell is pulled, not just at bus stops, they pull it all the time, and we were literally stopping every 50m. It was very slow progress. So it was with full bladders and sore bums when we finally arrived.
The sun was shining and it was hot, and truly relaxing. The resort was fairly quiet except for a group of 15yr old Aussie school kids - imagine having a marine
biology school trip to Fiji….beats the Brecon Mountain Railway!! We just kicked back and enjoyed the atmosphere for a while. We played tennis, sunbathed and ate good food. Stu went out for a surf at the word famous ‘Cloudbreak’ and other local breaks, which required a boat trip to access the waves, and came back with sunburn and reef cuts.
We wanted to do something nice on my birthday so we went to the famous Natadola Beach - rated 7th in the world rating of beaches. (Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsundays comes in at no.2). The journey to get there was far from easy. It was probably only 30-40km away, but there were no direct buses so had to catch a lift on the back of a truck on along the same bumpy road we took into Momi Bay. When we arrived it was all worth it, we had a huge stretch of stunning white sand beach with turquoise waters all to ourselves. We had lunch at the hotel nearby which was originally used as accommodation for the engineers working on the new flash Intercontinental Resort that was still a work in progress. Even this hotel was a high
standard. The building work was done by locals and of that we were very glad when it came to getting back to our hotel. We needed to get a taxi to the main road (just 10mins away) in order to get the last bus at 4pm. The taxis that had been plentiful only an hour earlier were now nowhere to be seen. So we asked the lady in the restaurant to call us one. It was promised to be with us in 5mins…….45mins later and 4.05pm….still no taxi and despite our urgency the answer was always…..’ahh Fiji time…’ well thanks to ‘Fiji time’ we were now stranded with no way to get back to our hotel. Then a bizarre turn of events meant that we flagged down a minivan of labourers on their way home from the Intercontinental. Sanjay was our driver’s name, an excitable Indian chap who talked non stop. After dropping off his fellow Fijian workers he offered to drive us all the way back. He was so excited bless him, he was quite insistent that we stopped at a shop to get a few beers for the journey home……no, no we are ok…..drinking and driving don’t really
go together in our country, but he was a lovely guy, despite the fact that he beeped at every lady he saw, and proceeded to tell us what life is really like for Indians living in Fiji. It was very enlightening. As he had gone so far out of his way we thought it was only right to give him the equivalent of what a taxi would have cost, which was probably more than his wages at the building site.
That night the hotel laid on a traditional ‘Lomo’ feast, which is a Fijian way of cooking everything in an underground oven, various meats with the typical fare of south sea island root vegetables. To be honest, I was looking forward to a steak and mash which was on the standard menu, as it was a lot tastier, but we didn’t have the choice.
Our 4 days of luxury in Momi Bay came to an end and we were back on the bus to Nadi, to plan the next stage of our journey. So once again the Travellers Beach was our home and Nadi town was our hub. We had soon realised that if we ate food in
the Travellers Beach every night, not only would it not be that good, but we would also blow our budget. We found a little gem at the far end of town, a place frequented by locals serving the best curries and roti - for a really cheap price - so of course we were there everyday, for 2 meals….We were also able to catch up with a few jobs, and pick up bits and pieces that we needed for the next few days, which included 5 days supply of water for 2 people in a country with 80% humidity and 30 deg…and carry it all. We were told that the Yasawas Islands (our next destination) had rainwater, but was not filtered, and we could not buy it in bottles there. None of this turned out to be true, but my arms are much stronger now.
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