Bula Fiji!

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As we got off the plane in Fiji the warm air wafted over us. “Bula!” smiled an airport official as we walked through to the arrivals lounge. We went through the usual procedures and came out to pick up our ride to the resort. Everyone smiled as we came through the gates and asked where we were staying. Being a hardened traveller I was used to being jumped on by unhelpful taxi drivers and tried my best to ignore them but actually they were genuinely trying to help as they pointed Lins in the right direction to catch our ride. The minibus took us out of the airport and into the town of Nadi (pronounced Nandi) where the streets were dusty and very busy. We carried on to the outskirts of the town until the road ended. But that didn’t worry the driver who took us straight on the beach. “Short-cut.” he assured us. We went a little way up the beach and then on to a dirt track before eventually arriving at our resort. “Bula!” cried our bar man. The resort was absolutely lovely even if it was a little remote. We were taken to our ocean front Bure or island bungalow which was just so nice. We decided to have a look around the area but after walking for quite a while we discovered that there wasn’t anything else around so we would be staying around the resort for the first few days and we really didn’t have a problem with that. We drank, we ate, we lounged in the hammocks, we swam in the pool. It was great.

But soon enough it was time to move on. We really wanted to do some snorkelling so we decided to move down the Coral Coast to the Tumbakula Bungalows. The bungalows themselves were reminiscent of a Smurf village but we never saw any little blue people. Again we were in the middle of nowhere but the beach was nicer and there was definitely some snorkelling to be had. The water is so warm in Fiji and never gets very deep. With the reef holding back the pacific it is a great place to swim. There are loads of Sea Cucumbers which are really ugly but also lots of fish. We even came across a little fish nursery where loads of baby fish were swimming amongst the coral. After all the travelling it was really nice to slow down a little. We did try to go into the local town one day but despite waiting for the bus for ages when it arrived it didn’t stop for us! Ah well lets go to the beach again.

After a couple of days the rain arrived so we decided it was time to visit the capital of Fiji, Suva. We booked on the bus and waited for it to arrive sheltering from the rain. When it did arrive it almost drove past again. “We have no room.” said the driver. “We picked up a couple of extras along the way and they have taken your seats.” “But we have already paid!” I insisted but he looked at me as if to say not my problem. I know you are supposed to be all laid back on the islands but we were about to left in the middle of nowhere. In the end the hostess came off the bus and told us to get on. They had moved a couple of people, who I have to say looked like mates of the hostess, to stand at the front and let us in. After our stop we weren’t the last to be picked up. I have no idea how they did it but they managed to get 4 more people on board!

Suva gets a rough review in the guides which basically say you don’t go anywhere after dark and best not carry anything valuable. When we arrived it was hammering down with rain, we didn’t have anywhere to stay. We got out and tried to get a taxi to the tourist information “No I’ll take you to good accommodation.” Er no we want to go to the tourist information. “You walk then.” Great - so we tramped through the soaking streets for nearly a km to get there. The information centre was great and phoned around to find us somewhere to stay. They had almost as much trouble as we did as there was a big event on in town and everyone seemed booked out. We finally found a place at the Suva Travel Inn and managed to get a cab to take us there. The accommodation was quite scary as it had bars everywhere. We had our room pointed out and when we finally were given the right key we moved in. I have to say it was probably the worst place we have stayed anywhere. There was no hot water on either day despite reception insisting it was working. Surely the best test is whether there is any hot water not whether your boiler is working!

We decided to make the best of it though and headed to the Fiji Museum since it was raining so heavy. The museum was quite small but went through the history of the Fiji people from the first settlers from SE Asia through discovery by Europeans and the settling of the Indo-Fijians as indentured workers from India. It may not seem like it but Fiji is probably the most politically unstable country we are visiting. It is only six years since their last coup and the current government is considered unconstitutional so they have been expelled from the Commonwealth. It all hinges on the fact that only about 50% of the country are traditional Fijians. Around 45% are made up by Indo-Fijians who are the descendants of the Indians attracted to Fiji by the British with stories of great work opportunities and were basically shafted. Good old British mixing things up. Ever since there has been tension between the two. In order to sort things out the constitution requires that all governments much have a combination of the ethnic groups. A few years ago the Fijian vote was split and the Indo-Fijian party gained power. Although they did put the required Fijians in government some Fijians would not accept an Indo-Fijian Prime Minister so they staged a coup and insisted that the President pick another prime minister. He did. Another Indo-Fijian, so they disposed of them both and re-ran the election. This time a Fijian party was elected but they refused to follow the constitution and did not put any Indo-Fijian MPs in government. So Fiji was expelled from the Commonwealth though you remember that big event in town - it turned out to be a bridge opening funded by European money - hmmm we are annoyed then but not that annoyed!

After we came out of the museum the rain hadn’t stop so we headed for some food and turned in for the night.

The next morning we were awoken by a huge banging on the door so loud in fact it sounded like someone trying to break the door down. It stopped and there was some shouting outside. Things went quite and I ventured out. I met the maintenance man fixing next doors door. “I’m so sorry.” He said. “They told me it was your door that needed fixing. Can I come into your room and fix your door?” The guy had actually hit the door so hard he had pulled it out at the bottom. We were really not enjoying our stay.

The rain was still falling so we headed to a café that had Wi-fi and spent the day on the internet. There really wasn’t anything else to do and we really weren’t going to stay in our hotel. At the end of the day we decided to go to a Chinese restaurant we had seen earlier. It was early so we thought it wouldn’t be a problem to get a seat. We went in and the room was large and almost full. “Table for two please” I said. “Two?” said the woman with some shock and started looking around the room. I looked around to and it was clear that there weren’t any tables for two - all of them were set for 10! She spoke to another waitress who ran to a back room. Lins and I looked at each other - a simple no would have done. Finally they conceded there was a table in the back room. We followed the waitress into the room and were taken to a long table at the back. She quickly put a table cloth on it and put some cutlery down. The restaurant was clearly booked out as the night went on it became quite full but really did they not expect anyone to come in on spec? We weren’t the only ones who were given a quickly arranged table so we didn’t feel too bad. Really a simple no would have been fine! The food and service was excellent though.

On our final day in Fiji we needed to get from Suva to the International Airport on the other side of the island at Nadi. As usual we had to take the bus and there are only two a day which meant that we could get to the airport either 6 hours early or 2 hours late. So we had a while to sit at the airport and enjoy the last of the sun that had come out at last. We had a great week in Fiji and were relaxed and ready for another week on tropical islands - this time in the Cook Islands which was a few hours and a whole day away.

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Photos

Palms 1
Well I've found my spot

Bure
Our little Bure on the beach

Lins on terrace
A tropical beauty

Russ in hammock
The view from the office today

Palms 2
Really this place is gorgeous

Smurf village
Which one belongs to Papa Smurf

Coral Coast beach
The fabulous Coral Coast