Man on a beach, sat on a rock, thinkin' of you and the love I've got...

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Saturday 11 August, 9,30am, Yasawa Flyer heading north to Octopus Resort.



So, since I arrived in Fiji 17 days ago I've discovered that the answer to the age old equation 'the square root of fuck all'...it's Fiji Time, baby!





Meeting people here has been a totally different experience from hosteling in the states..In the US it was mainly groups of friends sticking together which was difficult to get talking to them. Looking back I was probably a bit overwhelmed having spent time with friends in Miami and NYC so once Cockney and Chrissy's wedding was over it dawned on me that it as just me, myself and I. Time to get in the mix and meet people. Camerardery is an amazing thing, the realisation that everyone's in the same boat, all looking to have a great time and meet new people, you've bought the ticket, you take the ride. No ones going to do it for you. I've met some ace people since I got to LA and now Fiji, from 1st night nerves on blue lagoon to meeting people who jacked it in, had enough of the daily grind and sold houses, cars, the lot, and just hit the road! Fair play to them. It's your life, make of it what you can. If Broadcasting Mark ever reads this, just keep on keeping on, brother, don't look back!





So, an update of the last 18 odd days is in order, some parts have blurred into one whether it be hours/days on the beach or hours/nights playing and learning drinking games ('Dirty Troll is coming back to the UK for sure!).





I arrived in Fiji at 5am on Tuesday 1st August after leaving LA at 11.30pm on Sunday 30th July..lost Monday due to time differences n that. Saved money on not needing accommodation on Monday, gotta look on the bright side! All I had sorted for Fiji was 4 nights accommodation at Blue lagoon resort at the far end of the Yasawa Islands. The plan being to get a 21 day 'Bula pass' which basically gives you unlimited hop on and off the catamaran that goes up and down the chain of islands every day and bounce around the islands for 3 weeks! So I come out of customs knowing the boat leaves the port at 8.30am so I have an hour to book my pass and get some cash exchanged as some of the islands don't have credit card machines! First travel agent I meet is this big Fijian lady who was so friendly, ended up booking my pass and organising a 4 day village trip around the main island, Viti Levu, once my Bula Pass had run out, she was brilliant and a great introduction to the people of Fiji, probably the most friendly people I have ever met. So, I've got my pass and first few nights accommodation booked, the rest I decided to book on the boat every time I decided to move on. Leave it flexible. See who I meet, what people reccommend. So glad I did as me some cool people along the way so far. Swapped a few emails/facebooks so will be interesting to see what everyone's up to now and again.









Blue Lagoon - 01/08/12 to 05/08/12



After a 4.5 hour catermaran ride up the islands I arrived at Blue Lagoon. I'd read good things about the resort in LA so booked 4 nights to just chill and take it all in. I thought that staying somewhere for longer than one or two nits would be a good way to meet a few people and also discover what life on a Fiji resort was like.



It was a mix of families and couples but I knew there had to be 'backpackers' around as there were 16 dorm beds... I sat down for dinner with an Australian family who were great, really nice to talk to after I thought they would just ignore the random at the end of their table!! After dinner was a quiz in the theme of 'Survivor'.. The Ausies left for the bar so I decided to head for the obvious backpackers table i'd missed in my panic to find a seat for dinner and just asked if I could join there team. Done. Ripped the plaster off, so to speak. Such a nice group of people too that I would hang around with for the next few days, some on other islands, which Is the best part of hopping around. Bumping into people you meet in one place then see them days later. A couple of events stick out in the quiz, me being nominated to leg it down to the beach to grab a basket of big jigsaw puzzle pieces to bring back to the table for us to put together. we won that round..Next was coconut husking, a funny guy called Fenton shredded the husk off in 2 seconds flat and handed it to me to crack open with a stick. Smashed it open on the first go. Another win! We ended up as runners up, narrowly missing out on champagne breakfast on the beach the next morning. Free shots from the owner, Chris, was an awesome runners up prize.





Next morning we were invited to the next village to take part in a 'fish drive', something they do once every 6 months. It wasn't an organised activity by the resort it was genuinely an invite froM the village to help them out. One of the best experiences I've had in Fiji so far. It's hard to explain but I'll give it a go. The next village had spent the previous few days making a kind of vine rope with coconut leaves on which was to be held under the water to scare/control the fish. It must have been 300 meters long! So we arrive at the village in a boat and everyone backflips, bond style, off the boat in snorkle gear. Looks straight forward, having not snorkels before, I follow everyone else...hahaha! Bad move, swallow a shit load of water through my snorkle, forgetting to breath out until I was the fit way up...soon got the hang of it and so swam over and joined a huge circle of people in the bay. There must have been about 100 local villagers and 20-30 from our resort. The vine rope gets passed around everyone so that it creates a huge circle in the water. We then had to swim with the rope to slowly close the circle, keeping it under water to scare the fish back to the middle. The chief of the village was in a bloat waving a huge machete and chopping the rope so that it could be shortened and tightened as we swam around. Eventually the 100m diameter circle gets to about 5m and there has to be 150-200 fish all trapped in this circular rope net we've swum around them, it was amazing to see everyone come together and make this thing happen. The locals then add some form of Kava (a naturally occurring kind of anaesthetic from a pepper plant, more on that later) to the water and the fish slowly stop thrashing around and the villagers start to spear and net the fish to take home. Never seen anything like some of the fish that were in there, Dad would have wet himself seeing all the different types and colours of fish!! There's was even a puffer fish, which the Fijians don't eat, so people were taking pictures and then let it go. Gutted I never had my camera. If anyone reads this that was there, I'd massively appreciate an email with a photo on..worth a shot!



One night we were treated to a traditional Mete? Which is a traditional Fijian feast cooked underground followed by a traditional dance which was ace to watch and even better to join in! We played UNO and some scrabble but that got boring after Fenton beat 4 of us on one team against just him!





One morning I joined a trip up to the Yasawa I awa?? Limestone Caves to snorkle in. They're the caves made famous by the movie Blue Lagoon, where Brooke Sheilds sits on a rock in an open topped cave. Never seen it but it's now on my list! The place was very surreal, a cave you walk down to with an open top, I guess the roof fell in?! But the waters quite clear due to the sun light so you snorkle around and the guide takes you down and you swim trough a gap/tunnel through to another cave. When you pop up there is a roof, about half a meter from your head! The guide has a flash light and shows you how small this place is, made me a bit claustrophobic but the adrenaline makes you not worry about that until after you dive out of there!













Manta ray 05/08/12 to 09/08/12 (written from Korovou deck at lunchtime)





I left blue lagoon on the 5th heading to Manta Ray. I'd heard it was a bit less family orientated and had a larger 34 bed dorm so more backpackers. Boat down with an Irish couple from Gallway who were at the end of their 3 month trip heading home via LA and Heathrow. Could see the sadness in their faces at having to leave. So I jump on the transfer boat to manta ray and sit opposite this German guy called Robin and another few guys I had seen on the Flyer previously, Keiron Jenna and Rito..over the next few days we'd hang around at meal times and get the drinking started in the bar. Well, Rito would kick it off, walking around the place asking if anyone wanted to play drinking games in his enthusiastic way. The guy was hilarious, especially when he agreed to read us some of his personal diary jackal pry style one night! If you ever read this, brother, Godspeed on your travels and I hope your girl is okay! Also met up with a girl called Jerry from Blue Lagoon who was so friendly and cool to talk to, we ended up bumping into each other for a few hours on the next island, she was looking forward to heading home in the next few weeks, probably there by the time I get this finished and uploaded - remember to send, me photos of the Rays!





Manta Ray resort was 3 ish hours south of blue lagoon. A totally different style of resort, more rustic/traditional wooden buildings rather than blue lagoons more luxurious looking places. Cold showers too.



International drinking Olympics was hatched one rainy afternoon. We ended up with about 18 of us representing our countries in drinking games we made up that afternoon, volleyball, shot put javelin, 100m sprint, 4 x 100 relay! It was such a funny afternoon, although team GB was robbed, missing an event due to poor stewardsmen!



Was gutted to leave the guys I'd met on manta ray. I was only meant to stay for 2 nights but after checking out and paying my bill I was talked into staying a few more nights and then head to beachcomber with a guy from the uk called mark and a guy from NZ called Sam...

One afternoon the drums were played to call people for fish feeding (drums sound for activities and meals so you know what's going on..) basically hold bread or coconut under the ocean at the shore and the fish come up to scrabble around for it, weird seeing so many fish that near to shore, I'm sure I could have grabbed one out!





Manta was a great second stop, very different in style and people to blue lagoon. Next stop, Beachcomber.





Beachcomber 09/08/12 to 11/08/12





I headed down to beachcomber with Mark and Sam. Beachcomber has a reputation as the party island of Fiji but having had such an ace time on Manta it had a lot to live up to. It's made famous by its 100 bed dorm. Unfortunately this was closed for refurbishment for a big swimming event that takes place after the Olympics from the main land for 19k, the swimmers staying in the newly refurbished dorm. It was still pretty busy though. I'd seen pictures in brochures n that so knew it was a small island, but didn't realise just how small, we'd walked around it in 7 mins one morning! Had a good time meeting kiwis and Ausies who were spending their weeks holiday on just that island, crazy considering how many other beautiful places there are here than beachcomber. Each to their own n that. Mark spent the first night convincing everyone to head to manta ray, I swear he was on commission, the guy just kept at it getting more and more drunk the more 3.5 liter towers we bought. At about 1am loads of us swam out to the resorts moored boats to jump off, staff were noooo happy about that, so we did it again 20 mins later. The fact mark has no recollection of this or a few other things like face planting in the sand will forever remind me how drunk we got that night, top man!





The following night was a bit of a wash out for me, drinking started at 5ish but the Kiwis had bought some Kava with them. I better explain Kava before I go on. The Fijians don't drink alcohol. Something to do with how their livers process it and alcohol being a western thing. Kava is the root of a pepper plant that they harvest. The root is dried out and pounded into a powder and put into a sack which acts as a big tea bag! Kava isn't alcoholic but has a kind of anaesthetic property. It has a bigger effect on the locals than westerners. It very slightly numbs your tongue and looks like dirty puddle water. Its drunk by the locals as a traditional welcoming ceremony when new people enter the village, the chief and a spokesperson conduct the ceremony where the kava bowl is passed around and you clap once, say Bula (which means life/hello), drink the kava and the clap three times as a way of saying cheers. so on beachcomber these Kiwi guys mix the kava in completely wrong proportions of water to kava and end up with this really strong rhino tranquilliser...I only found this out the next day. After I had my bowl, I'd crawled to the nearest bench to lie on my back to stare at the stars and the kava kicked in. I couldn't move a muscle, I could hear everything over near the bar but couldn't get up to go back. Eventually someone came over and gave me a hand back to bed...at 11pm! I found out later on Manta Ray that people had dropped like flies that night and that it wasn't just me.





Octopus 11/08/12 to 14/08/12





I got to Octopus resort after crashing the previous night feeling very subdued after the kava. Octopus is owned by the same people as Blue Lagoon so I knew it would be a really nice place to chill. The resort was a bit bigger than blue lagoon but equally as nice, hot showers, a shower towel and beach towel, it's got the lot! Think I just sat around the pool that afternoon finishing Life by Keith Richards.



Church visit in next village on Sunday morning, we walked up over the island to the village which looks a bit run down but there was a huge solar panel & satellite dish in the middle! Service is meant to last for 3 hours but I bailed after 1 along with a few others to take some photos around the village. More beach and pool in the afternoon. Evenings are way more chilled on Octopus, either chatting after dinner or joining the kava ceremony and saying hi to locals or new travellers.





Next day i joined a Fijian Cooking lesson, the chef showed us how to make Kokoda. It involves cooking fish in lemon juice (lemons are green with orange juice here) and adding finely chopped peppers carrots and onion. Tried some Fijian chillies, not as bad as birds eye ones but nice to have something spicy for a change. That afternoon I went Game fishing on a small boat with USA Greg, Canadian Brian and German Enriquo. 4 beers each and two hours later we had caught a Barracuda and a Spanish Mackerel. The resort took the Spanish mackerel and cooked it or our dinner. It was brought out on a huge platter that we shared around. Man alive it was such nice fish, flaking off the bone. Finished the night with a few bets on international crab racing. Didn't win.





Korovou 14/08/12 to 15/08/12





Didn't like this place as soon as I arrived from the transfer boat. Beach wasn't good and very rocky for 20-30m from the shore and had to walk along a concrete 'runway' from the boat..not the best first impression. I guess that's why they have a pool, only saw a couple of people snorkelling, you had to take an organised boat trip otherwise, not like any of the other resorts I'd stayed on. Decided to only sty one night and to head back to Manta Ray on the 15th as snorkelling there was ace. Did meet a couple of people in the evening and joined in the dancing games but there were only about 15-20 people in total and 8 of them were a group of American students who barely said hello back - time to move on!



Was so good to hear Annies voice today after days without wifi or phone signal, especially as its our anniversary! The cheesy e-cards she sent made my morning, love you, baby x





Manta Ray 15/08/12 to .... (written on Manta beach 1pm)





Brummie lad Josh still here, still eating fish wraps for lunch, 12 days straight! Sound lad is Josh!





Sat on the beach yesterday, played a bit of beach volleyball but bruised my wrist after I smacked the ball off my watch! One of the resort staff broke his finger blocking a spike, clean break through the skin, at a right angle, dangerous sport! Went snorkelling with Jo the dive instructor, swam above a SHARK!! Such an amazing sight, was probably just over a meter long swimming along the sandy ocean floor!





Played more drinking games last night so slow morning on the beach. Getting ready or another fishing trip with Josh and two Austrian guys from Vienna, Greg and Patrick. 5 beers each and a cool box. Back in 3 hours!! Soooo, didn't bring any fish back this time but had a brilliant 4 hours in beautiful sunshiiiine. We had 4 on the hook but they managed to shake free :-( On the way back we went around the other side of the island just before sunset around 6pm and were doing backflips and stuff off the boat, I think Pat got one of me mid backflip! Back at the resort more beers and more drinking, finally tapped out at 1am leaving a handful of others to keep going!



Someone was evacuated by helicopter at about 6.30am today, she had an inflamed appendix and needed an urgent operation before it burst. They were going to fly her out last night but it was too dangerous to land a helicopter on the beach in the dark! Oh, and she had noooo travel insurance!!!



I've got one more night on Manta then I'm going back to Octopus or blue lagoon (whichever has a dorm free) for 2 nights of recovery from Manta before heading to the main land to do a 4 day village tour.





Currently sat on the beach, sun is out, tide is in, time to go for the best hangover cure, a cheeky swim in the ocean....



Mouse x

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