BULA!

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It's 10:30pm here in Nadi, Fiji and luckily, a kind American guy that I met at the beginning of my stay in Fiji has graciously let me use his laptop tonite. There is only 1 computer here at the hotel/hostel that I'm staying at and as expected, it's been occupied all evening. Thanks to him I've been able to check up on emails and best of all... upload some pictures!! Tomorrow at 9am I will be flying from Fiji to Sydney, Australia, about a 4hr30min flight which should be a breeze. My amazing Aussie friend Fernanda will be picking me up at the airport and I'll be staying with her for the next 5 evenings in Sydney and then it's up to the Northern part of the East Coast of oz (I fly Syd - Cairns). I'm sad to see my time in Fiji come to an end but at the same time so very excited to finally step foot down under. I'm well into and rather only have 100 pages remaining of my Bill Bryson book 'in a sunburned country' which recounts his experiences in Australia while providing a detailed look at the history of the country. Bryson is comical and the book is a joy to read especially since I'll be visiting many of the places he talks about. Anyways, back to Fiji. First of all, I was absolutely stunned to see in the flesh the landscape of the Fiji islands. I pictured the islands as pristine beaches with white sand and palm trees. Don't get me wrong, the beaches are incredible, but there's so much more to Fiji than that. Many of the islands are very rugged and 'jungly' (word?). I never expected that in my short time in Fiji I'd lear so much about the Fijian culture. Fijians are very genuine special people who are the most friendly and happy people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. I had the opportunity to visit a Fijian village (300 inhabitants) and oh the poverty. Their homes are tiny, dirty, they have so very little yet they see 'rich' (obviously to them) tourists walking by and instead of being rude and jealous of us they greet us with a huge smile and the friendly hello 'BULA!'. It's really hard to believe that even with so little these people are so joyful. Not only are they joyful, they are proud to be Fijians and take a great deal of pride in their culture and want to share their culture with outsiders.

As I stated in my previous journal entry, on my 1st day in Fiji (while staying in Nadi) I did a day trip to Robinson Crusoe island on the 'coral coast'. The next day began my 7 day 6 night 'Ultimate Lei' tour of the Fiji Yasawa Islands. There are over 330 Fiji islands and unfortunately I was only able to visit a few of them in such a short time. First I traveled by boat (on the 'Awesome Adventures Fiji' company boat called the Flyer) up to the northern end of the Yasawa group of islands. It was a long ride (8:30am until just after 1pm) but the time flew by as chatted with fellow travelers keenly learning about everyone else's travel plans. My first stop was the island of Tavewa to the resort called 'Coral View' (2 nights). The weather was a bit iffy at times as we had some rain here and there and not too much sunshine for which I longed. The thing I loved about this island was that from our resort we were able to go for long walks on the beach - this isn't possible at all resorts/islands as some are very rocky etc. The property was beautiful but the accommodations themselves (dorm rooms) were very basic. Might I add that none of the islands had hot nor fresh water showers and that showers were therefore always luke warm and salty. Funny enough one night at Coral View it poured rain and my friends and I got caught in the storm and so were drenched. As we sprinted back to shelter from our hike we decided to make like the locals (the resort staff) and shower in the rain. The buildings had rain pipes running down and so we showered in that steady stream of clean water. I met some truly great people at Coral View - people that I will most definitely keep in touch with. There was a French girl from Mtrl staying there as well and we hit it off and hung out the whole time. She was off to Australia to work for a year all along and like me was stopping in Fiji first. We spoke French the entire time and man my French is rusty, it's been awhile since the days of Marseille! It was great practice though. While at Coral View, the two coolest activities that I did were the Sawailau Caves trip and snorkeling at the famous Blue Lagoon. The caves were super creepy, I was proud of myself for doing them! This excursion was included in my package so I felt the need to at least go check it out since I had paid for it even though I was scared! I heard from other resort guests who had already done the excursion that it was good fun. Long story short, there was a fair sized group of us who ventured to the caves with our guides and the excursion involved swimming underwater through a tunnel to get to the real caves (if you follow). I was petrified to go through the tunnel as it was high tide but really, it wasn't that bad and you only had to hold your breath for a few seconds. It sounds unsafe but the guides take people there every day 365 days a year and the caves trip is always a hit. Snorkeling at the Blue Lagoon was just a short boat ride away from Coral View and Valerie and I (the French girl) had a grand time checking out the amazing tropical fish, corals, and lets not forget the famous bright purple/blue Fiji starfish... they're everywhere and so unique. One thing about Coral View was that although the food tasted good to me - it was generally traditional Fijian dishes and were quite plentiful, the food did NOT agree with me. My stomach seemed to be doing back flips at times and let's just say it was not a comfortable feeling. Unfortunately my stomach pains were not unique to my time at Coral View and rather I felt ill almost after every meal, no joke. I'm not sure why but it was awful.


My next destination was the 'Wanna Taki' live aboard cruise. The great thing about this cruise was that it took us to the Fijian village that I described above - a truly amazing and eye opening experience. We first went to the village on Sunday and given that it is the day of rest the village was quiet. The island like all of the Fiji islands were dripping in coconut trees, papayas, soon mangoes (luckily for me these were not in season during my visit), bananas, etc... they live off the land. One thing that was super neat was that during the evening when it was pitch black outside, the guides turned on lights under the boat and given that fish are attracted to light (apparently) the swarms of fish gathering looked like a swarm of mosquitoes...it was so neat! The Fijian workers on board did hand line fishing and caught a fish literally every 10 seconds. I slept well on the Wanna Taki. The next day we went back to the village and got to see a lot more. The best part was visiting the little children's school (well 1 room school). Their English is outstanding. They learn English from a very young age. The kids were so cute, friendly, and loved having their pictures taken! They sang us several songs, so adorable. We only saw the older children's school area from afar. They had a huge rugby field... Fiji beat Canada just this week in Rugby, the Fijians didn't miss an opportunity to rub that in, lol.

I then spend two nights at Kuata island at 'Kuata island resort' - my favourite island by far. It was so beautiful set amidst stunning backdrops of volcanic cliffs, crystal clear waters, and beautiful greenery. The food was very tasty here but that too made me feel ill, boo. Luckily I happened to be there for Fijian night (every Tuesday) and so we had a big Fijian feast (meat is cooked in the underground oven 'the lovo') and all food is eaten without cutlery. Oddly enough it didn't feel weird to eat with my hands lol. That's their tradition. We then enjoyed a Kava ceremony (google Kava).. and watched the Fijian boys entertain us and they actually got us all up dancing... the night was grand! I had a vouched (part of my package) to do the summit walk. Only myself was up for it and I was pleased that the guide, a young 18 year old Fijian boy who worked at the resort was still willing to take me to the summit. The hike up the hill was about 40 minutes and this was at a very speedy pace. It was uphill and was super tiring - definitly got my exercise that day. The view at the top was stunning, words cannot describe the beauty I saw. The boy and I had some good chats. He explained how he was from a village on a nearby island and that only 200 people lived in his village. He has 3 sisters, 3 brothers and his parents back in the village still and he's the oldest of his siblings. When i asked how often he was able to go home and see his family he said usually 1x per month. You can't help but feel sorry for these people who've never traveled further than Nadi, Fiji. Though as I said, even with so little they are extremely happy people. I met a Tasmanian lady who said that she had a good chat with a Fijian lady working on the Flyer (the boat) and she said that they made $2.67 Fijian dollars per hour. That's unbelievably low.

The best activity while at Kuata, besides the amazing sunny weather we had and lots of time tanning and lazing in hammocks, was going snorkeling with SHARKS! I kid you not. I willingly signed up and paid for this activity knowing I'd be swimming with the sharks in the wild. Of course I was scarred but intrigued to swim with sharks with our guide (who by the way was leading us through the reef with a long rifle gun with a spear at the end of it... I actually didn't notice this until I had been in the water for about 15mins and that made me nervous!). Again, I had heard from friends that this activity was amazing so I had to do it. The Fijian men (there were 2 of them) drove myself and the other suckers out on a boat to the area where we'd see reef sharks. When the boat came to a stop after 20 mins in the middle of the sea and the men said hop out I was petrified. They had taken us to a reef in the middle of the sea. Within minutes of jumping overboard we saw our first reef shark down below. We swam through the reef with the guide while the other guide went off and caught fish. There was another group of people out there from another resort and one of their guides took the fish that had been caught and went down and sat on the ocean floor, I'd say about 20feet deep if that, and hand fed the sharks the fish. The sharks came out of nowhere (well out of the reef) and at one time there were 6 sharks down below us!!! It was super cool but I'm in no rush to see sharks ever again... hopefully that's a once and only event.

My last evening on my tour was spent on South Sea Island - the smallest island of the Yasawa group. You're never more that a stone through from the water in any direction, it's seriously that tiny! If there was ever a huge storm that island would be washed away no doubt. I did a day long sailing excursion from that island, the 'Seaspray' which was included in my tour package. The huge sailboat seemed like a ton of fun but unfortunately after days of lovely, sunny weather, the weather was horrible today. It was sunny at times but the afternoon was miserable, cold and wet. Not a great way to end my time in Fiji but at any rate, it was a cool day. The other participants were mainly couples and older people since it's not a cheap excursion, it's $175/person - I luckily had this included in my package. There were at least 4 couples that I met on board who were on their honeymoon. I was the only backpacker I'd say. Regardless, met lots of nice people, some Aussies who gave me their contact emails in case I needed a place to stay (Aussies are seriously that warm and friendly), went to another Fijian village, visited and snorkeled off the famous Tom Hanks 'Castaway' island and more... It the weather would have cooperated it would have been a much better day but oh well, I really can't complain!

I should get to bed, it's not going on 11:30pm and I've got my flight tomorrow am. Night night 😊

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Photos

South Sea Island
the smallest island in the Yasawa group

Kava ceremony
it tastes just like it looks!