Fiji

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Bula from Fiji

Fiji, just for information, sits on the 180 degree of longitude, direct opposite the Europe. This fact will in later in this blog.

First impressions remind us a little of India. What with the poor conditions of the roads and building. It is in fact a very improvished set of 366 islands. But what the people lack in conditions they make up with their greeting and hospitality. They appear to be very happy people.

Just as we left the airport we came across our first introduction to a one of the mainstays of the country - Sugar. They have, in this region, a narrow gauge railway whish is devoted to the transport of the sugar cane. We are apparently in the middle of annual sugar harvest and the cane was being transported to the processing plant in a nearby town.

Our hotel, First Landing, is actually set right beside the beach but is quite isolated from the nearest town, some 10 kms away. We did make a visit to the town with the hotel minibus. It would appear that the main businesses there are almost entirely owned and ran by the local Indian population. The driver told us that it was the British who brought the Indians to islands in the first place to work in the Sugar industry.

On the day we went into the town, Saturday, it was actually market day and the place was extremely busy. Nancy wanted to go around the market. We have never seen so much fruit, some of which we have never seen before. We only stopped for a couple of hours as it was hot and stickly in the 34 degrees C (sorry to remind you all).

The hotel as l mentioned is set right on the beach and set in a garden setting. There are trees and plants everywhere, which does give a lot of shelter from the sun. (sorry again).

Nancy is not actually impressed with the hotel. Nancy feels that it could do with a bloody good clean, and the food is not very good either. On Nancy's behalf l have to say that she has not been greatly impressed with the food on this trip - not enough veg.

Vinaka (this language thing is not a problem)

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