Fiji Time

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I left LA at 23:30 on the 19^th October and arrive in Fiji at 6am on the 21^st October. So, I never really lived a 20^th October 2015 which is very bizarre. I get to my hostel at 6:30am and they allow me to check in and go to my room. I feel exhausted and typically on my last day in LA I got a cold so feel kinda crappy. I stay in bed most of the day, which displeases my Chinese roommate for reasons unknown.

The next day I venture out but still feel rubbish so don't do too much. Same with the third day, and head to bed at 8pm as I feel so rubbish. The young Chinese man comes in and starts calling to me “England, are you awake?”. I am but ignore it because I feel crappy and his English is so poor I can barely understand him, only catching 1 out of every 10 words he mutters. He persists and even starts poking my leg; I wouldn't even do this to a friend, let alone someone I've said only a few words to previously. I then pretend to wake and he starts telling me I need to have the window open in the day. He wakes me to tell me THIS. I say okay, and then he starts to ask the cost of my flights, and proceed to tell me he never wants to go to England. Okay. No idea what to say so just smile and tell him he is missing out, which I genuinely think he is.

The other frustrating thing is that my dorm room is the only air-conditioned place in Horizon Beach Resort so the staff come in on their breaks to take a seat on the beds and read the paper or have a chat. Kinda weird and bizarre.

The start of my tour finally arrives; I picked the Five Island Tour through Feejee Experience. Remember this tour and the company because you'll want to avoid them. I booked a tour thinking it would be a great way to meet new people and see a country at the same time. Start of the tour and it is me and one other person; a 21 year old guy from London. Hmm ok. We set off with our tour guide and I look at the bright side; more time to do and see things etc. The first thing on the itinerary is a stop in Nadi town. So as we pull up to a supermarket, I assume this is just a pitstop before the actual town. Nope. Turns out that was the first stop. I shrugged it off not thinking much of it. We head to our first island; Robinson Crusoe Island, which takes half an hour by boat along the river and then out to sea. I attempt snorkeling but my fear of the ocean which I thought I'd nearly conquered got the better of me and I had a panic attack. It probably didn't help that I'd never used snorkeling equipment and tried to go at it all guns blazing. Maybe next time. We are treated to some traditional dancing from all across the Pacific, as well as some great fire dancing. One new guy manages to set his sarong on fire and nearly throws his firestick in to the crowd but aside from this, we had a great time. Lots of nice food, and I meet some fun people. There's no running water so the shower is a bucket suspended above you – but only between certain hours. It's actually refreshing and kind of cool. In the evening, I talk to Olivia – the Franco-Canadian who is volunteering at a school in Lautoka, and an Aussie doctor working to help bring up the standards of medicine in Fiji. Fiji is still technically a third world country; which at times you can certainly see. Apparently the hospitals are dirty and they allow stray cats to wander around, so it's certainly not somewhere a Westerner would want to get sick. One of the funniest things was when I went to use the bathroom and as I entered the toilet cubicle a giant crab scurries out of the bowl and sits on the seat staring at me. I jumped a mile and almost wet myself in the process. When I went back to the table they looked at me as if I was joking, but then later showed them the crab by now dead in the bowl. A week later I spoke to a girl on a different island who had been to Robinson Crusoe and it seems the dead crab is still there and the staff aren't bothered about fishing it out. Nice.





Day two we head to Pacific Harbour, and go to Uprising Resort – by far one of the nicest ones I've seen in Fiji. Starting to realise that the 21 year old and I are very different people; he seems to have no want to work and is happy to live off of his rich family. Something I have never known and will never understand. He and the very immature tour guide (who was up all night drinking and thus still drunk the next morning) have bonded over sport and women, so I'm beginning to feel a little lonely and left out. At dinner there was an obviously gay Fijian waiter which our tour guide starting to poke fun at and tell us how he hates gay people. This being wildly against my own beliefs made me feel very uncomfortable. I'd purposely researched Fiji and it's gay rights before I came and it is no longer illegal and is widely accepted, so it says. So to be on an organised tour and have the guide start discussing his views so vehemently, especially as someone with a girlfriend, was not appropriate and made me anxious to leave. We then set off for the “rainforest trek to the waterfall” as it was advertised. Our tour guide informs me not to wear my hiking boots and that flip-flops will do. I'm kind of shocked that a trek through a rainforest is done in flip-flops but okay. A twenty minute drive along a gravel road whereby we scrape half of the underside of the little van away and we arrive at some grassland. The “trek” was a ten minute walk up a hill and back down again. That was it. Definitely not what was advertised in the slightest. I'm really annoyed because it was one of the things I was most looking for ward to. I sit on the edge of the tiny waterfall (which to me is not a waterfall anyway) and contemplate terminating my trip early because I'm not enjoying it). Then head back to the resort and partake in my first Kava ceremony; it's been described as muddy water and it really does sum it up both in looks and taste before heading to bed early to read.





The next morning we were supposed to leave at 8am but it seems the tour guide doesn't enjoy mornings. I finally wake him at 7:45am as he has my breakfast voucher and we eat (an awesome breakfast of pancakes, omelette and fruit) before setting off. We visit a school and are shown around by two 17 year olds who are about to take their final exams. A lot of the children live at the school which seems run down and something you'd expect to see in a rural tribe in Africa. But it was a great experience, and the children were so friendly and very well read with some great aspirations.





We then had a long drive to Nasautoka Village where we got to be part of the village for the afternoon which included a Kava Ceremony with the chief of the village (I had to sit off to the side being a woman, and had to wait until the other men had drunk until I could – Fiji is very behind the times in some ways, more on this later). We then had a traditional Fijian lunch made by the women of the village, this consisted of village grown delights (their income coming from farming) such as cassava – a root vegetable I've come to love, smoked banana (which was too smokey for me and tasted like I was chomping on an ashtray), prawns in coconut milk, fresh fruit, noodles and spinach, and these amazing spinach and taro leaf pancakes which I ate what felt like dozens of. After this we went bilibili rafting (a gentle rafting session on a 20ft bamboo raft) before having a farewell ceremony with the villagers. If you are ever in Fiji I strongly urge you to visit Nasautoka Village, the people were lovely and it gives you a glimpse of what it's like to live as a Fijian. They offer room and board and activities for just 40FJD (about £13) a night. So worth the money. We arrive at our next resort and I go for a swim and chat with some older Kiwi's who are on holiday. I'm then joined by the 21 year old guy, the 23 year old male tour guide, and our drive; a 29 year old Indo-Fijian male. We play some volleyball in the pool upon which they start to play for forfeits. They then decide I should do a forfeit and kept hitting the ball at me (opposed to to me) and then tell me my forfeit is to go grind up against a pole for 3 minutes as if I were a stripper. I look at them for a few seconds whilst I comprehend what they actually said and politely decline. Several minutes of them telling me to do it and me refusing leads to me walking out of the pool and getting ready for dinner. I don't know how anyone could think that is an okay thing to tell someone to do, especially when they refuse to do it as “you're making me feel really uncomfortable”. Dinner and bed.





The next day I'm up early and wanting to go home as I feel very uncomfortable, and we finally set off. Today the itinerary says an Indo-Fijian lunch and stop in Ba town. I'm excited for these until I realise the stop in Ba is actually a stop at a petrol station so the driver can have a cigarette, and we get no lunch and arrive back to Nadi. It turns out the rest of my trip is to be done alone, no tour guide or driver (which I'm relieved at) but also no-one else. I had to ask a million and one questions to find out what I was doing and where I was supposed to go and what boats to catch because apparently it's simply too much hassle for Feejee Experience to give you this information when you book a tour.





I jump on the first bus and am wedged between two couples, and after a short boat ride am at my first of three islands; Beachcomber. I'd heard it was the party resort so thought it could be fun. I sit on the beach and wade in the crystal clear waters and realise how alone I feel and burst into tears. I've truly realised that Fiji is not really somewhere for solo travellers to come; the fact that the locals/workers on the islands have said several times “oh, here all alone”. I'm surrounded by couples or groups of friends and it makes me sad. But I make the most of it. I meet a cool German called Sarah who is waiting for her friends to arrive; they've just finished working on a cruise ship for 6 months and are now relaxing. Not much of a party on the first night as the island has few people there. But the second night there is more and so there's some dancing and karaoke. I give snorkeling another go and do better this time thanks to Sara holding my hand, but after 3 minutes of waves pounding over my head enough is enough and I sit back in the boat and feed the fish from there. It's so funny to hold a piece of bread in the water and have dozens of fish devour it in seconds. Very cool.





I then head to my next island; Coralview resort. As I disembark the first boat to get on the second to get ashore I meet Verena, a German 25 year old Aeronautical Engineer, and Andrea and 20 year old German au pere living in New Zealand and we get chatting. The resort seems.... basic. We eat dinner and head to bed after chatting. Up in the morning and realise how grubby the whole place is. There's a cockroach in our dorm, and the cleaner decided to clean around it. The showers were beyond dirty and the white flooring in the dinning area is stained with brown mop marks after having had dirty water rubbed over it. The girls come back from caving and tell me they've met another couple of people who were at the resort but complained and moved. So they call their tour operator; Awesome Adventures Fiji, and were swiftly refunded and moved to another resort. I called Feejee Experience and they said tough luck. No beach and nothing to do, it's safe to say I was bored. Andrea was very happy to leave as she was covered in bites from bed bugs she thinks. It turns out everyone there had complained at some point and the night before I arrived they had given everyone food poisoning. I got moved to my own bure after saying how dirty the dorm was, but it seemed that wasn't better. I played cards with the only two other guests; Charlotte from Wales and Ella from Ireland, both who had been living in Malaysia the last four years. Then head to bed after a late night but don't sleep as I'm worried about cockroaches.





Shattered the net day I eagerly await the boat. I finally jump on, and feeling exhausted and not eaten much because of the poor food I felt crappy on the boat, not aided by the fact it was very windy and rocking a lot. Arrive in Manta Ray and see Andrea and get chatting, then meet Susan from Ireland and Karen from Manchester over dinner, and strike up a friendship. Susan overheard Andrea and I discussing Coralview which was to be her next stop. After seeing the pictures and hearing the stories from other guests she quickly called to cancel and stay at Manta Ray Resort. A wise choice in my opinion. I spend my time in Manta Ray chatting about New Zealand, Susan has just finished travelling it, and Karen and I are about to, and doing wordsearches in the hammock on the beach. The food here has been amazing and the entertainment has been just that, entertaining. The dancing has been fun and the staff are so friendly you really want to join in. The only down side is some blonde woman (I've fought against my self to exercise restraint and use the word bimbo) who thinks she owns the place. Turns out she is here to become a SCUBA instructor and has 5 months here; I'm bored after 3 days!





Back to the mainland, and I see Verena on the bus transfer back to Nadi from Port Denerau and lots of other familiar faces which is really nice. Arrive back and sit chatting with Andrea and Karen and writing all my postcards. They're super cheap to send from Fiji so I even write my California ones and send them too – they'll never know back at home (unless they look closely at the stamps). I'm still getting awful pains in my lower abdomen. I've been really careful to ensure I only drink bottled water, but maybe the water from washed salads has had an affect. I get to New Zealand tomorrow and I am hoping the pains will stop.





Fiji has been good, but it's not the tropical paradise that many people say it is. It's overrated in my opinion, unless all you enjoy is laying on a beach cooking in the sun then it is certainly for you! I did some snorkeling but not much and didn't SCUBA which I hear is very nice. So perhaps if you are into those as well then maybe it is your paradise. But for me, I like to see things and do things (on dry land more often than not) and so Fiji, whilst nice, has not been my paradise. Especially not alone. Plus, the islands are very expensive; you have to pay a compulsory meal package each day of £30+ which includes three meals. Sadly however, these meals aren't always great or enough and so you find yourself buying more food.



Also, “Fiji Time” is an actual thing. They will do things on their own time. When it gets done it gets done. Nice in theory but a little frustrating in practice.

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Photos

Meal Time
Lunchtime at Nasautoka Village

Lunch time
Cassava, pineapple, papaya, spinach and tarot wraps/pancakes, chicken, coconut prawns and wild fern. Delicious!

Nasautoka Village
I strongly recommend you go here!

From the boat
The coral as seen through 5 metres+ of water. THAT'S how clear it is!