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Published: February 24th 2008
Hammocking It Up!
...where I laid to long, and got burnt!BULA!!
"Bula is heard everywhere in Fiji (literally EVERYWHERE, all the time)! It is universally used to say hello, or welcome, and is even exclaimed if you sneeze! It means 'life' and is a way of wishing good health and fortune to the recipient."
Wow, what a BEAUtiful place!! I landed in Fiji last Thursday night, the 14th and came back Monday morning, the 18th. We stayed in a backpacker hostel & hotel called Smuggler's Cove in Nadi, a big touristy city of Fiji. It was dark when we got there and all I noticed was that the stars were amazing and the ocean water was soo warm! Our hotel was pretty nice compared to the hostels we've been staying in; it had a restaurant that opened up to the deck, pool (if you wanted to actually cool down), and then to the ocean (which was too warm to even cool down). Friday morning I woke up, had some brekkie, and went straight out to the hammock on the beach to read. Then I fell asleep (reading my History book for school, boorring 😊 and then ended up getting some random burn lines after being in the hammock for 2.5
hrs. without ever getting up or reapplying my sun screen, oops! It was hot and humid (but not near as bad as Cairns). The green mountains surrounding us with the bright colorful sunsets and sunrises were nice scenery!
Friday we went to the huge resort in Nadi, about 10 min from our hotel, where all the nice hotels and restaurants are as well as some shops and cafes. As we were getting there this Pacific Islander dance group of about 8 guys and 4 girls were all dressed up getting ready to do a performance. They did all kinds of different cultural dances, including fire dances and dancing with machetes, in all different outfits for an hour...it was SO fun to watch!! Then we had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, which just opened 3 months ago. It was really nice and the servers there dance! In the middle of our dinner the YMCA song came on REALLY loud and the lights dimmed and we were all like what is going on....all of sudden the waiters/waitresses are standing on chairs dancing, with a routine and all, to the entire song. They did it two more times after that, with
one of the songs being MJ's Thriller, which was very entertaining!! I thought that was fun because I'd never seen that at the Hard Rocks I've been to in the states.
Saturday we walked around town shopping at some of the street markets and souvenir shops. I laughed so hard at the Fiji Time clocks (see pic) that were being sold at a shop. For those of you that have not experienced "Fiji Time", it basically means NO TIME!! Fijians seriously have no sense of and no care of knowing what time it is or how fast they do something. Like at our hotel, or anywhere really, theyd be getting something but totally like forget, or just not care, and do something else then be like oh, sorry Fiji Time...it was soo frustrating, and tested my patience to say the least!! Basically, the picture of the clocks explains Fiji Time perfectly! My friends got henna from a lady working in the markets and I had fun playing with her two kids the whole time. This little boy and girl were so polite and told me all about how he wanted to be a pilot and she wanted to be
a doctor when they grew up. They taught me all kinds of different hand games and it made me miss all the kids I watch back at home...!! We went out to a really traditional Fijian restaurant for dinner that had just opened by our hotel. I love shrimp so I was so excited about the prawns we ordered for an appetizer...they came out with eyes still on and all (see pic)!! Everyone was really adventurous trying different things (with words that I had no idea were even food), which I normally like to do, but I stuck with Fish and Ships since it was expensive and I didn't wanna get stuck with some other crazy food with eyes still on it!? 😊
For our last day there we paid 100 Fiji dollars, like 70 American to take a catamaran out to hangout on an island all day which included kayaking, snorkeling, a good BBQ for lunch, free drinks all day, sailing, and had a pool in the middle. It's the smallest island out of the south islands; you could walk around the outside of it in 5 minutes and across the middle in like 30 seconds. The water
was unreal...crystal clear and all different shades of blue and the island had white sand, but there was lots of dried up coral areas so you had to be careful where you were walking. Then looking out in the ocean you saw other little islands and pretty green mountains! It was a really hot day and I constantly was afraid of getting sunburnt because every time I put SPF on it just rubbed into my sweat and like dripped off, haha, eww! I put it on 5 times but kept feeling like I was burning anyways...I did a little but it turned into a nice tan!! Oh, and I did start off my day on the island with a 45 min. massage, on the beach (that only cost me $25)!! After that I knew there had to be a hammock somewhere on the island...so I grabbed my book, went searching, and then spent quite a long time there, it was FANTASTICC!! 😊 I just kept thinking to myself I'm 18 years old and I'm in Fiji right now...on this amazing island, I really couldn't believe it! I totally felt a undeserving of even being in such a nice place and
kept thinking of all the people I wanted to be there enjoying it with me!! 😊 After getting back from the island it was raining a little and we went and played around on the beach, during the sunset! Then, one highlight of the trip was when my friends and I told some Fijian boys at the hotel that we had never had a real coconut off a coconut tree, but that I had always wanted to do that! So, next thing I know we walk over to this tall tree and two of them, one after the other, are up the tree in a matter of seconds picking coconuts!! It was one of the coolest things to watch, they looked like Mogley on Jungle Book or something, haha. They came back down with 4 coconuts and we split them open and I tried a real coconut for the first time, it was so fun! They weren't quite ripe yet but it was a good experience!!
All together, Fiji was another amazing, adventurous trip that I am very thankful I got to do!! After getting back I spent Tuesday through Friday getting caught up with school: working on the
Sunset
...from the Sunset Deck at our hotel drafts for my culture and history papers as well as some things I missed from being gone Friday and Monday. Thankfully, my teacher from Vashon Island that has run this trip 8 times, is so laid-back and flexible...he's the nicest old guy! He understands and lets us miss classes so we can travel and is so good and lenient about us getting work in and really about everything; I don't think I've seen him get upset with anyone even once, he's great! I just found out this is his last time running the trip and am so glad I was in this group! Anyways, I have more adventerous to write about from this weekend but had to get caught up on Fiji first! Sorry about spelling and anything because I usually am trying to write these fast while trying to remember and explain so many things as they come to mind! My time is FLYYYING by since being here in Auckland. We've been here over 2 weeks already and officially only have 2 weeks left...which I just realized after counting. My roomies and I are sitting here talking about how we could stay much longer...and are so sad for it
to be ending soon!!!
I hope everyone is doing good...!!?
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Karissa A
non-member comment
Wow! Fiji looks amazing!!! What an experience!!