About 10 days into our Fiji experience and we have actually found it difficult to adjust to the laid back lifestyle, where time passes slowly and watching a sunset is the only way you know a day has passed. Here are a few of the highlights so far...
Dee's Homestay:
Dee and her son James greeted us in their driveway when the taxi dropped us off on our first morning in Nadi. They were excellent hosts, so friendly that we are back tonight (10/11) and we'll be back before going to the airport (10/16). Dee works for an airline and James is a 14-year-old student. Dee's husband works for the government in Suva, which is the other side of the country, and her two older kids are away at university, one in Suva the other in New Zealand. Rachel (Australian) and Moses (Fijian) are regulars at Dee's and have been staying both nights we've stayed. Rachel's 2 week vacation has stretched into a 2 month trip because she's nursing a sprained ankle and fell in love with Moses. She has given very good advice for traveling through Fiji, and she has obviously accepted Fiji time.
The Beach House:
We had planned on camping for four nights at the Beach House but extended our stay to a fifth night... another example of Fiji time. Blicks, a Fijian employee, introduced us to a kava ceremony. Kava is supposed to cause hallucinations, but unfortunately only caused my tongue to numb. It looked like dirty water and tasted like it, too. While at the Beach House, we took a jungle trek led by a member of the local village. He taught us the medicinal uses of many plants and convinced us there were flying monkeys in the trees. This was a lie. Fijians have a very youthful sense of humor and laugh easily. We made good friends with two Irish couples - Stephen & Sinead and Keith & Louise. Rarely knew what they were saying (Louise called Keith "Keet" and Sinead often muttered, "Jesus Mary and Joseph" when Stephen misbehaved, which was frequent). Once we got past the accents we had a really good time watching them outdrink us 10 drinks to 1, and on our last night at the BH we all went to the fancy 5 star resort down the road for a lovely evening of dinner, dessert, and (of course) drinks. We were also able to play a lively game of beach volleyball with the local staff. Pete and Keith and Louise and I won, 3 games to 1. And while the BH offered fun activities and good company, the wind and rain and mosquitos were a bit unpleasant and unexpected. However, we have plans to return for 3 days this week. We are creatures of habit.
The Cathay Hotel:
This sounds bad and it was. Located in Lautoka, the Cathay is not exactly a tourist hub, as Pete and I were the only guests. The accomodations were rather jail cell-ish. Our room did have a window, but it was covered, and there was a bathroom, but it was creepy. Luckily this was just a stop over before taking the bus East to Raki Raki.
MacDonald's Lodge:
After leaving Lautoka we rode for about 2 hours to the town of Raki Raki. We had previously made reservations to stay at MacDonald's Lodge on the island of Nananu-i-Ra, and boats left from Raki Raki to deliver tourists to their destinations. When we reached Raki Raki a very strange thing happened. A man came up to the window where I was sitting at the back of the bus and held up a little piece of paper with "Peter Aharys" written on it. Pete and I decided that was close enough and he took us in his cab to the marina, which consisted of a road that ended where the ocean met it. A boat met us there about a half hour later and the driver told us that MacDonald's was "paradise" and we would not want to leave. But after 3 days of sunburns and well over 50 mosquito bites I decided my paradise was not MacDonald's Lodge. It also didn't help that the friendly woman at reception, Manjoot, gave us bad advice... over and over. First she told us to enjoy the free sea kayaks by paddling around the island. She estimated that it would take 4 hours. About 2 hours in we were about 1/4 of the way around, and in this time we had paddled with the wind at our backs. I decided I didn't want to attempt the trip all the way around and we turned back. With arms like Jello we paddled into the wind with waves crashing over the front of our boat. The wind was so strong I couldn't hear Pete when he repeatedly said, "We're almost there," even though I could see that "almost there" meant another hour or so. It was torture. So the next day we let Manjoot convince us that a hike around the island would be more fun. Once again I cursed her name when we realized she'd given us an outdated map and the resort we were looking for no longer existed. A nice Fijian man told us to just go over the hill to get back to MacDonald's, but all this resulted in was a 45 minute walk around a ghost town. Apparently this empty resort we stumbled on to was a Hilton project that was put on pause when the country experienced a coup a couple years ago. Hours later we were back to MacDonald's and Pete thought we ought to try snorkelling. This was very scary, as I discovered something about myself. I do not like fish swimming around me. They seemed far too close and friendly. We found out later that these fish are fed bread crumbs and mistook my toes for food. Really strange experience but after a couple of days Pete and I were both pretty good at snorkelling. We shared a dorm at MacDonald's with Vanessa, an Australian teacher teaching in Suva, and Wes, an Australian who also spoke Fijian after hanging out in Fiji for the past 2 years. Fiji time had obviously appealed to Wes, and he displayed his laid back attitude with an unbuttoned cotton shirt, mismatched swim trunks, and bare feet.
Tonight we are back at Dee's with very few plans for the rest of the week. And despite the mice and geckos and crabs and frogs at the Beach House, we're going back tomorrow. Fiji time has been hard to get used to, but when you can spend hours of the day watching the waves from a hammock (much like a Corona commercial), you kind of forget to worry about anything else. :-)
