It's about 6am, 9th July. But wait, we left LA on the 7th. Where did the 8th go? How did we lose a day???
We flew for 12 hours but ended up a day ahead of LA time. Somewhere along the way we crossed the international date line and lost a day.
The trip was worth it, we're in Nadi, a town on the main island of Fiji. The sun is just rising as our cab drops us off at a hostel on the beach. After a couple hours of sleep, we go out to explore.
Breakfast is at the hostel restaurant overlooking the beach. It's a small beach with grey, grainy sand. Hmmm...not as we'd imagined a Fiji beach. But we're quickly consoled when we read our Lonely Planet. It says there are hundreds of beautiful beaches on the many islands and Nadi is used only as a base for the airport. Looks like we need to get outta Nadi.
We have no plans and don't know anything about Fiji, so we head into town to seek out some advice from the tour touts. The local transport resembles old school buses (just minus the glass in the windows) and its a breezy, pleasant, scenic ride into town.
There's not a lot to the town - one main street that holds a few shops, restaurants and internet cafes. There's an attractive little market selling knick-knacks and we are invited into one of the stalls to have our first taste of Kava.
This is a popular Fijian drink made of ground up roots and water. You make it up in a wooden bowl and drink it out of a coconut shell. As you'd expect, it looks like muddy water and tastes bitter. We go through the traditional welcoming ritual and find that our mouths have gone numb after just a couple of swigs. Apparently the Fijians drink this every night, sometimes for hours.
After that experience, we spend the afternoon speaking to tour touts and sort out what we're going to with our time here.
