Bula ... meaning hello. Upon my arrival into the Nadi airport, it was quite late. There are no flight curfews in Fiji ... planes (飛機 fei1 ji1) come and go all hours of the night.
The thought of having one month to do absolutely nothing was an amazing feeling. I suppose I felt this way upon my arrival in Malaysia ... but I quickly realized that Fiji exists on a time of it's own ... Fijian time ... there really isn't anything to do there ... one may have to go to see exactly what I mean, but let me tell you ... it didn't take me long to adapt.
Prior to Fiji, I had spent 10 weeks travelling up the east coast of Australia ... starting from The Gold Coast and ending in Port Douglas ... I did one month of fruit picking here and there on the way up ... it was to cover the costs for diving in the Great Barrier Reef.
Fiji was a nice escape from the tough travels I seemed to be having throughout Australia. As it was quite expensive to island hop, I didn't get to see as much of Fiji as I would've liked. I did manage to make it all the way around the main island, Viti Levu, which would take about 7 hours if you were to do it in one shot ... My travels started in Lautoka, then New Town Beach, Nadi, Suva, Korovou, Riki Riki, Nananu-I-Ra, which is another island, then back to Lautoka to grab my luggage from a storage locker.
A memorable thing from the trips around ... just when one was thinking about being in the middle of nowhere ... no villages ... big, lush greenery ... small two lane highway ... what should appear? ... a man ... dawdling on the side of the highway wearing shorts and holding a machete ... no shoes, no shirt ... just shorts and a machete ... now, if this were to happen anywhere else in the world, I would think the cops would be notified and an institution might come into play ... but this seemed to be a fairly common sight throughout Fji.
One of my favorite places was Levuka, a bigger island off the mainland, near Suva. The bus ride up was crammed, three people to every two-person seat ... boxes, full of supplies being taken back to the villages, covered the aisles ... there were no glass windows, only tarps that could be rolled down if a storm was to roll through ... happy Fijian music blasted (and I do mean blasted) from the front of the bus as people fanned their faces to keep the flies and heat away for the long journey.
We arrived on Levuka at sunset and I was blown away by my surroundings. Fiji is the most beautiful country I've been to thus far. The colours it can create is unbelievable. I would awake every morning at 5 am so I could enjoy those pink, serene beaches. There always seemed to be a few dogs willing to tag along for the dawdle.
From Levuka, I was able to catch a small boat to Caqala (pronounced than-ga-lie) island ... this is the island I seemed to get stuck on. I went there for what I thought would be two days and ended up staying almost two weeks. There was one other foreigner on the island ... an older lady who taught in Australia. Other than the two of us ... there was the family that ran that place which consisted of about 18 people ... 5 of those being adults, 4 of them being young adults and the rest being young children. It cost $40 Fijian a night to get a very basic man made bure (hut) on the water and included three square meals a day, plus tea time in the afternoons. During the day there was a beach that surrounded the island which you could walk around in about 30 minutes, Fijian time ... regular time, perhaps ... 10 – 15 minutes? At night you were only able to walk within the island as the tide came up quite high.
Three meals were served per day and you were called to dinner with this shell type horn. The meals were very basic, and not varied, but I noticed there wasn't much food offered in most places around Fiji. The tiny shops in the streets would never sell much more than taro, carrots, green beans, cucumbers, pineapples and bananas. The main staple in Fiji seemed to be fish, as it could be caught daily. The food was simply delicious. I mean, how could one possibly get enough of freshly cut pineapple?
My bure had no windows, a door that kinda closed ... if I wanted to get changed I had to move a chair over to hold the door shut. There was a small single mat on a man made wooden frame. There were toilets, but they weren't able to flush ... big barrels of water which contained a smaller floating bucket sat outside these man made outhouses ... one has to pour water in until the water flushes ... the shower area consisted of thin sheet metal ... 4 sheets of it placed together to make a box with no roof. You could, thankfully, latch the door with a small rope. It wasn't too private, but the island was pretty lonely. The shower, of course, had no running water. Water sat in a huge barrel within the 4 metal walls ... with a big red bucket that one receives upon arrival, you are able to pour the water over yourself. It took me about 4 days of being on the island (and probably 4 days of not taking a shower) before the other foreigner told me the ticket over dinner one night.
As it was the rainy season, a storm rolled through early evening every night. It never really lasted long ... anyways ... the ticket ... taking a shower during the storm ... one, it's quite dark so you feel alright stripping down to nothing ... two, it's absolutely pouring rain so there is no way you aren't getting soaked ... three, the shower was placed under a coconut tree ... the tree contained no coconuts, but apparently the natural oils from the leaves run down on your skin leaving it feeling soo soft ... what an amazing thing it was ... truly awesome!
Snorkelling around the island was unlike anything I could have hoped for. I would go in three times a day to follow fish around, check out what was up under the sea. I ran into, I'm pretty sure, the same barracuda on two different days ... his eyes said he was very interested in eating me. I also ran into a small reef shark ... while diving in Thailand we ran into 7 reef sharks ... though, it's amazing how much more protected I felt with all my scuba gear ... with nothing but some fins, a swimsuit, goggles and a snorkel, the shark was very intimidating. I was lucky enough to stumble upon a lion fish ... my best find yet. I must have watched him for a half hour ... what an amazing creature.
I spent my birthday and Christmas on this island. On Christmas day, we were taken across to a bigger island to go to a Fijian church service. I couldn't understand anything, of course, but the singing was beautiful. The church was simple, no seats ... you were to sit cross legged on the floor. It was hot and all of the locals brought with them a fan or some other device as there were a ton of flies within the walls of the church. After church we had a Kava session.
Kava is a ceremonial and social custom in Fiji. It's common in Fijian villages and it is quite normal to see groups of men gathered around the tanoa as a half coconut shell is passed around. A tanoa is a large wooden bowl in which the Kava is prepared. Kava is made from the root of a pepper tree. The root is pounded with a pestle and mortar ... I assume ... until it becomes a fine powder. The ceremony is performed in the presence of a guest ... the guest is, traditionally, seated cross legged in front of the tanoa. The master of ceremonies, acting on behalf of the guest, directs the chairperson to add water to the powdered root. When he is satisfied that the mixture is right he then calls upon his chairperson ... the one who hands off the drinks after the master serves them ... this chairperson takes a cloth and with his bare hands mixes the cloth in the water as if he's cleaning it ... soaking it and ringing it out, soaking it and ringing it out, repeat, repeat, repeat ... one hopes the chairperson has washed their hands before the ceremony ... this continues until the master says it's time to drink. The master presents the guest with the first bowl. When the bowl has been drained ... in one drink ... no sipping allowed ... there is a cry of 'maca' (pronounced maatha) meaning "it is drained" accompanied by two firm claps. The master is next to drink followed by guests in order of rank. It's quite an interesting thing to do, it seems that they take Kava drinking very seriously. Kava itself looks and tastes like dirty water and it mostly left me feeling tired.
After Kava ... it was time to head back to the island. A big Christmas dinner was going to be prepared. As I had been playing volleyball with the kids on the island just before dinner everyday, they invited me to help with the preparations. Their traditional style of cooking is known as a lovo ... basically they stack rocks in rows above some flames and heat them like a grill, then they place fish, chicken, taro and other food on the rocks .... banana leaves are placed over the food, and dirt is piled onto the leaves. The whole thing is left to simmer underground for several hours. Just before dinner ... the men will go with their garden shovels to dig out the evening’s feast ... yummy!
I think I will end my story here as I could go on and on about the many great happenings. Thoughts of Fiji will always bring a big smile to this face of mine.
It's hard to believe Christmas has come and gone again ... as 2006 comes in, I find myself hoping for an even better year than the last. The holiday season was fantastic ... having Mom and Bill in town really made it feel like Christmas. Santa arrived with many presents for all ... and I guess I was an extra good little girl this year as Santa delivered a very special gift ... a two week trip to Cambodia!! (Actually, I am currently waiting to renew my ARC, so if all goes well then Cambodia, here I come ... if not, I will have to head to HK to get a new visa for Taiwan ... fingers crossed!)
