Fiji (Summer 2005)

Hi. With only 2 weeks in paradise, it's hard to come back to reality so soon. I guess let me daydream a bit and I'll explain a little of what I saw. The trip there wasn't so fun (who knew Fiji was so far away?) 'cause it meant a 7 hour bus ride to the airport, 2 hours to Korea, 4 hours in the airport, and finally 9 hours to Fiji. Unfortunately the airport there is nowhere I wanted to be so I immediately hopped on another bus for a 4 hour bus ride to the capital Suva. Whew! The capital Suva was much smaller than I expected. It was very easy to walk around and I ended up first going to the movies (Fantasic Four) which was treat for me since there's no movie theatre in my city. Then I met some others in my dorm and went out for a drink and bite to eat at the local market… a nice mix of vegies, pork chop, cassava, egg, sausage and chili sauce thrown in a takeaway bag. An English couple (Craig and Hannah) I met that night were headed for the same place as me so we decided to travel together. Actually, this was an ongoing event and we ended up traveling together for the rest of my trip which worked out great.

After my first day in Fiji I learned one very important thing...Fijians are about the nicest people on the planet. Even in the capital you'd walk down the street and everyone had a smile on their face and greeted you with a friendly "Bula (hello)". There were times out on the street where people would just say Bula and offer a handshake. My immediate thought is that I'm going to be dragged into some shop to buy a Fijian war club or something equally useful but really it was just a friendly hello.

From Suva I took a long bus and ferry ride to the island of Ovalau. The old capital Levuka is there and it didn't look like much had changed in the last 100 years. The main street looks like something out of the Wild West. One memorable thing was getting off the bus and hearing a pig squealing. Didn't think much of it at the time but as we were stepping over bags to get our backpacks you could see one big potato sack with a snout sticking out of it. Poor pig had just endured the whole journey as a piece of luggage. In silent protest I tried to avoid pork for the next few days but then again at least I knew it would be fresh. I stayed in Levuka about 4 days and just took my time exploring. Checked out the local Catholic church (the child's choir was nice) and then went for a walk down the road parallel to the ocean. As we were standing there a truck drove by with people pointing out to the sea. At first we couldn't see anything but then there was this massive whale tail rising out and hitting the water. Craig, Hannah and I checked into a different hotel and since the dorms were being renovated they stuck us in our own private house for the same price. That was nice and it took about 30 seconds to get to the beach. We also ended up cooking our own meals since we had a kitchen to use. Every night everyone gathered in the restaurant/bar to drink kava which is this ground up root mixed with water. It looks and tastes like dirty water and (if you drink enough of it) makes your tongue numb. It just didn't feel like a night in Fiji without kava. In Levuka I also joined a trek into the islands center to visit an old village. Our guide was a great storyteller and told us all about the history and then led us on a hike, stopping every minute or so to point out all kinds of food and medicine (did you know the bark of the noni tree can cure breast cancer? Well, neither did I!?).

Next we took a wavy boat ride to this little island called Caqalai. This was my favorite place in Fiji. The island takes only 15 minutes to walk around and there's one hotel run by the Methodist church. Basically you pay one price and all meals are provided (they were announced by someone blowing a huge shell horn). All together there were about 30 people on the whole island (guests plus staff) so it really felt like your own little paradise. Not a lot to do but it's exactly what I wanted. There was a great beach and the entire island was surrounded by a coral reef so I went snorkeling twice a day everyday (saw a lionfish). There was also this little island nearby called Snake Island that you could walk to at low tide. It got its name for the sea snakes that live on the island. These snakes are black and white striped and one of the most poisonous on earth. Fortunately they're not aggressive at all and you could even see them in the water while you were snorkeling around. At sunset it was great just sitting on the beach and watching the giant fruit bats flying overhead. At night, there's usually some sort of event (dance contest, crazy hat competition, etc) followed by the locals singing and playing guitars around the kava bowl. A few nights we had a bonfire on the beach or just looked up to see the amazing night sky. I also did a scuba dive here which was good since it's been 3 years since the last one. We didn't see a lot but did dive along this huge coral wall which was nice. The best part was that the instructor was really easy going so let us go down to 28 meters (I'm officially only supposed to go down 18) which was cool.

One last thing we did was join the locals on another island for Sunday church service (aren’t you proud of me Mom:). Actually, we all got shuttled to this little village for service and lunch. The service was interesting (in Fijian) and then we all lined up afterwards and the whole village came to shake all our hands. While we waited for lunch we were allowed to walk around and explore and the kids were so friendly and excited to have their pictures taken. What was even better is that we could show them the photos on our digital cameras which was so fun for them. Lunch was a collection of all kinds of traditional food (fish, fruit, veggies, roots, lots of coconut milk) which was delicious. Finally, we walked through another village and had a lot of fun walking with the kids through the jungle, taking photos, and racing on the beach. Well, if I was smart I would have stayed on Caqalai for the entire trip but I figured I should see another island so left after the fifth day.

The next stop was the island of Nananu-I-Ra. It was a dramatic change. This place was obviously geared towards to the party tourist and the afternoons and evenings were nonstop, pounding dance music. I could understand if people were actually dancing or into that, but everyone seemed to be in relax mode. Luckily you could escape by taking a hike up over the hills to the other side of the island where there was a nice beach and good snorkeling. I stayed here a few days and went for one more scuba dive which was great. We went out to the open ocean where these pinnacles stuck up from the bottom and you could dive down and around them. There were even a few tunnels going through them which was really cool to dive through. Again, didn't see anything too amazing except for the massive amounts of colorful coral which was everywhere. On the last day I went kayaking around the back of the island to a secluded beach and did some last minute snorkeling before heading back.

My final destination was the city of Lautoka which is near the airport. I really liked the main street which was lined which huge palm trees and right next to that a small railroad. This area is a huge producer of sugarcane so during that season all of it is brought in down the mainstreet on these little trains. Another unique thing about the city was the Indian population here. Fiji is really about half native Fijian, half Indian (who were brought in 100 years ago as workers). In most places you could see this mix but in Lautoka it was predominantly Indian. Indian restaurants, shops, Bollywood films, etc. At times it really did feel like I was back in India. Did a little shopping here and made it to one more movie (Wedding Crashers) which was funny. The next day was a long reverse process of my journey here and it was good to be back in home in Japan. I remember before I went thinking "is 2 weeks going to be too much time in Fiji?". Well, it definitely wasn't enough. I only saw the smallest part of Fiji and there a lot more places to explore. Hannah and Craig are still there traveling around so I'm sure I'll hear all about the places I missed. For some reason I doubt it will compare to Caqalai though.