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Bula,
And so we ventured onto Fiji. Just like all good 'Brits on Tour' we kept bringing the great weather with us! Completely overcast and grey - nice an s***e!
We spent the first 2 nights on the main island - not out of choice, was just easier! We were told the main island - Vitu Levi wasn't great. 'A bit like india' someone said. So thinking about great curries we wandered into town.
Rumours were true - it was like India. Those in Bradford may know what im talking about.
When 2 fijean guys started talking to us (we did stand out as tourist by miles) we thought the people must be pretty friendly. They even invited us into thier shop for a 'traditional fiji welcome'. Phil, in search to learn more culture was excited, while the girls were thinking these guys version of a traditional welcome was a good mugging - welcome to fji.
It got worse, we all sat down on a matt with the guys we met plus a few more (not including the 10 guys stood randomly around, looking ready to pin us down) started making a potion in a big bowl.
"Its cava, my friend, traditional drink of fiji' He handed us a newspaper clipping about Cava. Apparently the smart people at Aberdeen Uni had studied Cava and it helps stop cancer - good stuff then. The potion made, ceremony opened (few claps and some jibber-jabber in Fijean) and Phil was handed the first cupful. Down the hatch it went. A 'Bula' and a clap later (all tradition) it was Lau's turn. Clap clap, drink, Bula, Clap. It was kate's turn, being scared for her life as she thought it would be seconds untill phil and lau passed out from the posion, she asked for a little cupful. Then she made for the exit, just incase she needed to shout for help and run. But it turned out alright, it was an actual tradtion. But then we found out why the guys were being so friendly - money. They tried to get us to buy everything in thier shop, from massively overpriced bowls to anything they could find - 'gifts' they said. We left soon after with a little less money, few necklaces and just happy to be alive and still have our clothes on.
More about Cava - its made from a root of a cava plant, numbs your tongue after a bit, then makes you quite chilled out. So basically its like drinking weed. Maybe England shud have a traditional welcome.
Anywhoo, after a night on the mainland we hopped on a bus round to the south, then boarded a boat to a small island called Robinson Cursoe. Just as we landed our boat was attacked by canibals. They came racing to wards our boat, armed and tatooed up to the max. Lickily it was all for show.
This island was amazing. Great beaches, blue water and you could walk around the island in 20 mins. Dorms, rooms, bar resturant, reception and nightclub (no seriously - complete with sand dance floor) were all huts. The staff were all crazy too, which made the island amazing. There were so many activities going on but they were all done 'Fiji Time'. Best excuse for everything, so staff could take thier time. Dinner was at 5 - Fiji Time, volleyball at 2 - Fiji Time, checkout time 11 - fiji time and Happy Hour at the bar 5-6, NO Fiji Time.
Days were taken up by kayaking, sunbathing, lying in hammocks, eating, volleyball, making jewerllery out of coconuts - very hard work indeed. Happy hour was opened with a bonfire on the beach where the staff played guitar and sang. Then, most nights the staff would dress up and dance - a proper show. These guys were amazing, some great dance moves, then they would fling some knives about very fast, then to show off they would piss about with sticks of fire. And they were good, we saw nearly the same show 3 times and were never bored.
The best story so far are the events on one night, and of course alcofrol was involved. Everything was going well, few games, phil doing some of his good stuff on the dance floor, our vodka confiscated by security (even though we tried to convince them it wasnt vodka). Then, like every night the music stopped at 12 (fiji time) and people moved up the beach to the midnight bonfire. But we lost Kate. She had done snother disappearing trick. So we gathered together an Island Search Party. It was a very crap team - lead by Laura swaying like the sea, phil singing and dancing and a few others who thought we were all going skinny dipping. After about 30mins of searching we bumped into one of the islanders;
"you looking for a girl?"
"yes"
"Down the beach, on a hamock"
So, she had just wandered off down the beach to a seculeded part for a quite nap - good idea kate. We are gona put a bell on here next time. So we finally got back into our Robinson Crusoe style bunk beds.
Morning came and Phil awoke on the floor - not much strange about that. He picked himself up and got back into his bunk. Few hours later, Phil again awoke but this time with a creaming laura in his face.
"Oh my god, what have you done to your face?"
Phil had no idea what this crazy lady was on about, but was dragged to a mirror to see the damage. A worse than normal sight greeted him in the mirror - a big cut under his eye and grazes all over his left side.
"Ummm" thought Phil
"What the hell" thought laura
So Phil looked at the facts: - Woke up on floor, - face like a smacked arse, - not a happy girlfriend, - hungover. Searching his brain, bloody hard work, he , remembering a few things, put the peices together (a bit like the great Proirot) We think the following happened;
1) Phil tried to sleep in top bunk. 2)Fell asleep, 3)Fell out of bunk, 4)Smacked face on bed and floor, 5)Woke up on floor, quite comfortable.
And so Phil was very famous on the island, seriously everyone laughed as he walked by. He is definitely in the history book for the island.
Few days later we left the island, quite sad to be leaving and still all the staff were asking if Phil wanted a bottom bunk to sleep on!
On to the 2nd island. Beachcomber, or as we renamed it Beachfeeder. We all gained about 2 stone of pure fat on the island. The food was so good. Every meal time there was 2 15ft buffets full of good food. So being travellers we ate, only stopping to do the following;
- Mini Golf, it was such a cool resort it had its own 9-hole tricky mini golf course. - Snorkling, some very good fish. - Bannana boating, brilliant. - Sleeping, in our 120 bed dorm which was an experience. Luckily phil had a bottom bunk.
One crazy day, crazy kate wanted to swim across to another island - treasure island, about 2km away. So laura and kate donned thier snorkling masks and flipper and phil got in a comfortable kayak for the journey. Phil said it was for safety reasons and it was a stupid idea to want to swim - ever!! The girls just thought he was a big wet fish in a kayak. On the way back as Lau was nearing the beach, the waves washed out and for a few seconds she looked exactly like a beached whale, stranded on the rocks rolling around - sexy!! If only we had the camera ready.
Anyway, had a 9 hours wait at the airport then found out the plane was on Fiji Time so waited another hour. Damn you fiji time.
Onward and downwards to NZ. \
All our love and some hugs and maybe some kisses
Phil, Laura and Kate
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