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Going Tribal
"Bula" to you from Fiji. Actually Bula is the hello greeting of Fiji. The Fiji Airways flight from LAX to Nadi, Fiji was on time and smooth as can be. I always seem to do well on these international flights -- why can't domestic flights at home be on time like this ? I sat crammed in my economy seat next to an 84 year old Indian man from Fiji. Nice man, but I couldn't understand a thing he said, except for the big laugh at the end of each phrase -- at which point I laughed along with him with the forced courtesy laugh. And when I tried to strike a different subject conversation, he reciprocated with the same look of confusion in return. Between the 3 Jack Daniels I had pre-flight, the exhaustion of the week, and the 1.5 Ambien pills, I seemed to get somewhere around 5-6 hours of sleep despite the not so comfortable arrangements and nowhere to put my legs & knees. Not bad, and I felt pretty good after the 10.5 hour flight (which was smooth as silk).
Had a 7 hour layover in Nadi, Fiji, so I went out and got a brief 5 hour sampling of Fiji. My driver, Ashok Kumar, also turns out to be Indian, born and raised in Fiji -- apparently 40% of Fijians are of Indian descent. Nice guy for sure and we got to know each other during our 5 hours together. First stop was the "First Landing restaurant and hotel" for a nice breakfast. It is the site of the first landing of natives to this island, way back when. Then, over to the Mud Bath to get some color and fit in a little better. After washing off the mud, and relaxing in the hot springs, and it was time for a Fijian massage, which put me right into the numbness zone. When I wasn't sleeping or snoring, I was drooling. Good thing her feet weren't right under me face, as that might have been embarassing. Apparently still a little short on sleep but now I'm caught up. She really enjoyed slathering my body in the coconut oil, and I feltlike a piece of white meat on the frying pan right before the stovetop.
And the last stop for this Fijian layover jaunt was the Garden of the Sleeping Giant Orchid garden. I made an abbreviated stop there, saw what I needed, drink my glass of tropical juice, and said my "Bula's". And back to the airport with Ashok we go, and get ready for my Fiji Airways flight to Honiara, Solomon Islands !! Thanks to my Citi Prestige & Chase Sapphire Reserve cards, I got access to lounges at LAX and Fiji, always a nice place to relaxand have some free food and liquor. And fortunately the Fiji airport lounge has a shower -- so, as the lounge reception girl acknowledged the scent, I can wash off that nicely smelling coconut oil !
Just arrived in Honiara, Solomon Islands. No problems, other than the hotel's airport pickup neglecting to get me. I shared a taxi cab with a backpacking couple from Poland (POLSKA !!), and had a nice conversation with them, sharing each of our international travel experiences. King Solomon Hotel isn't the nicest of accommodations for room amenities, but apparently it's one of the better ones for Honiara. Fine by me. Very interesting cable car instead of an elevator.
Friendly people everywhere thus far. Threw my bags down in the room and headed for the bar (cuz that's what I do). So, as I'm sitting there talking to the bartender, and this horse walks in, at which point the bartender asks why the long face (sorry, couldn't resist the horse in the bar joke). Another staff member named Niuma walks up and said what sounded like "Neil Diamond" (and immediately karaoke thoughts start instinctively brewing), but that's not what she said. I clarified with her, and Niuma said "something stinks badly in here" (I swear it sounded like Neil Diamond when she said it, but nevermind). So I admitted, well, it's possible it's me -- after all I've been traveling for 24 hours. No, she said it's probably a dead rat in the room. Oh, that's good, we laughed and I felt better . . . .
Not sure when I'll get this onto the blog site, as the hotel's internet connection is still not working. And I can't send a text using the local cell signal. ** Hotel still can't get it to work. Took a stroll down the way and paid another hotel to let me use their wifi, so here we go. **
I met Ann during happy hour, an Australian who just returned from Uepi. So she shared lots about her diving experiences in Uepi, and what I have to look forward to a great deal. Lots of shared stories back and forth, and diving advice on various scenarios, and then transitioned into some brick oven pizza (yep, went all the way to Solomon Islands to eat pizza). The conversation continued about family and kids, and evolved into views on economic policy, education and politics, as everyone around the world has their eye on what's going to happen with Trump vs Clinton. Gave her my two cents on all this, which was enlightening to her as she hadn't heard the USA's view down under. It seems that people from other countries really believe Obama's been a great president ! Ughhh Well, that's okay, that's what makes the world go round. Ann & I covered the wide range of subjects pretty well and she's anxious to hear via email how it goes in Goroka, as she hopes to see this festival one day.
Moving on, I headed for the Cowboy Grill, which wasn't overly exciting at first -- Tuesday night, it's definitely not going down like the weekend. But it happens that an 8 man live band was performing -- and quite good ! And next thing you know, it happens that I end up on stage singing an Eric Clapton song with the band. I don't know how these things keep transpiring this way . . . so, even better than my karaoke adventures, singing on stage with live bands is always awesome !
Now it's about 10:30 PM, and I'm not supposed to be roaming at night in these parts. I leave there and walk just down the road, and make it into Barak, The Sportsman Bar. It's all guys here, just a local bar with darts and a pool table, and I'm the only foreigner (and the only one in the room without red teeth from the betel nut). And a minute later, beer in hand, and I'm invited by Gravis to join the darts tournament. About 16 players, and I hop in to join the fun. He shares his darts with me, and we are cracking each other up -- seeming like others were intrigued at why we were getting along as if we're old friends. Ended up playing 3 mini-tournaments, with small entry fees, and the prize of 2 kilos of frozen chicken wings. Not sure what I would've done if I won, but that wasn't the point. They get into it pretty good, going after the prized chicken.
But this is just a small tournament -- a bigger one was 4 days ago, where the 1st prize was a live pig. My skills were lacking and no frozen chicken wings and no live pig for me. Bar shuts down at midnight, and Gravis offers a ride back since King Solomon Hotel is on the way. Again, not part of the advice or plan for social activities in Honiara at this hour. Of course, on the way back he has to make a quick stop on the side of the road to buy a spliff at a shady looking stall with no lights and 2 sets of eyeballs looking out, and the reminders of what NOT to do here are starting to chime in. I definitely won't be doing this in Port Moresby, after hearing even more warnings about those parts -- including Ann's acquaintance who was robbed twice on his trip in Papua New Guinea-- once by gunpoint and once by machete -- at least he got some diversity with his robberies.Made it through my first day in Solomon Islands, and can't believe it's only been one day. Parted ways with Gravis, and finally made it to an actual bed after 48 hours.
The adventure's just begun. I slept 4.5 hours in my King Solomon Hotel bed, and woke up feeling perfectly fine -- so hey, let's roll with it. Going to see the local market in Honiara today, and then my 3:30 PM flight to the small island of Seghe (and boat ride to Uepi). Uepi and diving, here I come.
Had a 7 hour layover in Nadi, Fiji, so I went out and got a brief 5 hour sampling of Fiji. My driver, Ashok Kumar, also turns out to be Indian, born and raised in Fiji -- apparently 40% of Fijians are of Indian descent. Nice guy for sure and we got to know each other during our 5 hours together. First stop was the "First Landing restaurant and hotel" for a nice breakfast. It is the site of the first landing of natives to this island, way back when. Then, over to the Mud Bath to get some color and fit in a little better. After washing off the mud, and relaxing in the hot springs, and it was time for a Fijian massage, which put me right into the numbness zone. When I wasn't sleeping or snoring, I was drooling. Good thing her feet weren't right under me face, as that might have been embarassing. Apparently still a little short on sleep but now I'm caught up. She really enjoyed slathering my body in the coconut oil, and I feltlike a piece of white meat on the frying pan right before the stovetop.
And the last stop for this Fijian layover jaunt was the Garden of the Sleeping Giant Orchid garden. I made an abbreviated stop there, saw what I needed, drink my glass of tropical juice, and said my "Bula's". And back to the airport with Ashok we go, and get ready for my Fiji Airways flight to Honiara, Solomon Islands !! Thanks to my Citi Prestige & Chase Sapphire Reserve cards, I got access to lounges at LAX and Fiji, always a nice place to relaxand have some free food and liquor. And fortunately the Fiji airport lounge has a shower -- so, as the lounge reception girl acknowledged the scent, I can wash off that nicely smelling coconut oil !
Just arrived in Honiara, Solomon Islands. No problems, other than the hotel's airport pickup neglecting to get me. I shared a taxi cab with a backpacking couple from Poland (POLSKA !!), and had a nice conversation with them, sharing each of our international travel experiences. King Solomon Hotel isn't the nicest of accommodations for room amenities, but apparently it's one of the better ones for Honiara. Fine by me. Very interesting cable car instead of an elevator.
Friendly people everywhere thus far. Threw my bags down in the room and headed for the bar (cuz that's what I do). So, as I'm sitting there talking to the bartender, and this horse walks in, at which point the bartender asks why the long face (sorry, couldn't resist the horse in the bar joke). Another staff member named Niuma walks up and said what sounded like "Neil Diamond" (and immediately karaoke thoughts start instinctively brewing), but that's not what she said. I clarified with her, and Niuma said "something stinks badly in here" (I swear it sounded like Neil Diamond when she said it, but nevermind). So I admitted, well, it's possible it's me -- after all I've been traveling for 24 hours. No, she said it's probably a dead rat in the room. Oh, that's good, we laughed and I felt better . . . .
Not sure when I'll get this onto the blog site, as the hotel's internet connection is still not working. And I can't send a text using the local cell signal. ** Hotel still can't get it to work. Took a stroll down the way and paid another hotel to let me use their wifi, so here we go. **
I met Ann during happy hour, an Australian who just returned from Uepi. So she shared lots about her diving experiences in Uepi, and what I have to look forward to a great deal. Lots of shared stories back and forth, and diving advice on various scenarios, and then transitioned into some brick oven pizza (yep, went all the way to Solomon Islands to eat pizza). The conversation continued about family and kids, and evolved into views on economic policy, education and politics, as everyone around the world has their eye on what's going to happen with Trump vs Clinton. Gave her my two cents on all this, which was enlightening to her as she hadn't heard the USA's view down under. It seems that people from other countries really believe Obama's been a great president ! Ughhh Well, that's okay, that's what makes the world go round. Ann & I covered the wide range of subjects pretty well and she's anxious to hear via email how it goes in Goroka, as she hopes to see this festival one day.
Moving on, I headed for the Cowboy Grill, which wasn't overly exciting at first -- Tuesday night, it's definitely not going down like the weekend. But it happens that an 8 man live band was performing -- and quite good ! And next thing you know, it happens that I end up on stage singing an Eric Clapton song with the band. I don't know how these things keep transpiring this way . . . so, even better than my karaoke adventures, singing on stage with live bands is always awesome !
Now it's about 10:30 PM, and I'm not supposed to be roaming at night in these parts. I leave there and walk just down the road, and make it into Barak, The Sportsman Bar. It's all guys here, just a local bar with darts and a pool table, and I'm the only foreigner (and the only one in the room without red teeth from the betel nut). And a minute later, beer in hand, and I'm invited by Gravis to join the darts tournament. About 16 players, and I hop in to join the fun. He shares his darts with me, and we are cracking each other up -- seeming like others were intrigued at why we were getting along as if we're old friends. Ended up playing 3 mini-tournaments, with small entry fees, and the prize of 2 kilos of frozen chicken wings. Not sure what I would've done if I won, but that wasn't the point. They get into it pretty good, going after the prized chicken.
But this is just a small tournament -- a bigger one was 4 days ago, where the 1st prize was a live pig. My skills were lacking and no frozen chicken wings and no live pig for me. Bar shuts down at midnight, and Gravis offers a ride back since King Solomon Hotel is on the way. Again, not part of the advice or plan for social activities in Honiara at this hour. Of course, on the way back he has to make a quick stop on the side of the road to buy a spliff at a shady looking stall with no lights and 2 sets of eyeballs looking out, and the reminders of what NOT to do here are starting to chime in. I definitely won't be doing this in Port Moresby, after hearing even more warnings about those parts -- including Ann's acquaintance who was robbed twice on his trip in Papua New Guinea-- once by gunpoint and once by machete -- at least he got some diversity with his robberies.Made it through my first day in Solomon Islands, and can't believe it's only been one day. Parted ways with Gravis, and finally made it to an actual bed after 48 hours.
The adventure's just begun. I slept 4.5 hours in my King Solomon Hotel bed, and woke up feeling perfectly fine -- so hey, let's roll with it. Going to see the local market in Honiara today, and then my 3:30 PM flight to the small island of Seghe (and boat ride to Uepi). Uepi and diving, here I come.
- comments
rosannah201 Very funny stories and only a couple days into your 24 day adventure. I'm not surprised though. Glad you're having s good time! Stay safe, xoxo!
Andrew & Sarah Hi Robert, Really great reading about your latest adventures. What a coincidence! Andrew and I are just in the planning stages of a big dive trip to .... The Solomon Islands and then onto PNG!! Great minds and all that. Cant wait to here about your adventures. Although it looks as if its got off to a great start already. We are looking at a live a board in The Solomon's and Tufi and Walindi and another live a board in PNG In March of next year. In the meantime safe and fun travelling. xxx
Kevin & Marisa Your stories are very funny and entertaining! We are glad you are having a great time! Just be safe!
THE FAVORITE CHILD POLSKA!!!!