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January 5th
We landed in Fiji just after 5 in the morning. The first thing I noticed was the tropical smell and extreme humidity. I had the need to sing a verse of 'I'm so worried about the baggage retrieval system they've got in Nadi' but we got our bags eventually. Eveyone wears flowery shirts and the mebn wear wrap around skirts! We walked to the bus stop opposite the airport to get the coach to the port. With lots of Fijians going past in buses with no windows it felt like we were in a Michael Palin travel documentary! We got checked in at the port and climbed aboard the Yasawa Flyer - a modern catamaran thing! We sat up on the sun deck for a bit and got all the cobwebs blown away! The boat was really rough - it turns out it always is! It's because of how fast it is going- it jumps up and down in the water. It took five hours on the boat to get to our destination. This was not good for the tummy, especially after a ten hour flight! The 'destination' involved having to climb off the boat in the middle of the sea onto a tiny put-put boat in the absolutely pouring rain. In this boat we sped round to the island we were staying on bouncing up and down in the water. This really is not good for a person with a fear of water! I was shaking all over!! The island itself was about as remote and basic as you could imagine! It was beautiful even though we were looking at it through sheet rain! We were straight away given lunch of spicy stuff and rice before being checked in. The 'resort' (a very loosely used term) is run by a family, of which you feel like a part while you are there. After lunch we were taken to our 'rooms' (again a loosely used term - there will be many of these). We were staying with two Swedish girls - Emma and Sanna - in the last 'bure' (traditional hut) seemingly on the end of the world! It consisted purely of a hut with beds in with mosquito nets. Basic would be a huge understatement. The bure was right up against the sea. The wave were crashing a metre from the wall my bed was against and the rain was pouring down. It was so different from what we had expected. We were very salty from the boat so we wanted to have a shower. We then discovered that the showers were FREEZING cold and in a shed. The doors of the showers didn't close so we had to go and get our swimming stuff and shower wearing that! The toilet doors were held closed by a tiny hook but they didn't close entirely!! When we got back to our room we were going to play snakes and ladders (it was still absolutely chucking down with rain) but we both accidently fell asleep. I went totally out of it and Fi had to wake me up for dinner. I even still had my hair wrapped in the towel from the shower! All the guests (about 15/20) eat dinner together round one or two big tables. It makes it easier to meet people. We had cream of corn soup and then some kind of spicy chicken thing and rice. After dinner we all had to stand up and introduce ourselves to everyone. We played a big game of cards with about 10 of us playing. We met some Aussie and English guys as well as talking to the girls we were sharing with and an Aussie couple. We had to get someone to walk us back to our bure to bed with a torch as it was too dark for us to find our way. We had to brush our teeth using mineral water out of our bottles as the tap water was not safe to drink. When we were getting into bed Fi had a huge cricket thing on her mosquito net. Aah! She was very brave and got it out the door! When we turned the lights off it was so INCREDIBLY dark!!! You couldn't see your hand in front of your face if you poked yourself in the eye! All four of us were really scared and talked for ages to keep each other calm. Everytime one of us heard something hit our bed nets we screamed and shone torches at the person who was scared. It was a very frightening night! I was wrapped up in the sleeping sheet Catherine & George encouraged me to get as we had no sheet! Thank you!
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