Got picked up early in the morning by the 'Green Machine' as our guide Kam liked to call it!

First stop was to buy a sarong as we'll be visiting a few villages and you can't expose your knees or shoulders. The mere thought of having to cover up made you sweat as the heat was crazy! But we were dropped off in a town to buy sarongs and what an eye opener.....everyone here's so happy but compared to us they have so little. Makes you feel really materialistic. We managed to bargain down a shopkeeper to under half what he was asking for (that is the royal 'we' - I don't have the bartering gene from you dad!) so got a bargain sarong for around 2 pounds (and I think even then he thought he'd scammed us).

We then went to a local fruit market where we bought fresh fruit for virtually nothing at all but hands down the best pineapple I've ever had. There was also a fish market next door which we were warned against as the fish are only delivered once a week so can be up to 7 days old........in that heat!! You see Fijians walking home from market with a 2-3 foot long huge fish under their arms and just hope that that day was the delivery day - yuk!

Ooh you'll be pleased to hear I found a new bottle of gelspray! Yay - panic over and materialism proved!

We then stopped off at quote "one of the worlds top 10 beaches". Now - it was not a nice beach. We all sat there looking at each other wondering if it was a joke but the guide was serious! The water wasn't clear, there was rubbish on the beach and the surroundings were pretty dire too - wasn't the best start to what we all thought was going to be a beautiful country if this was one of the best bits!! While we were there everyone was getting to know eachother and I heard a couple say they were from Luton - I said I lived in Dunstable and they do too!! Catherine Drive!

We then all pitched in for a barbie and had a feast on the beach with some locals and headed off for our first village visit. We were taught how to tie our sarongs and all had to put on T-shirts to cover our shoulders for our tour. The village was quiet as all the men sleep during the day and there were only women out weaving mats and washing clothes and kids running up to us shouting 'Bula!' - fijian greeting used for everything - hello, goodbye, cheers, bless you etc etc (they even have a Bula dance which we'll get to later....)

We went into their meeting place and church and our guide taught us about village life and Kava. Now Kava is the Fijian traaditional drink made from the root of the plant dried into a powder. The chief then puts this into a silk cloth and dunks and squashes it in water until you have this muddy looking water which everyone then drinks from half of a coconut shell.....hmmmm! It tastes like mud, makes your throat numb like you've eaten a few too many throat lozengers and apparently if you have too much you can halloucinate.

Unfortunately there would be a few occassions on this trip where we would be included in the Kava ceremony, first one being tonight at our hotel stay (Mango Bay on the Coral Coast)......

We were all dreading it as as well as having to drink it you had to remember to say "Bula!" when it was handed to you and as soon as you were finished, say "Vinaka" (thank you) and clap 3 times. All of this while looking like you were enjoying it was pretty difficult! And yes it did taste like mud and make your throat numb.

Afterwards we all ate together at the hotel restaurant, went to the 'club' that they opened especially for us and finished the night off with songs round the bonfire on the beach, trying to remeber all the words to Lady in Red (reminded me of you Chelle!) Really nice evening.