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Fiji was amazing - true paradise, and I was so lucky because although I went at the tail end of the rainy season we had fantastic weather. Sometimes we had a short heavy shower at about 4-5pm, and we had maybe 3 all wet days in 2 1/2 weeks which was pretty good!
I stayed at a resort called Aquarius on my first night - that was in Nadi
on the main Island. It was pretty nice for under a tenner for the night and included a hot
breakfast the next day which was pretty impressive. I spent the evening hanging out by
the pool with people I'd met off the same
flight.
At 9am the following morning I got picked up by the Octopus Resort bus for a lift to
the marina where their boat was moored. I'd originally just booked the five nights at Octopus (on Andy and Rosie - Matt's Brother & sister in law's recommendation) but it was so gorgeous and the people so amazing that I ended up staying there for 15 nights!! The resort is based on Waya Island which lies off of the West Coast of Lautoka on the mainland. It was really green and tropical with lots of palm trees and big pink and orange flowers. There were Frangipan bushes by the pool and all the staff had flowers tucked behing their ears! As we got of the small boat some of the staff were standing on the beach singing to to us and playing guitars and yukalele's! What a welcome!
I was paying $F87 for a nights accommodation and three meals which is just under twenty seven pounds. For my first week I was really lucky to be put into a four bed Buree (The little thatched wooden huts) as the main dorm was full. Each bed had a mosquito net that hung above it and in the evenings the housekeeping ladies would come and let them down whilst we were at dinner! I got flowers on my pillows and everything! The resort had a great pool which went down to 2.8m which was pretty good for diving and bombing into it when the heat got too much!
The food was amazing - for an inclusive menu I couldn't had asked for more - breakfast
was buffet style, lunch was anything you fancied off a big menu and in the evenings we
got two courses served to us at the table! The dining hall looked out over the verandah and the beach and had a sandy floor and big candle-lamp lit tables scattered around that sat between 6 & 8. I met two lovely girls from Oxford and Brighton on my second day and we soon picked up a few more singltons and couples so our table was always full! IN the second week my friend from IBM days, Chris Pursey, showed up which was such a shock! But he and his girlfriend Michelle stayed for a whole week like the girls did so I had planty of people around which was excellent!
I went over to the local village a few times, It was called Nalauwaki and most of the staff
came from there. We went for the church service on the first Sunday which was an eye-opener! Whilst it was all in Fijian it seemed to be very 'fire and brimstone' with lots of pointing and shouting!! the choir was amazing and the children were very cute. Afterwards we took their photos and they took great delight in seeing their faces on the screens - laughing and asking for more to be taken! We also went to the craft market there and I bought quite a few things (might have to send some of them back to you Em for you to look after!)
On my first evening I attended a wecoming ceremony where I tasted my first Kava (THe Fijian national drink) its a kind of peppery root vegetable that is ground down into a fine powder and then mixed with water in a big ceremonial wooden bowl. Its supposed to have hallucinogenic qualities when drunk in large amounts although we didnt go to those extremes! It makes your lips tingle and mouth feel numb (a bit like those numbing throat sweets!) but the main thing is that it tastes exactly like muddy water!! But its fun to join in with their culture and seeings as the ceremony went on every night for new arrivals anyone was welcome at any time! The men who did the ceremony
were known as the 'band boys' because they did a lot of singing a playing during the ceremony and throughout dinner which was great. I wish I'd bought a CD of the music because it was so chilled out and they had amazing voices!
Some evenings we sat and chatted after dinner, or played Pictionary or Trivial Pursuits and sometimes there was something organised for us. On Tuesday evenings we had international crab racing - My crab clarence won 3rd place both weeks for me so I won a $10 bar tab each time!! We were given torches and had to go looking for hermit crabs on the beach which was an experience!! We also had a quiz night the second wednesday and my team won and were awarded a prize of a champagne picnic lunch the next day on a deserted beach - how cool!!! Twice a week was movie night by the pool - we lay out on all the sun beds and the boys put a big screen up - amazing liying under the stars and watching the latest hollywood blockbusters! And we got free popcorn too!! SAturday night was party night and the first weekend Jemma and KIm and Joey and Will and I won lots offree alcohol! Joey and I got a bottle between us for the balloon game so that was my one drunken night on the island where we went to bed at 3am! Thats about as raucous as it got though Im afraid!!
All in all I had the best time ever! The staff were fantastic and all knew our names really quickly, Ross and Polly were running the place and originally came from SCotland so things were never hard to explain or get sorted which was an added bonus! I spent a lot of the day times hanging out on the beach and in the hammocks with my book - I read 7 in a fortnight! Lewis and LIzzie who I met in the second week are going to be in Las Vegas on April 10th and invited me to join them so I've just booked flights and a wkd hotel called Circus Circus on the strip! Its costing about 35 pounds a night and is so plush! It has a live circus performing all through the day and its all themed!! Cant wait!! Im definately going to go back to Fiji - I'll be looking for volunteers to come experience it with me next year!!
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