Bula! (Welcome, Hello!)

Hope all is well with everyone!

Fiji is in a word... "Paradise" and is so chilled out. Fijans are so lovely and friendly and work on "Fiji Time" so if they say 6pm they mean whenever they feel like it hehe.

Day 1 - just chilled out and planned what we were going to do. We sunbathed by the pool as the sea is really grim and beach not nice, all black. But we bumped into a 'Fiji Dellboy' who offered us a somewhat shifty deal on one of the other islands. He said he would give us a special rate which we weren't so sure about, typical cynical brits! Later booked it anyway, take a chance we a re in fiji baby!

Day 2 - got up to meet dellboy as he was taking us to buy water from town as no shops where we are going. He told us not to tell the others on our boat (phew there are others) how much we paid as he gave us a 'special deal' hmmm. Either ripping us off, them off or all of us! As it turns out none of us were ripped off, all paid around the same and boy o boy (the yanks love our english accent and words hehehe) was it worth it! Weirdly one of the lads on our boat is best friends with KEVIN DILLON! WEIRD! He is a lad off my course! Very small world! The boat trip over was so beautiful (fiji is made up of around 300 islands so everywhere you look there are gorgeous sandy beached islands, some tiny and untouched, others with bigger communities.

Arrived at Mana Island.... BEAUTIFUL! The locals sang us a song and welcomed us with open arms was great. Our accomodation however was rather a shock... old room with a double mattress amussingly balanced on a single bed, a shared shower with a hole in the floor and a pipe with cold water, 2 old toilets and (mum don't read this bit) no soap for the sink!!! EEKK!!!! But.... the people were amazing, we made laods of cool friends, food was lovely and the whole thing was so worth it.Electricity was only available from 5pm to 5am so we were really roughing it and living like the locals... such an experience. Plus they only serve fiji beer at the bar which I have surprisingly grown rather fond of.

We chilled out and then took a walk up a hill/mountain to see the beautiful view of the whole island. Then after dinner played some HILARIOUS games (which will now be played at every party we have!) Oh and the generators topped working whilst we were showering before dinner.... when the lights finally came on matt looked like DRAG QUEEN! He had used some of my soap(which I didn't use) and it was a purple glittery soap from lush... so he was covered in it all over! Everyone found it v.funny hehehehe... still no days later mwah hahaha.

Day 3 - I woke at 6.45am and went outside on the beach... I was the only one up and it was so beautiful! I was later greeted by an old fiji boy who came and sat by me for a while for a chat... amazing people. After breakfast matt and i decided to hike around the island... not sure how far exactly but they said should take us around 2 and a half hours. So we set off... BLOODY'ELL was it hard work!!! Sweltering heat, no shade, climbing over rocks and runble in parts, but wow it was amazing! It felt like we were in LOST hehe. It took us 2 hours 20 mins... and we practically collapsed with exhaustion when we got back!

REst of the day chilled, made coconut jewellery and had fresh coconut milk:) Tell Grandad Roy that no monkeys were needed one of the locals climbed a treee for me!!! Later more fiji beer, locals put on a dance show and fire/knife juggling. Bed.

Day 4 - Greeted new people with a welcome ceremony where we all had 'CAVA' (A Fijan herb based alcohol- totally legal don't worry!) It is basically a load of root herbs matured and added to water in a big wooden bowl and mixed up. It looks like muddy water eeek! They pass it round on coconut cups and you clap once and shout 'Bula' and drink it! It makes your tongue and mouth numbish and is you drink enough is like being stoned (apparently) we only had one cup! Isn't the nicest taste!

After lunch a few of us visitied the local school which was really bizarre as the village is quite uncivilised; they live in tin huts etc but the school had three classrooms with a computer, and normal 'school' things. Only 300 people live on the island. Stayed up drinking until late...