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I woke up at around 7am with a spring in my step excited by what lay ahead of me on the Feejee Experience after hearing such good things about it. After showering and packing my bags ready to check out I had some free breakfast which on this occasion was only toast and jam plus a cup of tea but it is what you need in the morning and it was free so I couldn't complain. Then at 8am on the dot, the blue Feejee Experience minibus pulled up outside Horizon to pick me up, the tour guide who later introduced himself to us as Jerry jumped out to pick me up while we waited for the minibus to turn around at the end of the road, on the Feejee Experience unlike the Kiwi version which it is based, we had a driver and a separate tour guide whereas on the Kiwi Experience you just get a driver guide who does both jobs. My driver on my first day was called William, and he had been working for the company since it had been set up many years ago. As soon as I saw Jerry the tour guide the first thing I thought was how much he looked like Robinho (the waste of money Brazilian Footballer for all those woman reading this) but I daren't say anything and waited to see if anyone else on the bus had similar thoughts, but no one said anything. As I boarded the bus I was in a right pickle trying to get all my belongings into the tight space on the bus as everyone else was already aboard and I had to chuck my backpack at the rear of the bus, after a little help from passengers already on the bus I managed to get all my gear on, and sat down next to a girl from England called Abbey! There was only one fella on the bus that wasn't from Britain, he was from Germany and his name was.....Toby, so there were two Toby's on the bus which is something of a rarity, a German Toby and an English Toby.
From our abode in the Nadi area we made our way to the Nadi markets, enroute Jerry aka 'Robinho' went through a few things with us about the Feejee Experience. Upon arrival in Nadi town where we walked through the markets, Jerry spoke to us about having a BBQ later on in the day, but for that to happen we would all have to chip in FJ$5 so that he could buy all the food for us. Which was not a bad deal at all considering the exchange rate was FJ$3 to £1. We were all more than happy to chip in whilst we disembarked the bus, from which we had half an hour to get anything we thought we would need over the coming days. We were told to get some bottles of water as the tap water at two of the three overnight resorts that we stayed at wasn't drinkable, so that was high on the to buy agenda, I got six bottles. Prior to that we all had to buy a sarong if we didn't already have one with us which unsurprisingly I didn't so we called in at the first shop that we saw selling sarongs not that the owner would have let us down the street if we hadn't gone in there, he was telling us that he would give us discount because we were on the Feejee Experience and told us that the prices listed were for locals but we got the price heavily reduced which didn't make sense considering many of the locals were incredibly poor, anyway we were sold a sarong for FJ$10, a third of the asking price and on we went, we called in at a few of the other shops as some people in the group had various things they wanted to buy. Every shop that we passed along the street we were harassed by the owners to go in to their shop and buy something as it was obvious we were all locals as we stuck out like a saw thumb walking down the street being the only white people in town. They didn't harass us in a bad way though as they were all so polite and friendly and all shouted out 'BULA' as they do, and when we said we weren't going in their shop they did leave us alone. We meandered along past the many stalls selling fruit and vegetables, as well as items of clothing, before waiting outside the supermarket for Jerry and William to finish shopping for food for the BBQ.
A short while later we all bombarded the bus with our newly purchased goods, there were about 14 people on the bus in total, only four of which were boys. Then we made our way from the tourist hub that is Nadi town and towards Natadola Beach, it was about an hour's drive and Jerry was chatting away to us for most of that telling us some information on the history of the country as well as their traditions and culture. He was also informing us about the places that we passed and the land that we were passing through. He was quite funny and a typical Fijian bloke, he joked that we were going to get a lot of free massages whilst on the bus as the majority of the roads in Fiji are very poor and bumpy meaning the journeys were anything but smooth as we bobbed up and down in the minibus as we drove along. The majority of the views out of the window during the course of the journey were overlooking many sugar cane fields as this is the main source of income for many Fijian families, the local fruits and crops that they grow are also the basis of their family meals and provides the cornerstone of their diet. We passed a few villages each containing just a few shanty looking houses, but the occupants would still wave at the bus as we went past or jump up and down or do something out of the ordinary as the locals weren't used to seeing that many tourists on the mainland as the Feejee Experience is the only tour operator taking tourists around so it is rare for locals to experience westerners like us so it is always something that makes their day when we drive past as we are different. We had been travelling along the main road which was Queens Road up until this point but in order to make it to Natadola beach we had to deviate from the main road and travel along a gravel road which passed yet more villages and sugar cane fields and got even more bumpy and narrow as it was a road even less frequently driven on, as we made our way to the beautiful white sandy beach.
We arrived at the beach at about 9.30am, and it was dead there was not another soul in sight, except from the two local Fijians riding horses who were at the opposite end of the beach when we arrived yet within minutes of our arrival managed to end up next to us trying to sell us horse rides along the beach.....nobody took up their offer, although I did feel sorry for them as that was obviously their main form of income judging by the filthy rags that they were wearing, and the fact that the saddle was just a blanket and ropes were used for rings. The horses also looked run down and worn out which is not a surprise considering the blistering heat. We had parked up on a small patch of grass about 20 metres from the beach, where William and Jerry got cracking with the food for the BBQ, while the rest of us waited on the beach, although early in the morning the sun was still scorching hot, which gave us all an excuse to laze around trying to catch the rays and get a tan especially as most of us had just come from cooler climates so we were all looking to remove our reflective glow from our bodies. Natadola beach is an exposed beach and reef break that has reasonably consistent surf, but there were no surfing dudes amongst us, so we just chilled laying on the sand, before occasionally diving in the crystal clear pacific ocean, which was a little chillier than I had anticipated but after being in a few minutes I quickly adapted. The sea was clear sand for the first 5 metres than there was just this huge bed of seaweed that stretched along the coastline that was about 3 metres in width, so it meant if we wanted to get into deeper water we had to navigate this nasty seaweed which felt so gooey and disgusting on my legs as we passed through, before realising that I had to go back through the seaweed if I wanted to get back to the beach. After drying off in the sun laying on my very patriotic England towel on the beach it was already time for lunch even though it was only about 11.30am.
So we left our positions on the beach and made our way back towards where the minibus was parked where Jerry and William had laid out a huge picnic rug was us all to clamber onto. The plates were in the middle of the rug, so after letting the ladies collect their grub first, it was then the turn of the gents. We all formed an orderly queue to collect our sausages, pumpkin, potatoes, chicken, salad and bread, before tucking in to what was quite a scrummy feast, following this watermelon and pineapple pieces were then passed around which also went down a treat. After lunch we were then given a further opportunity to sit and relax on the beach while William and Jerry cleared all the bits and bobs away which gave us a chance for our food to go down. Then at about 12.30pm, we were called back to board the minibus, our backpacks had been removed from the backseats of the minibus and placed in a separate container which was attached to the back of the minibus, this created a bit more room on the bus which was good, although there was one new addition, named Ashley who had just arrived from Robinson Crusoe Island.
Moving on from Natadola Beach, we cruised to a coastal village called Malomalo. This was where our sarongs that we had brought earlier on the day came in handy as to respect their culture we had to wear our sulu (sarong) around Malomalo village. Jerry took us on a tour of the village which lasted about 45 minutes, he was able to show us the village chief's bure, and explain that the bure was made in the traditional Fijian manner using only traditional methods and local materials and sits on a foundation of coral much higher than the rest of the surrounding village. To date that structure had survived about seven cyclones and not a single nail had been used in its construction. Jerry then described to us the reasons for the village layout before we were taken around the village church which was a fair size and was where the locals all congregated for Sunday service, as the locals don't do a thing on Sundays; it is just purely a day of rest. At the centre of the alter high on the wall was a tooth of a shark which was a gift to the village and so is displayed in the church. Leaving the church, we went on a tour around the rest of the village and managed to gain a few additions to the group size in the form of little Fijian kids who decided to tag along and pose for various photos that we all wanted to take along the way, we also strolled past various critters that our part of a Fijians everyday life such as pigs, dogs, cats and roosters. The elder generations that lived in the village unsurprisingly did not follow us round the village as they were obviously used to us taking a tour and they just got on with their everyday chores and carried on with some building work which the majority of the men from the village were taking part in, there were still ever so friendly so saying Bula and waving to us as we went past, the next building on interest on our tour, was a building that was paid for by the past groups of the Feejee Experience, after every tour they have a donations box and everything they get is put towards the next village project. The final stop on the tour was in a bure that is used by the village to hold Kava ceremonies, in here Jerry explained to us about the history of Kava and how the ceremony works before we left the building to collect our flip flops which we weren't allowed to wear in there, get a group photo and board the minibus once more.
From Malomalo village we joined the main road once again as we made the short trip to Sigatoka sand dunes, situated directly west of the mouth of the Sigatoka River, the second largest river in Fiji. The 650 hectares of dunes have formed through erosion over the coastal land over millennia. The Sigatoka Sand Dunes are the location of one of Fiji's earliest recorded prehistoric sites. So the group all grabbed a body board out of the back of the bus and clambered up to the top of the dune which was a bit of a mission to say the least, when we reached the top we were all exhausted by the steep incline we had just climbed. Then without any instructions on where and how to navigate the dune, the German Toby (Tobias) in the group decided to go for it and sand board down the dune which resulted in him getting covered in sand head to foot, even in his ears, eyes, hair and everywhere else, as he fell off of his board and ended up in the surrounding plant life instead of keeping on the sand dune track.
After seeing not how to sand board, Jerry was going to show us exactly how to do it with a live demonstration on his body board when the wind blew his board all the way down the dune to the bottom so he had to go down and fetch it and had the mission back up the slopes again. But before he went descended the dune without his board he explained to the rest of us at the top of the slope who had managed to cling onto our boards the best technique for sand boarding which was, to grip the front of the boards, locking in our elbows and keeping our upper body flat on the board, with our legs up off of the sand....if we wanted to peg it down the slope but if we wanted to take it easy then to firmly keep our toes on the sand to act like a break. So on my first attempt I kept my toes shoved deep in the ground so that I didn't go flying but this only resulted in me going pathetically slow down the slope so on the following three attempts I gradually lifted my toes further and further out of the sand until on my last attempt when I actually managed to zoom down the slope.
After bundles of fun and laughter at the sand dunes, we made a short stop in the bust town of Sigatoka where we brought some nibbles from the local supermarket which was incredibly cheap, and made me realise that Fiji was definitely the cheapest country I had been to so far. From Sigatoka it was only an hour's drive before we reached Mango Bay Resort which was our first overnight stop. The Feejee Experience can be completed in 4 days but because I had 2 weeks in Fiji I had a lot more time to complete the hop on hop off bus journey in so I hopped off at every overnight destination for a few extra nights, although most people did only stay the minimal one night in each overnight stop, Ashley, Carly (two girls I had met on the Feejee Experience) and I stayed for four nights at Mango Bay. It was absolutely chucking it down as we got out bags our of the back of the bus and took them to check in, which took so long as we had to wait around for everyone in the group to finish checking in before they took us to our twenty bed dorm room as a group, the dorm room was reserved for Feejee Experience, so although the biggest dorm I had been in since my travelling commenced it didn't seem anything out of the ordinary and it was actually a really nice dorm, it was a decent size and had mosquito nets that draped down over the bed which also gave us an added bit of privacy. Plus I had managed to get a bed right in the corner of the room at the opposite end of the room to the door and had no one on the bunk above me plus had the plug sockets right next to my bed which when your travelling is such a luxury.
It was about 5.30pm by the time we had arrived at the hostel and we were informed that there was a Kava Ceremony going on in the activity area at 6pm, but after experiencing Kava the night before in Nadi, I was in no rush to get to the ceremony this time around so I gave it a miss, and got showered instead, although the majority of the others on the bus decided to go and try Kava as they had never experienced the vile stuff before. The showers were the only downfall of the resort and a resort it was with a plush restaurant, swimming pool, activities zone and a beach side location. It really was a family resort with dorms chucked on the side just to make a bit more money. There were expensive bures which are like beachside huts along the beach where the rich paying guests were permitted to stay. The reason the showers were so poor was due to the fact that they were freezing cold.....and that was only when water decided to come out of the shower head as it would on the main just trickle out especially when all the showers were in use, when there was only one shower in use, I was sometimes lucky enough to get a bit of pressure behind the water and sometimes it was even hot. They were so grubby and looked as though they hadn't been cleaned.....ever! But they did the job and made me feel refreshed after such a long day resulting in all of us smelling to high heaven, even if we still had sand left on us after the shower.
There was a table reserved for the Feejee Experience at 7pm so we all met in there for dinner, and got to experience the high quality food of their restaurant for the first time. After browsing the incredible menu for a lengthy amount of time I opted for the very Fijian meal of.....bangers and mash! But it was scrumptious and only a couple of quid so was a steal plus the beers were only a little over a quid out of happy hour and around 85p during happy hour, so although only saving approximately 30p during happy hour it always felt like so much so we would pile the beers in before happy hour was up at 7.30pm to last us much of the night. Once we had all finished eating and the waiters had come round and removed our plates we cracked on with the quiz which was the entertainment for the night. I must say that it did feel so good not to have to cook and wash up after myself, as well as being a relief not to have to eat pasta and sauce which I had previously lived off in New Zealand.
The quiz that night was just on general knowledge, there were about 6 teams that had entered and after 20 questions, our Feejee Experience team named 'Mothersucker' which is the Fijian term for Sir or Madame, was named the winner with a total of 18 correct answers, although it did help having Jerry on our team for some of the harder Fijian questions such as the legal drinking age in the country which we surprisingly found out was 21, not that the bar seemed to care. Our prize was a huge jug full of this pink looking cocktail, I didn't have a clue what it was, all I know is it was bloody strong and we even gave a glass to a girl on an opposing team whose birthday it was as we had some of the cocktail left over, we had sung the girl happy birthday earlier on in the night. After drinking all our cocktails we all decided that it was time for bed, so we all tried to find our way back to the dorm in the pitch black and tried not to step on the abundant toads on the way back which were everywhere I looked and stepped.
The next day the people that were leaving on the Feejee Experience were all up early for the 8.30am departure. But I decided to get up at 7 that morning as well because Man City were playing Spurs and the resort had cable TV so was showing it. Free breakfast was also served from 7-9.30am so I sat there and helped myself to the free food which was either cereal or toast with a cup of tea, coffee or juice. At first there was no signal and it looked as though my efforts of getting up early were going to be in vain but the staff managed to get the signal back and we had only missed about 10 minutes of the game which was a relief especially to the three crazy Spurs supporters who were sitting there with me who all had their shirts on and were really anxious about the outcome of the game, so were all really nervous which only worsened when it looked as though we weren't going to get to watch the game. Once the TV decided to work they were cheering every shot on goal and grimacing every time Man City made an attack, it was quite funny to watch, but the bedlam that broke out when Spurs scored was phenomenal, yet still wasn't a patch on the chaotic celebrations at full time when fourth place was guaranteed for them, they were shouting and hollering like there was no tomorrow and even filming the scenes and asking each other for their thoughts on video.
I decided to go back to bed after the football but said my goodbyes to the people that were leaving on the bus that day beforehand. Ashley and Carly planned to go to Suva the capital on a tour with a bloke from the resort but I decided against it as we were going to be passing through Fiji's capital later on in the trip. They set off at around 11am to begin their days tour, and it was shortly after that I woke up from my little mid morning nap and went and sat by the pool, the weather hadn't looked great and almost as soon as I had gone and sat down on a sun bed and made myself comfortable it started to rain which resulted in a flurry of people heading inside to get away from the wet stuff. There was little else to do when the weather was so poor so I got my netbook out and cracked on with some blog writing before the weather cleared up by late afternoon, allowing me to sit out on a sun bed again although there were no rays to catch as conditions were very overcast, I sat there chilling listening to my iPod snacking on some biscuits as they were the cheapest snack that the resort sold before I got showered and ready for dinner that night.
Ashley and Carly were sitting at the table with a few other friends that we had made as I entered the restaurant, so I sat with them and ordered my food, chicken schnitzel and chips, as the others had already ordered. The food unsurprisingly was very good. We also got speaking to two other lads Will and Rob who were travelling together. There was not too much in the way of entertainment that night, except for the traditional singing of some local Fijians in the restaurant. So after a game of Killer Pool and a quick game of table tennis with the lads we had just met we decided to play some drinking games until we were like the last people left in the bar, and then when they announced the call for last orders we decided to call it night.
The next morning the weather was thankfully a lot better, the sun was shining and although there were a few clouds in the sky, it was scorching hot and was by far the best weather that I had experienced in Fiji so far. It made the day so much more fun when the sun was out compared to the dullness of the previous day in the rain, as we could splash around in the pool and cool off when we were hot, it also meant that we got a decent tan sitting out in full view of the sun all day. We all sat together in our big group of newly found friends on the sun beds around the pool and relaxed for the whole day not doing a lot at all. The late afternoon entertainment was a game of beach volleyball which was a lot of fun especially as the Fijian activities staff had the funniest laugh ever and took the match so seriously wanting to win every point, and trying their upmost to put off the opposing team by shouting out random stuff like 'mongoose' just as they were about to have their shot. Following the beach volleyball we had a game of touch rugby which got very complex as we had to agree on rules with a load of Australians that we were playing with and they wanted to play the Australian rugby league way so it was very different to any touch rugby I had ever played before, and again the Fijians were desperate to win this game, following this we all sprinted back to jump into the pool as we were all hot and sweaty from our physical exertions that afternoon, we sat around the pool chatting to this big headed Australian guy before the light evaded us as night set in, so we all went to get showered before me met up again for dinner at 7pm. That night I tucked into a big slab of lasagne and salad, not prizes for guessing it was lovely, before we had a very laid back evening and watched date night on a pirate copy as it was only just out in the cinema at the time, after being given a selection of top quality movies to choose from, the girls decided they wanted to watch date night which was incredibly cheesy. But it was still enjoyable and gave us something to do as we sipped on our Fiji Gold or Fiji Bitter which are the two most popular local brands of beer in Fiji. I also decided to buy an ice chocolate drink which was so good, it was basically like chocolate milkshake in a glass and was so easy to drink.....not that the beers weren't :P We were all shattered from doing nothing in the day, lol, so called it a night after the movie.
The next day was our final day at Mango Bay Resort, and thankfully it was another day of sunshine in the morning and early afternoon which allowed us to catch a few more rays, before the heavens opened late afternoon for a few scattered showers. In the morning I decided to make the most of the free snorkelling equipment available for hire and went into the Pacific ocean with Will, Rob and the Aussie we had met the previous night in search on good looking fish :P The first thing we thought we had come across was a huge snake that they were all chucking huge rocks at to see if it was alive or not as it wasn't moving much, before we later discovered that it was a sea cucumber. I really enjoyed my snorkel and saw some really cool fish despite having a few problems with my mask, I lost the others who had steamed way ahead of me but was in the sea for a good hour although it went really quickly. I went in the pool was a quick paddle to get the salt water off of me after giving back my snorkelling equipment before I dried off in the final rays of light in the day, before we all went and sat inside for lunch as the first of many showers that afternoon settled in. We decided to play a few competitive games of table tennis while it continued to rain as that was one of the few things that could be played indoors. It did clear up real late in the day meaning we managed to squeeze in a game of beach volleyball which again was made very competitive due to the Fijians nature, before we had a kick about with football as nightfall set in. So we went back to our dorm room to be greeted by the new Feejee Experience arrivals who we were to be getting on the bus with in the morning, all of whom appeared to be pretty sound, before I got showered and went down to have dinner with the guys I had met for one last time as Mango Bay. The Feejee Experience crew sat on their own table so I sat with Ashley and Carly on a table with the guys we had met during our time as Mango Bay as the Feejee Experience table was full. I had a tuna steak for my last meal at the resort, before we played some killer pool and had a table tennis competition later that night, for which Ashley was my partner and we made it to the semi finals, just missing our narrowly on a place in the final. I then mingled with the group that had just arrived on the Feejee Experience and got to know the people that I would be travelling with in the morning before they all went to bed quite early after a busy day of travelling, so I went to watch the bonfire on the beach with Ashley, Carly and the rest of the gang before I also decided to call it a night as we had an early start and a busy day ahead of us.
Love Toby xxx
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