Fiji - Heaven on Earth

When I left Christchurch, the weather was terrible.

It was 13 degrees outside, clouds from one end of the sky to the other, and showers of pouring rain all the time. I boarded the flight with my jeans, and a rain coat over my fleece (over my tee shirt), and after 4 hours of an incredibly easy flight (thanks to the new Air New Zealand Flight Entertainment system), I landed in Fiji.


Bula!


The first step out of the plane was like a heat wave slapping you in the face.

It was as hot as Tel Aviv in mid july, 30 degrees drops of sweat and 150% humidity dripping down my shirt.

I landed at the main island, called Viti Levu, in a city called Nadi. The original name of Fiji was Viti, but when captain cook asked a local what the name of the place was, he mistakenly heard “Fiji”, and thus the name of the islands changed on account of a hearing impediment.



The main word dominating the conversation is Bula, which means: “hello” in Fijian, but I was about to discover they make an overly exaggerated use of the word, as every conversation begins and ends with “Bula”, I was sleeping at “Bula Resort”, drinking “Bula Cola” and eating “Bula Pizza” at “Bula Beach”… I wouldn’t mind all of that, if I hadn’t had a “Bad Bula Chicken” that made me take a “Bula Shit”…


At first sight, the place looked a lot like Brazil (and maybe a little like cuba too), bad transportation, tropical vegetation, and heaps of friendly people (tion).

I went to a tourist agency, to buy my “Bula pass” (I swear that’s the name…), which basically allows you to “Island hop” between all resort as many times as you like, in a period of 7 days.



That night I stayed at a nice resort called “Travellers Beach Resort” on the main island, as the pass started two days later. The main island is notoriously known for having bad beaches and resorts, but this one was a nice surprise, as the food was good, the “Bula Boys” band was playing live music, and on the beach I saw some kids playing rugby, which allowed me to use my big camera, after a long time.

The next day I went to a beach called Natadola, which is supposed to ne the nicest beach on the main island. I went to the main bus station in Nadi, to catch the bus there. I bought a ticket, and when I got on the bus, I had 50 pairs of eyes looking at me. Every single person on the bus was staring at me like I am the elephant man.

Once again, for the fourth time in my trip, I felt like Forest Gump. I took a seat next to Jenny, and after 40 minutes, I was at the beach.

The beach was nice, although not what it was built up to be, and after a few hours of sizzling myself in the sun, I took the “Bula Express” back to Nadi.


The next day I boarded the ferry on my way to paradise.


Island hopping


The first Island I went to is called Mana. It is located in an island group called “The Mamanucas”, an hour’s boat ride of the main island. The weather was beyond perfect – clear blue sky, and even from afar, you could see the beautiful azul waters surrounding the island. The resort was a minute walk from the jetty, and after checking in the dorms, I went out to the beach, to burn myself some more.



I met a great guy called Keith from Ireland, and a few other people there, and we all perched on the beach for a couple of hours, until dinner was served.

On the islands, there are no stores or shops to buy food, so when you book your accommodation you also pay for all 3 meals, which is very convenient for a cooking skill deprived bum like yours truly.


The next day I boarded the ferry again, and disembarked at a small resort called “Beachcomber Island”. This island is famous as the party island of Fiji, where 120 kids, ages range from 18 to 18.5, drunk dancing the nights away. The island one of the smallest islands in Fiji, and is only 30 meter radius (!).

Obviously, there is only one resort on the island, which is notoriously known for its huge 100 beds dorm, in the same confined space. The dorm itself is built like a maze of bunk beds, and after 5 minutes of making my way through the crowd, I found my bed at the centre of the SHABLUL.

I have never seen so many people on such a small space, and an overwhelming feeling of solitude came over me, making me realize that the sense of loneliness is not related to the amount of people around you, but to the amount of strangers around you.



I met some nice people outside the dorm, and we sat and watched together the Manchester United game against Porto, 2nd leg champions league quarterfinals. After a few drinks and a nice chat, tired of posing I retired to my mouse maze bed.


The next day I went on the ferry going to another group of islands, called “The Yasawas”, north of “The Mamanucas”. I disembarked at a resort called “Waylailai”.The resort was beautiful – tanned bodies swinging motionless on hammocks, and the beach was shiny white sand and green and blue waters.

Most people travelling in New Zealand were on their own, so it was very easy to meet people and form groups, even if for a day or two.
In Fiji, most people come within a group of friends, and so they are less open to new people from outside, to enter their group.I felt that for the first time in Waylailai, as I could really find more that a shallow “Where are you from” conversations with several people, going back to their friends after two minutes talk.
I didn't meet any nice people on that resort, but I did get a chance on walking the beach with my camera, snapping away at some locals working in the ocean.












I decided to leave the next day to another resort called “Kovaru”. This was a different story altogether.
I met a group of people, most travelling along, and we had instant chemistry. We went to play beach volley ball, perch on the beach and dive in the resort’s pool.
I met a very cute French girl named Celine, and that evening we all dressed up and after dinner made our own little party.




After the Fijian D.J tried all of his up-to-date songs (mainly from the 80’s), he asked us if anyone of us wants to connect his mp3 player to the main sound system.
I felt it was a perfect opportunity to prove Rotem wrong, and try our Party’s music from 3 years ago. For all of you who don’t know the story, this is an eternal argument between Rotem and me about the quality of the music in our summer parties.He, as the maker of the soundtrack argues it’s good, whereas I claim it is shit.

I started off with “Pre”, just to get things started, and after 30 minutes gone to “Mid”, and finished off with a nice descent of “Post”.
To my amazement and displeasure, people were dancing.
I’ll let the video speak for itself.



After eating my hat, I took a swing at Salsa (notice the play on words…) with Celine, who is a Salsa dancer, which was a lot of fun and embarrassment.

The next day most of the people left, so I stayed alone again, but was invited to play volleyball with the locals, who heard of my amazing ability (to miss).
All the locals there play volleyball at quite high level, and after 4 month of no sport, I finally had a small break from doing nothing with my body.
The game was great, and because matters of humility restrict me from saying who won, I’ll just say the other team lost. Check out my moves on http://www.bench.co.fj/ (or http://www.caduraf.co.fj/, for statistics).

The next day I was sad to leave the resort, as I had such a great time there, but I wanted to see more of the islands. The nice thing about leaving is that all the staff gather at the beach, as you embark the taxi boat (taking you to the ferry), and they sing and dance their goodbye song, and your taxi boat leaves the beach.All other tourists gather as well, and the whole thing gives a warm feeling of belonging.





I went to the north most island in the Group, to a resort called “Osman’s Bay”.
It’s amazing to see that although you picture all islands to be quite the same, every single resort is different from the last one I’ve been.

This one was the prettiest, by far. The long stretch of the beach was amazing golden sands, the turquoise clear water allowing you to see beautiful corals as far as 20 meter from the beach, and the resort itself had only 15 people in it, everyone looking for his own private secluded piece of land, away from everybody else.
I came here to relax.




The staff was the most courteous people I’ve met in Fiji, and I had the most loose and mellow days I’ve had, in a long time.
That evening, i saw the most beautiful sunset I've seen in my life. it started with drops of yellow milk dripping on the horizon, and then, like a bucket of golden honey spilled on the clouds, the sky filled with all possible shades of yellow, orange, red and purple.

No photoshop here.







The same night I met a 55 years old guy from Canada, who has been travelling all his life. He had stories from every place on earth, and it was very interesting to hear him speak.
After a couple of hours of chatting with the guy, HE made the mistake of bringing up the subject of religion. I was satisfied to discover he was a tight (ass) catholic, and like a hungry spider, I started spinning my arguments like a web around my pray.
He was a very hard conversation partner (or was it me?), because reason was unfamiliar turf for the guy, and after 30 minutes of wearing him out, he retired to his quarters.

For the past years I tried not to start this type of conversations with people, so I forgot how much I enjoy wearing people out.Needless to say, the guy avoided eye contact with me for the next 2 days.

The next day I decided to go snorkelling. I met a nice Swiss girl and a couple (American and his wife from New Zealand), so we all went together.

The amazing thing about this resort is the best snorkelling site, is just of the shore of the resort, and you don’t have to go anywhere.I brought my own snorkelling gear which I bought in NZ and a disposable camera (which sucks!), and we went into the warm marquee water. The dive was awesome!
We saw many schools of fish of all colours, and beautiful corals and sea weeds. We were out there for about 2 hours, and in the end we came back to shore, tired but satisfied.

The next day was my final day in the islands, so I decided to cut the distance short to the main island, and go to the smallest island in Fiji – South Sea Island.
The island only has one building on it, and a 7 meters by 2 meters pool. You could walk around the island in 2 minutes. Nevertheless, they have electricity, and cell phone reception.
We were a group of 9 tourists on the island (2 among them, the first and last Israelis I’ve met in Fiji), and a staff of 4.

After dinner, one of the staff gathered us asked who wants to take part of a crab race. He brought a bucket full of little crabs with shells, each had a number written on it, and we could choose a crab.
I wanted to take number 8, but he reminded me of myself in KATSAL, as he was small, weak with good dribbling skills, so I decided to take Shaq instead - number 17.





For the race, the guy drew 2 circles on the floor, a small circle inside a large one.
The crabs start in the inner circle, and the first one to cross the large circle – wins.
The race consisted of 3 rounds; when in round 1 - best 5 qualify, in round 2 – best 3 qualify, and then in round 3 – the fastest one to cross the large circle entitles it’s “owner” one of three prizes: A free dive, a bottle of red or white wine, or 5 cold Fiji Bitter beers.

My little maggot was 3rd on the first round, but qualified easily to the finals coming 1st on the second round.
I’ll let you see the final round for yourselves – my little racer being the one going up the frame.


I Won!

I asked for a free scuba dive, but unfortunately it was after my boat was due to leave for the main island, so I had to trade it with a cheap, bad red wine. But still, I won.
After the race, we sat together that night, drinking and playing cards until we were too drunk to remember what we wanted to forget.

The next morning I took the ferry back to the main island, and went to the airport to change my flights a bit, because I decided to cut my trip short, and return on may 20th.
Because of that, I also decided to skip the Cook Islands, and go straight to Australia, and travel for a month in the east coast, before I come back home.

Fun @ the airport

I took the 15:00 flight from Fiji to Auckland, and arrived there at 18:30.
My connection flight was due the next morning at 6:00, so I decided to stay and sleep at the airport terminal, as I am wanted in NZ for overstaying my visa for 3 days – so I decided not to try my luck, and remain in the airport.
After 2 hours of looking in every possible duty free shop, watching 2 movies on my little Archos – I was bored out of my ass.
It was 23:00, and the terminal was completely empty.
I decided to goof around a bit, and much to my surprise, when I was walking on the duty free hall, a familiar sound came into my ears:


Apparently, Ynam is big in Auckland international Airport.

Reluctantly, I laid on a narrow bench for 2 more hours before I went to sleep, and after 2 hours I had to wake up for my flight.
I landed in Cairns, OZ, two days ago, at the northern part of the east coast. I am planning on renting a car here, and start making my way down the east coast all the way to Sydney.






Have fun, and keep cool.

Sivan.