bula land

Sept 8th 2008
Left Ottawa at 4pm towards Detroit city.
7:30pm flight from Detroit to L.A. landed in L.A at 11:30
10 hour flight from L.A to Nadi (pronounced Nandi), Fiji, which was uneventful and we managed to get some sleep.

Sept 10th 2008
We landed in Fiji at 5am local time so about 3pm our time. But since we managed to sleep a bit on the plane we were somewhat ready to have a full day of fun, minus the fact that our luggage had not arrived from L.A. We had sort of expected this to happen to had bathing suits and a minimal amount of clothes with us. We put the stuff that we did not need in a locker at the airport. taxi picked us and another couple (Kayla and Andre from the U.S) from the airport to bring us to our couch surfers house. They live in a small village called Viceicei about 20 minutes north of the airport on the way to Lautoka. It was the first landing point in Fiji. We were greeted by a happy Finau who gave us shell necklaces, and her husbund Api who was still half asleep and drowsy because of the Kava he had drank the night before. We were Apis couch surfers but it was to early of a morning for him
Fi pulled out some brochures to show us what we can do and where we should go and this is when we realised she was part of a travel agency and we thought this might make our stay unpleasant but after trying to sell us something and realising we already had a lot planned the trip went smoothly.
We took a small walk around the Viceicei and then headed down to Nandi to do some errands with the German girls as well as Fi. Bus fares were so cheap here and depend on the distance you are traveling. A bus ride from Viceicei to the airport was 1F$ and from Viceicei to downtown Nandi 1.50F$ which was quite a long distance.
After hanging out with Api and Fi for a bit we took a bus ride to Lautoka, the second largest town in Fiji. We waited for the bus for about 40 minutes but that was fine. We sat by the road and many of the children and people of the small town came to chat with us. Everyone here says Bula to each other and everyone, which means Hello!
Here we walked around the food market, the streets, to the water front, by a few schools and once we were too tired we took the bus back to Viceicei in time to go to work with Api. We met up with another Canadian Erika staying at Fi’s.
Api plays the drums in a band at a 5 star resort (Sonaisali) from 7 to 12 at night. It was an about 2 hour journey to get to the resort through downtown Nandi and on the way we got to see the colourful temple. Once there we had to take a boat to the resort situation on an Island. The resort was gorgeous. We sat by the pool, enjoyed some beers, listened to the band and headed back to Viceicei by taxi around 9 to get some much needed sleep. Before sleeping we enjoyed a lovely chicken meal make by Fi.

Sept 11th 2008
We decided it would be worth while to take a trip to the islands because apparently that’s what Fiji is all about. We booked a boat cruise to South Sea Island via Fi. At first we were going to go to the island and then head straight to Sigatoka but Fi convinced us to stay another night, that we could go to Sigatoka on Friday.
Apparently this Island I owned by the Viceicei village and the dancers performing a Meke were from Viceicei.We took a 30 minute boat ride out to the island which took about 10 minutes, not even to walk around but it was gorgeous. We first did a submarine tour of the corals and the fish. I had never seen such colourful fish before and I even managed to spot a large turtle. We then did some snorkelling on our own just off the beach which was also amazing. We then enjoyed a lunch of many bbq meats as well as a salad bar, and while eating the villagers performed dances and chants. There was also a nice salt water pool in the middle of the island, hammocks and Kayaks which we took out and paddled around the island. Another excursion included in this trip was a boat ride a bit off the island to see some corals and other fish. Just off the beach I managed to spot a small shark around 2 feet long… apparently they aren’t dangerous and he did not come after us. I then played some volleyball with some of the staff, which was painful because the beach is somewhat covered in coral pieces. Ouch. After a long day in the sun we headed back to Nandi airport to see if our stuff had arrived. It had, so we quickly showered at the airport stored our big suitcases headed back downtown and found a place to eat where I had the best butter chicken of my life.. It was sweet and included cilantro mmmmmmmmmmmm!!! The waitress here was very friendly chatting with us throughout our meal. She informed us the last bus left NadI at 8... Oh no… she hooked us up with a taxi which was nice cuz I think anyone else would of ripped us off.
We returned around 9:30 maybe and Fi was all worried and apparently Api had phoned from work to see if we were back. Fi had also phoned the island seeing if we were still there. We didn’t know they were expecting us back right after, but it was nice to know they were checking up on us. She also had expected us to be eating but we did not want to eat all her food and wanted to try some of the restaurants.

Friday sept 12th
We decided to head this morning on an adventure to Sigatoka. First Api played some of the movie called Boot camp for us because it is filmed in the sand dunes we wanted to go see. We luckily caught an express bus from NadI to Suva stopping in Sigatoka, the catch here was it was busy because it was a Friday so we had to sit on the motor beside the bus driver.. Which wasn’t to bad although it was quite hot. This was about an hour journey and cost us 5F$ woo. Once in Sigatoka we walked around the markets, the town, we headed down towards the river where I managed to somehow cit the side of my foot with the lid of a Tuna can :S. I was wearing shoes but it managed to slice the back of my heel, which did not hurt but it gushed massive amounts of blood and was thin but deep. We cleaned the cut with what we had but I could no longer walk on my heel. We put on our runners and determined we took a 10 minute bus to the the Dunes.The bus let us off on a road near the dunes and we had an adventure trying to find them. This park was the first national park in Fiji. It was gorgeous, we walked over the dunes and down to the ocean where the waves were massive.
After the walk we were stuck because we did not know where to catch the bus back to NadI and did not want to pay for a bus to Sigatoka and go from there. We started walking away from the dunes and Sigatoka to try and find a bus stop or at least try to wave down a bus. We did not succeed, the one bus we saw for the first 30 minutes did not stop. After walking about 4km and I don’t know how much time we found a bus stop and a few minutes later a bus showed up to bring back to NadI YAY!! All this not so good on the foot.
We found a cheap Chinese resto in NadI and then headed back to Viceicei. Once home there was no one there but luckily a neighbour showed us in where we waited around with Bill one of the children, for Fi and Api (it was his day off). Api helped take care of me and cleaned up my wound with some hot water and then we passed out on the ground watching tv from the long day. This was after trying a “brother of the banana”, Api called it. It was much bigger and sour… so delicious.
That night we had planned to stay at a hostel in Sigatoka, but again Fi convinved to come back and stay with her J .

Saturday Sept 13th.
Today we headed to Natadola beach. About 30 minutes from downtown NadI. We had to find a cab from the main road to the beach, this trip cost 3$… and taxi wanted 10$ to the beach so we started walking again (which would have been bad in the end because it was quite far from the road). A man came by with a pickup truck and benches in the back and we offered him 8$ to take us. Great Success, he offered to pick us up also because apparently taxis and such don’t just stay there. Anyway, the beach was lovely, we stayed for around 2 hours laying on the sand and swimming. I though the salt water would kill my foot.. But I was fine and hopefuly it cleaned it. The waves were sooooo big, I don’t think I’ve ever swam in such big waves, scary at times. We headed back to the main road and took a bus.. Which was not an express and took us through all the small villages, which was nice but took 2 hours instead of 30 minutes and was very dusty. It was still a nice tour of the country side. In nadI we shopped around and then headed back to Apis because we had promised we would go home for supper on our last day. She was preparing a chicken curry dish with which was delicious along with doughy like naan bread, sooooo good!!! There was also a german girl named Nicole staying there. We watched some tv and chatted before I passed out on the floor beside Fi again before moving to my bed.

Sunday sept 14th.
We woke up at 5am although I had not gotten much sleep scared I would miss the flight. We had to catch the 6am bus the airport because most things are closed on Sundays and the buses only every one hour (like at home). Fi woke us up and she had been up all night apparently. Once Api had gotten home around 1am he wanted to have some Kava so she stayed with him to drink and cook and then he passed out and went to bed. Apparently it is somewhat seen as an offence if you throw out the Kava… so Fi stayed up till 5:30 am drinking the Kava. Luckily her niece was walking by around 3am and joined her to help her finish. I had two 1/3 bowl fulls of this stuff which tasted like sand mixed with water :S. you can’t sip it though you have to drink it at once. You first clap your cupped hands and then say Bula!. And then wash it down with something sweet like pineapple. We had some coffee, some breakfast crackers, kissed sleeping Api goodbye and went to wait at the bus stop with Fi. At the airport we went to pick up out luggage from the lockers and then had an adventure trying to get out re=-imbursement for the “things” we had to buy because our luggage was lost. We bought our toiletries we would need for Australia and got reimbursed 50F$ woo.. Although this took about 40 minutes and we then rushed to catch our flight.
ARRIVED IN AUSTRALIA!! woo