fiji

there will be a fiji post to come, I've just not written it yet, sorry the updates have been so far apart! the internet is a pretty rare thing over here, unlike rain. it's been an eventful week, few highs and lows, but all in all a good experience. I'm currently sat in a hostel waiting for the washing to finish and trying to get myself ready for route 66 next week!





So, Fiji, well, We flew into Nadi, where we found our Feejee Experience peoples, who then got us lei'd, then off to our "hotel" for the evening, this is where we met up with the Gavlar, who had acquired a Ryan, he was to be our new friend. :) In the morning we all boarded the Feejee Experience bus, greeted by possibly the campest tour guide ever (and that's saying something) the 6ft black Bungle known as Kem, and were carted off into Nadi, where we had to gain supplies for the day, (this I could see was to be a problem for the week, what with my only form of currency being my Halifax credit card, and so would have to rely on Rob for the week to sub me - not a position I liked being in.) and a sarong for visits to the villages, where we would meet the locals and partake in rituals, but you must not wear footwear and must cover your legs. So, off into town we went, after learning the word "Bula" (Boo-laah) which is Hello, you pick this up very quickly, as everyone and their dog will say it to you as you walk round, one shop keeper even stopped us for a chat, the whole time we were thinking (oh no, go away, we don't want to buy anything from you!) But we were wrong, he didn't want to sell us anything, he made no movements to get us into his shop, he wanted to know where we were from, what football teams we supported, what we were doing in Fiji, and to buy local stuff from the Fijians, not the Indians that were taking over. The irony was not lost on me, and it was funny as how we mis-judged him when the conversation started, by the end of it he ended up sounding like every "get them out of my country" Englishman! But he was very nice with it, and wished us all well with our travels.
The Feejee group now consisted of Laura, Just - Plain - Jane, (who was lovely) Florian, Aurellie, Lukas, and the Japanese!
Then we were off on our travels, in our mother of a bus, moving all and sundry out of the way on roads that made Fraser look mildly serene!
We then went to the sand dunes and sandboarded down them, well, about 5 of us did. It was awesome. I wrecked myself twice and loved it. There's at least one video on facebook.
PS. It's raining.
In the evening we stayed at Mango Bay and had a Kava cermeony, this is how the Fijian's like to hang when they meet each other on their travels, one man brings a bowl, the other brings the ingredients, they mash 'em up, have a ritual cermeony, then drink Kava, showing respect to each other, and friendliness, as Kava slowly deadens you're body, taking all feeling out of it, whilst making you a little tipsy, liquid stoner juice maybe? It does however, taste like rather harsh mouthwash/root beer. Still, we would be undertaking Kava many times, each time that tingle on your tongue still feeling just a bit weird.
The next day we headed from Mango Bay, to Uprising, this was to be our home for 4 nights, on the way we stopped off for a little boat ride up the river so we could ride inner tube's all the way back down, the ride was awesome, nothing too fast, or slow, mostly calm, it was a lovely relaxing but fun trek.

Uprising.
Well, now, this is a bit of fun. They played a game of move the foreigners, as their main Dorm building (which myself, Gav and Ry were booked into) was suffering a bad case of bed bugs. (fortunately not in my bed, I had a great night's sleep, after coming in at 12ish.) Over the course of the 4 days we were moved to Bure 12, 9 and finally 2, where we told them to stick it we weren't moving anymore! This will all be explained as we go.
So, we checked in, dumped our stuff at the dorm, and headed "to the bar!" for a cheeky pint at 4pm happy hour. 8 hours later I came back, having somehow only ordered 2 rounds, and I'm fairly certain, only paying for 4 drinks of those 2 rounds!
The next day was a chillout day, we all crashed, relaxed, I finished watching Watchmen (There were some weird dreams that night. I don't think I could ever see the Blue Man group after that.) Then the aftermath of the bed bugs appeared and we moved into Bure 12. (A Bure is like a little 4 sleeper chalet, with an outdoor shower, which was private.) I needed my sleep, the next day was to be shark day.

SHARKS! LUNCH! DEEEEEEAAAAAAATTTTH!
Today, we dived with Sharks at feeding time. It was *Amazing.* You have no idea how cool it was. Flo-rida, Aurellie and the Gav came along but weren't allowed to dive due to not having their diving qualifications, but they came along, took pictures and Flo and French got very, very unwell on the rough sea!
The actual dives were great, we got the whole thing recorded on Sarah's camcorder, so I have some awesome if rather large videos if you ever want to see them. we were between a rock and a death place. We dove down 25m to 'The Bistro' my dive log tells me. Where we lined up against the big rocks, home to eels, behind what was essentially red carpet rope, but without the carpet and BIG FUNKING SHARKS on the other side. We bottomed out on the ocean floor, one hand on the rope, turning to the Dive Master as if to say "The sharks know they're not allowed to cross this line right??" Then, one of the dive guys descended from the sky atop a green frickin' wheelie bin! holding a rope as if descending from the skies on a very council version of the silver surfers surfboard! The whole experience was incredible, there were two dives, separated by a bout of Rob throwing up, looking to the side to see Flo throw up at the same time, which in turn made him laugh as he threw up. It was pure comedy gold I tell thee.
At sunset, Flo, Aurellie and I took a wander down the seafront as we we're now in Bure 2. (They tried to move us to 9, where we found there were already enough people in there, so we got shifted to 2, which was a seafront Bure, costing Uprising more money, as we weren't paying for anything more than Dorm accomodation.) The walk didn't last long as walking arm in arm Aurellie slipped and kicked my heel, this brought a stop to her stride and tears to her eyes, we shouldered her back to the bure to rest and tend to the toe. (She later found out it was broken and had to be strapped up.)
When the time to leave Uprising came, we gladly got on the coach, and headed for Volivoli beach resort, via an orphanage, where we gave them gift in exchange for letting us see how they live. They put on a welcoming show for us, gave us a tour and were all very excited and pleased to see us, which made us all feel a bit better, then a bit skeptical of the whole thing and so a bit sad about how bad their lives are, but they were amazing, and love balloons. If you take nothing else fro this blog, take this. Fijian orphans freaking love balloons! It was quite a humbling experience, and the ride the rest of the way to VoliVoli was a bit more sombre. Though my earphones had Limp Bizkit - Eat you alive on, so I was rockin out in my own little world.
At VoliVoli, Rob, Becky, Ry and I went for a dive, as we'd heard such good things about it. FLo and Gav went and did an introductory dive. Our dive was great, first time we'd done a reverse entry off the side of a boat (instead of giant step entry) which was kinda cool, the coral was lush, we saw more sharks, (lil' reef ones this time) Bec nearly ran out of air, then we went back by Gav and Flo, who were cut to pieces on the coral, Flo more so than Gav, which may explain why Gav seemed to enjoy it more! Later we travelled to a local indian where we had a pre-defined meal and made our own Roti, (look it up) which was nice, it was a nice experience, then swung by a boys home, bit like the orphanage, I didn't want to go in this time, so I just chilled out with some rock. Then we went off to the mud pools, my own insecurities stopped me from going in, but I had alot of fun seeing everyone go arse over tit getting in and out, and getting covered in mud, and "blacking up" in that totally non-racist racist way that us english have. Then they ran into the hot bath pools and cleane dup and we all went back to the hotel. This was a new hotel, We ended up in a room without Rob! But a spare bed. Rob ended up in a room with 5 girls. In true cock-block fashion we got him moved to our room :) After a shower it was dinner time at the hostel next door, not bad, but the food took an age to come to us as everyone was on "fiji-time" (Read, lazy and can't be arsed) the next day the sun came out! finally! So we soaked up some rays, then prepared to catch the big bird to LAX...