is this upside down: Fiji

Après un vol de 13 heures.....Fiji!
Bula! (Fijian pour Bonjour), un mot qu'on va entendre à chaque fois qu'on croise ou rencontre quelqu'un, et le seul mot Fijian dont je me souviendrai.

I’ve never been anywhere like here before, and I was impressed with everything Fiji had to offer, and it’s hard not to be; it’s all so beautiful, so tropical, and the environment is unlike anything I've ever seen, it’s like being on an island from Lost! Ok, they used to be cannibals, but now the Fijian people are really nice.

For the first 2 nights, we stayed at Mama's Tropic of Capricorn, not so far from the airport and just a few km outside Nadi town, by the beach. This place was run by Mama, a very nice lady who takes good care of the people staying at her place, very homey. Mama’s did not have the nicest beach around to swim in, but the scenery was astonishing nonetheless. For 12$CDN per night with breakfast, and some 6$ per meal, you can’t beat this. So for our 2 days here, we wandered around, explored Nadi and were ambushed by a convincing merchant into trying Kava.

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Matacawalevu Island - Bay of Plenty
On the morning of our 3rd day, we left on the Yasawa flyer, the boat that goes up and down the Mamanuca and Yasawa island chain. This boat stops at over 10 different spots near the many islands, and then the smaller boats from the respective resorts come to pick up their guests from the Yasawa flyer. The further you go from the main land towards the top of the island chain, the clearer the water gets, and the more corals there are to see. We planned to stop at 3 different islands in the course of the next week, and our first stop was Matacawalevu Island at Bay of Plenty. After 4 hours of the Yasawa boat, we arrive at destination.

As we got off the big boat, we met with the people who would be taking care of us for the next days, as well as our meal for the evening (they had just came back from a spear fishing trip, as every day’s meal was the catch and pick of the day).

I had absolutely no idea what to expect for the next week in Fiji, so it was full of surprises. Bay of plenty was a very rustic, down to earth experience, staying in a place ran by the people from the nearby island village. Bay of Plenty apparently stared its operation less than a year ago (and it was not looking new, but that’s a whole different and long story as they probably just recently re-acquired the land from a recent coup). Rob and I were the only guest there apart from a guy from Dominican Republic out and about on a snorkeling trip, and the people from the village hanging out at the 'resort' (they call everything a resort around here).

We stayed in a small cabin just up a small hill from the main building. It was simple, but satisfying, where you quickly get used with the no warm water and the availability of electricity only between 6 and 11 pm.

After we settled down, they offered to take us by boat to another nearby beach, to make up for their not so impressive waterfront, as they were still cleaning up their bay from the rocks of a volcanic eruption that had happened a few months back. That’s how we ended up spending the afternoon at Blue Lagoon – yes, where the movie was filmed!

Another highlight was the following day, when they took us to an almost deserted island to introduce us to a Fijian BBQ. They left me and Rob by ourselves for a few hours, as they went spear fishing in preparation for our meal (it was so good, with fresh fish and sea food, and we got to eat and pick out the fish meat with our hands).

As we explored around this deserted island (there was actually a small village on the other side of the island) we found cabins from an abandoned resort…spooky. The cabins were nearby the beach, and still had decent looking furniture inside as well as solar panels, but they were left in pretty bad condition. Those cabins were very similar to the ones we were staying at, but they seemed to have been much nicer, not to talk about the location.....We were told that it was abandoned 5 years or so back, and that the people from the island village were going to renovate it and open a resort eventually (which may take a while, as Fijians like to take it easy, enjoy napping and chilling around!). We figured it was probably a resort owned by a westerner in the past, but whose land was seized from some Fiji coup, and given back to the Fijians.

One night we went to visit the nearby village for a Kava-filled evening, where we just chatted and told stories. This village communal house was particularly interesting to be in, as one of the village Chief's son was part of the rugby team, (and Fijians are big time into Rugby) and this communal house was like a shrine of his exploits, filled with posters, newspaper clippings and religious paraphernalia, it was impressive. The brother of the rugby player, and the chief, joined us for the Kava Ceremony.

The last morning before we had to leave, they lent us snorkeling gear, and took us by boat off in the ocean for some snorkeling fun, and it was beautiful!

Apart for the boat fee to get out here, to stay here, we paid 30$cdn per day, and that includes all the food and boat rides and all the rest, so there again, not that bad!

That was the end of our first stop, so we caught the boat going back down the island to reach our stop #2; Naviti Island at Coconut Bay, where we spent the next 2 days.

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Naviti Island - Coconut Bay
Coconut Bay looked good on paper, but didn’t match up to expectation (you can judge by our lack of pictures of the place, and the look of the beautiful ‘resort’ sign in the Fiji – Islands picture gallery). We spent the next 2 days here reading in the hammock, for lack of anything else to do. I mean, I’m still in Fiji, it was sunny and I got to relax, read and do nothing, which is awesome, but the place was filthy and the food, nothing to look forward to. We saw pretty bugs though. Moving on…next island Waya.

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Waya Island - Octopus resort
Here we stayed at the Octopus Resort (with ‘resort’ being rightfully used here), which was supposed to be our last 2 days, but turned out to be 4 nights. We loved it so much, we had to extend our stay.

Compared the other places, this place was a little more expensive than the other place, but still affordable, see dorm 25$cds/night plus the compulsory meal plan about 30$cdn/day for 3 huge and delicious and full of good surprises meals with tons of choices (you have to take those meal plans on all the islands, because there is nowhere else to eat, as there is only the resort, a village, and water surrounding the island). This place was by far the most awesome place. They offered tons of activities, the beach was great, the place was spotless, it had warm water and it was filled with really nice people.

Octopus offered a range of accommodation, from the one dorm to the much more expensive private beach bungalow, and all the guest would mix together on the premises and eat dinner together in the sand floored dining room, which called for an interesting and vibrant mix of people.

There was a small village near the octopus, which we visited on two occasions, one for Sunday church and then for the Tuesday market. They hold a very good relationship with the people from the village, as they employ most of their staff from there, and depend a lot on locally grown fruits and vegetables and fresh fish. Octopus also provides the village with much needed technology, like a satellite dish to allow cell phones to work on the island as well as TV reception (for their beloved Rugby match) and solar panels to collect energy. The resort does not own the land on which it is built, but rather has to rent it out to the island or government (I never got that quite straight, apart that the people from the village rarely see the color of that money), so it is in their best interest to keep a favorable relationship with the natives.
[I read that TV was only introduced in Fiji in the mid 90’s. Even now, they are not found in every household and does not play a big part in their culture. In the villages, the Tv’s are quite small and located in the community room, where they usually watch the Rugby matches.]

Apart from village visits, we hung out with the nice people we met, snorkeled, swam, ate way too much and, once again, relaxed and read. Oh, and on our first night there, I got forced into limbo contest, and I ended up winning a bottle of champagne!

After our 4th night here, we sadly had to leav, heading back to the main land, for one last night at Mama’s, and then finally catch our plane to Australia.

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If you want to find out more about Fiji, because I certainly can’t write about everything you should know about this beautiful place, as it has do much to offer, check Rob Kay’s Fiji guide, which is a great source on history, kava, travel info and more.