Beqa Lagoon Resort Beqa Island

... last song played at the club was a remix of In the Jungle (Lion King). Pretty sweet! 
 
Sunday, July 26, 2009: 
Atu and Orisi woke up at 5AM to go to the farm to plant and pick their crops. They were there for most of the day, which left us girls by ourselves. We tried to study for our exam that was on Monday and we also went to the internet cafe down the road. This was the first time it rained in Suva while we were there, it was only for about 20 minutes but the east side of the ...

... other than the pair of us) and that probably just about summed up the place!

Meanwhile, back at the Warick, the place was filling up for two weddings which were taking place at the end of the week. One was a couple (in their 50's) who had run away to get married (both for the 2nd time) without telling the kids! The other couple had a more formal affair with 70 odd guests. When I say formal, it wasn't that formal as the groom ...

... piece du resistance...Fijian men dancers!!! Phil said that Jo and I were on the edge of our seats while everyone else was sitting back ha ha! The Chippindales have nothing on Fijian men!! They are all sooo toned from labour work on the island and they were little skirts to cover themselves naturally, but then they go and put coconut oil all over their bodies along with war paint. The dancing is fantastic, especially the fire dancing. But definitely the ...

Floods hit Fiji A natural Disaster has been declared in Fiji over the weekend, as major flooding has hit a lot of towns and rural areas. The most affected were Nadi, Sigatoka, Ba and Nausori. Fortunately Suva itself has not been affected by flooding, although Nasouri is only 25 minutes drive from us. All planes have been cancelled from the local airport at Nasouri. The worst affected areas were ...

... back to the resort refreshed and ready for another day on the beach. Before parting our ways though, Juta invited us to have dinner with his family in the village and, although we would have liked to spend that evening at the resort and allow the impressions of the last few days to settle a little bit, we could not find a polite way to refuse him. Therefore, that evening we headed for Juta's house, quite hungry and curious (he promised us a dinner with ...

... though and, at one point, a little boy repeated something that the pastor said on such a funny note that even us, who knew no Fijian at all, couldn't refrain from laughing; OK, the preacher did not seem amused but the whole gathering did and that ended his (looong) talk and the other pastor stepped in. This one was much friendlier, joking frequently, engaging in conversations with the crowd and generally exuding that Fijian spirit of friendliness and "laid-back ...

... on the southern coast of Viti Levu, the main island. I was surprised because although there wasn't an overwhelming array of things to do, time still went pretty fast (unlike in Costa Rica). It might've been due to the fact that I was drinking kava, the traditional Fijian drink, every night. Drinking kava causes people to become lazy and drowsy the following day, and I took a fair number of naps during the week I was there.



I must say ...

Oonagh Well, we have moved on from the lovely lovely Beachhouse to Suva, the capital of Fiji (oooOOOoo). We were sitting outside the magistrates court today and a man came along and told us about the first coup that happened right there at the courts and the second that happened down the road. It was all very interesting until he started carving our names into pieces of wood and trying to sell them to us. It was a bit of a mission getting here ...

... charm and asked if they could make an exception as it was just me. The girl behind the counter smiled and waved me through.. result! The next girl also let me skip watching the dull 10 minute video too so I was just ushered straight to the lifts. The bridge is relatively cool but you can't really appreciate the scale of the place from it as it's only on the 41st floor and the building itself is 84 storeys. I hung around for a bit and used a new filter I ...

... the least, falling down on it was not nice and getting cuts was very common and they would never heal from one week to the next. Playing rugby in Fiji was one of the highlights of my life and I will never forget the experiences I had playing in Fiji. Crime was quite common in Fiji and our house got broken into a few times. One of the first times was when a volunteer left a door open in the house and I woke up in the morning to find a load of things gone from the living room ...