The Feejee Experience
Trip Start
Sep 13, 2006
1
81
108
Trip End
Ongoing
Viti Levu,
Fiji
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Day One
Got up early and finished sorting my bag out, before heading towards reception to wait for the bus to arrive. As I was early for once, I joined a few other people in watching a bit of Liverpool v Barca in the Champions League in the TV room before we left. Once on the bus, our guide for the four days, Bola, introduced himself and the driver, Kaka. Bola explained what we were going to be doing for the next four days, which took ages and ages. Anyhow, this was the only time that he bored us and we were soon off to one of the local beaches for a swim.
Our group consisted of five French Canadians (why they can't call themselves Canadians, I'll never know - maybe its the French connection), an Argentinian guy, Mario, who now lives in the states, a Swiss woman, an English girl called Ellen, four other English guys and me.
After the beach and a BBQ lunch prepared by Bula and Kaka, we headed into Nadi and stocked up on supplies, e.g. local the Bounty Rum, Whiskey and Coke, before we continued out of Nadi to a village. To enter the village you have to wear a Sulu, which is like a sarong, so having also purchased that in the village, I put that on and we had a look around. As it was just after lunch, the village was quiet so the local were having a sort of siesta.
The next stop was the Sigatoka Sand dunes where we took part in some sand boarding. This was a lot steeper than what I'd done in Vietnam and there was also a nasty bump at the end as the slope met the ground proper. After a couple of runs lying down, a few of us decided to stand on the board and go down that way. My first attempt was poor, but the second was a lot better, that was until I got up a head of steam and had to bale out. I ended up rolling to a stop, which meant I was covered in sand - cue numerous photos being taken of me resembling some new found sand creature!
That night we stayed at the very impressive Mango Bay resort and enjoyed our first experience of Kava - a Fijian herb-based Alcohol. Kava looks like dirty water to be honest and tastes pretty similar as well. You are passed a bowl, clap once before receiving it, drink it in one go, then clap three more times and say 'Mother'. After drinking a few of them, the end of my tongue went numb, but that was about it. Others on the trip felt a bit ill afterwards - obviously only suits certain people.
The rest of that evening was spent enjoying my birthday and drinking the Bounty Rum and Coke that I bought earlier in the day. The rum has an ABV of 58%, which is lethal and I got very drunk without really knowing it. During the drinking session I managed to kill my camera. I was still wearing the same shorts that I'd done the sand boarding in earlier and the pockets had sand in them. After taking a couple of photos, I threw my camera into a pocket and sand got into the lens. I tried to get the camera to work, but only succeeded in damaging the Lens motor further. Within three days of being in "Beautiful Fiji", I'd broken my camera - bugger!
Day Two
Woke up feeling very ill and didn't make breakfast. I tried to be sick, but failed. I though I would be the last person on the bus, but fortunately Tom was even later than me. This continued to be a trend throughout the four days, with us always waiting for Tom.
The highlight of the second day was a three hour trek through the Namosi Highlands, followed by tubing down the Navua River and a swim at secluded waterfalls. Despite feeling quite ill, I decided to do the trek (instead of the alternative of a long-boat trip). There was a 50-50 split in the group between trekking and non-trekking. The trek was good fun and worked as a hangover cure. The highlight of the trek was Mario falling over every ten minutes, including twice in a couple of seconds. He wasn't the only one to fall though, although I wasn't included in the list of fallers.
The tubing was good, although it was never going to be as eventful and enjoyable as the tubing I'd done in Loas. By now the rain had set in and we were all happy once the long-boat had completed its journey from the waterfalls back to our coach. Our coach then took us through the Fijian capital of Suva, which according to the British Foreign Office should be avoided after the military coup that took place in December. However, we found it to be fine and we even got a few pictures taken with a guide outside one of the Government buildings.
That evening was less eventful and no-one was really in the mood to drink much after the large night we'd had previously. That said, a few of us still enjoyed more Kava with Bola and some of the locals.
Day Three
The third day is very much a Fijian cultural day and the first thing we had planned was a visit to a local school. Back on went the Sulu, which all the kids were wearing and they showed us around their school with big smiles on their faces, despite it raining heavily and them getting soaked (they had umbrellas, but used them to shelter us from the rain, as opposed to themselves). The kids will attach themselves to you and be your individual guide. My guide was called Llai Tuxaga and he explained each building and what it was used for.
This visit was a real eye-opener and gave a good insight into how limited the facilities and resources are there. En route to the school we all bought books and stationery, which we handed over to the teachers once the visit was completed. Llai also handed me his address so I could send him the photo that someone had taken of us previously.
After the school visit, we headed off to another village where we would take part in a traditional Sevu-Sevu ceremony. As we were meeting the chief of the village, we had to elect a chief and spokesperson for the chief, both of whom had to be blokes. As the ceremony was based around Kava, I was selected to be the chief as I was one of the few people on the bus who was happy to drink the stuff! Tom was elected as spokesperson and actually had more lines to remember for his role in the ceremony. As it happened, the ceremony went well and I enjoyed the Kava and chatting to the villagers that were present.
We were due to do bamboo rafting that afternoon, we as it hadn't stopped raining for the past day, this had to be abandoned due to high river levels. Instead we got to our evening's accommodation earlier and had a go at shaving a coconut, which was a lot harder than it looked. That evening we had a few drinks, played some party games and as the rain had finally stopped, had a bonfire on the beach.
Day four
The last day was Indian day and we explored the Indian culture that exists on the Island. Apparently only half of the Fijian population is native Fijian, with the rest being Indians. The Indians were brought over by the British to work on the Island as the natives were deemed to be too lazy, e.g.
? and Ellen
having siestas in the middle of the day etc. The Indian population tends to be based in the urban areas and are usually the ones running the small businesses in these areas. Conversely, the rural areas tend to be mainly native Fijian, who live in subsistence-based village communities.After leaving behind the French Canadians and an ill English guy (whose name I've forgotten), we headed onwards with Kaka taking over the commentary. We were laughing our heads off as he explained Indian culture and the various customs that went with it. Kaka is a very funny person and regularly amused us during the four days - mostly at meal times when he told us to "get some more". This became his catchphrase for the trip and Dan even recorded the him saying it on his mobile phone.
Lunch was a traditional Fijian Indian curry, which was very tasty and well received by myself. Unfortunately our expert Kaka was missing as he had to look after the bus, which had broken down. This is quite normal thing to happen in Fijian, especially as the bus is second-hand, having had a previous life in New Zealand as part of the Kiwi Experience. As we headed back into Nadi, we stopped at the Feejee Experience head office and Bola showed us one of the other buses that had a "For Sale - Any Reasonable Offer Considered" sign draped over it. I offered $20 for it, although it was probably too big to fit into my back-pack.
Before we got back into Nadi we'd stopped at some hot pools and mud baths at the base of the Sabeto Valley. Here we jumped into a 'mud bath' (big hole in a muddy field) to cover ourselves in mud (cue mud fight), followed by a dip in a 'hot pool' (another big hole in the same muddy field). The mud bath was really strange and totally different to what I'd experienced in Vietnam. The hot pool was a bit too hot and it felt as if my skin was about to burn when I got in.
That evening, Dan, Sian, Tom and myself headed off into Nadi for some food after checking back into the Nadi Bay Resort. The following day we were all off to Beachcomber Island for a bit of a party...
D..
Mario sandboarding
