Fiji Baby!
Trip Start
Sep 12, 2006
1
3
33
Trip End
Ongoing
Beachcomber Island,
Fiji
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Upon arrival it was 22 degrees and raining.. which I wasnt too excited about considering where i came from was 27 degrees and sunny! And The Fijians were a bit slack about getting my transfer to my hotel right. They ended up forgetting to tell me which shuttle bus to get on and I ended up being the only white person left at the airport with all these taxi drivers hassling me to see if I wanted a lift! But they were a nice bunch and I managed to get one to call my hotel and the driver cam back to get me. Ended up staying at Nomads Skylodge which was where I was waiting for Andrew to fly in... which I thought to be VERY average. Never again... I dont recommend it!
It was an early start the next day to catch out transfer bus to the ferry port to catch our boat to Beachcomber. As per usual theme both the bus and the ferry were also running on "Fiji time". We got there in the end though... and WOW! If there ever was and place to be called Paradise THIS was IT! - untill you made it to the beach (which I will explain later) :P It was very VERY pretty though...I tiny little island sitting amongst a few other small islands no more than a few metres above sea level. Beautiful white sand beaches surrounded by coral on one side and coconut trees on the other. The weather was normally clear and during the day it was hot!
We ended up checking in to the "grand bure". Grand because it was the largest dorm on all of Fiji.... 84 beds I think the number was! Sounds quite bad and roudy and like you wouldnt get a lo of sleep.. but it was actually a great place and im glad we stayed there. Dispite a couple having a bit of a "tango" in the shower one night we managed to meet a whole bunch of cool people there! They whole atmosphere of the island was totally awesome... mostly a whole bunch of young people between the ages of 18 and 25 and they were all.. well almost all.. very friendly. You could always walk up to a bunch of people and just start chatting away, and then you would and having a big group of friends that you could do stuff with. Nothing could be better! After a bit of time on the island you slowly start to realize that your days begin to revolve around meal times - 8-9 for breakkie - 12.30 for lunch and 7 - 8 for dinner - most of which tended to run on "Fiji time" again but they wernt too bad. Anyway, you end up running on island time as well so it not too bad. I tell you what though... you get pretty sick of curry by the end of trip!! Anyway - getting back to the beach... for some reason (well its pretty obvious really) the beach was FULL of large chunks of coral which made even just simple walking a mission!!! You would kick it with your toes, stand on sharp bits and rip your feet up! It wasnt cool! But in saying that I even miss that now! I have nice rugged feet now though.. :P
A typical day for us would go a lil summin like this: Desperately try to wake up for breaky before 9am!! That was a struggle for me! One time I manage to get up for breakfast, and then go straight back to bed and then sleep till lunch and get up for my second meal. If you miss out on your meals though there isnt anything else you can have! After that it was usually slip slop slap with the old sunscreen and to the beach.. to lie down some more. Then once you've manage to get hotter than hot potato lying on the beach we often went for a snorkel.. and the snorkeling was fantastic! It was like swimming in an aquarium! Then it was usually lunch followed by more lying on the beach to work off the lunch. :) If you got sick of that you could hire kayaks or a catamaran, go for a parasail, or hire a jet ski.. they also had island mini golf.. or you could go to the hot tub - which was actually really a cold tub filled with sea water. We did once hire a kayak though and kayak over to the next island called treasure island and kind of had out own lil day trip. :) Also everyday at 5 there was always a game of beach volleyball of which I was always a keen contender! After that it would be a quick swim, watch the awesome sun sets, and then shower and get ready for dinner. :) After diner it was usually always "to the bar!!". Some nights they had shows and things, some nights there would crab races which you could bet on, and other nights there would be a coconut race... but every night there would be the Bula Dance!!! It was stupid as hell but a lot of fun. Every night was great as you would always meet someone new. What was also great was that both the bar and the dining area were all sand which gave an interesting feeling to the dance floor!
On our second to last night there while was hanging out with his "favourite" American girlie, I decided to go on a mission and me and Ben the German and an Aussie went and collected some coconuts. We managed to get one of the locals to open them up with a machete, and put a small whole in the top.. and then we went and got some vanilla vodka, guava juice, and sprite and made our own coconut cocktails!! Made an AWESOME drink for the last night! The novelty factor was 10/10 as no one else had one and everyone saw us drinking out of a coconut from a straw and wanted one!!
We met some fantastic people while there though.. and that would have been what mate the trip so good. At first it was a couple of kiwi girls one of whom LOVED to sunbathe and party - like it was 1999 too ;) The next set was another bunch of Kiwis Tara and Josh.. you guys were awesome and i had a wicked time with ya! Then came the American girls - a bunch of about 7.. and they were LOUD but fun! I also ended up becoming quite good friends with another German! Funnily enough we looked kinda similar and were quite similar! :P He had been traveling in NZ for the past 8 months so he had quite a good understanding of kiwis too. Then last but not least there was Erin the Aussie chick - thanks to her I ended up getting my Aussie accent back again right at the end of out beachcomber time. :P
Anyway.. all good things have to come to an and.. and our 6 nights at beachcomber went by very quickly! You just get used to living on island time and the days pass you by pretty fast. It was an absolutely FANTASTIC time there!!!! I am SOOO sad to go... but im glad to be taking with me all the good memories, a beautiful tan, some rugged feet, a bit of a hangover, a lot of peoples contact details, a whole lot of sand that seemed to get everywhere and a sneaky beautiful shell i found while snorkeling that remains hidden in my suitcase that I hope customs wont find! :P
Now im off to Japan for another adventure - infact ive been writing this whole thing while sitting on the plane now! But I should be able to stay in contact a bit more now as the place im going to has free WifI.. and internet on a lil island on Fiji was EXPENSIVE!
Anywho, I will sign off for now. Going from "Fiji time" to Tokyo time should be interesting. I hope this blurb wasnt too long for ya.I miss you all and wish you could be here with me having such a bloody fantastic time time as me!!!! Y'all take care now!
Over and out.
Phill
