May 12 - Fiji

We got on the bus for the 2 ½ hour, $3.10 trip to the Tubakula resort (pronounced Toombakoola) in Sigatoka (pronounced Singatoka), where we ended up staying the next three nights. Our bags were put in the luggage compartment of the bus, and the ride was fairly uneventful - for the first 15 minutes, until we got into Nadi town! The bus was fairly full, but not overly so, until we picked up a ton of people in Nadi. Surprisingly, they didn't allow people to stand, but there wasn't room to do much else. Also, everybody had all their shopping with them (it was Saturday, Market day), so it was a pretty crowded ride. We stopped for about 15 minutes in Sigatoka, and most of the other people got off the bus to buy lunch, snacks, or more groceries. In the bus next to us, some women were loading up with big pots of something covered with brightly coloured cloths, as well as big bags of rice, flour, vegetables, and oranges. It was quite an experience.

We arrived at Tubakula, where we checked into our ocean view bungalow. It was fairly simple but quite large, with four single beds in an upstairs room as well as the double bed in the main bedroom downstairs. Also hot and cold water, a refrigerator and gas stove, and lots of tables and chair, including some in a nice patio area just outside the door. The first thing we unpacked was our snorkeling equipment, then we headed down to the water - not a bad way to spend a birthday, snorkeling in Fiji! We saw lots of fish almost as soon as we got into the water; the water wasn't very deep, though, so we had to be careful navigating the narrow passages to avoid both banging ourselves up and breaking the coral. There was also a lot of seaweed around, and I was making my way through an opening in the seaweed when I looked down and saw a huge snake coiled up! I didn't waste much time backpedaling out of there and telling Shikha to get the hell out of that area. We wandered around some more, looking at the bottom a little more often, and began seeing more and more of the snakes. They weren't ever moving around, though, so we got a bit braver and looked at them a bit closer. It turned out that they weren't snakes after all, but long (some were easily six feet long!) sea slugs of some sort. Most of the body resembled a rattlesnake, especially when it was coiled around in a circle, but for a head it had six wavy tentacles moving slowly in the water, looking for tasty nutrients to suck up into the big hole that served as its mouth. If someone got too close, it could expel most of the water and become almost flat, or constrict itself and become very short and wide. A very unusual creature, although not so frightening once we knew it couldn't move very fast.

We also saw a jellyfish about eight inches in diameter, with a deep bluish purple color and a middle section with four bright blue circles. We kept some distance, but it was moving away so we got pretty close. Unfortunately, we didn't have our underwater camera with us that day. The most striking fish we saw was a bannerfish, a fairly large black, yellow and white fish with a long plume-like banner hanging off the tailfin. Also similarly colored butterfly fish that don't have the long banner but have crisscrossed stripes along their sides. And black and white fish that hang around antler coral 13 and retreat into its safety when threatened. Large schools of small turquoise fish (dozens to hundreds) that do the same thing, sometimes in the same patches of coral. Small electric blue fish with bright orange fins. And medium-sized brown fish that are extremely inquisitive, staring at us as we swam past and trying to get closer to see what we were up to. They were Shikha's favorites. Also different types of wrasse - moon, Maori, and another larger variety we hadn't seen before.

After an hour and a half or so of snorkeling, followed by relaxing with a bottle of Fiji Bitter, we walked for about half an hour to Tom's seafood restaurant, where we had a great birthday dinner of a whole lobster with a garlic butter cognac sauce, shrimp in a ginger sour sauce, a couple bowls of chicken and corn chowder, some wine, and dessert. The restaurant even provided a taxi for us to get back to Tubakula after dinner! The next two days we spent at Tubakula snorkeling a few times each day, relaxing, playing cards, doing a little cooking, etc. It was great! 14

On Monday we stood out on the road and caught the first passing minivan/taxi to Sigatoka (for a buck!), where we spent some time wandering around and shopping. We haggled over a few items, and while I'm certain we didn't get the best deal possible, we got what seemed to be some pretty good prices.

On Tuesday we were going to catch the 10:30 am bus south to Suva, but the manager of Tubakula said we could just wait on the road and catch a minivan for about the same price. Sure enough - we waited about 30 seconds and caught a fast, comfortable ride in, saving about two hours! We actually passed the 9:30 am bus - and we got door-to-door service to our hotel in Suva! We spent the afternoon in Suva shopping and buying cooking supplies for our trip to Ovalau Island, with a nice lunch in an air-conditioned Chinese restaurant (Suva is much more humid than Nadi or Sigatoka, so it was especially nice to get out of the heat) and Indian food for dinner.

Ovalau

Finally we arrived at the top of the hill above the resort, where we had about a 15 minute walk to the office. We had originally planned to camp, but since it was late and we were hot and tired, we ended up staying in one of the bures [pronounced mbures]. It was actually a four bed dorm, but we had it to ourselves, and only $16, so we ended up staying there all three nights. The generator had gone out a week ago and they were still awaiting the replacement parts from Suva, so we were given a kerosene lantern for light. Cooking was done on a single burner gas stove that we shared with the four people in the bure next door - not the best situation, but we made do.

We got up the next morning and investigated the snorkeling possibilities. There was a shallow, flat, and painfully rocky section we had to wade through (or walk over at low tide, when it was all exposed), but once we got to the deeper water, there were many many fish, probably more varieties than we had seen before, and pretty coral as well. We endured that rocky section for 2 ½ days, alternating between water socks and flippers, before we discovered a sandy way back on our final trip out! Shikha was pleased we didn't see any more sea slugs, but we did see some really pretty moon wrasse, and once, out in the deeper water, our biggest fish yet - very long and thin, with a pointed snout. Maybe a garfish? but I'm not sure if that's at all what they look like or not...

More lazy days snorkeling; talking to Thani, the granddaughter of the manager, who is here on vacation from Sigatoka; trying coconut, tiny yellow bananas and thick red bananas; cooking, etc. We got invited over for grog (kava) in the evening at the house next door of an Austrian/Australian who's lived in Fiji for the past 13 years and owns one of the restaurants in Levuka. It was an experience, to say the least. Kava is a root which is dried and crushed to make a powder, then squeezed through a cloth bag with water to make a gritty, mud puddle coloured drink. It's mildly narcotic, numbing the tongue and lips, and plays a huge societal role in Fiji and a few other South Pacific countries. There's an elaborate formal ceremony for official occasions, but most of the time men just sit around in the evenings (or all day long) drinking the stuff. Even then there's a certain formality about it. The kava is mixed in a big wooden bowl, then a smaller bowl is dipped in, filled, and handed to the first guest, who claps once and takes the bowl. It is downed in a single gulp; he claps twice and hands the bowl back to the host. And so on, around the circle. Then conversation or music or dancing until the next round. Kava is described in one of our travel books as being like dirty dishwater, and I agreed 100% with that after my first drink - I could taste the soap! It's not entirely unpleasant, though, and it certainly does numb the tongue. Shikha and I had a few bowls each, and that was plenty. Thani and three men who work for Arnold, the Australian, were playing the guitar, ukulele, and harmonica, and singing Fijian tunes. It was nice music, a relaxing way to spend an evening, and I'm glad we got to experience this traditional Fiji custom, but I'm not so sure I'd enjoy doing it every evening, as Arnold and the others seem to!

The other activity we did while at Rukuruku was to take a trip to a tiny sandy island for the afternoon. We went with the other four folks (Warren & Liz from near Sydney, Australia, Annabelle & Rami from Berkeley and Israel, respectively), Thani, Buddha/Manu (little kid who was always hanging around; maybe Thani's? We worked on English-Fijian lessons one evening when we were chopping onions and green peppers for dinner, although not very successfully), and a few guys who drove the boat. The island was tiny (maybe 50 feet across) and contained nothing but sand. The water as we approached the island was a beautiful jewel green color - all it needed was a palm tree or two to be a perfect setting for being stranded on a deserted island in the South Pacific! We snorkeled and relaxed for a few hours, then made our way on the little boat back to Rukuruku. We took the morning transport back to town - it operated on Fiji time. Had to wait less than an hour, though, and although it was almost as crowded as the first time, it was in the morning while we were still fresh (rather than being the last stage in a six hour journey!), so we didn't mind the ride at all. (Plus this time it was Shikha's turn to avoid squishing the little girl next to her.) We got dropped off at the door of the Ovalau Holiday Resort, which was pure luxury after Rukuruku! Electricity, hot water, a fridge, patio, clothesline, towels... It was quite windy the whole time and the sea was pretty choppy, so we didn't go snorkeling until the second day, when the water was still pretty choppy. Didn't see much we hadn't seen before, although it was interesting watching the fish, who usually swim wherever they want to fairly effortlessly, spend a lot of energy just to stay in one place because of the strong currents! Also we saw a bunch of brightly coloured spiral pipe-cleaner-like creatures. They were attached to rocks and seemed immobile, but I discovered that they could disappear into the hole they were rooted in when frightened. Quite cute as they slowly emerge out of the hole and go back to looking like pretty little ornaments on a rock!

After a few days at the resort, we went back to Levuka for a night at the Royal Hotel, Fiji's oldest! The place evoked images of W. Somerset Maugham, at least to the writers of our South Pacific book. Haven't read any of W's stuff, but a nice quaint regal place nonetheless. We met up with Warren et al. in the afternoon, and spent most of the evening with them, listening to travel stories over beers at the Ovalau Club and Levuka Club. A nice way to spend an evening.

The next day was a travel day - up at 7:15 am for breakfast, at the wharf at 8:30 am, on the boat at 9 am, in Suva at 1:30 pm, on the bus to Nadi at 3 pm, and arrived at the Nadi Hotel around 6 pm, where we booked a day tour to the Mediterranean Island for the following day.

May 19, 1 am - Nadi Airport

Unfortunately, the Japanese father tried to stand on some coral, which cut up his foot a bit, and unfortunately, it was a stinging variety, and unfortunately, some of it was still in his foot, so after we had been out about 20 minutes everyone else went back to the island, and the father actually went back to the mainland and to a doctor for the rest of the day! Fortunately for us, though, we just stayed out there snorkeling, and when it appeared that the boat wasn't coming back for us (we had been told it would be about ten minutes) we just swam back in, which took a bit longer than we expected but was enjoyable and good exercise. Plus we only paid half price for the boat trip. In addition to some new varieties of fish, we also saw many larger fish than we had seen before. Alessandro had planned to show us some really "big ones", but with the injury escapade, we had to bag that one. We made it back to the island just in time to relax with a (single) complimentary drink before lunch. Lunch was a buffet with some interesting Fijian vegetable dishes, lots of meat, some fantastic grilled reef fish, and tons of sweet pineapple and watermelon slices for dessert. After the feast we just lay on the beach, soaked up the rays, read some books (1-1 book exchanges are a godsend to travelers, especially in lazy tropical climes), and relaxed until it was time to go back to the mainland.

We kept our hotel room till the late evening, when we took the shuttle to the airport, so we didn't have too long to wait for our flight. Still, five and a half hours is about four too many...