carpe diem: fiji time!

Aight! Time to write about our amazing Fijian adventures. I'm going to start with our week laid out in point form, just to save myself tens of pages of typing. :)

September 21, Friday
- got up at the crack of dawn to take a taxi to the Sydney airport from Jeremy's house
- flew into Nadi, arriving 2:10 pm local time
- checked into our hostel, went for a walk to the beach, went downtown to get some groceries and see what we could see
- chilled at the hostel, enjoying the pool and a wonderful mozzarella pizza and a couple drinks, kinda early to bed

September 22, Saturday
- got up earlyish to hit up the free breakfast and to make travel plans in time for checkout at 10 am
- on the advice of our Quebecois roommates, we booked a spot on a boat to go to Mana Island and stay at the Ratu Kini hostel
- went on another (chauffeured) trip downtown to get money, then waited for the boat which, as always, arrived on "Fiji time"
- had a lovely 45 minute ride over to Mana, where we ditched our stuff and spent the rest of the day frolicking in white sand and turquoise waters!
- went on a midnight swim, then stayed up playing cards and drinking beer with our German roommates who'd also been on the same plane as us

September 23, Sunday
- beachy time in the morning!
- we three ladies walked most of the way around Mana Island, though as we ended up having to swim partway my camera got wet and has yet to work... I need to get the salt out of it and then she should be better though, hopefully!
- a wonderful happy hour and evening with everyone, learned how to play flip cup, "Team Canada" rocked up quiz night

September 24, Monday
- more beachy time because we are beach bums and we love the beach! also because it was too stinkin' hot to really do too much else, one had to be in and out of the water pretty much constantly... hard life, I know...
- made some coconut jewelry!
- it rained that evening... still very warm though, so we went swimming to enjoy being completely surrounded by water
- there was a kid's performance that night, lots of song and dance and leis, then we just chilled with the guys as it was their last night

September 25, Tuesday
- lots of our boys all left! very sad... but this also precipitated us having to make new friends, which worked out just as well in the long run
- Ola and I went snorkeling a couple times, which was AWESOME... and literally five steps off our hostel's porch were some fantastic coral reefs... this would've been about 9 am Monday morning in North America, making us feel very smug =D
- had a nice chill dinner and happy hour, as always
- our evening was spent entirely with Europeans, mostly Brits and the occasional German! cards came out, beer was shared Fiji-style, and it was a great night of staying up late talking about everything

September 26, Wednesday
- went for a walk with the girls in the morning, we climbed barefoot to the top of one of the hills on Mana... the views were absolutely stunning!
- meant to go kayaking in the afternoon, but the tide was low and we ended up taking a nap... then it started to rain so all of our plans were shite anyway. Ola and I shared some tea and biscuits instead and we all read our books on the deck til dinner
- hermit crab races were that night, which were vastly entertaining! then we played more flip cup and had a fabulous dance party... then went for another swim, only this time we all went and jumped off the pier until the security guards told us to get lost... hehe...
- upon returning to the hostel however, we were told that someone had been into our stuff in our room and that we should check if everything was there. my stuff was okay, but then Ola discovered her phone was gone and Jess' camera had disappeared too--which catapulted us into an entire evening of those two girls freaking out, the guys trying to help in various ways, eventually finding the stuff (after the thief got punched out cold right in front of us by the other locals... yes, interesting times!). Ola was totally freaked out, the whole thing was just kinda weird, but I guess that all's well that ends well, because they got their stuff back.

September 27, Thursday
- our last day at Mana... which we actually spent doing nothing, since we were waiting for the boat to come all freakin' day. it was supposed to leave at 11:30, but then didn't get there until 12:30, and then they had to wait for another boat because there were more people and the water was really choppy. all in all we didn't get out of Mana til 3 pm, and didn't get to our hostel until about 5.
- goodbyes were very sad... but Tristan and Ginny and Ash and Tim ended up coming to Horizons with us for the night, so we had a lovely time eating pizza and going for walks with them, then it was early to bed for all

September 28, Friday
- up early again, packed and checked out, went to downtown Nadi to do some souvenir shopping, then got to the airport to fly home
- lovely flight home, though Sarah ended up sitting a couple rows behind us
- transiting home from the Sydney airport was great; we missed our train stop, there was quite the layover at Central and we were starving, but eventually we all made it back to our wonderful Sydney beds in one piece... and more or less, that concludes the grand Fijian adventure...

Fiji is a little igneous cluster of islands in the South Pacific that most people refer to only as a mysterious place of white beaches, palm trees, warm water, and very very far away. It's not a developed country--Nadi, the city with the largest international airport, has only 180,000 people and not a single building more than maybe four or five storeys. Houses are usually some combination of plywood and corrugated metal painted in bright, though not well-maintained colours. While not in the downtown core, it's pretty easy to spot cows and chickens and stray cats and dogs all over the place... I want to say "third world," but really shouldn't, since there are places with much worse poverty. Fiji isn't developed, but it isn't impoverished. Still, the hot weather and humidity and the noise and bustle and different customs were enough to dismay us three ladies a couple times, which wasn't aided by people warning us to be careful at pretty much every turn. The warnings only served to make us overly paranoid of a culture that is--I feel--more friendly and outgoing than our own. On the other hand, taxi drivers are damn aggressive, and we constantly had them coming up to us asking if we needed to go somewhere. It was kind of crazy.

Another thing about Fiji is "Fiji time," which is basically a slower, relaxed, informal schedule... people in stores can seem reticent to help, but it's really just because they're moving at a slower pace than we're used to. Fiji time means that a boat is supposed to leave at 11 am will really leave at 12:30, or any point therein. Fiji time came to mean a lot of things by the end of the week, and they were all good. And randomly, Fijians say "Bula!" for hello, and will say it to any random person they pass by. We said bula a lot that week. ;)

We met some really cool people... I'm very glad that there were three of us travelling together, because one of us was always up to something or meeting someone. The first night we met a Canadian couple from Montreal, then at Ratu Kini there was 20-50 people around all the time to mingle with in some form or another. There were our roommates in the dorm, four German guys and an American girl who were on our flight, then the Scandinavians, a whole lot of Brits, a few other Germans, and a good handful of Americans and Canadians to boot. I don't think any Australians, though the majority of us were studying in Australia and on holiday anyway. Let's see... our roommates were Greg, Thomas, Shay, Felco, and Jess; then there was Jonas (Swedish) and Pierre (Danish), the Canadians Tristan and Ginny, Colin from Hawaii (aka Dolphin), and the Brits--Nick and Sam, Adam, Thom, Kelly, Tim and Ash, Emmy, and so many more whose names we never actually learned. And then there were the locals who worked at the hostel--Jerry x2, Rocky, Ringa, Moses, and Joe... they put on shows for us every evening, they cooked for us, told us random Fijian things, drank beer with everyone, ah... it was great. Everyone was out to have fun and make friends, and with only a few days to do it in, everyone became fast friends instantaneously.

Having been on week-long travel experiences before, I can now say that doing it yourself (and with friends) is way better than being part of a scheduled group, a la summer camp or school trip style. Structured activities are great for kids, but... I guess I'm not a kid anymore? Heh. Fancy that. I was thrown back a lot to previous experiences--between camping with mum and dad, summer camp, and Quebec, I felt I was prepared for a lot of the things we had to deal with, for which I'm grateful. Even if it was something like being used to really bad bathroom facilities--or none at all--I'm glad I know how to deal with that. We were a long shot away from "roughing it" in Fiji (and when we were camping), but I've come to the conclusion that I'm pretty damn talented at washing my hair in a sink. A very random, but useful, skill.

Here's another sampling of photos from Fiji--the rest can be viewed in their Google Album, like the camping photos. Once I get Ola's, I'll put up a couple more as well. :)