I don't even know where to begin with this post, which is why I'm typing and not talking because you do NOT want to hear my ramble about how much I'm in love with Fiji for literally probably the maximum twenty minutes I'm allowed on youtube. I know I have not been to many countries in my life, but I'm almost positive I will never discover a country I am more in love with than Fiji. It was literal perfection with the combination of beaches, mountains, and beautiful people. Anyways, we flew out on April 20th, also known as Easter this year (still wondering how all the stoners did). It was an early morning flight, Danielle and I ate subway for breakfast. So excited to eat healthy again this week but I'll talk about the food soon enough. The flight was quicker than I thought it would be, and drinks were complementary. I stuck with coke for a little caffeine boost but Tiff and Nicole were up for a beer. When we landed, we were greeted by Fijians singing and warm weather. Customs was quick, thank goodness because I can easily say that is my least favorite part of traveling. We had an airport pickup, but it was a little stressful for a while because we could not find it at all. Probably sat in the airport for a good hour waiting, and it didn't help that our phones didn't work. Eventually he came though and brought us to our first hostel on Nadi called Smuggler's Cove. Though it was right on the beach and had BEAUTIFUL sunsets, the smell of the 40 person room did not settle with me. But we did meet some pretty cool people. I love meeting backpackers from Europe and hearing about all the places they've been and how long. Some have been gone for up to 9 months! It is crazy, I hope that I can do that one day.
So our first night we watched the sun set on the beach and ordered my first pina colada since being home. I've literally been dying for one and I finally found one. After our dinner and drinks there was a fire show. I love watching individuals from islands dance, like the aboriginals here in Australia, because their dancing is straight story telling. It's really beautiful and fun to watch. After that we decided to go to bed because we were taking a boat early to go to our next island, Manta Ray! Waking up in the morning we realized we were a little unprepared and didn't print out our vouchers but after some panic and phone calls it ended up working and we were on the Yasawa flyer. We sat on top and I'm so happy we did because I reckon that's where we saw some of the best views of Fiji. It was so cool to see all of the different islands; some that were so little you could walk around the whole island in 5 minutes and others that were huge and filled with beautiful boulders and mountains. The boats from the resorts would come and pick you up from the Yasawa flyer, but I heard that one capsized! Thank goodness gracious it wasn't me! When we arrived to Manta Ray, we were greeted again with song by the staff who I eventually fell in love with. The island was pretty big but the "resort" itself was fairly small. It was many paths lined by coral that led you to the office, dining area, bathrooms, etc. It was almost like camp. Our beds were in the dorm and had bed netting, which I'm very thankful for considering there was not a nice looking spider on our wall and a cockroach on the floor. I tucked myself into that net VERY WELL (as did Tiff due to her fear of the lizards that crawled around the walls, she stopped using one of the bathrooms when she found one in there)
At Manta Ray we did a lot, including swimming with a wild Manta Ray! It was so pretty even if I did see it for just a second! It was literally a chase..Danielle is afraid of open water and I'm just a horrible swimmer so we didn't get too close but Tiff and Nicole swam right on top of it! Definitely a majestic creature. They have people on boats looking for them all day and when they do spot one, a loud drum is played on Manta Ray island to let people know in case they want to go for a swim! We also snorkeled, which was gorgeous (even brighter than the Great Barrier Reef)! Our trip also included a guided kayaking tour so we went to another island, or the other side of the island, I wasn't too sure but it was very isolated. There, we went looking for coconuts. The tour guide literally just climbed a palm tree like it was nobody's business and threw us down coconuts that he later cracked open with a stick or even his bare hands. We then proceeded to drink and eat the coconut, Nicole was a huge fan!
The next activity we did and by far my favorite was the visit to SoSo village. It was about a fifteen minute boat ride to a different island, but it turns out a lot of the staff on Manta Ray live at SoSo or have family there! When we arrived we were greeted by some children and their mothers! Even at such a young age they were so excited to see strangers and kept screaming "Bula! Bula" and they loved their high fives. We then followed out tour guide to her home where she picked up her child. After a minute of walking to the school were kids ages from 2-8 went, she handed me her daughter. Trust me, I did not ever want to let her go. She was probably the most beautiful baby I have ever made eye contact with. When we got to the school, there were probably 20 kids of all different ages. Again, the happiest and most outgoing children I have ever met. They were so inviting and showed us what they were learning through songs. Two girls even danced for us and it was hysterically adorable. The teacher's name was ShiShi and she was beautiful inside and out. Her and the children really inspired me to want to come back to Fiji one day and practice medicine or even teach. Plus, I want a child for my own. It's just so hard to explain the feeling I got towards them. I thought it was amazing how they were so happy with the littlest things and were so excited to share their lives with us, even at such a young age. They held your hands and loved pictures, especially seeing themselves in the pictures afterwards. Overall, I think these children that are nearly 15 years younger than me taught me one of the biggest lessons I've learned so far; always find the good in what you have. They were wearing no shoes, went to school for long hours without desks or a table, and did not have half the things American's consider necessities. But yet, I have never seen anyone smile like they did. Besides SoSo village, we were lucky enough to see two more. One called Nalauwaki on Waya island, which was the second island we stayed on. Unfortunately we were not able to go into this village because the Chief was much more strict but we did meet children on the beach! The third island was Mamanuca. This was a cool village, the houses were so bright and beautiful. We also went on a Sunday so it was really interesting to see how quiet the village was and almost deserted. There were kids practicing dance though for a competition apparently and we went to a boarding school on the island. There were not any kids present, but we got to look inside their classrooms. It's mind blowing to me the stuff they were learning, they had brain diagrams on the wall for fourth grade! And their english was always surprisingly good. A child would walk up to you and you would say Bula! And they would just come out with Hi what's your name! Anyways, I guess on Sundays, they go to many ceremonies and the town hall for a Kava drinking. Kava is basically an herb that they grow and make into a powder almost. They mix it with water and share it with family and friends. There's a ritual behind it, involving clapping once and saying Bula when you receive it and then drinking. After the Kava basically numbs your tongue and you finish, you clap three times. We tried Kava at Manta Ray, and it made us very very sleepy. So I obviously bought 200 grams.
After very hectic days, Nicole and I decided to lounge around the beach for a day while Tiff went scuba diving with sharks and Emily and Danielle went fishing maybe? I'm not sure, they did a lot of stuff. It was very relaxing, full of sitting on the hammock and just enjoying the warmth from the sun. That was also our last night in Manta Ray. It was very sad eating dinner with Tom, my cat I befriended who literally followed me EVERYWHERE all the time, for the last time. Who else is going to feed him their fish they didn't enjoy too much now?! I'm just kidding though, the food really was amazing and they definitely wanted to stuff you. Buffet breakfast, tons of lunch options, and dinners with an appetizer, entree, meal, and dessert. Again, can't wait to eat healthy this week. But each meal came with a beautiful flower on the plate, I think other countries need to start doing that more. After all of our dinners we would go to the main part of the island to enjoy a dance or games. The dance was again story telling, scared Danielle a little bit, but was very fun. They obviously dragged Danielle and I up there to dance, and eventually Tiff and Nicole and then everyone! The games were interesting, I didn't win any but hey at least I tried! One night we were looking up at the stars on the beach (which reminds me, most beautiful view of the milky way I have ever seen) and we met a couple from PA that is living in New Zealand for a year! They offered us a place to stay if we ever went to the North Island, made me miss my family a lot! Anyways, after some time watching the shooting stars, we went to bed and ventured out the next day to our next island (of course not without a little stress considering I lost our tickets on to the boat). It was very heartbreaking leaving the island to be honest, the staff literally made us feel like family after some volleyball games, many trips to the office, and just again the Fijian welcomeness.
Let me just start out by saying Octopus Resort is definitely a resort. There was a pool, beach chairs everywhere, a nice coconut bar, and a room that did not involve bunk beds. The food was good, not as good as Manta Ray but we had an amazing first night. I will never forget just sitting around the dinner table and sharing so many laughs over what animal we would be in a different life and things we say a lot. Besides enjoying each others company over dinner, we enjoyed it over another fancy drink which was rather strong the first night and then dancing the next day in our new sarans. Octopus was just full of relaxation and I could not complain one bit. We met a few people from Germany, which no longer comes as a shock, they're everywhere. And there was another fire show but this one was different than the rest because there were many people since the village was just over the hill. We were going to go for a hike, but I'm glad we didn't because the people that did it said that it was scary and would not be legal in the states. There was climbing of boulders basically at 8 in the morning. So we wandered on our own which is when we came across the second village, a small waterfall, many pigs, and very green shells.
When we left Octopus two days later, we said goodbye to paradise and went back to Nadi for two more days. Those last two days were very adventure filled. The first day we went on a Seaspray cruise which included free food, free drinks, snorkeling, a village visit, and a trip to the island that Castaway was filmed! It was pretty neat, but we did not find Wilson unfortunately. We jumped off the front of the boat and swam around and the staff on the way home sang us a songs. It was a great way to wind down from a long trip. The next day was the day we were leaving. We decided to be spontaneous and go to a Hindu temple. It was very colorful and was interesting to see the people practicing their religion around us. We had to cover our shoulders, knees, and take our shoes off. THEN while we were on our way to the airport, Nicole helped push us to spend more time outside of the airport and we went to a Hot Springs spa where we were covered in mud and then soaked in natural hot tubs basically. It was very relaxing and after the first initial shock of your legs sinking into the leafy muddy ground, it was pretty fun to play in! We then drove past the sleeping giant (which we though was pretty cool that they had one too) and made our way to the airport. The sunset on the airplane home was BEAUTIFUL, I need to watch them from above the clouds more often. It was nice to be excited to come home back to brisbane, gave me a cool feeling inside. Anyways, that's all for now..I'll have a video up eventually and I want to post some more things that I fell in love with and learned about in Fiji :) Venaka for reading this! (Thank you)
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