Bula! Welcome to Fiji!

The  guard outside the hotel, wearing a sulu, with a necklace of shells and a frangipani flower behind one ear stretched his arms out wide and shouted Bula!  Bula is the Fijian word for Welcome, it also covers hello and cheers, and became the word I have used most often over the last two weeks in Fiji.

This blog entry has been delayed not for lack of things to say about this beautiful country, but because there is so much to tell that being succinct is likely to be a problem, but it has been the most  fabulous experience I’m just going to go for it!

I arrived before the sun had risen on the morning of the 20^th September, having left LAX at 2330 hours on Saturday 18^th September.  I spent a lot of time trying to work out where the 19^th September went and in the end decided not to over-think it, other than I wasn’t sure what time and on what day I was supposed to be thinking of my friend Vic in the UK undertaking an Olympic Distance Triathlon...Brave woman!

But seeing the island in the early hours before it was fully light and before the roads were too busy was wonderful, lots and lots of sugar cane plantations, some avocados and bush land.  It reminded me very much of other islands I have visited, Tobago and Antigua sprang to mind although the roads were a little better than on both of those islands – doesn’t take much!  Then around a corner we came across a dead horse in the middle of the road.  I don’t know how long it had been there but not a pretty sight.

 

It was about an hour before we reached the first of my stops, the Outrigger on the Lagoon just outside of Sigatoka.  I had emailed ahead to let them know I would be arriving early (7am!) and that I would have been travelling for some time as I’d had a 9 hour wait at LAX after dropping dad for his flight before mine departed (no I’m not looking for sympathy because if that’s as bad as it gets it not really a problem!).  I had had confirmation that a room would be ready for me, they gave me the key to my garden view room, the porter took me down and I opened the door...to find a lady naked having just got out of the shower.  Clearly that wasn’t the room that was ready for me!  In the end, I had to wait a little and ended up with a room down by the beach which granted was on the ground floor, but had a view of the sea so I didn’t think I’d done too badly despite the wait!  And the room was lovely so the first thing was to get out of my travelling clothes and have a shower.  

I went to explore and find my way around to discover that there had been a super high tide the day before and there was no beach, the water came right up to the boundary wall of the hotel and the waves were still crashing over the reef and up against the garden walls of the beach front Bures (cottages).  The hotel grounds were beautiful, a heron landed in one of the water features right beside me and stayed for a while but not quite long enough for me to get my camera out.

The staff were extremely friendly but the place was full of Australian families and honeymooners and I struggled to make eye contact with anyone, let alone make conversation and for the first time in my travels, I felt a bit isolated. I’m pretty good with my own company and don’t have a problem striking up conversation but after four weeks of family and friends it was a shock to the system to be on my own again.  At breakfast on the first morning, I heard a woman say ‘That’s the girl who’s here by herself’ but she didn’t bother speaking to me directly.  It wasn’t all bad, I could have been stuck in LA and I decided it was ok because the sun was shining!  On day three I met Harry and Heather and their daughter Christie.  Harry is a ‘Pom’ who married an Aussie (Heather) and now lives in Melbourne and they took me under their wing so we then met for aperitifs and dinner for the next couple of nights.  They were great company and made it a lot more interesting than it had been!

I did enjoy listening to the groups of serenaders who graced us with Fijian songs from morning to night and on my last evening, I had the group all to myself while the Aussies (all of them) were pre-occupied watching rugby league on the TV.  They sang just for me which was a real treat and were keen to know when I was leaving.  The following morning when I went to breakfast, they were performing in the next restaurant, one of them came to find me and asked me to come through when I had finished my breakfast.  I did as I was told, they sat me down and sang to me the farewell song ‘Isa Lei’. It was beautiful and special to have them sing just for me.  I did record it but its a bit wobbly so I’ll probably not share it.

I hadn’t  got a transfer booked to take me to the First Landing which was where I was to spend the last two nights before my cruise up the Yasawa Islands, the travel agent had told me to take a taxi.  On investigation, the taxi would have cost me Fiji$140 so about $50 which was cheaper than the £130 the travel agent had been quoted.  I checked with the local travel desk and they managed to get me on a private transfer with a family going to Denerau Island on the basis that the driver could take me back to the airport and a taxi from there would be cheaper.  Once we dropped the other family off at Denerau, the driver offered to take me all the way to the First Landing for the price of a taxi fare, so I took him up on his offer and in the end it cost me only $70 which was a good deal.  Just an example of how kind and genuine the people of Fiji are.

After checking in at First Landing, I was greeted by Isimeli, my Porter, who said ‘Welcome Home’ and I really felt that I was at home, such a friendly place.  My room wasn’t ready so I sat in the bar area for some lunch and in the first hour, I had been spoken to by more people than I’d talked to at the Outrigger.  A different sort of place all together. 

Next to the Vuda Marina, I quickly gathered from eavesdropping on other peoples’ conversations that many of them were sailors just popping into the resort for lunch.  Peter, a retired architect from Melbourne who keeps a Halberg Rassey in the marina at Vuda actually joined me at my table and had a chat, keen to hear more about the timeshare boat arrangement we had and thinking that it was a bloody good deal.  Nice to hear that from a boating enthusiast from the other side of the world.

When my room was ready, Isimeli dropped me and my luggage to the room and again said ‘Welcome Home’, it was a beach front bure which offered a great view of the ocean and the Mamanuca islands with hammocks out front and a covered in deck area.  The bed was decorated with flowers picked from the gardens and the word 'Enjoy' written in coconut leaves.

It was the last Aussie Rules Football game of the season and had had a lot of hype in both resorts so I decided to join in the excitement even though I had no idea about the rules or who I should be supporting.  It turned out to be a good thing because I met two aussies called Karen on holiday together for a spot of sunshine, who explained the rules and who I should be supporting!  I also met Mike, a San Diego native and retired teacher who had sailed from San Diego to Mexico and then across to the Pacific Islands single handed.  I can’t remember which Island he visited first, but his longest passage had been 27 days and his accounts of the fish he had caught were more impressive than the fact he had sailed that far single handed in the first place.

 I had dinner with the Karens Squared and the entertainment was a Polynesian Dance performance with fire dancing.  Absolutely lovely and quite incredible to see the girls swinging balls of fire on long chains without burning themselves or each other.  All of this in a half day at the new resort made up for the lack of conversation at the Outrigger, that was well and truly behind me.

 

I spent Sunday chilling in my new environment, walked out to the edge of the reef at low tide looking for small fish and other sea creatures and spent time at the pool.  I had dinner with the Karens again, such good fun and after dinner we went for a dip in the pool and were served cocktails by Manasa, the wonderfully cheerful barman.

And then it was time to go, to say goodbye to some new friends who would be leaving before I returned from my cruise and to pack up for the next exciting chapter, my very first ‘Cruise’ adventure up the Yasawa Islands.