Brief intermission in Lautoka!

So the first of my two cruises was over for this trip.  It seemed like no time since we had departed Lautoka on the Monday afternoon, even though each day had been full and interesting. It had been another good trip up the Yasawa Islands.  The slightly odd dynamics of the group of passengers made it different from the last couple of trips I'd done, but that didn't detract from the fun, the beauty and the tranquility of the place which is near the top of my list of favourite places in the world!  Tranquility, that is, until the silence was broken by the sound of laughter!

Before leaving the boat, I had said my goodbyes to the crew members who knew they weren't going to be coming the following week and I was secretly pleased that some of my favourites knew they would be with me for another week.  Sana, head barman extraordinaire would of course be there making beautiful cocktails for another 6 nights!

I also said a few goodbyes to some of the other passengers before we left the vessel, knowing that it can sometimes be a bit chaotic once you arrive back at the check in lounge with people looking for luggage and for their transportation back to their hotels.  Tim found me shortly after disembarking the bus at the check in lounge and ushered me to the minibus where Kini was waiting to drop me the short distance round the corner to the Waterfront Hotel where I would be spending the night.  Tim came along for the ride and gave me details of arrangements for dinner that night.  Kini would come back and collect me along with five others to go to the Northern Club for dinner.  Tim then announced me at the Reception desk before departing himself and I checked in to my room

I hadn't said farewell to Carol and Rochelle for the last time though.  They were going straight from the cruise to the airport to pick up a hire car and had promised to come back to Lautoka to spend the afternoon with me so I had that to look forward to.   Once in my room I started unpacking the little I had with me for the overnight stay and realised that I only had the clean shorts and t-shirt I'd packed for the following morning, nothing else suitable for dinner so I was just hoping that I'd be respectable enough!

After a short while, I had a call from Rochelle to say that she and Carol were almost back to Lautoka so I went down and met them at reception and we walked towards town in search of a late lunch and cold drink as it was absolutely baking hot.  As we left the hotel drive and looked out at the lagoon ahead, we saw the MV Mystique Princess moored out there for the evening with my suitcase on board - the clean shorts and t-shirt really would have to do for dinner unless I fancied a swim!!! :)

Across the green, on the corner of one of Lautoka's main streets is the Lautoka Hotel with pub down below.  I'd never been in there before, it has reflective glass in the windows and metal cage shutters so it's hard to tell if it's open but Carol suggested we pop in there for lunch.  Three reasons for that suggestion, firstly the toilets are clean, the food is good and lastly, there probably wouldn't be much else open in town on a Sunday afternoon.  As we opened the door, we saw two crew members sitting eating lunch having just got off the boat themselves so we joined them.  It was great to see them now they were off duty and chat to them for more than the couple of minutes you usually get with them between serving drinks or going about other duties.  One of them certainly was going to be with me the following week which was great to know and they filled me in on who else was now definitely coming the following day.  It was all good news, lots of familiar faces, some from the past week, some from last year!

After a couple of hours of chat, we all departed the pub together and it was time to say goodbye to Carol and Rochelle.  I was sad to say goodbye as it had been such a great week with such a lot of laughter but we had already started discussing a possible return so there was hope that we would be able to meet up and do it again.  There were a few tears on both sides as I waved them off back to their hotel, then it was a quick dash for a shower and to put on my only set of clean clothes ready for dinner.

Kini was already in reception waiting when I came down and I was followed shortly afterwards by Wendy, the Blue Lagoon Sales Rep from New Zealand, then by Deb and Rob who would be coming on the cruise the next day and lastly Lauren, the Blue Lagoon Senior Sales Manager from Australia and her husband John.  Lauren and Wendy had a week of work ahead so wouldn't be cruising but Lauren's husband John was booked to come along.  Kini dropped us off at the Northern Club which is an expats club close to the centre of town, where we were given a warm welcome from Tim and then introduced to another group of people who were friends of Tim and his wife, some of whom would be coming on the trip too.  Everyone was looking quite smart so I did feel a little under-dressed but I think I was forgiven!   I was a bit overwhelmed at all the names of the group of people sat at the table and lots of them seemed to know each other but it was great to get a head start meeting people ready for the excitement the following morning.   Dinner was a lovely buffet of different dishes, curry, salads and chinese style pork.  Very tasty.

Over dinner I was able to tell Lauren about the booking experience I'd had on my first trip from my rep at Trailfinders who had given some really good advice while I was making choices about where to go and what to do.  She was interested to hear about him and said she would take his name so that the UK sales rep could thank him.

It wasn't a late night for us which was probably good as we had an early start the following morning but also because some of the group who had come from my hotel had only just flown in that day and were probably tired.  So when Kini dropped us back to the hotel, we said our good-nights and arranged to meet up the following morning to be ferried back to the check in lounge for what promised to be a very special, very interesting, exciting trip.