Holiday and Travel Log

Well, pictures will just have to wait a little longer. Anyway, R and I had a lovely holiday. On Christmas Eve, we went out to eat at the Great Wok of China. I had eaten there before and it was excellent, and it gets good reviews on the internet. However, our meal was less than spectacular. I speculate that the good cook had the night off. On Christmas morning we opened presents and ate a big breakfast, we then went downtown and watched The Chronicles of Narnia then ended up eating at McDonald's because it was the only place open and we were really hungry. Yes, I had a Big Mac for Christmas dinner. We also made Kava at home with the Kavabowl I got R for Christmas.

The next day we took a local bus, the Sunbeam Express to our hotel on the Coral Coast, the Bederra Inn. While it was a nice air conditioned bus, playing Around the World in Eighty Days, it was an absolutely miserable bus trip because the guy sitting next to us threw up in his lap...twice. I had to be on constant vomit alert and didn't dare nap, and I certainly didn't want to eat the snack I brought along. A woman sitting in front of us also threw up but at least had the curtsey to do in into a bag. It was the longest two hour bus ride of my life. When we arrived, we were starving and ate at the hotel's restaurant which was quite tasty. We spent some time at the beach, which was actually pretty sharp. They call it the Coral Coast for a reason. We had wandered down to a more local beach where I felt out of place in my bikini, so we then wandered in the other direction and found a pretty good beach behind the Outrigger Hotel. That evening we ate at Le Cafe, which proudly proclaims to be "Under Swiss Management". From what we can tell it means virtually indifferent service but tasty food. Plus there was a kitten there to keep us entertained.

The next day we took a taxi into the nearest town, Sigatoka, hoping to purchase some items that we had forgot to pack, and some tiva-type sandals for R as he had blew out his flip flops the day before. Unfortunately it was still a public holiday. In Fiji both Christmas and the day after (Boxing Day) are holidays, as they actually fell on a Sunday and a Monday, the official days off were Monday and Tuesday. Nearly all the stores in town were closed. But our hero the taxi driver took us around to some of the shops that were open. When none of them actually had shoes (even flip-flops) he saw somebody on the street he knew, talked with him for a little bit, then explained that this guy owned a shoe store in town that he would open up for us! And it was a good shoe store with plenty of selection, and R found just what he wanted! Then we had the taxi driver take us to the Sigatoka Sand Dunes. They too were closed, but the people who work there were having a picnic there, and the taxi driver convinced them to open for us! It wasn't really that much of a burden since the folks were already there. it just meant taking our $F8 to let us walk on the trail, but I'm sure we couldn't have talked them into it ourselves.

The sand dunes were really amazing! It was a 40 minute walk through both forests and sand dunes to the ocean where we saw big breaking waves for the first time since being here. Of course it was a "no swimming zone" but we waded a little. Hey, if your feet are on the ground, you're not swimming! The formations of the dunes really reminded us of the Oregon Coast, and the plants were all serving familiar functions, even if they were in unfamiliar forms. The informative placards answered a lot of "I wonder what plant that is?" questions I had had. We would definitely go back there, to spend more time, wade a little more, take a picnic, take the longer hike or take some visitors. That afternoon we went back to the beach behind the Outrigger, and ate pizza by the sea.

The beach near where we were staying was actually a little disappointing, so the next day we booked a day cruise out to uninhabited Tivua Island on Captain Cook Cruises. It seemed a little expensive and turist-y but I am so glad we did it. They come and get you right from your hotel, and despite it being a pretty long drive, the boat ride out there was really neat, on an olde tyme boat. Once we got on the Island it was amazing. The beach was soft, the water was warm, they had snorkeling gear, they served all the softdrinks and beer you wanted, they served an awesome barbecued lunch and the beach combing was incredible, shells all over the place! It was really worth it to come out. I was really jealous of the two couples who were occupying the two overnight accommodations on the Island. But we can just come some other weekend to do that if we want! On the boat ride home, it rained really hard, and everybody on board got soaking wet. this is part of the reason why it wasn't until later that night, I realized that despite my precautions, I had gotten a pretty bad sunburn. Except on my arms where I'd already gotten a 'base tan'!

The next day we checked out and took another local bus back to Suva. We accidentaly got on a bus that wasn't an express and it took twice as long to get back as it took to get there. But, because the bus wasn't air conditioned, the windows opened, it wasn't nearly as crowded and nobody threw up! Despite being much longer, it was actually more pleasant, it rained again which cooled the air and my sunburn and made is so that you didn't regret not still being on the beach.

The rest of our time off in Suva was pretty uneventful. We didn't even do anything for New Years except shoot off a few fireworks. We bought a DVD player which helps release FijiOne's hold on my consciousness and saw Jarhead which was good but plenty depressing.

I'll try to post some pictures maybe sometime next week. Our first venture out of Suva went well we hope to do lot's more Fiji vacationing in our near backyard.