Monday 20 Jan/Tuesday
21 Jan(didn’t exist!!)/ Wednesday 22 Jan
We are off on our journey :) :) Erica drove us to the airport. We ended up checking our bags, since there was
no fee and we weren’t in any rush. We got to see the Tom Bradley terminal at
LAX for the first time. It reminded me a bit of Heathrow in London. Oddly, there was no bookstore, which is my
favorite way to pass time while waiting for a flight. We passed the time
instead by calling everyone to say goodbye.
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| Us and all our gear!! |
After a few hours, it was time to board our Fijian Airways
flight. The airline was really nice!! Other
than the seats being a bit small, it was beautiful and modern. We each had a television (life saver)
and were served a dinner with drinks, tea, and later a breakfast sandwich. It
helps to break up the trip a bit. Our 11.5 hour flight was more like 10 hours
due to a strong tail wind, so we arrived in Fiji early (at 4am!!). Truthfully, I think the looonnng flights are
less worse than the shorter 6 hour ones across the country, because they are
more broken up by the meals, sleeping, movies, etc.
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| Tired, but ready |
Fiji was still dark when we arrived, but we were met by
humid hot air, tropical bird noises and BUGS :D The bugs, thankfully, stayed
only near the lights and didn’t bother us (we’ve opted out of the malaria
pills—eek!!).
We had 4 hours to wait for our shuttle to arrive. The
airport was small, but we parked ourselves in front of a fan and waited it out.
We met a very nice girl from Australia and chatted with her about her work
teaching Aborigines.
Finally our shuttle came.
Our hosts didn’t say much, but we were off!! We drove all around picking up different people.
It wasn’t really explained to us what the plan was, but we just went along…no
choice really ;) After about an hour, we parked along the side of the road and were told we had
to wait for a bigger bus.
Once the bigger bus came, we boarded with a whole slew of
other people. Our Fijians hosts on the bigger bus were LOUD and very enthusiastic.
So far my impression of Fijian natives is that they are fun loving and take
nothing too seriously. It’s a good attitude.
The island where we
are staying hosts tourists on day trips and provides non-stop
activities---snorkeling, fire walking, kava ceremonies, dancing, guitar
playing, bush walks, etc., so many of the people on the bus were going to
Robinson Crusoe (the island) for just the day. We took a short boat trip out to
what would be our little island home for the next 4 days.
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| Headed to the island :D |
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| Attacking natives :P |
We were given a little tour and shown our room, which is
absolutely adorable!! It’s called an “Island Bure” and basically is just a
little thatch roofed hut, which opens to a queen sized bed. There’s a tiny
table and a mirror and that’s it…not room for much more, but it’s cozy.
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| Our Bure |
Our
shared bathroom is something out of a campground. Upon booking, I didn’t
realize just how VERY rustic it would be!! Ha!! There is not much running
water. All the water comes from jugs that you pump. The ‘shower’ is a bucket
with a shower head attached. The bucket is filled with water from an outside pump. You then use a rope to pull the water up to
about chest height. I nearly dislocated my shoulder trying to get my head under
the swinging bucket :P I don’t think I’ll be washing my LONG hair too much
while we’re here!! It took so much water to get the shampoo out of all my hair~Preston had to bring me a second bucket!!
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| Shower!! |
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| Was actually quite refreshing |
We spent most of the day lounging around in various
hammocks. The island stays busy with the visiting tourists. We took a walk at
low tide and were almost able to go around the entire island. There’s very much
a camp vibe with buffet style community meals served 3x a day.
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| Island walk |
It’s a little discouraging that every. single. thing. seems
to cost additional money. The island is very commercialized, but I guess this
is budget travel. To pay for a ‘cheaper’ room…all additional costs are
optional. Unfortunately, those additional costs are for things like water.
Haha.
Preston and I met and had some good conversations with some
interesting people. A man from Poland told us all about his communist
upbringing and his complete lack of understanding as to how the American
government is so indebted to China (hey bud—you and us both!!) and an
Australian gentlemen who told us his life story. Apparently Preston even speaks a little
Polish ;) It’s his Chicago upbringing!!
There was an AMAZING sunset. I know my mom would love it
<3 A thunderstorm rumbled and flashed brilliant lightning just across the
water, but never quite reached us.
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| Unreal |
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| Storm in the distance |
More tourists arrived for dinner and a fire show. Preston
and I hit our little bure early. The entire island runs on a generator, so
around midnight the power goes out until 7am. We can see the water from our
screened window and had a nice breeze all night.
Thursday 23 Jan (Meredith’s Birthday!! Happy Birthday!!)
We were up early with the sun and had a simple breakfast. I
tried to organize our bags a bit…difficult to live out of such tiny spaces :D
We spent most of the morning again in hammocks. I splurged on the internet to touch base with friends and family and upload
some pics.
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| Preston working on his great novel ;) |
About a hundred people arrived on the island around 11.
Truthfully, I kind of missed the quiet of the morning. There’s only about 7
people actually staying here.
Preston and I took the kayaks out in the afternoon. We
decided to row around the island. I was pretty far ahead of Preston rounding the tip
of the island and the wind picked up. I thought he had just been being
chivalrous and would catch me now that the current changed, but he was still
really far behind!! When I saw him pull to shore and get out of his kayak…I
knew something was wrong. I turned back to see what the problem was and we
realized that his kayak was FULL of water!! Haha!! We drained it for a full
five minutes. Preston had been pulling (likely) twice his body weight. Too
funny!! The tide was quite low on the opposite side of the island, so we had to
get off the kayaks and walk about 50 yards before completing our journey.
We spent some more time in the hammocks and took a short
walk. I got in some yoga on the beach—doing a few sun salutations by myself.
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| Seriously |
After showering (bucket!!), we were ready for dinner.
Tragically I broke the lid on my face wash. My favorite and ONLY face wash. It’s funny how a tiny island can change your
perspective on things like an old plastic bottle—something that seems like
trash back home would be JUST what I need right now. I actually scoured the
island for ANYTHING that could hold my face wash. Luckily, one of the women
staying here gave me a tiny shampoo bottle she doesn’t need.
Since all the day visitors had gone home, we had an intimate
dinner with just the overnight guests.
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| Dinner in the garden |
Staying on the island:
Carol—an English
woman traveling by herself. She used to be a flight attendant for British Air
and has traveled quite extensively.
Sue and Tessa---mother and daughter from Australia extending
their holiday after their husband/father has gone. Sue has the most positive
energy!!
Matt and Jackie—a young Australian couple on their honeymoon
Everyone is very friendly and we had a great time sitting
and talking about all the differences and similarities between our cultures.
Matt and Jackie did a 6 week trip across the US and it was interesting to hear
their perspective.
Sue bought kava for the group and we sat with some of the
employees of the island drinking kava. Kava is a root powder mixed in a special
way with water. It has a calming effect…a bit like alcohol, but it numbs your
tongue and throat for a bit after you drink it. It makes you somewhat drowsy.
There is a ceremony associated with drinking it. You must first cup your hands
and clap. Then you say Bula, which is a frequently used Fijian word, here
meaning “cheers”. You drink your kava and then you say Maca (pronounced like mother), meaning that your
bowl is empty. You then cup and clap your hands again 3 times. You must not
reach for the kava, as it is supposed to be a relaxing experience. If you are
not close enough to receive your bowl…the kava must be passed to
you.
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| Kavaaaaa |
Preston and Matt had
A LOT more than the rest of us and Preston’s pupils became very big and he was
slurring his words a bit!! Matt seems somehow immune to kava :P
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| Mmm hmm. |
With a twenty minute warning that the power would go out, we
headed to bed. I had another “omg…I’m
helpless on an island” experience (see face wash above). I was flossing my teeth
with this new floss I got before the trip. Lesson learned. Bring nothing on a 6
month trip that you’ve not tried before!! The floss was like yarn and got stuck
in my back molar!! I could NOT get it out. It was hurting a lot as it was
pushing my teeth apart. It reminded me of the terrible spacers that you are
given before you get braces. I could imagine the pain I’d be in once I woke up
in the morning. I tried and tried for 30
minutes to get that floss out of my teeth. I broke multiple tooth picks. I
broke a sewing needle. Preston held me down on the bed (little scary after the kava ;)) and tried with other
floss to get it to come out. No such luck!! I started panicking!! We are on AN
ISLAND!! I thought I’d eventually need to get to a dentist :-/ I felt like Tom
Hanks on Castaway. I’d have to resort to an ice skate to get this
string out of my tooth :P Finally, I was able to thread some floss through
another sewing needle and go beneath to pull the floss out. It was no easy
task. To my relief, the giant piece of
floss emerged from my tooth!!
This is island living ;) Hey, at least there are no mosquitoes!!
