So life has been tough recently. I spent all of September being unemployed and began the month of October in much the same way. Only October began on a flight to Nadi (pr. 'Nan' 'de') on the main Island of the Fiji Islands. It's tough, but someone has to do it. In any case,I had to atleast attempt to rectify my immigration record. Between Bermuda and my first attempt in Australia, I was 0-2. Ladies andGents, I am pleased to announce I am finally LEGALLY able to work in a foreign country. Something many of you probably assumed would never happen! There is faith in me somewhere out there!
Bermudian work permit next?! Who am I kidding?!
My week (was supposed to be 2 weeks but more on that later) on thePacific rock began on Oct. 1. A 3 hour flight and 2 hour time difference, I was now waiting for my bus at the hostel pickup corner at the airport with nothing more than my new AK Ski pack (thanks Evand Nate). Backpackers and uni students on school break slowly poured out of the arrival hall and joined me on my cramped little couch.
BULA!!! (hello in Fijian)
YES!! I am going to love this place! A foreign language so easy toLearn!? BULA! BULA! BULA! We are off on the bus and head towards the hostel. The shuttle has a different name from the hostel I am staying at, but the name of the beach is the same. We drive across the 2nd largest city of Fiji and I am amazed of the scenery. The city isnothing more than 1 street (on that side anyways) but the picturesque backdrop is breathtaking. Massive hills everywhere just in the middle of nowhere. The streets are rough and the area is pretty poor but the local businesses look to be relatively busy. Kids hang out justoutside the new Digicel shop, probably listening out for other people stylish ringtones! We hook a right and arrive at the hostel, not mine!
Get off the bus and ask the driver if he is continuing on to Smugglers Cove, my home for the next 3 nights. Unfortunately, I got on the wrong shuttle, but another is on its way to get me and I am told to hang out at the current hostel until it arrives.
Bula! Nadi Bay hostel! The driver tells me it shouldn't be more than 20 minutes. It didn't make a difference to me. I knew no one and had nothing better do anyways! 20 minutes in Fiji time was more like40-50 minutes! Nothing out of the ordinary really, so off to Smugglers we go!
I check into the hostel and get my passcard for my Pirate Dorm at a rate of 30FIJI$ a night. Pirate Dorm... my imagination runs wild as to what could be going on behind those closed doors. Sails, ropecourse, canons and copious amounts of smoke, rum and swords? Nearly all that, but really it was 36 bunks arranged in cubicles of 4. There wasn't much personal space but who cares! I was in Fiji! My firstday was pretty boring. Had 4-5 beers and these gross potato wedges as to try and not spend too much. Hung out with these english boys who were off the next day but we drank and chatted about what there was to do on the islands for a few hours.
The Fiji main island is a gateway to all the other islands. Land hereand go to other islands that offer things that you want to do and onlyhead back to the main island when you are ready to head back home, or if you need need time to sober up before heading to another island. Make sense? Anywho, I was Off to the pirate dorm pretty early to read this amazing book I picked up about this english boy who gets screwed by Russia, Zone 22 by Tig Hague. 5 stars, highly recommended.
I got woken up a few times during the night as drunk people comestumbling to find their beds. But all'n'all I had a good night sleep. Took advantage of my free breakfast and coffee and headed to the Smugglers beach just in our backyard. The hostels set up was sweet. Nice big deck, sweet pool and a cool Fijian Hut (forget the name!) and then, ofcourse, the beach with hammocks, and loads of chairs. I spent most of the morning reading on the beach soaking up the sun. Took a sea kayak out for a little burn but the strong wind made it tough. A quick email to the Australian government to get my Visa game going and it was time to have another local brew.
After stimulating my mind and exercising all morning it was time to get my game face on. Fijian beer isn't the hottest, but it comes in these rad little 'stuby' bottles. That and it is also 4 bucks FIJI. About 3CAD$. After more yummy wedges and a few beers, I scouted out groups of people that seemed interesting. Sitting next to the pool I saw 4 guys hanging out drinking beer and talking about island adventures of getting wasted and getting 'involved' with wonderful young ladies. These are my guys!
"Cheers guys, my name is Jean!" We clicked instantly and sat by the pool most of the day before turning it to the beach. The rate of consumption stayed high all day as we shared traveling stories. Them mostly! Rob, had been traveling through South America and to tell you the truth, I don't remember many of Nick's. Other than the ones about them two on Beachcombers Island (party island) where they had met. He left early the next morning, so I never got a chance to to rebuild the puzzle. There was another guy, James, but we later found out he wasso full of shiat that it was hard to figure out what was true and what wasn't. We moved on to the variety store where we got long necks and drank more beer. There was a crew of about 10 of us. 24 long necks, 40 bucks worth of vodka waters and who knows how many stubbies later,I woke up in the pirate dorm in my boxerbriefs bitching about the f'ing lights and the noisy people... It was 7am.
BULA! Breaky time! I spent most of the day nursing a HORRIBLE hangover. I reluctantly avoided the mid afternoon pewk and forced myself to eat something other than potato wedges. The burger was good. More reading that day followed by a pretty nice Sushi dinner with Rob.
I spent the next day doing nothing. More beer, more reading and more meeting people. Rob and I also decided we would rent a car the nextday (I have no idea what day is which, just in what order they came in!) and go for a road trip. We also found couple that was interested in tagging along. We ended up drinking a healthy amount of beer for no particular reason other than being bored. I am making a point ofthis because that night I fell asleep in my door on my back. ( I have now switched dorms to the hostel next door because it is half price).The dorm is about 14 beds but with only 5-6 occupied that night. No tonly am I on my back but I wake up in the morning with my mouth wide open. There are only a few people in this world who can tell you about the level of snoring I reached that night and for once Lindsay wasn't trying to beat the day lights out of me to get me to shut up and roll over. I snored all night long and had a sore throat the rest of the week because of it. DAMN its nice to be on holidays!
We got up early the next morning and headed towards the airport to rent a car for our Totally Rad Fiji road trip. Long story short, renting a car in Fiji costs lots of money and no matter how much we tried to work them down we couldn't get anything cheaper than 70 bones a day+gas for the smallest Nissan car many of you in North America have NEVER seen!
After a little bargaining with a cabbie, the 4 of us were off to Natundula Beach. The 7th nicest beach in the world according to askmen.com. The beach was alright i guess. No Horseshoe thats for sure. The sand was coarse and littered with coral. It was also hightide, which meant we couldn't get to the coolest part of the beach because this lagoon was emptying into the pacific creating a pretty strong rip. Being well aware of my swimming ability, we decided tostay on this cool sandbar about 20 meters off the beach. The day wasover cast and cool, not a good day to be at the beach but we had a 6 pack of long necks and 3 hours with the cabbie to kill. This was the first time I had doubts about being in the Pacific. A few people from my hostel had come to this beach the day before and took pictures of a Sea Snake. I don't have my 'Don't Phuck With List' in front of me right now, but I am pretty sure those little fellas are up there. A Long neck later and who cared! The night ended up with more beer,some reading and 2 Canadian girls who were going to play rugby in new zealand. Super nice, but damn they looked tough! The smaller of the two was lean and didn't have much weight on her, like you would expect of a rugby player. But screw me running! She was a bouncer at some Toronto bar and was probably the toughest girl I've ever met. I also think she was a lesbian, but thats besides the point!
Other than that, the trip included a trip to the main part of Nadi town, where we were hastled by local shop keepers to buy shiat from them. I tried to force my self to by something but couldn't find anything I was crazy about. The highlight of the trip to town was finding out there was a rugby game between the local Nadi Jets vs. Australia's New South Wales Waratah's Jr. team. We sat on the hlll with all the other locals. Probably the only 4 white people on the hill. It was AWESOME! Waratahs won the game but the Jets made it interesting fighting until the end. Going to that game made us so much cooler in the eyes of all the local staff who were stuck working that night. Probing us for details and being super excited! We we rethe stuff!
On my last night I participated in a Kava ceremony with Tai and the Kavaholics. Kava is Fiji's national drink. It is a root that you grind up and mix with water. It numbs your mouth and if you can ingest enough it will give you a sort of body buzz. Kind of taste like river water, but there was a goal in mind and nothing was going to stop me. Basically the boys (Tai, Tequilla and I think the other was Jimmy) jam until the end of any given song when someone in the group yells TAKI! From my understanding it means 'drink up'. You tell Tai what size Kava cup you want, Tsunami, High Tide or Low Tide. Clap your hands once, Say BULA! drink up and clap your hands 3 more times. Everyone at the ceremony does the same and then the boys start jamming some more. Long story short we jammed till the weeee hours of the morning singing bob marley, jack johnson, their own compositions and many more. The buzz was heavy, but really, I was just stowked on the night I just had. Jamming with Tai and the Kavaholics until who knows when drinking dirty water and Fiji Beer! WHAT A NIGHT!
I've missed a whole bunch but I'm a few beers deep right now and thats all that comes to mind.
I ended up changing my flight from the 14th to the 8th as I got my work visa within 13 minutes of emailing the Australian government. Fiji can be very fun if you have deep pockets and you do many of the islands. I hardly had any pockets so my Fiji experiences went as far as the main island, 20 minutes from the airport!
The week concluded with me starting to drink my favorite beer, Fiji Gold at 830am. I convinced the bartender to give me happy hour prices as it was still breakfast time. I ran a 42$ tab by 12 and was drunk as a glass of water (Saltus physics joke!) by 11. Got some amazing wine at Duty Free and had a bottle as dinner with lindsay (while she had solid food).
The hunt for work begins. I will have some phone calls to make monday morning. Fingers crossed... its between watermelon picking, pool cleaning or just general work. There is also a local bike store that has shown some interest.
Who knows!?
Take care and talk Soon!
BULA!
Jacaranda Trees
View from Mt. Nebo
