CRAZY BULA TIME! FIJI PT2
Tuesday, January 28, 20143:45 PM
Bula bula! Haha it's been 4 days since I've got back but the Fiji spirit is still alive at home. I just realised and shall apologise for the extremely low quality photos I posted before..after all, they are from my phone so, can't really expect much eh?
Today's post will just be about Fiji Day 5.
We booked a tour to Robinson Crusoe Island(Likuri Island) the night before with the resort. They charter a bus for the resort guests to leave at 9.30am, head to a second resort to pick up more people and then head to a small jetty alongside the Tuva River where all the guests were split into 2 boats which we took to the river mouth where the Robinson Crusoe Island is located.
Nothing pretty about the river water..
Beautiful sky and weather that day though. The river is lined with mangrove swamps along the length of the river that we travelled.
A honeymoon place we passed by. The boats have to slow down here because the bank here is man-made and might collapse..
Another picture I took on the boat ride. See the surreal-looking mountains at the back?
Enough of river shots, here's the first view of Robinson Crusoe Island.
GREEEEEEEEN
Closeup of the island
Spot the 2 Fijian warriors? Lol they were throwing stuff at us haha
Docking soon
THAT COLOUR
The water park you can pay to use.
They provide kayaks and hammocks on the beach for free and you can also rent jet skis, or sign up for a spa session there.
Sheltered resting area
Preparing for pictures
We had a short briefing on the day's activities and schedule. Started off with a tour of the resort there
This is one of the bure
Inside the bure. Toilet is an outhouse, the toilet is nice though.
Snorkelling after the tour of the resort there. You can choose not to go snorkelling too and they have coconut husking and coconut tree climbing demonstration(yes, they climb up barefoot to the top of those coconut trees..)
Lovo lunch. Lovo is their traditional way of cooking in which they gather firewood, burn it, put stones on top, wait till the fire burns out and the stones are glowing, wrap the meat in coconut leaves, put them on the stones and cover everything with the coconut leaves. Ladies, if you're looking at the guy in the picture, all the men dressed like that on the island(they're all really muscular *winks ;)* )
Unearthing of our lunch
Fire-walking. Not all of them can do it because this is a gift that has been given to a certain tribe by their ancestors. It looks like nothing here but when you pour water on the stones, they still sizzle and steam.
Here is the Lovo lunch, of which the fish and potatoes were cooked in the traditional way.
After the lunch, the staff put on a performance for us, with the traditional dancing, fire dancing and knife dancing.
First dance
More dancing
Intense fire dancing! They explained fire dancing wasn't their culture but instead it was Samoan, and they had someone come over to teach them.
Sorry, no pictures of the knife dancing but the entire performance was so entertaining and exciting. Everyone there had their phones and cameras out taking videos and photos haha. Kudos to the staff! The weather was really good but very hot so imagine them dancing with fire too, under that hot sun. Respect.
Went for a short bush walk to see some of the plants that are important to Fijians, in terms of their culture and also some medicinal herbs and stuff, no pictures here..
Turtle viewing(there's a secret we buried here ;) )
Track for crab racing
Let the race begin!
Then we had snake dancing where everyone was encouraged to form a circle and follow what one of the staff did which led to many funny and awkward movements hahaha. It was fun though(:
After that was farewell time and the staff sang farewell songs while we, the guests packed up and loaded everything back on the boats we came on. Back to the little jetty and back to respective resorts.
Headed out of the resort that night for dinner again. This time we went to somewhere nearer, an inn! No pictures because the lighting was really dim(ambience effect) to take any good photos, but I had spicy chicken with a passion. A really good dish I think! It tasted sort of like satay chicken sitting on a salad with a drizzle of passion fruit dressing. Really good(thumbs up!)
It really was a extremely fun-filled day, and even if I turned back the time, I would still choose to go there as compared to other tours. It was activity after activity, never a dull moment there. The staff seemed genuinely friendly in sharing parts of their culture with us(including the explanation of how Robinson Crusoe inhabitants were once cannibals and we would be their food once upon a time..). Likuri island was a special place for the Fijians, a sacred place in their culture. Very very fun, and money and time well spent in my opinion(lol of course I can say that because I only spent time, my dad spent the $$ haha><)
Alright, that's all for today(I knew this would fill up one whole post..)
Hope you've enjoyed the pictures and learnt that much more about Fiji!(:
BULA! SaRauta Mada, it's Fiji Time! FIJI PT 1
Sunday, January 26, 201410:18 AM
BULA! Literally meaning life, every employee greets you whenever you walk past with the blessing of a good life. I've really enjoyed my week there and so I'll share it with you now. (I'm not being paid, just sharing my experience)
Warning: It's going to be picture heavy so you have been warned..
Fiji is well, a place known to many Australians, and not at all known to most Singaporeans. Majority of the country's income is based on their tourism industry and Australians make up a majority of the tourists there. Everywhere you go, at least 50% of the tourists there are Australian. Fiji consists of a group of 333 islands and less during high tide. They have a population of not even a million people and they are located in the south pacific sea with tropical humid weather. It is their monsoon season at this time of the year, making it more humid. Their ancestors practised cannibalism but that clearly stopped and their dominant belief system is Christianity. The population there is pretty diverse, they have the natives, some Indians, some Chinese and Koreans(and I'm not sure what else). According to my parents, they are a third world country and on the way from Nadi airport to the resort, you can see the condition of the houses which most of the people are living in.
So, we booked a night flight, leaving on the night of the 17th and we arrived in Nadi(pronounced Nandi) at 6+ in the morning on the 18th(Saturday). It's a short flight of about 5 hours. Their daylight saving ended last week so their time is now only 1 hour ahead of Melbourne time. The flight itself wasn't that interesting..after all it was a night flight and we were meant to sleep. We took Fiji Air and their service staff was alright I guess, satisfactory but not excellent. The entertainment choice..was alright too, I plugged in the headphones, set up a playlist and let it run..while I slept so I can't really comment much on that can I? They had hunger games(the first one) but I've watched it before, and it's not really the kind of movie I would watch again even though it's good and also especially at that hour? No thanks. Haha. The humidity isn't as bad as Singapore I think, it doesn't slap you in the face once you step off the plane..
So we arrived at our resort a few hours later. I don't think I'll reveal the name now, but I might change my mind later..for now, let the picture overload begin! (:
The resort lobby where the workers will greet you with Bula! The men are in knee length..skirt(?) I don't know what they're called. A trio of 2 guitar players and 1 ukelele player singing welcomed us at the lobby while we went to check in. We were offered a drink and some cold towels smelling refreshingly of peppermint(sorry no picture of this)
Gorgeous view from the balcony at the lobby. Those hut things you see are called Bure(Bu-ray)!
They organise various activities for each day, some you have to pay for, some are free. It's all written on this colourful sheet about what activities are going on in the resort. It includes the high tide time and low tide times too.
After all this, finally heading to the room!
The beds
The balcony
The toilet
After throwing all the luggage down, we headed for breakfast buffet. Had some interesting stuff there, like papaya jam. Also tasted my first fresh passionfruit there too(so sour><) No pictures of the place or the food because..too busy soaking up the holiday spirit haha.
We headed for the beach and did some reef walking, saw a lot of fish and a blue starfish! Saw some long creepy things(possibly sea cucumber -not sure). Sorry..we only started taking photos toward the end of the week so I have a lot of missing pictures..and then we went to the pool which was super crowded. I think a lot of people left after that day though, because for the rest of my trip, the pool was never as full again..
We watched a bit of some of the activities like coconut throwing and melon cracking before we headed to the pool. Quite some fun it was, especially the melon cracking. They put a melon a distance away, blindfold the contestant, ask them where they're from and their name and how many steps they think they need and spin them 5 rounds. The participants are given a wooden..club(?) and are told to walk the number of steps they said they needed before they started. Then they get down on their knees, hit once each on the left, right and forward. If they hit and crack the melon, they win. Very entertaining and a lot of fun haha.
After a day mostly spent in the water, we went for dinner at the Asian restaurant in the resort. Like I said, everything was expensive but ohwell, first night. I think we had a little walk around the resort in the afternoon too, and also explored the outside by walking across the beach. SO HOT. I think that's why we went to the pool haha. Quite an eventful Day 1 eh?
Day 2, some enthusiasts we were, decided to turn up for an activity called power walk at 6.30am. Quite a walk! It's been a while since I've walked that fast and that far so..ahem haha. Nothing much on Day 2, beach, pool, and then had dinner at the western restaurant where they had a guy playing the guitar and singing songs, and then also a choir singing a few hymns(I think) for us. I do have pictures of this restaurant though, so here you go.
The chilled minty towels I talked about before. The bowl of beige colours stuff is actually salt flakes.
Focaccia
The choir warming up
View from the restaurant. The sea wasn't a brilliant blue because it rained a bit so..all the river water and stuff made it appear greyish
View at night.
The bill that night was..shocking, came up to a bit over $200 FJD
Day 3 nothing much too, mostly beach(kayaking in the sea), pool and then we had breakfast outside the resort. On the kayak, because the water is so clear, you can actually see fishes in the coral and so we saw these vibrant blue fishes, some purple ones, and a lot of other pretty stuff.
Day 4(Monday) was a bit more interesting. We called a taxi to take us down to Sigatoka(pronounced Singatoka) town and we just went around the town. Bought 5 papayas for $2 FJD, got some junk food, drinks, milo. Hopped off to the souvenir shop - jack's of Fiji (typical tourists) and got some sarongs and a dress. Had brunch in the town while we were at it. Since the first day, we didn't have breakfast in the resort, and we usually only had breakfast or brunch because..it was enough. Chinese food for brunch. Went back to the resort by the same taxi and got back around 1.30pm. Chilled in the air-con room until about 3.20pm before we headed down. My brother and I registered for a free diving lesson they had in the pool so why not? It's free haha. The basics aren't that hard, I thought it would be a lot harder actually, but it was fun :P They have a tennis court at the resort too so as long as you're wearing the right shoes, you can go play and borrow some balls and racquet from them. First time playing tennis, and well what can I say..I clearly don't have the talent for tennis LOL. Hit one ball out of the court into the bushes near the adults pool(oops) and couldn't find it(ahem ahem). Had dinner outside the resort, tried this dish called Kokoda. I believe it's a Fijian dish because I saw it everywhere after I had it that one time. It's cubes of fish with a salad of diced onion,tomato,cucumber(and perhaps more stuff), in a "soup" of coconut milk with a hint of lime. The first time I had it :OO So much salad, too much salad for me actually..it's meant to be an entree dish but it was well..too much for me even for dinner so haha. It was a good experience though.
Alright, that's it for the first half, more later!
FEE JEEEE~
8:11 AM
Alright, after one day of procrastination(amidst cleaning up the house and going grocery shopping..), it would be nice to see what I've been up to for the past week yes? I mentioned I would be going away in my last post but didn't mention where, and so now, I'll tell you haha. I spent a lovely week in FIJI!! I'll probably need some time to sort and compile the photos we took from different devices so I'll most likely type up one entry first, and put in the photos I took with my phone, then I'll edit and maybe add in more pics taken from the camera. It's been such an enjoyable week, I'm already missing Fiji and the people there. I miss the night skies, the beach and the people..the resort was beautiful, food was..overpriced and expensive though :/ I can still close my eyes and see the place in my head now and hear the roar of the ocean. Beautiful beautiful place. Sigh..Fiji, you are missed.
Thursday, January 16, 20145:12 PM
Lol I say I'll do so many things but everything ends up nowhere..
Anyway, to finish the previous story, the woman said she was going to take the same train too but point is, she still had enough money on her card to tap on and get on the train, she didn't have to top it up there..she could have just let me go first because I'll just take like 1 minute and clearly her credit cards or whatever weren't working-.- Goodness..even thinking about all this again makes me fed up.
It's been a hot hot hot week in Melbourne, temperatures hitting over 40 degrees. Been chilling on the sofa in the living room right under the evaporative cooling vent because it's just so hot. Kudos to the tennis players playing in the Australian Open even with this heat. Even just stepping outdoors is enough to warrant groans and complaints haha. Ohwell, apparently it's going to cool down after tomorrow. Joke is, I'm going away tomorrow haha.
Had my first driving lesson this morning too. Seems like I'm almost ready to drive solo :OO Booked the driving test to be on 7 Feb which is..really soon. We'll see how that goes eh haha.
Thursday, January 9, 20149:55 AM
SO.MAD.
Because of this one lady, I had to risk taking the train without tapping my card. I risked paying hundreds of dollars of a fine just because 1) I can't be late for work 2) because said woman did not know how to top up her card using the machine and refused to let me go first.
This is kind of person, even if I came 10 minutes earlier before the train came o would still have to miss the train because of her.
So the full story is..
I had negative credit on my card so clearly I couldn't even tap on, so I had to top up and put some money in. Being in a rush, I decided to pay by cash because it's faster than paying by card and I already took out my card and money, all ready to top up my card which would take under a minute. Got to the platform and from the moment I heard the conversation between the woman and the platform inspector/manager, I knew I was screwed. There is only one top up machine at the station I go to and she just had to hog it. Tried one card and realised she couldn't sign, tried another card and it didn't work. And this people, she still had at least $6 in her card, she could still tap on and top up at where she was going to. So after waiting for her to try both cards..there was literally one minute left before the train came. Asked er nicely if she could let me go first because I had a train to catch and she was like oh yea, I have to catch that train too-.- I'll continue later
Wednesday, January 8, 20147:39 PM
Sigh..I've been going about blogger and google-ing for an hour now but I still can't figure out how I can get the music to play..I don't want to sign up for a dropbox account and upload some music files to the public domain..so frustrating :/ I don't know how to do this..html code is not something I know very well )):
6:22 PM
How's everyone's new year been so far? Mine's been alright I guess, could have been better, but life moves on.
Was going to change my blogskin again but meh..I have to say I quite like this current one, with the font and format and all. I shall try to fix the music thing on this after I finish this blog post.
I scrolled down to see some previous posts, just to reminisce a bit. I saw one saying that I would post more pictures so that..life would be more interesting haha. I apologise for breaking that agreement, lol it went on for a few posts and then I just stopped and this place just became somewhere for me to complain and whine about my life haha.
Alright, I will go try to fix the music, I promise..
