Aaaahhhh Fiji, how I love thee. For those who may not know (although I've been going on and on about it for so long now that if you don't know it's because you seriously pay zero attention to me... and that's OK if you're not my friend...lol) I just got back last week from a PHENOMENAL getaway/seminar/cleaning retreat which took place in SavuSavu on the beautiful island of Vanua Levu. I was away from April 27 till May 12 although unfortunately I had a few days of the trip shaved off due to an unfortunate incident with American Airlines which I won't go into too my detail about. The basics are simple - I should have left Toronto for LA California by a certain time on the 27th to catch a connecting flight to Fiji that same night... Unfortunately a "delay" (ie, the plane decided not to show up for 5 hrs) caused me to miss that connection. What was even more unfortunate was that the connection flight was not a daily flight and therefor I was forced to blow 2 days of my trip in LA. Anyway I won't go on about what that ended up costing me in total with flight changes etc... and the nasty emails that I've already written American Airlines regarding the incident and how I expect to be compensated. So instead of landing in Fiji on the 29th with a few pre-seminar days to spend relaxing and adjusting to the time difference, I landed where I needed to be on May 1st just as the seminar was starting. I love traveling, I really do but only once I'm at my destination... the getting to aspect of traveling (dealing with airlines, hotels, airports, layovers, baggage etc...) loses its novelty quick. On the way in, I had to fly into the city of Nadi (which for some reason the locals pronounce as "NANDI"...so there's an imaginary N), as all international flights do. From there I had to hop on a puddle jumper plane for an hour into the capital city of Suva and then from Suva, yet a smaller plane for another hour to Savusavu. I had a 6hr layover in Suva however so I decided to start my trip then and there. I walked out of the airport (which really wasn't bigger than the house I live in here in Toronto at the moment) and bargained with a taxi driver to take me for a drive into the city of Suva and show me some sights and nice Fijian things to take pictures of. Of course I found out after the fact when I was at the seminar that what I did was considered pretty dangerous and that Suva is a dangerous place with people who will take advantage of foreigners... That was all news to me cause I actually had a fabulous time with this taxi driver. For about $70 Fijian dollars (which is not a lot) the guy drove me around, talked to me about history, showed me some cool places, helped me take some cool pictures and was totally trustworthy with my things while I took a bathroom break now and again. I saw the government buildings, including where their president lives, university buildings, beaches, went into a Fijian museum for a while, stopped for lunch, went into the markets and even watched a rugby game.
A few immediate observations: - The Fijian men wear skirts all the time. Skirts on both men and women are part of their culture - as you can see this soldier gentleman guarding the government buildings area is sporting a skirt as part of his uniform. Airport security officials also wore skirts, as did men just hanging around in the streets.
- There is a very very very large population of Indian/Hindi folks in Fiji. In all local schools the children are taught up to 3 languages from a very young age - Fijian, Hindi and English.
- Rugby is the national sport of choice. Soccer would be number 2 in line. It was very cool to see how they made fields of whatever space they could find and they were quite passionate about it. Students who I would have thought should have been in a classroom during the hours I was there were out in teams playing and loving this brutal sport.
- Fijians LOVE tourists. It was very unlike other parts of the world I've visited in the past where I've always had to watch my back and keep an eye out for locals looking to rip me off as a tourist. Here in Fiji, not only did I leave my things with the taxi driver on more than one occasion with no worries but the people were so nice and almost overly friendly - lots of looks but always smiles and waves and more smiles.
The 6 hours I had to wait in Suva were well spent in my opinion. I took some nice pictures and enjoyed the weather and got to know a very nice, and knowledgable taxi driver man who is a happy husband and father of 8. In tomorrow's post, I'll go from Suva to Savusavu, which is where I spent the majority of my days while in this beautiful part of the world. Stay tuned!!
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