Bula Fiji ! (Part 2) - Arriving in Savusavu - The Poles

     So I've described (probably in too much detail) all about my journey to get to the beautiful town of Savusavu, Fiji in my last post. Let's now recap the details of my time in this picture perfect paradise. As I mentioned in the previous post, I was there for a cleansing retreat and health/life/wealth self-improvement seminar. If anyone is wondering about what seminar specifically, you can find all the details and more here. It's run by Anthony Robbins Co... and I recommend any of his seminars to anybody interested in self improvement and personal growth. Words can't describe how much these have changed my life. My eyes are open wider than ever before and I am much more self-aware than I have ever been in my past.

DAY 1

     I remember flying into Savusavu (which has an airport the size of my yard back home and a small one bedroom shed for an admin office) and being so relieved to have finally made it after so many hours of traveling, but so anxious and desperate for a shower and a nap. Those are the only 2 things I wanted in life at that moment. Did I get either? No chance... Because I was one of the last to arrive fashionably late and the seminar had technically started a few hours beforehand, I was rushed to registration and wasn't even able to drop off my bags or see my room before I was ushered off to "THE POLES"....

     Aaaahhh the Poles. So anyone who's attended one of Anthony Robbins events knows that his team likes to set up these physical challenges for us to defeat as a metaphor for life. For example, in his Unleash the Power Within (UPW) seminars (which are basically his intro seminars where people go to for the first time to get a sense of what he's all about) he makes us walk across a 14ft bed of hot burning coals barefoot.... that's right, you read that correctly - he turns all 2000+ participants in each seminar into FireWalkers. It sounds insane but it's actually a tonn of fun and I've personally done it many times now. LOL So for Life Mastery, the challenge was to climb up a 60 foot telephone pole that had pegs lined up each side.... climb up all the way to the top while focusing on the mantra "Look Up, What's Next, Breathe - Look Up, What's Next, Breathe...", which when you think about it is a great metaphor for life. Keep your head up, look forward, breath and go... What else is there to do really? LOL  So once you climb all the way to the top at a steady pace (we're all wearing helmets and are attached to a harness for safety with 2 big guys spotting us from below - as if we were wall climbing), you're left squatting in a froggy position at the very top of the pole 60 feet in the air, looking around at the beautiful beaches and palm trees surrounding you, with everyone below you cheering you on. The pole wobbles a bit and you breathe to stay balanced, then you reach up to hang onto the harness above you as you STAND UP, STEP UP so you're at the very top of the pole, arms stretched out like a bird... and then LEAP for your dreams!  It's quite incredible actually to watch all these people doing this exercise, young and old, men and women, doesn't matter - everyone does it!  They have a trapeze type swing at the top a few feet in front of the pole you're on and the idea is to jump out and see if you can catch the swing (not many people were able to successfully do this but everyone tried and did an amazing job). To say it was exhilarating and a push beyond your comfort zone and beyond your fears - well, that's an understatement. I didn't have my camera on me for this event but I am assured that I will get some pictures sent to me by my fellow seminar folks who jumped for their dreams with me and when I do, I will be sure to update this post.(update: got some pics of it!!)

So back to me.  I got off this plane, was ushered to the poles despite my exhaustion and within about 15mins of power moves, cheering others on and trying to get myself into a peak mental state, they were strapping me up before I knew what was going on. LOL  For anyone who knows me, you know that poles and I don't get along in general (aka - my pathetic attempts at pole dancing lessons as the gym didn't go very well hahaha).  The climb up this pole was a bit more physically challenging than I thought (the pegs were spread really far apart for someone short like myself to reach) but I made it to the top and after a bit of hesitation and trying to catch my breath, I wasn't able to stand upright but I jumped. I'm proud of myself either way. :) 

After about 3 hrs in the heat cheering everyone on at the poles, we were finally able to go back to our rooms, settle in, relax (I took a very much needed shower) for a bit before heading back to the main cabin to begin the information sessions of our seminar. That was about all the excitement for day 1 in Savusavu.

Stay tuned as I recap the next few days in my next post, which include an incredible liquid diet and detox plan that most people think I'm crazy for attempting, but man oh man did it work! 

BULA FIJI ! (Part 1) - Getting There and Time in Suva

     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!!