So yesterday fiona (my bunkmate that i'm now sort of travelling with) and I sat out on the beach with tanning oil on. It was pretty cloudy for a while, but then it cleared up, for about two hours. We were/are burnt as hell. Fiona's from England, so her skin is pretty close to as fair as mine. You can imagine the pain we've been in today.
We spent the day on South Sea Island, which takes about five minutes to walk around. It's pretty cool, I've got to say. it's a coral beach, which isn't all that comfortable to walk on with bare feet, but it was white and the water was turquoise blue. I went snorkelling as well, and it was really cool. It was getting to low tide though, and I was really really close to the coral and got a few scratches on my legs. Got some cool pics though. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to use my beautiful wonderful new camera because I do not have the battery charger with me. There was a girl here yesterday who had the same charger thing, and she said I could use it, but she took my battery off after like half an hour, which did practically nothing. So, I bought a cheap disposable underwater camera. I'm pretty bumed about the battery thing though. I should be able to buy one in NZ, but I was really hoping to get more pics of Fiji with it. Fiona said that I could use all her photos of Fiji though. So it works out alright.
Smugglers' Cove is going to store my luggage while I'm off at Beachcombers Island, and the woman at the travel desk said that she would keep my laptop at her place for the next couple days because the luggage storage room isn't guarenteed to be 100% safe. She said she doesn't do it very often either, so that's really cool. I think I'm going to be in and around $600FJD for this trip, which is pretty good considering I'm not living too too cheap. I'm doing just about everything I want to. I might be $100 or two over that if I decide to do parasailing or something like that. I don't know yet. I don't really care either. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to make money in NZ, so yeah.
Tomorrow night should be a right party on Beachcombers. It's supposed to be the party island and tomorrow is Friday and I think it's all book up.
Oh, and here at Smugglers I'm staying in a 36 bed mixed dorm. I thought that was pretty big, until I heard that Beachcombers is and 84 bed mixed dorm. It'll be like camp or something. It's going to be absolutely nuts!
Anyway, I'll talk to you later, I'm not sure what the internet's going to be like on Beachcomber, so I might not email you back for a couple days, I don't know. But for sure I'll be emailing you on Sunday night, which is late in the evening on Saturday for you.
Love you lots,
Mo
Thursday, August 21, 2008
day two
So, in the short space of one day my fiji plans have changed a wee bit. instead of staying in Nadi (pronounced Nandi) the whole time, I'm going to spend a couple nights on a beachcomber island. so tomorrow i'm going to south sea island for the day, coming back here for the night, then on friday morning i'll leave for beachcomber island where i'll stay for friday and saturday, for $275 FJD which includes all meals for three days because i come back to Nadi on Sunday night. So, I thought it wasn't a bad deal at all. I'm living off of around $100FJD/day anyways, so why not add a boat trip and another island into it. i've kind of made friends with one of my bunk mates, so she's coming to south sea island with me tomorrow, and then we're going to beachcomber together, then i'm coming back here and she's continuing on to another island. It's nice to have someone to hang out with. I'm diong well, a little burnt, but still smiling. There's native dancing every night here which is really cool. And i've got to say I love watching the men because they all have amazing bodies and, well, yum. :P Anyways, the show is going to start soon, so I love you and I'll talk to you later.
after night number one.
smugglers cove is a really nice backpackers. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I love it. There's loads of young people, which is good, good food, RIGHT on the beach, i will send pictures, and the weather is very warm. it's really really humid actually. constantly sweating, but it's alright, i can live with that. yesterday it was sunny with a bit of cloud now and again, but there was a perfect breeze that made what would have been unbearable heat, laying in the sun, to perfect temperatures. AND i went swimming in the ocean after dark last night. it was soo nice! it was like bath water, except a whole lot saltier. :P
Monday, August 18, 2008
I made it!
Hey guys, I made it to Fiji safe and sound.
My ticket was wrong about the time of departure by about forty minutes, so we left at 8:15pm instead of 7:35pm, no biggie. On the plane, my "window seat" was one of two window side seats that were missing the window. The plane was a little one too. It was the same size as a westjet plane, three seats on either side of one isle, that's it!
There were only two of us in our three seats during the first flight, and after the seatbelt sign had been turned off, we noticed that the people that had been sitting behind us weren't there anymore. So, my seatmate moved back one and we each had three seats to ourselves for the rest of the flight. It was really nice for sleeping, and am I ever glad I had that pillow with me, i had it against the wall, and then I used the three little pillows to protect me from buckles and other such things.
The two in flight movies were 'Definately, Maybe", and "21". I had already told myself that I had to go to sleep after the first one (which was really, really cute, btw), so I didn't get to see "21" which I've been wanting to see for ages. Oh well, such is life.
So, then we got to Honolulu. We just had to get off the plane, so they could refuel and change crew. That was fine, until, when they were refueling the guy that was in charge of it spilled about 50 gallons or so onto the tarmac. Apparently there's a device in place that stops the fuel when it reaches a certain point, but the guy who was fueling overroad it and then decided he wasn't going to pay attention. Way to go buddy.
So, we got to wait, and watch, while these guys threw, I think it was salt, onto the gas to neutralize it, then they had to clean the salt up. This all took them an extra forty minutes, or so. After what seemed like forever, we got back onto the plane and we left by I think it was getting close to three in the morning Honolulu time (which was six in the morning for you guys, I think).
It ended up that the plane was empty enough again that I got the same three seats to myself, again. I'm pretty sure I slept, I dreamt anyway. My back is a little sore though, and I'm pretty tired, although that could be a little jet lag, what do you think? :P
The story continues after I'm through customs and baggage claim (which also took, forever). I tried to reconfirm a tour booking for thursday, but there was something funny about their computers or something, and they said they would call me here. Then they got me to the shuttle, but it ended up being the wrong shuttle. I was taken the a place called Sky Lodge, when I really wanted to go to Smugglers' Cove. The shuttle driver got me a taxi, which would have been a five or six dollar ride had I not accepted his offer to take me on a small tour, of the first Fijian village and the second biggest Fijian city.
It was loads of fun! The taxi driver's name was Jai (no comments please). He was very nice and pretty easy to talk to. We talked about loads of things, from the roads (which are crap), to what it's like to live in Fiji (which is hard), to the rain, christmas, and bread fruit trees (which are all beautiful. There's loads and loads of farming and almost all of it is sugar cane. They have machines that can harvest it, but only if it's a flat field, otherwise, it has to be chopped down by hand, stacked by hand, and then taken to the mill by either train or truck. There was sugar cane pieces all over the roads too, beside the road where we might have lots of branches after a wind storm, they have sugar cane.
Another big industry in Fiji is fishing. We drove into the dock area, and the men (and only men) were bringing boats in, bringing fish in and talking and trading amongst themselves. Jai said that a piece of fish about a foot long would cost you about $20 or so.
When we were driving into the city, the name of which I still can't remember, you could smell the sawdust from a pine tree sawdust mill. It was a sour burnt sort of sweet pine smell. Then as we got closer to the city you could smell the sugar cane mill, that was a bizzare smell. It was sort of sweet and sour, like the sawdust mill, but it also smelled kind of musty or something. Not an unpleasant smell.
We parked along one of the main roads, and we decided we'd meet back at the van in an hour and a half, which was 12:30. Jai recommended an a place called garma, it was all indian food. It was so yummy, I had a bowl of rice with three different sauce things, along with chippati bread and a papadum and a candy (which was pure sugar!), and a mango lassi that made me grin like a mad woman. It was delectable.
After food I went walking around town, going into a number of shops. There's heaps of shops full of cheap sweatshop items. I got a bottle of perfume for $4 FJD. I have to admit, it smelled much better in the store, oh well. In every shop you go into, there are three or four more salespeople than there would be at home. Whenever you walk into a store a salesperson follows you around the store like a shadow, almost daring you or begging you to buy something. I probably got it as much as I did because of being white, fair enough though, I look like an american, and if an american is travelling here they usually have some money to spend. Unfortunately for these people, I didn't have much money to spend, I did what I could though.
Another thing that's really noticable here is that, as a white female, I got stared at by men ashamedly and all the time, by just about every Fijian man I saw. I quite often make eye contact too, which brings me to my next exciting event, I was stalked! I made eye contact with a man at one point, soon after food, then i saw him waiting outside all the shops i went into. He seemed harmless, and I felt safe enough because I knew what was going on. Nothing came of it. The last three or four times I past him I didn't smile, and then it was time for me to meet Jai back at the van.
My time on the computer is almost up, so, I'm going to wrap this up.
One thing I didn't mention earlier was the price of gas here, $2.33/litre. Hope that made you all feel better about paying in and around $1.50/litre.
Love you all,
Thinking of you lots,
This place is beautiful,
And I love my camera!!!
xoxo
Mo
My ticket was wrong about the time of departure by about forty minutes, so we left at 8:15pm instead of 7:35pm, no biggie. On the plane, my "window seat" was one of two window side seats that were missing the window. The plane was a little one too. It was the same size as a westjet plane, three seats on either side of one isle, that's it!
There were only two of us in our three seats during the first flight, and after the seatbelt sign had been turned off, we noticed that the people that had been sitting behind us weren't there anymore. So, my seatmate moved back one and we each had three seats to ourselves for the rest of the flight. It was really nice for sleeping, and am I ever glad I had that pillow with me, i had it against the wall, and then I used the three little pillows to protect me from buckles and other such things.
The two in flight movies were 'Definately, Maybe", and "21". I had already told myself that I had to go to sleep after the first one (which was really, really cute, btw), so I didn't get to see "21" which I've been wanting to see for ages. Oh well, such is life.
So, then we got to Honolulu. We just had to get off the plane, so they could refuel and change crew. That was fine, until, when they were refueling the guy that was in charge of it spilled about 50 gallons or so onto the tarmac. Apparently there's a device in place that stops the fuel when it reaches a certain point, but the guy who was fueling overroad it and then decided he wasn't going to pay attention. Way to go buddy.
So, we got to wait, and watch, while these guys threw, I think it was salt, onto the gas to neutralize it, then they had to clean the salt up. This all took them an extra forty minutes, or so. After what seemed like forever, we got back onto the plane and we left by I think it was getting close to three in the morning Honolulu time (which was six in the morning for you guys, I think).
It ended up that the plane was empty enough again that I got the same three seats to myself, again. I'm pretty sure I slept, I dreamt anyway. My back is a little sore though, and I'm pretty tired, although that could be a little jet lag, what do you think? :P
The story continues after I'm through customs and baggage claim (which also took, forever). I tried to reconfirm a tour booking for thursday, but there was something funny about their computers or something, and they said they would call me here. Then they got me to the shuttle, but it ended up being the wrong shuttle. I was taken the a place called Sky Lodge, when I really wanted to go to Smugglers' Cove. The shuttle driver got me a taxi, which would have been a five or six dollar ride had I not accepted his offer to take me on a small tour, of the first Fijian village and the second biggest Fijian city.
It was loads of fun! The taxi driver's name was Jai (no comments please). He was very nice and pretty easy to talk to. We talked about loads of things, from the roads (which are crap), to what it's like to live in Fiji (which is hard), to the rain, christmas, and bread fruit trees (which are all beautiful. There's loads and loads of farming and almost all of it is sugar cane. They have machines that can harvest it, but only if it's a flat field, otherwise, it has to be chopped down by hand, stacked by hand, and then taken to the mill by either train or truck. There was sugar cane pieces all over the roads too, beside the road where we might have lots of branches after a wind storm, they have sugar cane.
Another big industry in Fiji is fishing. We drove into the dock area, and the men (and only men) were bringing boats in, bringing fish in and talking and trading amongst themselves. Jai said that a piece of fish about a foot long would cost you about $20 or so.
When we were driving into the city, the name of which I still can't remember, you could smell the sawdust from a pine tree sawdust mill. It was a sour burnt sort of sweet pine smell. Then as we got closer to the city you could smell the sugar cane mill, that was a bizzare smell. It was sort of sweet and sour, like the sawdust mill, but it also smelled kind of musty or something. Not an unpleasant smell.
We parked along one of the main roads, and we decided we'd meet back at the van in an hour and a half, which was 12:30. Jai recommended an a place called garma, it was all indian food. It was so yummy, I had a bowl of rice with three different sauce things, along with chippati bread and a papadum and a candy (which was pure sugar!), and a mango lassi that made me grin like a mad woman. It was delectable.
After food I went walking around town, going into a number of shops. There's heaps of shops full of cheap sweatshop items. I got a bottle of perfume for $4 FJD. I have to admit, it smelled much better in the store, oh well. In every shop you go into, there are three or four more salespeople than there would be at home. Whenever you walk into a store a salesperson follows you around the store like a shadow, almost daring you or begging you to buy something. I probably got it as much as I did because of being white, fair enough though, I look like an american, and if an american is travelling here they usually have some money to spend. Unfortunately for these people, I didn't have much money to spend, I did what I could though.
Another thing that's really noticable here is that, as a white female, I got stared at by men ashamedly and all the time, by just about every Fijian man I saw. I quite often make eye contact too, which brings me to my next exciting event, I was stalked! I made eye contact with a man at one point, soon after food, then i saw him waiting outside all the shops i went into. He seemed harmless, and I felt safe enough because I knew what was going on. Nothing came of it. The last three or four times I past him I didn't smile, and then it was time for me to meet Jai back at the van.
My time on the computer is almost up, so, I'm going to wrap this up.
One thing I didn't mention earlier was the price of gas here, $2.33/litre. Hope that made you all feel better about paying in and around $1.50/litre.
Love you all,
Thinking of you lots,
This place is beautiful,
And I love my camera!!!
xoxo
Mo
Friday, August 15, 2008
Saturday, August 9, 2008
RIP Pamela Brooks
I wrote this for my mum and Pamela...
In my life
And in my dreams,
In my heart,
What you mean to me:
You gave me hope
And love and peace,
A desire to live,
And a mind to dream.
A little girl
With tears and hate,
You helped me love
And let me change.
You saw the world
A beautiful place
You let me see it
Amazing grace.
Serenity Garden
Let beauty amaze
Open your mind
And find your way
Thank you for
Your courage/strength
Your art and love
And inspiring ways,
I don't know how
To begin to say,
I aspire to live like you
every day.
So thank, thank you,
Love, and please:
Words to live by,
And believe.
In my life
And in my dreams,
In my heart,
What you mean to me:
You gave me hope
And love and peace,
A desire to live,
And a mind to dream.
A little girl
With tears and hate,
You helped me love
And let me change.
You saw the world
A beautiful place
You let me see it
Amazing grace.
Serenity Garden
Let beauty amaze
Open your mind
And find your way
Thank you for
Your courage/strength
Your art and love
And inspiring ways,
I don't know how
To begin to say,
I aspire to live like you
every day.
So thank, thank you,
Love, and please:
Words to live by,
And believe.
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