Fourth stop: Fiji

What other airline would greet you with a hearty 'Bula!" and stewards wearing bright orange hula shirts and exotic flowers in their hair?


Fiji was the first stop where I felt like a real tourist - probably because most people who come here and are on the kind of tour I am on are all from elsewhere (and usually on their way to somewhere else). However, most people are friendly and we all have stories and tips to share. What strikes me is to go so far just to meet people from the same country as you. You can really get a good look at different personalities and characteristics when people are surrounded by strangers from home in a strange land. I wonder what they think about me. In fact, I've noticed a few of my old social paranoias and fears coming back - more along the lines of if people are talking about me (why on earth would they be?) or dislike me or think I am weird (well they may be well founded with that one...)




Fiji is amazing. Stunningly beautiful, with friendly people who sing to welcome you and once again when you leave. It is hard to find words to describe the lushness of the greenery and the clarity of the water here...there is beauty all around and it is intensified, in part I think, by how far away you are from anything you've ever known. Smack in the Pacific, this island nation has long had an allure for me. As for the Fijians themselves, they can be really quite attractive until they reach middle age, when something then goes terribly wrong. Gravity takes hold in quite unkind ways and suddenly you're left with a very large, round, very smiley person.

It is so relaxing here, nothing to do other than decide whether to drink or swim or kayak. Fiji time should be taken up all over the world: things will get done when they get done.
Vinaka Fiji!
At Smuggler's Cove, mainland (after having been on a great boat for a few days)

I think what I loved about the boat was that it was (surprisingly) possible to find moments of quiet. It seems wrong to say I am sick of hearing this tumult of British, American, Canadian, Aussie voices clamouring on about what they've 'done' or are going to 'do'. You cannot 'do' a country. You generally do a chore, like the washing up, or taking the bins out, or a baby's nappy. It seems so disrespectful, not to mention thoughtless, and it it really gets to me.

*** Some perspective *** My first 2 nights in Fiji were spent on a tiny (as in walk around it in maybe 5 minutes) island which was very picturesque but the overall experience depends a lot on who else is on it while you are. There was a group of young (20 - 24) Australian guys staying there and I was lucky enough to be in the same part of the dorm as them. As in on the bottom bunk of one, basically next to the two others. Their aim seemed to be to get as drunk as possible and come in to the dorm, shouting and singing and then try to make inane conversation with me. Not much appreciated, especially as each morning I had to be up and ready for 9am to go elsewhere. Amazingly, these guys managed to get up at about the same time too.... I guess I am getting old.
The Wana Taki cruise (I was on the boat for 2 nights) was amazing; the crew were great and the other people on board were super nice and we formed a great group, we talked, got drunk and laughed a lot. When I got to Smuggler's Cove, however, I had really bad earache and seemed to also have a fever and feel generally shit. Whether this was the start of an ear infection from diving 4 times (the water is CRAZY clear in Fiji, not to mention pretty warm and there are tonnes of coral, fish and more to see; I even had my first night dive!) or a cold/flu (not sure how you get one in the tropics) or the first signs of dengue fever I did not know, all I knew was that I felt mingy and uncommunicative and sick of tourists. Even though I was one...