Day 35: Seven days in Paradise

Wow!

So we just spent 4 amazing days on a sunny island in Fiji called Nananu and it was bloody beautiful! Fine white sandy beaches, sunshine, kayaking, corals, volleyball, scantily clad ladies, great home cooked food, and lovely people just made this camp on Nananu just truly awesome. Also I did my open water Scuba Diving certificate here and seeing that I can't even swim that well, I'm dead chuffed with that! More on that later.

LAX
First thing I need to talk about was the flight out of LAX- man that airport is dead boring! So bloody crap it's unbelieveable and spending 12 hours waiting for our flight makes it even more unbearable. Well after sleeping in the car the night before we rolled into LAX at 12pm to return our car, but our flight wasn't util 11:30pm! So we decided rather than walk around with our massive backpacks we'd explore the airport. Yeah well, after 15minutes of exploring we had exhausted the 5 shops that they had so that was that. Anyways, we killed time by lounging and playing cards until the checkin desk for Air Pacific opened. The stupid thing was that after we checked in, they gave us seats totally in opposite ends of the plane so we quickly got them to fix that. The other stupid thing was that after we got tickets we had to take our luggage to a strange area across from the checkin so that they couild scan our luggage and then we had to go back to the checkin desk to confirm our seats. yeah, just a bit confusing. Anyways, luckily the flight itself was very comfortable and the food was nice too.

Fiji
The first thing we quickly learned when we landed in Fiji was the concept of "Fiji Time". Being a very big island everyone is just so laid back which is perfect for our week off to recover from america. So bascially Fiji time means "whenever". You order a taxi for 15 minutes, it will arrive "whenever". You want to wait for a bus that comes in half an hour? It will come "whenever". Your morning dive is at 8:30? It will be at "whenever". Hehe, you get the picture. Reminds me of that advert for Malibu- yeah mun! But seeing that this week was for relaxing it's nice to just be laid back. So we get a cab to our hotel- the Grand West Villa - and I have to say it is really nice and new. Nice pool, nice clean rooms, nice restaurant and bar. We were however told that there was a beach 5 minutes away, which wasn't a lie as such, but the beach in "New Town" was very horrible dirty black sand affair, in a town that was far from new. So after that dissapointment we were feeling abit dejected so we decided to at least get some quotes for diving courses. Now the first quote was FIJI$520 for a 3 dayu open water course which was convenient as it was in the New Town beach. We then headed into Nadi town for lunch and more quotes via bus. We waited for an hour and the funny thing is that random people will hoot you to see if you wanted a "lift" to whererver you needed to go. BUt it's a dogy affair cos they ain't no taxi and they'd probably take you to a ditch and rob and rape you. hehe, okay thats an exaggeration. But either way, after an hour of waiting for bus that was supposedly imminent (in Fiji time) we decided to go for a random driver. Think of images of cars and buses in New Delhi. Old run down bangers Toyotas with cheesy 70's fur covered seats. Also I made the mistake of sitting in the back, where there was no legroom so I had to literally sit sideways on. Haha, Oscar also had no seatbelt so we were actualy paying money to sit in a death trap :s We did however make it to town and paid the FIJI$4 for the lift so it was good. Fiji$1 is about 33 pence so it's a good exchange rate. Food is cheapish which is good too.

Nadi Town
The town is very run down and yes, they have a McDonalds! After lunhc we found another quote for diving and get this. It was the same 3 day Open Water course on a remote desert island, with all inclusive transfers and accomodatino for 4 nights, all for FIJIJ$531!!! Thats just $11 more than Nadi and it's actually on a gorgeous beach! Well, naturally we snapped it up and the very next day we were on our way in a minibus to the North Fiji to catch a speedboat to Nananu island resort. Our first thought that maybe we got conned cos it was too good to be true so on the mini bus there we were like "um, are were gonna get robbed now?". But then other people got picked up that were no native and we were on our way. the drive was nice cos we got to see the contry side of Fiji with palm trees and mountains but that was nothing compared to actually on the speedboat approaching Nananu island. Wowza! Imagine a summer camp with a hint of the hospitilaty of Adam Sandler's "50 first kisses" and the island off of Lost or "The Beach" and you will be close to my first encounter of paradise. I've never really been to a beach, nor had the interest of visiting beached before, but man oh man, this really was like how it is in the postcards. We were greeted by swaying palm trees and native Fijians, though the camp is run by Englsih geezers and everyone who visits is british or australian. As we walked onto the sandy, coarse and warm sand and through the hand carved "Welcome to Nananu Island Resort", we just knew that yeah! this was exaclty what we were expecting of Fiji and how it should have been from ther beginning.

We walked through the camp complete with Volleyball net and Dive Shop and onto the reception where we got our breifing from a scouser, which was a welcome voice to hear seeing that we had been away from home for so long. We then found our dorm's, booked up for the diving to start the next morning with a really cool German dude called Christian and got some kayaks out. Stupidly, Oscar decided he wanted to Kayak to a distant beach like 3 miles out, even though he had never kayaked before. haha, even more stupidly I went along with it and what with Oscar kayaking in circles most of the time, we got there in an hour. Though, what a bummer, there were corals in shallow water so we had to turn back so we didnlt break them, and the sun was starting to set too. An hour later it was like 6:30pm and it was like pretty dark and yup, we got a bollocking cos we were suppose to return the kayaks by 5:30, or at least before sunset so they could search for missing people in sunlight. Hehe, after that they scribbled in big black writing in the hire book "KAYAKS MUST BE RETURNED BY 5:30PM!".

Diving
I didn't think there was a stereotypical diving instructor, but everyone here is really friendly and like "hey dude! How's it going?" Hehe, I guess it is more of a stereotypical sun, surf, beach guy/gal. But it does make learning more fun. We had to read a book about the theory of scuba diving like how long you can stay in water and safely breath compressed air etc. We then learnt how to put together our scuba gear and started diving. 8:30am start, multiplied by Fiji Time meant 11am into the water. Hehe, but that always gave us time for breakfast at least of cornflakes and powdered milk. The island is fully self powered so hot showers, milk, running fresh water etc. is a luxury. But hey, being on a gorgeous beach kinda makes up for all that. So the first 2 days we had 4 training dives, and basically involved going under water and doing various scary things like taking off your jacket, breathing apparatus (the regulator), weights and mask- and then putting it back on again. OKay, not all at the same time, but still daunting for me, seeing that I can't actually swim that well. I really hated taking my mask off, cos the mask also covered your nose and I kept on taking water up my nose when I put the mask on filled up with sea water. But either way, on the 3rd day I passed it all and we went for "fun dives" to actually see real corals and fishes which was amazing! Cool thing is the "Navy Seal roll off the speedboat", though they push you in so you don't get much chance to get worried about sinking. There are truly amazing reefs here and though the visibilty is not quite the same as in all the pictures, it is still very very cool to be underwater and swimming around like a big goofy fish. Your whole body is light and suspended in water and feels like a whole new world which makes it even more exciting. Notable fish was a white tipped Shark, though they don't attack people...unless provoked, so I steered clear of that one.

Food
The dinner on the island was absolutely delicious! It was made by a native fijijan who I ordain as "masterchef Nina", who is your tyoical round, short always laughing grandma. She really is lovely, and the dinner is just like home cooked grub. Rice, potatoes, veg curries, salads, chilli beef, spaghetti bolognese....YUM!! And it is a buffet too so eat, eat, eat! :D The best night was "Fiji Night" to introduce the westener to the delights of Fijian culture. Dinner was ground roasted chicken, fish, potatoes, vegetables and the most succulent lamb I have ever, ever had! Yum! Haha, I am licking my lips right now, but yeah, it was probably the best meat meal I have had on this entire trip (I say meat meal, cos Skip Jacks was seafood, and yummy in a different class). Yeah, so getting carried away by foos again, love it. After dinner was traditional fiji dancing, followed by beers (local fiji bitter), and then a Kava Ceremony, which is like a tea ceremony, but with a ground up plant called Kava. Supposedly a narcotic, it was suppose to also make your lips go numb, but I think I had too much beer allready, so didn;lt quite have the desired effect, but it was nice. Tastes like doughy, mud water. I do have to say though, eating here gives me a bad tummy everyday so I'm on the shitter alot. To much fibre and sea water i guess.

Beach
Though Fiji was suppose to be a week of lounging, we quickly found ourselves on aquite a busy schedule with the Diving. Only 2 dives a day, but in Fiji time, that meant it was dinner by the time we got back from the 2nd dive of the day. So 4 nights at this tropical island became 5 nights, just so we could actually chill and explore and appreciate the beautiful surroundings and sunsets. So that was the whole fo yesterday. Just lounging in hammock for the morning, then hiking to a secluded beach on the other side of the island up some mountain. We thought the fron beach was nice, the back beach was even better. Literaly secluded, the sand was nice cos it was coarse like very shelly. The water was clear and warm and the sun was shining down. I have to meantion, it is actually their Winter over here, cos naturally we are on the other side of the world from home. But man, what a winter! It is still so nice over here, like a very fine spring day back home and actually probably the best tiome to visit cos I can only imagine it getting very very hot in the real summer here.

So on the other beach we topped up our all-over-body tan, and made it our personal challenge to open a coconut- partly cos we were hungry and partly cos once we discovered how hard it was just to get the outer husk off and after half an hour of trying we didn't want to turn back and face defeat. Luckily after an hour we got the damn thing open using but only the strength of our fingertips and a big hard rock..grrrr! It was very sweet (and tasty) success!

Money
Yeah, we are running low on money, Dangerously low. We've realised that America was very very very expensive, expecially the car bit of the road trip. So we are literally down to our last grand. Luckily in Fiji I have only spent a couple of hundred squid so not too bad i guess. I hear Australia is cheapish and Tokyo can be cheap, but I think I with our pretentious tastes, we are gonna starve before we get back to UK. Haha, we'll see when we get there.

Tomorrow we fly out to Sydney, so for now Goodbye! Nananu island will stay in my memories forever. Speak to you soon!
John.

tan level: body cathing up with arms and legs

music: jack johnson/

bowel movements: watery