Saturday

Went into the town of Nadi, which is about a 20 minute bus ride.  The roads are horrible, so it takes longer than you would think to go anywhere by car or bus.

Went to the Sri Siva Subrahmaniya Swami Temple.  "It is the largest and finest temple in the South Pacific," or so the tour book says.  It was beautiful.  But it was built only 17 years ago.  Started with a small temple with donations from a group in the San Francisco Bay area.

Went back into Nadi to buy postcard stamps, bought postcards, went to the market to by fruit (more pineapple for Georgi), and ate lunch at a tiny Indian restaurant.  (Yummy, but spicy!)  The main street in Nadi is only 2 lanes.  Pedestrians have no rights at all.

Then more pool time. 

Rented a movie for $7.50 at the check in desk.  YIKES!

... thinking of all of you!  g

Friday is SCUBA DAY

Today we went on our first scuba trip.

Linda stayed at the resort because her ears are messed up.  She was going to get a pedicure but it would have cost $90 Fijian ($65 us)  YIKES!  Needless to say, she decide to go for a walk and buy an $11 cup of coffee.  (... and that's better???)  (Linda says she needed her coffee!) 

Went scuba diving.  Took us 1 hour to get to an island that usually takes 35 minutes.  Why the delay?  The huge waves averaging 4-5 feet and swells 10 ft or more.  We had to wear our scuba masks because of the waves breaking into the boat.  (YIPEE!!)  Finally got to the dive sight... after Chief Jim (see earlier blog) soon became "Chief Ralph."  (No, I will not give you the details.  However, eat dinner with the Chief and he will tell you ALL the details guaranteed!)

Once in the water there were tons of fish.  Saw turtles, sand eels, and tons of other fish.  Went down to about 80 feet and the water temperature was about 74 degrees.  Took a short break and did a second dive in the same area (called the FISH MARKET) because the other diving sights were toooo rough.

Got back 1 1/2 hours late and found Linda eating lunch at the resort. 

Ate pizza at the marina (no avocado for Carlos).  Watched some Fijian dancers and watched a movie in our room.  It was a long and amazing day.

We hope that the weather will improve.  At least today we had some sunshine and no rain.
Hope that you are all doing well!  g

Thursday's Adventures

What a fantastic day.   We hired our own driver to take us to explore the island as the Fijian's see it.  

The "hump" in the road coming up.....

  

Our driver "Anoop" getting us sugar cane to taste....

We explored gardens, saw the "sleeping giant".

Fijian Orchid

  

Entrance to the Sleeping Giant Gardens

The Sleeping Giant Mtn Range

We got a tour of Fiji"s believed to be first village. 

Village woman and baby

 
Village woman preparing fish for a meal

The current "Chief's" residence

Village People

We stopped at to by fruit, veggies, fish and meat as the locals do.... quite different than our farmer's markets in the US.   

Fish in the market place!

We are truly having a wonderful experience here in Fiji!!!

Thanks for stopping by!   L

Wacky Wednesday

Still raining and overcast :(  Hasn't stopped us from having fun.

Walked to the marina for breakfast.  2 eggs, hashbrowns (sort of), 2 bacon $17 fiji or $14 US. 

In search of pina colada mix, as drinks were $21 fiji apiece and Carlos's pinas last night were "yucky."  But we still drank them.

Hung out at the pool and hot tub.  Tried to read books while overlooking the ocean... but it was too windy!
Dinner at the golf course club.  It was curry night!  yummy.  The fish and chips weren't very good.  Some kids were catching toads and I (g) had to help! 

Back at the resort we were played Triominos and card game Golf.  Were we also serenaded by a Fijian group that is amazing.  FUN! FUN!  G & L    G was being a science teacher with the kids... in her element for sure!    Too cute!

Trip to the Marina

What a wonderful lunch at Cardo's.  It rained like he**. But, we had so much fun!  We rekindeled our athletic prowess by playing frisbee in the pool.  But Georgi and Linda sat in the hot tub.

Carlos made pina coladas from scratch... bad choice.  Who knew?  rum instead of vodka.

Watched fruit bats fly around the swimming pool.  They are HUGE! very cool! VERY BEAUTIFUL!

J, L, C & G

First Day

The first day went great!

Our room is on the ground floor right next to the largest swimming pool in Fiji.  The beach is just on the other side of the pool.  We even ate breakfast by the pool before we took our naps.

After naptime we took the bus (public transportation) to the town of Nadi, which is about 20 minutes away.  If you have ever watched a Harry Potter movie and remember the "Knight Bus" our bus ride was kind of like that.  Huge potholes to swerve around.  Really big speed bumps... and construction.  At one point the oncoming traffic was in our lane. 

In Nadi we exchanged dollars for Fijian dollars.  We went into a little shop to look at hand carved wooden bowls and other things.  We got invited to a Kava welcoming ceremony.  Kava is a drink made from kava-root powder (pepper plant).  It isn't alcholic but it does numb the tongue and lips.  It tastes like dirt.  Jim is now "the chief."  Linda is "Mrs. Chief."  Carlos is "Assistant Chief."  I'm sure you can figure out my title.  Jim ended up buying a kava bowl and other items.  I don't think we should put Jim in charge of haggling!

Next was grocery shopping.  Food here is expensive and we all were wondering how the locals afford to eat.  The milk is not refrigerated.  There were lamb sausages (which we didn't buy.)  The potato chips were expensive but tasty.  Most everything has to be imported.

We made it!

We made it to Fiji!

For Carlos and me it took about 32 hours from the time we got up to the time we arrived at the resort.  WHEW! 

Jim and Linda showed up to the Los Angeles airport right on schedule. We headed to the international terminal to hang out for an hour before we could check in.  Then we stood in line for another hour trying to get checked in (and we were checking in 5 hours prior to the flight time.)  WE should have gotten the hint at that point that we were going to spend a lot of time standing in lines trying to get to Fiji. 

The 10.5 hour flight was easier then I thought.  It REALLY helped that we left LAX at 11:30 pm.    However, because of the construction at LAX, we taxied around the airport for a really, really long time. ( I wonder if we taxied to Burbank and then took off?)  Sleeping on the airplane was easier and more comfortable than I thought. Got served dinner and breakfast.  Overall, the flight wasn't bad.

Getting off the plane and through customs took almost 2 hours.  YIKES!  Of course, we are all tired and little cranky.  Took a cab to the resort.  The roads are terrible and driving on the left side is a little bit weird, especially when sleep deprived.

To sum it up:  Carlos and I left the Walla Walla house on Saturday, 5:30am.  We arrived at resort Monday, 8:00 am. (We totally missed out on Sunday because of the international dateline :( )