Fiji

Bula!!!

Hjemvendt fra Fiji. En fantastisk rejse, som jeg vil se tilbage på med et bredt smil. Simpelthen ubeskriveligt. Nå men jeg vil prøve at forklare, hvorfor jeg synes at Fiji skal opleves.
Turen startede fredag aften kl.22, hvor Liesbeth og jeg tog en taxa til lufthavnen i Melbourne. Efter nogle timers ventetid steg vi ombord på flyveren. Vi var på vej til Fiji. 4-5 timer i flyet gik snildt for mig, og jeg har endnu ikke har nogen problemer med at flyve. Det er egentlig lidt hyggeligt, synes jeg. Flyet landede uden problemer i Nadi på øen Viti Levu. I lufthavnen fik vi en fin modtagelse, folk var utrolig venlige. Vi købte et Bula Pass så vi kunne sejle rundt til de øer, hvor vores ressorts lå på. Derefter skulle vi så bare vente på bussen, der skulle kører os ud til vores båd, som sejlede til vores første destination, Octopus Resort på Waya Island. Mens vi ventede blev vi introduceret til Fiji-time. Åbenbart tager alting sin tid på Fiji. Folk er ikke lige så præcise, som de nok burde være. I hvert fald fik vi at vide at bussen ville samle os op fra lufthavnen mellem 8.30 – 9.00, men den kom først 9.20. FIJI-TIME. Vi kom med bussen, blev afleveret og efter en kort ventetid, sejlede vi mod Waya Island. En bådtur på 1½ time, som ikke var yderst behagelig, så jeg er glad for at jeg ikke bliver søsyg.
Octopus Resort
Da vi ankom til Octopus Resort fik vi en syngende modtagelse, som blev afsluttet med Bula (velkommen, hej). Vi fik en velkomstdrink og blev derefter ført til vores hytter. En lækker hytte. Lige ned til stranden, og den havde alt, hvad vi kunne ønske os. Der ud over havde vi et lille stykke af stranden med strandstole dertil. Fik lidt middagsmad, nød stranden og så var det blevet tid til aftensmad. Rigtig god mad. Aftens underholdning bød på ballondans, limbo, øl stafet og æg transport med balderne. Deltog kun i øl stafet og jeg var elendig, hvis jeg selv skal sige det. Herefter kom vi i snak med et amerikansk par, og vi fik nogle drinks i vores hytte. Søndag mindede utrolig meget om lørdag idet vi lå, som to dovne, søløver på stranden. Lavede ingenting. Om aftenen var der film, men da hverken Liesbeth eller jeg ønskede at se den, så valgte vi i stedet at spille nogle nervepirrende spil of backgammon. Desværre var der ikke megen gang i den, da filmen sluttede, så vi valgte at krybe til køjs. Mandag var vores sidste fulde dag på Waya, så der skulle ske noget. Vi valgte at lægge på stranden. Ej vi havde fået at vide at vi kunne besøge en landsby, så den tur valgte vi at deltage i. I landsbyen fik vi en rundvisning, derefter skulle vi smage Kava (speciel drik). Smagte ikke specielt godt, og den klud de brugte, så ikke specielt lækker ud. Men da mændene altid blev og fik nogle stykker mere, så måtte jeg drikke tre. Nam nam. Herefter optrådte indbyggerne med nogle sange og dans. Ærlig talt, så kunne jeg simpelthen ikke lade være med at smile. Jeg synes det var fantastisk. Om aftenen var der krabberace, og min elendige krabbe, Spot (den var så lille at der ikke kunne stå et nummer på den) gik ikke videre fra de indledende. Efter den aftalte krabberace fik vi nogle drink. Den amerikanske fyr, Brian, og jeg gik ind i et drabeligt spil krig, der efter to tætte spil endte med 1-1. Pigerne og en anden amerikansk fyr, Paki, gik i seng, mens Brian og jeg delte en halv flaske elendig vodka (rent) mens vi spillede poker. Havde det forbavsende godt dagen efter indtil vi kom på båden.
Botara Beach Resort
Næste stop var på Naviti Island. Botara Beach Resort. Det tog ca. 45 minutter med Bula båden. Der var rigtig mange mennesker, men en stor amerikansk gruppe på ca. 30 unge mennesker, skulle af sted, så vi endte med at være alene sammen med en gruppe fra New Zealand. Gennemsnitsalderen var vel 65 år, men de var nogle flinke mennesker, og der gik ikke længe før vi havde fået en invitation og et visitkort til når vi kunne til New Zealand. Hytten vi fik tildelt var vældig fin. Ikke helt samme kvalitet som Octopus Resort, men bestemt til at leve med. Vi tog ud at snorkle, det havde vi ikke gjort på Octopus Resort. En dejlig tur og der var en masse flotte fisk, og jeg svømmede lidt længere ud. Pludselig så jeg den. En Reef-shark. Den angreb mig, og vi sloges i flere minutter før jeg fik den nedkæmpet, og aftensmaden var reddet. Pjat. Jeg angreb selvfølgelig hajen, vi sloges i flere minutter, før jeg fik den nedkæmpet. Okay måske fordrejede jeg sandheden en smule, men det var min første haj og sandheden er, at jeg blev en smule nervøs. Godt nok var det en ufarlig haj, men den var alligevel rimelig stor. Oh well min første haj. Dagen efter kom et engelsk par og vi snakkede lidt med dem under og efter aftensmaden. Tidligere på dagen havde vi været på fisketur med de gamle mænd. Alle fangede minimum en fisk undtagen Liesbeth og jeg. Viser bare at vi hverken dur som fiskere eller backpackers. Om aftenen blev vi underholdt af landsby beboerne med sang og dans. Torsdag skulle vi videre til sidste ø.
Otto and Fannys
Sidste ressort vi skulle bo på var på Tavewa Island. Da vi kom til Otto and Fannys var vi virkelig optimistiske. Indtil da havde vi haft en fremragende tur, og Tavewa Island var så flot. Den flotteste af øerne vi havde været på og vandet var ubeskriveligt. Desværre gik det hurtigt ned ad bakken selvom vi fik en flot solnedgang. Der var mange myg, myre og vi fandt tre kakerlakker, som blev elimineret og deres indgange blev blokeret. Til aftensmad (ikke særlig god mad) snakkede vi med et tysk par, og fortalte dem, hvad vi havde oplevet. De synes det var rimelig underholdende, men da vi var færdige ville de lige se om de også have kakerlakker, da vi ville sprøjte vores værelse. Det viste sig at deres værelse havde utrolig mange kakerlakker, og de tyske pige ville under ingen omstændigheder sove i den hytte. Eftersom jeg havde undersøgt hele vores hytte for kakerlakker uden at finde nogen, så tilbød vi det tyske par at sove hos os, og de takkede ja. De fik tilbudt en anden hytte, men jeg kan godt forstå de ikke ønskede det. Vi fik snakket sammen og aftalte at dage efter ville vi rejse væk og samtidig kræve at vi ikke skulle betale den fulde pris. Fredag gjorde vi hvad vi havde aftalt og fik fire senge på vandrehjemmet på Octopus Resort. En degradering sammenlignet med hvad vi havde haft, men Octopus Resort var fedt at slutte af med. Før vi tog af sted havde vi dog aftalt at vi ville se the Blue Lagoon, og der var vi så et par timer. Desværre ingen Brooke Shields.

Sidste dag på Octopus Resort gik hurtig og før vi vidste af det, så var vi på vej tilbage til Viti Levu. Vi mødte gruppen fra New Zealand og valgte at tage med dem, eftersom deres hotel var lige overfor lufthavnen. Hotellet var udmærket, men dagen efter skulle vi vente nogle timer før flyet afgik, så de blev brugt på pool, læsning og shopping i lufthavnen. Turen i flyet gik fin undtagen der sad en pænt irriterende ældre herre på min højre side, filmen vi så var Star Trek og maden var ikke specielt imponerende.
All in all har det været en fantastisk tur. En tur som jeg aldrig vil glemme og jeg kan varmt anbefale Fiji til alle dem som overvejer det. Det er absolut pengene værd. Til sidst vil jeg slutte af med at sige tusind tak til Liesbeth for en fremragende på grænsen til legendarisk tur. Turen ville absolut ikke have været det samme uden dig og derfor er jeg rigtig glad for, at du var min rejsepartner. Tak.

Bula!!!

Returned from Fiji. An amazing trip, which I can look back at with a big smile. It’s impossible to describe. I’ll try to explain why I think Fiji is a place to be seen.
The journey began Friday evening at 22, where Liesbeth and I drove by cab to the airport in Melbourne. After a few hours of waiting, we boarded. We were going to Fiji. The 4-5 hours flying were no problem and I haven’t yet have any problems with flying. Actually it is a bit cozy. The plane landed without any problems in Nadi in the Island Viti Levu. In the airport we were well received. We bought a Bula Pass so we could sail to the Islands were the resorts were, that we were going to stay at. After this we waited for the bus, that was going to drive us to the boat, which was sailing us to the first destination, Octopus Resort on Waya Island. While we were waiting we were introduced to Fiji-time. Apparently everything on Fiji takes time. The people are not on time as they ought to be. The bus should have picked us up between 8.30-9.00 but it came at 9.20. FIJI-TIME. We came on the bus, and it drove us to the boat. The boat trip look around 1½ hour and it wasn’t really that pleasant, so I’m happy I don’t get easily seasick.
Octopus Resort
When we came to Octopus Resort they were singing to us and the song ended with Bula (welcome, hey). We received a welcome drink and after this we were taken to our burs. A nice bur which was by the beach and it has everything we had hoped for. Furthermore there was a small part of the beach that we could have to us selves with two beach chairs. The day went by with food and lying at the beach. After dinner the entertainment was some contests. Balloon dance, limbo, beer race and a game where you had to transport an egg with your butt. I participated in the beer race with disappointing result. After this we started talking to American couple and had a few drinks at our bur. Sunday was much like Saturday in that we were two lazy sea lions on the beach. We did nothing. At night they showed a movie but neither Liesbeth and I wanted to watch it so we decided to play a thrilling game of backgammon. Sadly there wasn’t much going on after the movie ended and we went to bed. Monday was out last full day on Waya so something had to happen. We choice to lie on the beach. No we were told of a trip to a village on the Island, so we decided to go on that. In the village we were shown around, and afterwards we tasted Kava, a special Fijian drink, it didn’t taste very good. But the men always took more than one, and so did I. Nam nam. Then we were entertained by the inhabitants of the village with song and dance. It just made me smile. Fantastic. In the evening we had a crab race but my stupid little crab; Spot (it got its name because it was too small to have a number on it) didn’t do very well. After the race we had some drinks and then the American guy Brian and I played a bloody game of war, which ended 1-1. The girls and another American guy, Paki, went to bed so Brian and I shared half a bottle of bad vodka meanwhile we played poker. I didn’t feel as bad as I had feared the next day.
Botara Beach Resort
Next stop was on Navita Island. Botara Beach Resort. It only took around 45 minutes with the Bula boat. There were a lot of people on the Island when we came, but we soon discovered that around 30 Americans were leaving on the same day so we would be the only ones on the Island together with a group from New Zealand.
The average age of the people from NZ was around 65 years old, but they were really nice, and it didn’t take long before we had received an invitation to NZ. The bur we got was very nice, not the same quality as the one on Octopus Resort, but definitely something we could live in. We decided to snorkel a bit because we hadn’t had the change to do that while we were on Octopus Resort. There was a lot of beautiful fish and I dared to swim a bit out. Suddenly I saw it. A Reef-shark. It attacked me, we fought for several minutes before I killed it, and dinner was saved. No it’s not true. I attacked the shark, we fought and I killed it. Okay maybe the true story is that I saw it and nothing happened and even though it wasn’t dangerous it still was big. My first shark. The next day an English couple arrived and we talked with them during and after dinner. We had earlier been fishing with the old NZ guys. Everyone but Liesbeth and I caught a fish. We are no fishers or backpackers. In the evening we were entertained by the inhabitants on that Island. Thursday we went on to the last Island.
Otto and Fannys
The last resort we lived at was on Tavewa Island. When we came to Otto and Fannys we were optimistic. So far it had been ad wonderful trip and the Tavewa Island was very beautiful. It was the most beautiful Island of them all. Sadly that was the positive things even though we saw a nice sunset. There were a lot of mosquitoes, ants and 3 cockroaches, which I killed and then I blocked where they came from. At dinner (not impressive food) we talked to a German couple and told them about the cockroaches. They thought it was funny but when we were done they wanted to see if they had any, because we wanted to spray ours to make sure they wouldn’t come back. They soon found out that there were a lot of cockroaches in their room and the German girl didn’t want to sleep there anymore. Because I had checked out bur, we offered the German couple to sleep in our bur and they accepted. They were offered another bur, but they didn’t want another one. We talked with them and decided that we would demand a refund the next day and find another place. Friday we booked four beds in the dorm on Octopus Resort. Not the same as we had had before but still nice to go back to the resort. Before going back to Octopus Resort we went to the Blue Lagoon for a few hours, sadly no Brooke Shields.
The last day on Octopus Resort went fast and before we knew it, we were going back to Viti Levu. We meet from group from NZ and choose to go with them to their hotel because it was very close to the airport. The hotel was nice and the next day we waited a few hours in the hotel with reading and pool. Then we shopped in the airport. The trip in the plane went okay even though the movie was bad, food bad and not enough space.
All in all is was the perfect trip. A trip I’ll never forget and I can recommend it to everyone who is thinking of going there. It’s worth the money. Finally I would like to thank Liesbeth for this amazing trip almost legendary. The trip would definitely not have been the same without you and I am really happy that you were my travelling partner.
Tak