So here I am sitting in a airport lounge near our gate for our flight to san fransisco. My stomach is full of my first American dining experience at an American seafood diner. The meals are huge!!!
The flight from Fiji to LA was thankfully unremarkable. We thought we were going to have the whole row of four seats to ourselves but a big obnoxious American woman came and sat now next to us, she was angry because she didn’t want to be at the back of the plane because “it’s bumpy! It’s loud! The seats don’t go back (they do). ” Thankfully she fell asleep straight away and stayed that way the whole flight.
Beachcomer Island resort sells itself as a party island for young folk on schoolies or a gap year trip. The island is stunning so small it only takes 7min minutes to walk the circumference the water is crystal blue and you can see the fish and the reef even if you are just paddling in the shallows. The island has a on the beach bar with sand for a floor and a thatched roof above you, you are welcomed to the island by men with ukuleles singing in sarongs. It’s tacky but something you really enjoying when your there. The air is thick with the cries of BULA! From every staff member on the island.
The only think that took away from it was the guests one of the staff told us that a group of 270 uni students were staying all around us are blonde Aussie girls and boys so burnt they look like cray fish being charming with laconic aussie syntax, “ the water is like so F*ing beautiful we should totally take a picture of us drinking in the water!”
When swimming over the reef it is so close, less than half a metre away, I was mildly freaked out, not wanting to hurt the coral. The coral itself looks dull, and damaged, with two snorkling trips a day not including scuba and Snuba( a new helmeted kind of diving) it is no wonder. There are small fluorescent blue fish and large orange and blue fish. Bright blue star fish and huge orange bulbish sponges. Ep swears she saw a clown fish (or a Nemo fish as she has dubbed it) another couple said they saw a small reef shark. I had a hypo and hopped out early to chill on the boat. The water was literally glittering in the sunshine. Back on the island a reggae band plays covers of the eurythmics and me and ep spent the day in the shallows of the water or in the bar drinking free beers (me) and not so free chocolate and banana milkshakes( girly).
. The sun sets magnificently in Fiji and is seen is oranges and pinks and mauves as the rain clears. The bus is filled with laughter as the staff who worked on the island are dropped off at their homes on the way back into town. We are dropped of at the bus depot near the markets, people selling fish, and fruit yell from their stalls, the taxi drivers call out to us and I hear “bob marley bob marley!” as drivers try to attract my be-dreaded attention.
Every day is a lazy Sunday in Fiji and people operate in ‘Fiji Time’ we did little to nothing wondering into town, swimming, reading by the pool, playing cards and watching movies. So relaxing.
I will remember Fiji as the place where we found our travelling minds and bodys, where all is unfamiliar and people are deteremined to make sure you are having a good time. Everyone says Bula in the street people come up to shake your hand and say hello and to welcome you back again. Fijians are infectiously cheeky and are constantly laughing and smilling so you feel warm inside. Fiji was not what me and girly had envisioned ...in ways it was better and in others worse certainly memorable relaxing and heartwarming.
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