"He would travel happily must travel light."
- Antoine de St. Exupery
NADI, FIJI
Well, Chris and I arrived in Fiji this morning at 5:15 am. Unfortunately, our bags didn't. Not sure what kind of omen that is for the rest of the year, but it was kind of a pain for us today. Hopefully our packs will arrive on the next Air Pacific flight tomorrow morning. If not, then we're really screwed....
As we went through immigration at the airport, five local musicians played Fijian songs of welcome to the arriving passengers. A nice gesture, but I probably could have done without this at 5:30 am. Then, after watching that cursed baggage carousel forever to no avail, we filled out a lost luggage form and caught a shuttle to our hostel, the Horizon Beach Backpackers Resort. It's the sort of place travelers use mainly as first-night lodging, as it's only about 10 minutes from the airport, next to the beach. As we soon discovered, though, it's kind of a dirty, muddy beach, and not really suited for swimming, snorkeling, or sunbathing. Instead, everyone hangs out by the hostel's swimming pool, which is pretty nice, except for some reason it's not shallow enough to stand up in, which means you get tired of treading water pretty quickly. Ah well.
After checking in, Chris and I walked up and down the beach to a nearby seaplane port. On the way, we were adopted by two local dogs that followed along and played in the surf. We then decided to take an open-air bus into the town of Nadi (pronounced nan-dee) to buy some supplies, as the airline had given us F$50 (about US$35) each to buy replacement items.
The town itself is nothing special--a main street lined with run-down stores selling overpriced stuff, with lots of annoyingly aggressive salesmen. We bought the essentials: swimsuits, sunscreen, flip-flops, and towels, and I had my first experience with haggling while buying a dive mask--a skill that I guess I'll have to get good at in the coming months. When it was over, I don't really know if I got a bargain, but at least I paid a lot less than the initial asking price.
Waiting for the bus back to the hostel, we met two really nice college students from Vancouver, B.C., Thomas and Laura. She's going on to study in Australia for several months, and he's going on to explore New Zealand. (Seems like everyone here is doing the Fiji-New Zealand-Australia circuit.) Other people we've met include Melissa from Ottawa, who's going to study at the University of Brisbane, Jocelyn from Utah, who's on her way back from a year-and-a-half world tour, and Rhett, a recent Berkeley graduate from Lake Tahoe, who's doing a solo five-month world tour that includes Australia, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and South America. (Everyone here thinks he's kind of crazy for trying to do all that in such a short time. I would have to agree.) I lent him my Lonely Planet guide because he has absolutely no idea what to do in Fiji.
- Antoine de St. Exupery
NADI, FIJI
Well, Chris and I arrived in Fiji this morning at 5:15 am. Unfortunately, our bags didn't. Not sure what kind of omen that is for the rest of the year, but it was kind of a pain for us today. Hopefully our packs will arrive on the next Air Pacific flight tomorrow morning. If not, then we're really screwed....
As we went through immigration at the airport, five local musicians played Fijian songs of welcome to the arriving passengers. A nice gesture, but I probably could have done without this at 5:30 am. Then, after watching that cursed baggage carousel forever to no avail, we filled out a lost luggage form and caught a shuttle to our hostel, the Horizon Beach Backpackers Resort. It's the sort of place travelers use mainly as first-night lodging, as it's only about 10 minutes from the airport, next to the beach. As we soon discovered, though, it's kind of a dirty, muddy beach, and not really suited for swimming, snorkeling, or sunbathing. Instead, everyone hangs out by the hostel's swimming pool, which is pretty nice, except for some reason it's not shallow enough to stand up in, which means you get tired of treading water pretty quickly. Ah well.
After checking in, Chris and I walked up and down the beach to a nearby seaplane port. On the way, we were adopted by two local dogs that followed along and played in the surf. We then decided to take an open-air bus into the town of Nadi (pronounced nan-dee) to buy some supplies, as the airline had given us F$50 (about US$35) each to buy replacement items.
The town itself is nothing special--a main street lined with run-down stores selling overpriced stuff, with lots of annoyingly aggressive salesmen. We bought the essentials: swimsuits, sunscreen, flip-flops, and towels, and I had my first experience with haggling while buying a dive mask--a skill that I guess I'll have to get good at in the coming months. When it was over, I don't really know if I got a bargain, but at least I paid a lot less than the initial asking price.
Waiting for the bus back to the hostel, we met two really nice college students from Vancouver, B.C., Thomas and Laura. She's going on to study in Australia for several months, and he's going on to explore New Zealand. (Seems like everyone here is doing the Fiji-New Zealand-Australia circuit.) Other people we've met include Melissa from Ottawa, who's going to study at the University of Brisbane, Jocelyn from Utah, who's on her way back from a year-and-a-half world tour, and Rhett, a recent Berkeley graduate from Lake Tahoe, who's doing a solo five-month world tour that includes Australia, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and South America. (Everyone here thinks he's kind of crazy for trying to do all that in such a short time. I would have to agree.) I lent him my Lonely Planet guide because he has absolutely no idea what to do in Fiji.
posted by John Kuge at 12:15 AM
1 Comments:
Ugh nevermind - see that he had contracted bacterial meningitis.
That sucks :-(
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