Travel Tip #1: When traveling to a tropical island in the summertime, don't wear jeans and a sweatshirt, even if the plane is cold. Unless you're absolutely, positively sure your other clothing will arrive with you.
NADI, FIJI
Another day and still no bags. This sucks! We can't leave Nadi until our backpacks arrive, so all this time we've been in limbo, hanging around the hostel and occasionally riding the bus into town to buy supplies.
When we didn't hear anything from the airline for a second day, we were determined to do something, so we went ahead and booked a day cruise to the tiny island of Tivua in the Mamanucas, an island chain just west of Viti Levu. We left this morning out of the port of Denarau on a 110-foot sailboat, along with a horde of noisy tourists from England, Australia, and Malta. After an hour-long boat ride that included morning tea, we came to the island, which is so small we were able to walk completely around it in about six minutes. After a kava ceremony on the island, we went snorkeling just offshore through some cool staghorn coral gardens. Among the creatures I saw: sailfin tangs, squirrel fish, cleaner wrasses, blue sea stars, glassy sweepers, goat fish, feather stars, damsel fish, various angelfish and butterfly fish, and an enormous crown-of-thorns starfish. I also saw some clownfish in an anemone--when I got too close, one actually came up and bit me on the finger--hard! Who knew Nemo was so cranky?
After a mediocre buffet lunch on the island, we then went back to the sailboat to try some handline fishing. I didn't catch anything, though. As we headed back to port, the clouds rolled in and it poured down rain. I didn't mind this, since it cooled things down, and I needed to wash the salt off me anyway. As the rain clouds passed, we saw some really cool rainbows over the ocean and the mainland.
When we got back to Horizon Beach, we were relieved to find our bags waiting for us. Finally! Since we didn't have time to pack properly before we left Atlanta, Chris and I decided to move to a different hostel just down the street--the Beach Escape Villas, where we rented a private room where we could lay out all our stuff and sort through it. As it turned out, this was actually a nicer place than Horizon Beach, although the people staying here aren't nearly as friendly.
NADI, FIJI
Another day and still no bags. This sucks! We can't leave Nadi until our backpacks arrive, so all this time we've been in limbo, hanging around the hostel and occasionally riding the bus into town to buy supplies.
When we didn't hear anything from the airline for a second day, we were determined to do something, so we went ahead and booked a day cruise to the tiny island of Tivua in the Mamanucas, an island chain just west of Viti Levu. We left this morning out of the port of Denarau on a 110-foot sailboat, along with a horde of noisy tourists from England, Australia, and Malta. After an hour-long boat ride that included morning tea, we came to the island, which is so small we were able to walk completely around it in about six minutes. After a kava ceremony on the island, we went snorkeling just offshore through some cool staghorn coral gardens. Among the creatures I saw: sailfin tangs, squirrel fish, cleaner wrasses, blue sea stars, glassy sweepers, goat fish, feather stars, damsel fish, various angelfish and butterfly fish, and an enormous crown-of-thorns starfish. I also saw some clownfish in an anemone--when I got too close, one actually came up and bit me on the finger--hard! Who knew Nemo was so cranky?
After a mediocre buffet lunch on the island, we then went back to the sailboat to try some handline fishing. I didn't catch anything, though. As we headed back to port, the clouds rolled in and it poured down rain. I didn't mind this, since it cooled things down, and I needed to wash the salt off me anyway. As the rain clouds passed, we saw some really cool rainbows over the ocean and the mainland.
When we got back to Horizon Beach, we were relieved to find our bags waiting for us. Finally! Since we didn't have time to pack properly before we left Atlanta, Chris and I decided to move to a different hostel just down the street--the Beach Escape Villas, where we rented a private room where we could lay out all our stuff and sort through it. As it turned out, this was actually a nicer place than Horizon Beach, although the people staying here aren't nearly as friendly.
posted by John Kuge at 8:58 PM
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