SUVA, FIJI
This morning while I was sitting at a picnic table by the beach, I overheard a television producer trying to convince the owners of the Beachhouse to let them use this place as the location for the second season of a British reality TV show called "Celebrity Love Island." From her description, it sounded like a horrible combination of "Big Brother," "Temptation Island," and "Help, I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!" As near as I can tell, it involves ten C-list British celebrities (that's her description) living in an island villa and having their every move televised (a la "Big Brother"). Viewers at home can then vote on which two celebrities they want to move into a separate "love shack" down the beach. Presumably, romance, sex, drama, and/or hilarity then ensue. Evidently, producing the show would involve a lot of construction, a crew of 400 moving in, and the resort closing for four months, but I guess the money they're offering is good enough, because they were seriously considering doing it. I guess we'll have to stay tuned....
Oh wait. Here's the Celebrity Love Island website (from last season). Geez, it's as bad as I thought.
We had planned to take the bus to Suva this afternoon, but while we were waiting at the bus station in the hot sun, a Fijian guy in a CR-V took pity on us and offered us a ride there, which turned out to be a much better arrangement (being uncrowded, air-conditioned, and free). Thanks, Fijian guy! He even dropped us off at our hotel, the Tropic Towers, which is exactly the sort of place it sounds like: a run-down 1950s-style hotel like you might find on Miami Beach.
Actually, "run-down" is a good description of the city of Suva itself, which reminds me a little of a post-apocalyptic Honolulu. Well, maybe not that bad, but you get the idea. Actually, "the capital of the South Pacific" is much more like a real city than Nadi--it has a little bit of history, some interesting colonial architecture, and a harborfront with some great views of the surrounding mountains. (It also has a multiplex cinema, a McDonald's, and a Shell station). It's just a little shabby, that's all.
Since it was Friday night, Chris and I decided to head downtown and check out the club scene, as Suva is also known as the "center of Fijian nightlife." No, seriously. And with nightclub names like "Traps," "Chequers," "Tingles," and "Liquids," you know it has to be rockin', right? Anyway, we hit O'Reilly's, an Irish pub that seems to be one of the most popular places to drink and dance. The crowd was an incredibly eclectic mix of Fijians and Fijian Indians, with a handful of Asians, Europeans, and Australians thrown in (I think we were the only Americans, though). The music ranged from hip-hop to Indian pop to Bon Jovi and Chumbawamba. Which sounds completely awful, but it actually seemed to work, and the dance floor was packed.
And Atlanta bois, rest assured: You can travel halfway around the world to an Irish pub on an island in the middle of the South Pacific, and there will be a queen in a Von Dutch shirt and a backpack dramatically sashaying around the place like her hair is on fire. Some things are just universal.
This morning while I was sitting at a picnic table by the beach, I overheard a television producer trying to convince the owners of the Beachhouse to let them use this place as the location for the second season of a British reality TV show called "Celebrity Love Island." From her description, it sounded like a horrible combination of "Big Brother," "Temptation Island," and "Help, I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!" As near as I can tell, it involves ten C-list British celebrities (that's her description) living in an island villa and having their every move televised (a la "Big Brother"). Viewers at home can then vote on which two celebrities they want to move into a separate "love shack" down the beach. Presumably, romance, sex, drama, and/or hilarity then ensue. Evidently, producing the show would involve a lot of construction, a crew of 400 moving in, and the resort closing for four months, but I guess the money they're offering is good enough, because they were seriously considering doing it. I guess we'll have to stay tuned....
Oh wait. Here's the Celebrity Love Island website (from last season). Geez, it's as bad as I thought.
We had planned to take the bus to Suva this afternoon, but while we were waiting at the bus station in the hot sun, a Fijian guy in a CR-V took pity on us and offered us a ride there, which turned out to be a much better arrangement (being uncrowded, air-conditioned, and free). Thanks, Fijian guy! He even dropped us off at our hotel, the Tropic Towers, which is exactly the sort of place it sounds like: a run-down 1950s-style hotel like you might find on Miami Beach.
Actually, "run-down" is a good description of the city of Suva itself, which reminds me a little of a post-apocalyptic Honolulu. Well, maybe not that bad, but you get the idea. Actually, "the capital of the South Pacific" is much more like a real city than Nadi--it has a little bit of history, some interesting colonial architecture, and a harborfront with some great views of the surrounding mountains. (It also has a multiplex cinema, a McDonald's, and a Shell station). It's just a little shabby, that's all.
Since it was Friday night, Chris and I decided to head downtown and check out the club scene, as Suva is also known as the "center of Fijian nightlife." No, seriously. And with nightclub names like "Traps," "Chequers," "Tingles," and "Liquids," you know it has to be rockin', right? Anyway, we hit O'Reilly's, an Irish pub that seems to be one of the most popular places to drink and dance. The crowd was an incredibly eclectic mix of Fijians and Fijian Indians, with a handful of Asians, Europeans, and Australians thrown in (I think we were the only Americans, though). The music ranged from hip-hop to Indian pop to Bon Jovi and Chumbawamba. Which sounds completely awful, but it actually seemed to work, and the dance floor was packed.
And Atlanta bois, rest assured: You can travel halfway around the world to an Irish pub on an island in the middle of the South Pacific, and there will be a queen in a Von Dutch shirt and a backpack dramatically sashaying around the place like her hair is on fire. Some things are just universal.
posted by John Kuge at 11:40 PM
1 Comments:
Ah Finally this trip is getting interesting.... ;-)
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