Day 30 -32 Fiji

The highlights of the sailing days between American Samoa and Fiji were a 5 Km walk for the fight against cancer and another Speed wine tasting.

Upon arriving getting off the ship in Lautoka, Fiji, I took the shuttle into downtown. The bus let us off at a place called Jake’s – the local souvenir shop. I tried to get a map of the area and son found out that there were none available because there were 3 cruise ships in the area and they were out. I got some postage stamps while I was near the post office and went looking for a tour of the area. I obtained the services of a local taxi driver to take me around to the same places the tour buses were going, only we wound up getting there first. The first was a “traditional” village. The village area had been “modernized ” over the last few years and there were no longer any thatched house around. The nearest to resembling the old houses was the chief’s house. The center of the village was the Methodist church. Where up until the 1900’s the people were still cannibals. The other interesting thing about the church was that the men sat on one side of the church and the women the other side. This was to stop the “hanky panky” from going on in church.

We then stopped off at the Garden of the Sleeping Giant, a collection of orchids and flowers, founded by Raymond Burr in 1977. We were treated to a cool mango drink after walking around in the gardens. The temperature was 95 degrees with about 85 % humidity!  We left the gardens and drove to the largest Hindu temple in the South Pacific, near the town of Nadi. Since I had on shorts, in order to tour the temple, I had to wear a sarong so my knees did not show.  We left the temple and drove into town to a small shop of traditional Fiji souvenirs where I participated in a  kava ritual.  This is a drink made from a local root and soaked in water to form a tea like drink that tastes like dirt. I had to recite a mantra before drinking and then clapping afterwards. We then drove to what I thought would be a pristine white sand beach. It was a public beach that was very unkept. It seems that the good beaches are either privately owned or on separate small island surrounding the main island. This all took about 3 hours. We headed back to the port  town of Lautoka,  where I tried to find a pub to try a local beer. None to be found, they have only night clubs and restaurants that serve alcohol, and, of course, grocery and liquor stores to buy beer. Night clubs did not open till 4 PM. I had to be back at 4.  I found a small restaurant and ordered their Fiji Gold beer and decided to have the “large” size. It turned out to be a liter! The bottle indicated it was 2.3 times the size of a standard beer. I noticed that I was short on time to get back to the ship and only finished about 2 standard beers worth.  I ran up the street and caught the last shuttle bus back to the pier. On to the next adventure in a couple of days!

Photo Gallery Fiji: