Our vacation started before we even boarded the plane...
Do you know where your nearest exit is? I do!
10 hours-ish later, we landed in Nadi, Fiji!! It was still dark in the early morning. We lost a day and we unnecessarily waited about 15 minutes in this "Transit" line. We didn't realize EVERYONE on the airplane was transiting to Australia and/or New Zealand and NOT staying in Fiji.
But we finally got through customs/immigration with all of our luggage and boards and took a cab ride to our hotel on Denarau Island, but not without our cab driver, Shaggy - yes, Shaggy - giving us a tour of downtown Nadi. Don't worry, it's a set rate to and from the airport. Plus he seemed genuinely excited to tell us all about his family and the mix of Fijian and Indian cultures.
As we drove by a McDonalds (sad sigh), he told us not to eat there. "Don't worry," we responded. He laughed. Shaggy showed us the enormous daily farmer's market. See, even in third world countries they eat FRESH fruits and veggies. Why can't Americans "get" this??
Now, on to Denarau!
Denarau Island is a man-made resort island. Beautifully landscaped with a golf-course, a port, and all the major resorts. Gorgeous, but definitely not representative of the "real" Fiji. But great for the "I want to do nothing but roast by the pool vacations!"
Since it's only a 4 hour flight from Australia, majority of the tourists were... Australian! Our time on Denarau was well spent and our room was pimp (as you may have seen from my Facebook pictures), but we found things to do besides roasting by the pool. But no worries, we did plenty of that too. Plenty. With a pool like this, we couldn't resist! Oh, and this is the "adults only" pool. Score.
Our vacation consisted of eating...
...and more eating (grilling!!!)...
We kayaked! (Side note on the water: it was kinda nasty. Being that it's a man-made island, it's not particularly beautiful sparkly blue water. It was more on the mucky side. Honestly, if that was my only experience with "Fijian water"... I would have been disappointed).
We also read A LOT...
And even did a little yoga... (and who cares if I was tipsy... it's my vacation!)
But mostly, we did a lot of this... (iPhone out for music purposes)...
When we were tired of walking around the hotel, laying by the pool, and basically, do nothing, we decided to rent bikes and ride from Denarau to downtown Nadi to see the very colorful and beautiful Hindu temple. If we had known that our lives might actually be in danger, that it would take a lifetime to get there, we may have thought twice. Nah. But, it was definitely a little sketchy.
The Fijian people are THE nicest people. I mean this. EVERYONE says "Bula!" - their "Hello!" "Hi!" "Cheers!," etc. But where are the bike lanes?? (I kid!) They may run you over, but they'll say "Bula!" as they're doing it! I could write (and I might) a separate blog on riding a bike in a third world country. We'd hear, "Bula!" and have no idea where it was coming from... look around... and see a kid sitting in a tree waving to us. We were even chased by a dog at one point. I peddled that rickety bike so hard I thought the wheels would fall off.
Anyway, we made it to downtown Nadi soaked in sweat with road grit all over our faces.We really wanted to see the Hindu temple we'd seen in pictures before arriving (and Shaggy pointed out to us), so we didn't do any shopping (this time). And at this point, we were now pushing our bikes on the sidewalk. Look at the traffic with the parked cars. Nope.
As we approached the temple, we had every intention of walking around inside the gates. But after we read the list of rules, we didn't know what to do, so we walked around outside the gates. Mainly, we didn't want to be disrespectful. I didn't think my tank top with bikini top underneath would really be considered "appropriate attire." But the temple was beautiful and extremely colorful!
A little tourist action...
When our four wonderfully relaxing days were over in Denarau, a cab driver picked us up, tried to sell us some weed ("Fiji smoke" as he called it), and took us to another hotel to meet the others that were flying in that day. Us plus this group would be staying on Tavarua for the week. We then boarded the "surf bus" as we called it, because it is adorned with every surf logo sticker and surf shop sticker known to man, to where we'd take the boat over to Tavarua... the real beginning to our amazing vacation.
That's another blog!!
