January 10, 2002
Nadi, Fiji (actually Jan. 11)
Nadi, Fiji (actually Jan. 11)
Right, okay so our first day in Fiji basically sucks. We left Rarotonga this morning (or should I say yesterday morning.... since we crossed the International Date Line) at 6:30am and flew to Nadi, Fiji. Compared to our last flight this was nothing, a whopping 3 hours 20 minutes. Once we arrived at the amazingly technologically (lacking) airport we stood in line and waited for all the international passengers to filter through the lone immigration officer. Lots of fun! Thankfully there was a driver waiting for us when we left the airport who took us to our pre-booked accomidation. Not so thankfully our pre-booked accomidation was one of the scariest places we've ever seen in our lives! Once we saw the sign-in list of the others staying in the hostel we immediately decided to change our reservations from a dorm room to a private air-conditioned room. Another confidence booster was the US State Department warning taped to the window warning US Citizens to be extra careful (this was extra-comforting for my Canadian travel partner, Kelly! :)
When we decided to go for a walk and buy some lunch, things definately didn't feel right. As we were walking down the street people kept trying to initiate conversations with us. We also noticed that we were the only white people on the street that we could see. Harldy reassuring since we knew that the 'Backpacker' areas are considered to be safe. Now we knew from reading that Nadi is not the best place in Fiji but we had only planned on using this as a base to travel to the nicer areas. The plan was to stay here two days and in that time book onward travel within the islands. By the second restraunt that we looked at we had decided that we had to leave as soon as we could! We did notice some other Westerners (also being harassed by young guys trying to coerce them into some store or deal).
Anyway, we found a Tourist Information Booth and the first thing the lady suggested was to get out of Nadi! We grabbed some flyers. The Fiji everyone knows is actually a picturesque image of beaches and resorts, that's where we're headed. We found a travel agency and booked the remainder of our Fiji trip (7 days) on an island called Robinson Crusoe Island. Basically it sits right below our $30/day budget (each) but includes all food (but not alcohol!) and activities. We'll probably add on a scuba dive also since we had always planned on Diving in Fiji. We even met some nice other backpackers frantically trying to get out of Nadi too.
It's amazing the variety of people we're meeting. We spent our time inthe Cook Islands hanging out with people from England, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, and New Zealand. Everyone was really friendly and all of us did activities with each other. It's still quite strange to meet people who come and go in a moments notice. We did get Ed's (English boy) email address and we'll meet up with him in Aukland and Sydney.
So we're off to the Island tomorrow morning at 11:30am. Kelly thinks there will be internet, but I'm of the impression that we'll be out of contact for a week. So don't worry. When we get back we should be able to post our pictures from New years in Scotland for your entertainment! Also, we mailed the Cook Islands
rolls yesterday, so they should be up in three weeks.
We're really having a great and educational time. We haven't killed each other *yet*, in fact we're getting along pretty well. There's still ups and downs but since we're not spending every waking moment together it's working out well. The only annoying thing is that darn Canadian accent! :) More soon, internet is terribly slow here so it's Kelly's turn to check her email!
Posted by Admin at January 10, 2002 08:13 PM