Vacation to Fiji

(with a stop in Texas)

30 June - 15 July, 2004

To celebrate financial freedom and renewed commitment in our relationship, we decided to embark on a once-in-a-lifetime type of vacation. We spent several weeks pondering what it is that we wanted, and determined that our choice in vacation had to be: a. tropical. b. has SCUBA diving. c. has surfing (specifically, surf lessons). We immediately latched onto the idea of a vacation in the Pacific, considering neither of us have left North America (travelling only to Canada and Mexico). After some more research, we narrowed our search down to a choice between Hawaii and Fiji.. and we both felt Fiji was a lot more exotic and interesting (and we could do Hawaii at some later date in our lives).

In order to plan the vacation, we enlisted the help of a travel agent (Gallery of Travel in Brighton, NY) after searching for a south pacific specialist. Of course, Fiji met all three of our requirements. The basic plan was to break the vacation up into two parts: surfing and diving. With much negotiation and many changes, we worked out with the travel agent a trip to Beqa Lagoon Resort, and self-arranged a trip to the Rendezvous Resort. The Rendezvous resort is a small step above a hostel, and Beqa Lagoon was the "nice resort" portion of our trip. We thought we would be prepared for the Rendezvous resort, but alas... (more on that later). We decided to spend the first 5 days at Beqa Lagoon and the remaining 3 days at Rendezvous.

The basic vacation plan was to spend 4 days in Texas (Arrive in TX June 30th, depart on the 4th of July), then 5 days at Beqa island (July 6th arrival- we crossed the international date line, and depart on the 11th), then 3 days at Rendezvous (July 11 to July 14). The plane flight back was takeoff July 14th at 10:30pm, arrive at LAX on July 14th at 1:30 pm (go back in time!), then take the redeye across the US and arrive in Rochester at 9:30 am.

The main international airport on Fiji is in Nadi (pronounced NAHN-dee), a town of about 32,000 people (really, a small city) on the western end of Fiji's largest island, Viti Levu. Beqa island is a small island off of Viti Levu, and is the origin of the famous firewalkers-- only villagers from Beqa perform the firewalking ceremony. Fiji is about half Fijian and half Indo-Fijian. Fiji was once a British colony, and thus has Queen Elizabeth on it's currency and English is the official language. The British brough people from India as indentured servants to work Fiji's main crop, sugarcane, thus the large Indo-Fijian population. And sugarcane fields are abound on Viti Levu, as well as cane railroad tracks to transport it from the farms to the mills.

So, we leave on June 30th to go visit Val's family in Texas. Valarie's mom arranged a small family reunion of sorts on the 3rd of July in their new home. We met some new 2nd cousins whom weren't born yet at the last family reunion in 2000, as well as catch up with old cousins and aunts and uncles.

Click on pictures for larger version

Val awakens after a nap	Andy playing with the kids	Mom laughing at a joke	Eating away...	Kids, kids, kids...
Some of the older kids	more cousins than you can count	Joe (L) and Boy (R) hanging	On the plane to LAX, goofy	A nicer picture of us

After a surprisingly long flight from Texas to LAX (with a stop in Phoenix), we collected our bags from baggage claim and lugged them from the terminal to the bus, to get to the international terminal. LAX is huge. We decided to pack and bring the weights for diving in the luggage, so 3 of the 4 suitcases (SCUBA gear too) weighed the maximum 50 lbs. And Andrew got to take the ones without wheels.. good exercise in the terminal. We get to the Air Pacific counter and check into our flight, then wait for a couple of hours at the terminal, eating our last American meal (or so we thought) until we got back-- fittingly, McDonalds. The plane was scheduled to depart LAX at 11:30 pm, local.

The airplane sat on the taxiway waiting, waiting, waiting. With the A/C *not* on, that meant we were sweating, sweating, sweating in our seats. We sat there for 25-30 minutes. The pilot said the holdup was the truck to taxi the 747 out of the gate onto the taxiway, or other planes taxiing out of the terminal. Once he kicked on the engines, the plane ride became far more comfortable, temperature-wise at least. We had the window and middle seat on the left side of the plane. Although each seat is equipped with a small 7" LCD screen on the back of the seat in front of you, the legroom is something left to be desired. After watching Scrubs (the TV show) and Ice Princess (the movie), we tried to sleep. They served a quasi-dinner meal and a hot egg breakfast with the most tasteless sausage link EVER. The airline had a small slice of mango, and we both tried it for the first time. Not that great.. tasted like bland cantelope. More on that later...

So we hit the ground at 5:30 am Fiji time two days later (because we crossed the international date line) on July 6th. We go to baggage claim to get our bags, and wait, wait, wait. We waited 2 1/2 hours before our bags appeared. We swear Air Pacific at Nadi airport, its supposed hub, had one luggage truck unloading a 747's worth of luggage. It took forever. Customs was a 5 minute breeze. We find our private car transfer waiting in the terminal area. He was wearing a rugby jersey. Rugby is real big in Fiji, everyone plays Rugby and apparently Fiji twice won the world Rugby competition recently. We wait another half hour longer for the other people in the car transfer to get their bags. Andrew tried to get money from the ATM-- after fighting for a minute just to get it to take the card in the slot. But it said it was denied... and ultimately, it didn't matter because we got a pretty good exchange rate on the traveller's checks when Fiji cash was needed.

So finally, we hit the road and stop at a hotel just outside Nadi to pick up the last pair of people to transfer to the Beqa resort. After waiting there for 20 minutes, we finally proceed to Pacific harbor, a small town on the south side of Viti Levu. The ride took 2.5 hours and by this time we're all pretty wiped. We were worried about the weather a bit as it was overcast and drizzling. Still a nice 75-80 degrees though.

Snow capped peak in AZ

Boarding in LAX

Our first 747 flight

Waited 2.5 hours for bags
to get off plane in Nadi, Fiji

Fiji looks like this, mostly

We drive by tons of sugarcane fields, through a couple of small villages, past a pine forest (felt like we were in Maine for a while), and past a couple of other resorts to our destination. A 45-minute boat trip is the only way to get to Beqa Lagoon Resort. The luggage is loaded on the boat and we proceed to Beqa island on some pretty choppy water. Beqa island has 5 small villages and two resorts, both catering to SCUBA divers.

Our arrival on the island is a welcoming one, with a nice band singing a Fijian welcome song. We take our shoes off and walk in the water (no docks here, just bring the motorboat ashore) to get onshore, and are handed some lei's. We are given a warm welcome by the resort staff with some glasses of fruit juice and cookies on a tray while the staff takes care of the luggage and brings it to our rooms. We played with the small hermit crab stuck in our whirlpool as well, then rescued it by placing it back in the ocean right outside our cabin (or, in Fijian, Bure, pronounced Boor-uh). Another one got stuck in the same pool the next day, which is when we took pictures.

After napping during the afternoon, we have our first of many fabulous meals while at Beqa Lagoon resort. The meals all have an American/ European option as well as a seafood option for lunch and dinner. The desserts were all very fancy and well put together, even though we didn't like all of them. The resort also has an activity planned each day (and some evenings, like this one) with the kava ceremony this evening. Kava, or Yaqona, is a big thing in Fiji, similar to Poi in Hawaii. It's a root that is ground into a powder, then mixed in with a bowl of water and then drunk by each person in a shared cup. It's a social, village kind of thing, because guests of the village bring the kava root and the village chief prepares the kava and hosts the ceremony. The resort demonstrated the ceremony and offered kava to those who participated. However, we chose not to drink it, because it was being served the same time as dessert! So, it felt like a choice between dessert and kava to us.. and dessert won (although later on we realized that the resort is accommodating enough to hold off serving food to participate in such a thing). We regretted not drinking the kava for most of the vacation (more on that later). With a good dinner, we settle in to our first night's rest and get our SCUBA gear in order for diving the next morning.

Add flavour to your favourite dish with Punja's split peas	Val on boat to Beqa (she got to drive it)	Leaving Viti Levu	Pacific Harbor as we leave
Like a shampoo commercial	Beqa Lagoon Resort, as seen from the boat upon arrival	The "Bula Band", greeting us	Finally "there", with Lei's	The kava ceremony we missed

Some nice resort pictures.

One of many lovely, fragrant tropical flowers left on our pillows	The view from the Bure	The view from the hammock	My windows desktop image	The Beachside Bure where we stayed.. nice
Beqa Lagoon Resort	The Garden Bures.. nice	This is the South Pacific	Our plunge pool stowaway	He's free!

The dive boat takes us out to a coral head called Fantasy, apparently a well-known place among SCUBA divers (it appears in the Moon handbook on Fiji, arguably *the* travel guide to the South Pacific). The weather improved from yesterday and was partly sunny in the morning, and clear by mid-morning. The dive group that was there (about 30 people from San Francisco) said they had awful weather the whole time until we showed up. Having borrowed an underwater camera housing built for Kodak disposable cameras, we fumble our way on our first dive. Right from the beginning, we are plagued with little problems.. Val's tank wasn't strapped on securely to her BCD vest, so she had to get back out of the water right after getting in. Both of us were underweighted at first, making it impossible to dive down-- too buoyant! So we had to swim against the surface current back to the boat to get more weight. Then Andrew remembered he'd forgotten the camera, and asked the divemasters for it. Keep in mind, this is our first "real" dive, and our first dive in the ocean.. the only diving we'd done before was for the certification in a quarry.

Once we got our kit in order, we proceeded to head down. Andrew had some trouble adjusting his ears to the depth, and Valarie, being the excellent dive buddy, went straight to the bottom. Andrew did catch up once Valarie realized her buddy wasn't there. Once we were situated on the bottom (55 feet), we started looking at the amazing coral life. We both spent a lot of time and energy concentrating on diving and not concentrating on the sea life. Plus, Fantasy had this day a bit of a current, about walking speed (2-3 MPH or knots), and we had to swim into the current, which takes energy and air. Both of us were out of the water in 23 minutes... and everyone else on the dive group had bottom times of 50, 55, 65 minutes. Apparently, experience plays a big role in how much air you consume while diving.

Our second tank of diving was at a nearby coral head called Golden Arches, also a well-known dive spot in Fiji. This time, there was no current, and with our weights straightened out, both of us had a far more enjoyable dive which lasted 38 minutes. Andrew saw one of the divers prodding a puffer fish, and noted it getting halfway puffed up before the other divers stopped bugging it. After taking lots of photos underwater of fascinating coral and fish, Andrew looks at the camera in the housing when he surfaced after the dive and noticed it was full of water!!! Oh no! It wasn't until we were back at the bure that we realized there's a rubber O-ring that is supposed to be placed on the case. Oops. We'd hoped the film would be OK, but it turned up at the Walmart a week later still wet inside, and unable to be processed by the machine. So, no pictures from us from dive day 1. :-(

SCUBA pictures, taken by Louis Hlousek

Our second day of diving went much smoother.. and was one of the most interesting dives. We'd paid a little extra money for the "shark encounter" dive. The divemasters drive the boat back to Pacific Harbor to pick up fish chum taken for free from a fish factory somewhere on the main island (Viti Levu). It was kind of funny, as we pulled up in the boat we saw a dog sneaking away from the dock with a bag in it's mouth and a puppy in tow. It had stolen one of the chum bags! Sneaky dog...

The divemasters put the fish chum on the deck of the boat, and we had to deal with the stench the whole boat ride back to the reef where we'd meet the sharks. The juices were leaking out onto the surface of the deck, making for a slippery entry into the water. This dive proved to be our deepest, and way past where we were supposed to go with just an open water certification-- 82 feet deep. The resorts have set up ropes tied betwen two coral mounds which act as kind of a "bench" or barrier for the dive groups to rest at. They had ropes set at 80 feet and 60 feet. The area was a sloping hill with various hard corals scattered around.

Three divemasters are swimming around the dive group. One divemaster handles the chum distribution, the other two have poles for keeping the sharks away. One stays behind the dive group while we sit at the line, and one in front. During the first tank, it only took about 10 minutes of feeding for the large fish to show up, and then in the distance a bull shark appeared. That shark was HUGE! at least 10 feet long, if not 12. Then, a second bull shark appeared. It was difficult to see them at times, as there was a lot of bits of chum floating in the water, as well as sand from the bottom being kicked up by the fish fighting over the food. It also didn't help that we were at a depth of 80 feet. The pictures didn't come out so hot, at least from a color balance standpoint. We'll have to photoshop these later.

After being mesmorized by the bull shark, Andrew turns around to discover there's a black tip shark, about 8 feet long, lurking around behind the row of divers. Fortunately one of the divemasters was on the guy and poking him back. After about 30-40 minutes at 80 feet, we rose up to the higher, second rope at 60 feet, and the divemasters resumed feeding. We surfaced and rested for an hour or so, then dove back to the higher of the two lines. The second dive had no sharks until about 35 minutes into it. Valarie knocked over a feather star accidentally and then spent 10 minutes watching it try to reorient and climb up a coral. One of the other divers pointed out a moray eel hiding under a rock nearby, and we all tried to get some pictures of it. Louis got some good pictures and a video of the eel.

Beqa Island as we depart	Val preparing to dive	Andy watching the action	Big fish lurking on right
Chum, fish and silt	Black-tipped shark lurking behind us	Divemaster corraling white-tipped shark	White-tipped shark coming back
Bull shark on lower left, turning away from us	Tirelli (sp?) fish.. big	Bull shark in lower center background	Tons 'o fish
Underside of some Jax (or Jacks?)	Divemaster dumping more chum	Fish swarming chum bucket	Hut.. hut.. hike! Val cleaning up back @ resort

After an exciting day diving, we head back to the resort for a rest. The itinerary for the next 4 days remains pretty much identical- dive in the morning, lunch, resort activity in the afternoon, dinner. The evenings sometimes had an organized activity, some days did not. One remarkable thing about nighttime in Fiji (and we anticipated this) is the spectacularly dark and clear night sky. The Milky Way is easily visible, and tons and tons of stars. There is one picture below that was an attempt at showing how starry it was, but the digital camera does not have a long enough exposure time to really show it.

Andrew went on a night dive with some of the members of the dive group on this day. There were about 8 total divers, armed with various candle power flashlights. The dive resort lets you use air tanks for free for shore diving, so this one was at no extra cost. Valarie did not go, because there was only one flashlight to use between the two of us. This dive had an interesting story, for sure.

The plan was to snorkel out to where the dive boats were anchored, then turn 90 degrees to the right to head north. The group all had underwater compasses. Once anyone in the dive group hit 1500 PSI, the plan was to then turn around 180 and head south, surfacing back at the diveboats. Sounds like a good plan, right? The coral reef right offshore pretty much followed a north-south orientation. Should be simple, right?

The group started the dive right at sunset, so there was ambient light for the first 15 minutes or so. The aquatic life was making the shift change from the day crew to the night crew, so there was a mix of daytime fish we'd seen plus nighttime fish. A lot more lobsters and crabs came out, and Andrew saw some interesting translucent shrimp. The incessant coral crunching still went on. The one other remarkable feature of the night dive was if you (as a diver) shut off your flashlight, then swished your hand in the water, you would see the photoplankton light up in the wake of your hand, like little sparkles. Awesome. After witnessing these things, several of the divers (Andrew included) hit 1500 PSI so it was time to follow our simple plan and u-turn back to the south.

Well, as clearly alluded earlier, the dive plan wasn't so simple after all. Andrew noticed after 5 minutes of swimming or so that the group wasn't following the same coral reef on the way back. So he pulled one of the more experienced divers aside and signalled that we were headed west, not south, by holding up the compass. The other diver realized what was going on, and then attempted to gather the dive group as a whole and let them know to correct course. The group did turn to the left to head sort of south again, but after 2 minutes had drifted back to a westerly course. Andrew then tried to catch up to the lead group of 3 people and got their attention and tried to signal to make a turn, but they either misunderstood or did not listen and pressed on. Andrew then surfaced to see which way back to the resort, and sure enough, the group was headed away from shore, semi-parallel to the shore. He then descended to get the group of 3 who were pressing onward in the wrong direction. They didn't appear to listen when Andrew tried to reorient them. By this point, having been in the water for 75 mintues, Andrew's air was at 150 PSI, so he had to surface. The group was split into 3 sub groups at this point, with 3 divers almost to shore, 3 or 4 more still swimming the wrong way and Andrew trying to signal to them with the flashlight. Within a few minutes the group that was still underwater surfaced and got their proper bearings.

The night dive took so long, Valarie had raised enough concern amongst the resort's guests and staff that as Andrew walked on the beach, Amos (resort staff member) greeted him with "Valarie was getting worried about you!" And indeed, Valarie was worried, but all was well upon surfacing. The compass SNAFU was the topic of discussion amongst the resort guests that night. The group did, however, surface in time to see the Meke ceremony, demonstrated by the villagers children as well as some of the resort staff.

The Meke is a dancing/singing celebration. We watched the women sing first of a love story and of picking and making a flower arrangement. Then, we watched the village boys, wearing grass skirts and tooth / bone necklaces demonstrate their prowress with the Fijian clubs as they sang and danced their battle preparation song. The remainder of the children sat in the corner and sung along with both groups, as well as providing a nice wooden stick/hollowed log drum beat. Then, the children emplored members of the audience to join in on the dancing and revelry. Everyone had great fun, and it was a nice send-off for the dive group, which was leaving the next morning.

Day 3, the San Francisco dive group left the resort first thing in the morning. From this point on, Valarie and Andrew pretty much had the dive resort to themselves. The next 4 dives were either the two of us or the two of us plus Jack and two divemasters. We went out diving after their departure via a small motor boat to the dive sites nearby the resort. Delana (the divemaster) brought us to the wreck first, followed by a coral head called Nemo, which was offshore from the Raviravi village. Of all the dive sites, the wreck was the least interesting-- although still pretty good. Inside the boat several large fish took up residence (picture below). There was a light current from aft to bow, enough to have to hold onto something to stay put to take a picture. The ship also housed the strangest anenome we saw. It was attached to a railing or antenna (or it just stuck out on it's own), and had tentacle pods growing out of alternating sides. It was white with thin zebra stripes.. very alien looking.

The next dive site, Nemo, was a continuation of the rich soft coral life we'd seen. We also encountered bubble coral for the first time. It's semi-transparent coral that, when touched, feels like it's filled with gel and has a smooth/slimy texture. Definitely unlike any other coral we'd seen or heard of. We both were finally getting used to diving (weights adjusted, breathing more slowly, staying down longer) and this one went smoothly. Delana let us know he thought it was cold, because in June it's "winter" in Fiji. He was wearing 10 MM of wetsuit on his chest, plus a hood, gloves and boots, and Valarie and Andrew were in 3 MM suits. We would have worn shorties (no sleeves or legs) if we owned them! The weather that day was 83 degrees and sunny. Some "winter"!

Wave hi to the camera	Big fish taking residence in the wreck	Colorful tropical fish on coral	Weird anenome w/zebra stripes (Louis got better pics of this)	Starfish clinging to rock
Three-toned fish	The fish hiding in the coral	Many tiny fish hiding in coral	Bubble coral (center) slimy, soft, feels like gel	Delana claiming it's cold (85F)

After diving, having no organized resort activity that afternoon (with the resort housing 6 people total), we had the time to hike to the nearby waterfall. Mostly a disappointment for the effort, however it was nice to see all the fruits and plants along the way. Ben was our guide, as Amos was taking Jack and Christine to the village. Ben didn't know as much as Amos, and when we'd ask him what kind of fruit that was hanging on a tree, he would pause, obviously thinking, and then say "Uhh.. not sure." We'd told him that he could have said pretty much anything and we would have believed him. Kind of like when we'd ask one of the divemasters what that green fish was saw at the reef was, and they would say "uhh, the green reef fish".

The view of the island was amazing-- see for yourself below. We also came across the biggest spider we'd ever seen, about the size of a persons hand (palm and fingers included), maybe 8-10" including the legs. Not something you'd want to mess with.

Val enjoying her hammock	Attempt to show night sky. The night sky was spectacular	Beqa island, facing SW	Very large spider	Awesome tropical picture, Viti Levu on horizon
	The "waterfall". Ahem.	Kava planted by the village	Palm fronds used for mats, baskets

Later on the third day at the resort, a trip to the nearby Raviravi village was hastily arranged by Amos. Half of the resort staff live in Raviravi, the other half of the resort staff lives in the village in the other direction (called Rukura). We passed by the villagers playing a game of 6 on 6 volleyball in the grass. One could call it really good rec league volleyball or not-so-good intermediate league volleyball-- but very good volleyball for a pickup game in such a small village (maybe 250 people total). Proportionally, the average Fijian is better at volleyball than the average American.

Amos brought us into his home after giving us a brief tour of the place. This was the kind of village where the church is the nicest building there. Everyone lived in a cinder block walled home, with no doors, no TV's, no refrigerators. The bedrooms were screened off by either a dividing wall or curtain or both. Half the homes had a dirt floor, the other half a cement one. The kitchen was a separate hut, so the smoke from the fire did not fill the house. Amos' home was no different. He then offered some tapa cloths for sale. Tapa cloths are made by residents of a different island in Fiji (forget which one, not Beqa or Viti Levu) by taking a certain tree's bark and pounding it out into a square shape, then painting geometric designs using brown, black and white dyes from a different plant.

Some tapa cloths Amos was selling
in his house

Typical Fijian homes-
no doors, no fridge, no TV

No fridge needed-
free banannas on tree

Amos' kids and
neices following us

For day 4 of diving, we'd requested to see 7 sisters, which was relatively nearby Beqa island. Jack joined us on the trip, making for a grand total of 4 people diving (Val, Andrew, Jack and a divemaster). We made our first stop at a reef called Carpet Cove, where we saw even more fascinating coral and sea life. Carpet cove housed a blue ribbon eel as well as a reef shark that we stumbled upon. Jack, the divemaster and Valarie all saw the reef shark-- and it was clear to Andrew that there was something to look at.. but he didn't see the shark and simply took a photo of the nice mini-forest of reddish-brown coral with white tips. This particular kind of coral took over the area of a large room.. it's unusual to see a large swath of homogenous coral like that.

From the dive group, we'd learned that we'd missed the magic coral while we were at Fantasy. Andrew was pulled over by one of the other divers (Bic) to observe the magic coral, but he missed the point or what it was that he was supposed to be looking at. We even saw the magic coral video on the laptop, but wanted to see it for ourselves. We had put a bug in Delana's ear to be on the lookout for magic coral, so when he found some, he pointed it out to us, then bumped it. It's fascinating to watch this thing turn from a brownish-purple color to white in seconds, and have the color change wash over the coral like a wave or wipe motion.

At the beginning of the dive, we saw by far the largest sea slug, about 6-8" in length. The best description would be a flower vase shaped object, bent sideways near the base, with suckers around the opening on the end. The slug was white with dark spots and was either swishing back and forth with the currents or deliberately moving that way. The slug is very adept at mimicing some soft coral or anenome flowing loosely in the current.

Now the dives were getting easier and it was making the diving much more enjoyable. Our bottom times were now around 45-55 minutes and the whole thing seemed much more lesiurely (making for easier photo-taking too). We reached seven sisters for our second dive this day, and some spaghetti worms were pointed out to us. They were about 2-3 feet long and of a bluish tint. The divemaster touched one of the worms and they both very quickly retreated back into the hole in which their ends had been fimrly planted.

Valarie became immediately entranced with the sailor's eye we saw on this dive. It looks like a silver ball with coral/barnacle junk on it. The exposed parts are clearly reflective. Once we saw this one, Valarie made it a point to search out for Sailor's eyes on the remainder of our dives. And we both ended up being surprised at how many there were at the other dive sites-- which we missed the first time through. There are so many things to look at, it's easy to miss it.

Swear it was colorful coral...	Sea slug, 10", top center of picture, coming at you curled upward w/suckers out	Moorish Idol, a few of these at every reef	Trumpet fish, 1/2 of these per reef	Parrot fish munching on coral
Val trolling for shells	Delana about to touch magic coral (see a video)	Blue ribbon eel, facing you	Vibrant blue fish	Reef where reef shark was hiding (better pic at the link)
Very deep green coral, unusual	Grouper	Andy having touched magic coral (see a video)	Odd shaped fish in foreground	Spaghetti worms, about 2' long
Sailor's eye, in center	Somewhat color-corrected Moorish Idol photo	Val taking time from her dive for this photo	Feather star, center bottom	Dark brown parrot fish
Light blue and striped parrot fish	Underwater aquarium here in Fiji	Fish going about their day on the reef

Our bure was inhabited by two geckos, who would occasionally chirp at night and scurry along the joints of the ceiling joists in the bure. They didn't make any noise when walking, only when they chirped. Thankfully, it wasn't very often and they were shy. There were also some really tiny, tiny ants that thanfully didn't bite. other than the mongoose who scurried around outside, a few mosquitos, and a bat Andrew saw once at twilight, there wasn't any other land creatures that we saw or bothered us.

A surpising aspect of Fiji is how friendly people are. Since the villagers don't have doors, they always had a friendly "Bula!" (which means hello) which wasn't the "Hello, I'd like to sell you something or beg you for money" type hello, but a genuinely friendly and polite hello as you walked by. Even in Nadi, people walking on the street were friendly in this manner-- only a few shop owners in the tourist section were trying to sell you their wares. Likewise with the friendliness, the dive group that was with us the first 3 days we were there were all friendly with us. Meals were all social and they were very helpful with diving skills. By this time, we became friends with a couple from Alaska, Christine and Jack, who piggybacked with the San Francisco group. They ended up taking the same flight to LAX from Fiji as we did, sitting two rows directly in front of us.

The last full day we were at the resort, we all headed to the other village, Rukura, for church services. There were two services, one at 10:30 am (in Raviravi, the Assembly of God church), the other at 3pm (in Rukura, the Methodist church). We chose the latter service, because the divemasters were going to be at that one, and because of the delay caused by the dive group leaving, we weren't going to go out until 10am. The afternoon rolled around and Amos brought us into town, then had us meet the pastor of the church. The pastor was friendly and his family offered us some white leaf tea in their home. We sat on the matt in their main room, which was padded underneath by palm leaves, then dirt. There were lots of little ants, and when we added the brown cane sugar to our tea, several ants floated to the top. We didn't feel bad, however, because everyone's tea had ants in it. Everyone was polite about it, and nobody seemed grossed out by it, either. The tea was interesting-- the liquid was white, like milk, but it had a sweet taste, as well as a lemony-kind of flavor. The pastor's wife was using her good tea set, which in America, would be the everyday tea set. After the beating of the drums (to signal church was starting, this was at 3pm), we sat around the pastors home for another half hour. Even God is on Fijian time here. The choir assembled and was singing as we came in. They were almost all women, wearing green robes, and had lovely singing voices (sorry to say, better than our current church choir, WHBC). There were about 15-20 people in the congregation, and just as many in the choir. It seemed like most of the village, save the children, were there. Maybe they're Assembly of God members.

The church service was entirely in Fijian, so we didn't understand a lick of what was spoken. Amos had warned us ahead of time that we were expected to get up and speak to the congregation. After singing a hymn in fijian (not too hard given the words), the offering plate went around. Then, out of nowhere, the pastor stops talking and people start looking at us. It's our turn to speak! So, Valarie and Christine get up and say a few words, then Valarie shared her favorie hymn in English, "It is Well With My Soul" and sang solo for the congregation. Some of the choir chimed in towards the end because they recognized the melody. The sermon wasn't very long, but it was very clear we were to follow whatever instructions the pastor was giving. He spoke sternly with lots of finger pointing. We don't know, but maybe that's what Methodists are like (?). After the service, many people thanked or complimented Valarie for singing. And word had travelled back to the resort when we returned- several of the resort staff members commented to Valarie. It helped that some of the resort staff members were in the choir there!

Usuall shy geckos	Christine and Jack at the bar	Here we are at the bar
Val and Amos	ZANG!	Enjoying our last dessert

Soon enough, our time at Beqa Lagoon Resort comes to an end, and we have to leave. We stuff one last morning of diving and try to re-conquer Fantasy. But first, we dive Three Sisters, which was for both of us our easiest dive.. no current, very relaxed, long bottom time. The divemaster brought some fish food (chum) and as we approached the coral head, the fish in orbit around the coral made a left turn and headed straight for the divemaster. We got some decent pictures of this. We snorkeled during our surface interval next to the Surf camp on Tavenura island, then headed onto to nearby Fantasy. How fitting we start and end our dive trip at the same spot. The current at Fantasy on the last day was twice as strong as the first time we were there. It was almost impossible to move to the upwind side of the current. The end of the dive featured us both hanging onto the boat anchor rope and floating backwards like a flag in the breeze watching the coral below. Even the fish had trouble negotiating the current.

Deadly poisonous lion fish.	This one is dark, most are sand colored	Mound of this homogenous green coral	Andy playing with feeding fish	These lemon yellow guys were prolific
Deadly poisonous stone fish behind coral in foreground	Some sort of spotted fish	Val playing with feeding fish	Lower center, fish with anteater-like snout	Unicorn fish, usually found near surface, lurking above reefs
Leaf fish	Jax (or Jacks?).. mean lookin'	Last opportunity to touch the fish

On the way back, Valarie got to see the same whale Andrew did on the way out. It looked like a juvenile humpback to Andrew. Had a black tail with the underside of the tail having a black border and white inside. It spouted three breaths of air before diving. We get back to resort, finish packing and say our farewell to the staff. They sent us off without the farewell band. We then reversed the travel process back towards Nadi- boat ride to Pacific Harbor, then 2 1/2 car transfer to our next destination, Rendezvous.

We say goodbye to Beqa island and the resort to continue onto our second part of the vacation at Rendezvous to surf. This part of the vacation did not go as planned. The private car transfer back, arranged via the travel agent, got lost looking for the Rendezvous resort. We spent 45 minutes trapsing through the countryside of Fiji on very bumpy dirt roads, looking at all the sugarcane. The driver stopped twice to ask villagers for directions to Ucuwai, the village right next to Rendezvous. Everyone was very helpful to us, however it took what felt like an extra hour of driving to get there. The whole time we were delayed, the driver was witnessing to us, being a member of the Assembly of God church (of the Christians in Fiji, they are mostly either Methodists or Assembly of God members).

So we arrive to Rendezvous right after sunset, and are immediately surprised with how small the place is. It felt like you were in someone's yard. There was a small village right next to the parking spot and a sugarcane field across from the cane rail tracks next to the resort. There was a fire burning in the field, adding a "nice" leaf-burning smell to the air. The resort staff help us unload our very heavy stuff, and then take us to our room.

Now, we had called one month in advance and booked the "private bure". We called two weeks later, to confirm the booking, and they told us that it wasn't available the last day, so we were to have the private bure for two nights, then the room with a private bathroom. The Rendezvous resort also has dorm-style rooms where you share a bathroom with others. Very hostel-like, and we were expecting a step down from Beqa Lagoon resort. However, we weren't expecting this.

The staff plops us down next to a covered porch which is attached to the back of the main office/kitchen/dining building. There's some fijians playing the guitar and singing American songs like "Proud Mary keep on rollin", and busy activity of various surfer dudes buying late night snacks. The guests that were in the room (3 guys from California) had all their stuff, unpacked, strewn about the porch outside the room. They were packing their gear and had to move out in order to finish in time for our arrival. This wasn't the room we were promised. They hand us a Master lock with a key attached to it, both labelled "back room". And it literally was the back room. Not the room we were promised....

The interior of the room was clapboards with a couple of cheesy framed photos (surfers, beach pictures etc.), there were 3 beds- two twins and one full size. The bathroom light didn't work, but that was OK, the light from outside shone into the bathroom to illuminate it. The shower was tiled floor and walls with one towel hook and a walmart cheap 3-tray plastic stand to put your shower crap on. The shower fixture was a shower head attached to a flexible hose, hanging free from the on-demand water heater. The towels... smelled. One of them had a yellow crusty stain. The lighting in the main room was a single flourescent lightbulb. And the icing on the cake was the door latch (no doorknobs and keyholes-- just sliding latches) on the inside was busted-- the hole in the door frame was broken out, so you slide the latch, but the door still drifts open. We had to prop it closed with our suitcase.

Now, everyone was super friendly, and neither of us were really worried about someone barging in and attacking us, or worried about drunken idiots going in the wrong room. The Fijians were very respectful, the guests were all friendly, no alcohol was sold within a 10 mile radius, and nobody had cars. Valarie had a near panic-attack, and was creeped out inconsolably beyond reproach for several hours. There were a couple of bugs in the room, to include a cricket and a housefly (Valarie claims to have seen some sort of centipede type bug). Andrew wasn't too grossed out by the bugs (we had bugs at Beqa too), but the other basic, hotel-like services we were expecting (such as getting the room we reserved, clean towels, and physical security) were a sore spot. We decided for Valarie's sanity that we'd locate a hotel room in Nadi the next day.

We went outside to eat dinner (spaghetti with a minature salad), and were let down by the delivery method. The way the meals work at Rendezvous is you sit down at one of the picnic tables outside, and you are eventually handed a plate. None of the tablecloths matched; the tables themselves didn't match. The dinner plates were all different- like you were at someone's house, or a bed & breakfast. Valarie tried the spaghetti and didn't like the taste of the sauce. She ate salad, and resolved to eat the granola bars we'd packed just in case. We were instructed to watch the "learn to surf" video right there in the "lobby" where people were coming and going, making noise talking and the live musician was playing. The video was beat up so it was hard to hear what was being said. It went into great detail about how to surf though (from board selection, wetsuit selection, waxing, to catching waves, paddling, standing up, surf ettiquette, etc.), and ended up being way too much information to absorb at once. Everyone was super friendly and several different guests started up conversations with us out of the blue while we watched.

We then settled in as much as we could. Valarie slept fully dressed on top of the sheets, using her travel pillow, and probably stared at the ceiling for 3 hours before drifting off to sleep. Given one of our criteria for the vacation was to surf, and we came all the way to Fiji.. and came all the way out to the resort, Andrew was determined to surf.

Having convinced Valarie to stay and surf tomorrow, we awoke the next morning at 6am and had a do-it-yourself breakfast. There was a tray with various spreads (to include the famous Australian Vegemite, as well as jams, peanut butter and Nutella). They had "milk" and cereal, although neither of us were brave enough to try the milk. So toast it is! We both tried Vegemite on some toast. The best description would be RANCID! YUCK. No more Vegemite for us.

The guests were all extremely friendly. We chatted with a couple of lads from Ireland (on their way to Australia), a girl from Switzerland (Olivia), a guy and girl from New Zealand, and a guy from Japan (Taka). We found out from the Irish guys that they too were promised the private bure!!! Just goes to show what kind of operation they have at Rendezvous...

We screw around for another hour after eating breakfast waiting for who know what. We then pick out our rental boards, and one of the other guests shows us how to wax it. We were hoping for more instruction, seeing as we had paid for a surf lesson. It took 10 minutes for the resort helper, a 16-17 year old boy, to find us a piece of board wax that was bigger than a piece of chalk (considering you have to hold this thing in your fingers and rub it all over the board, the pieces were too small). We then stood around for another 30 minutes waiting for a driver.

Once the driver arrived, one of the resort guests, Matt, announced he was going to be the surf instructor-- because the resort staff member who normally does it didn't feel like it that day. They appeared to quibble over who was going to do the instruction-- neither really wanted to. Kind of an indicator of how this is about to go. We packed our gear up, and joined together with Olivia (the girl from Switzerland at breakfast) and Hiro (a native of LA, culturally American, but ethnically Japanese). The surf location is a 40 minute drive south to Natadola beach, a public beach on the southwest coast of Fiji. Along the way, the driver stops the mini-bus, runs across the street into someones house, then comes back out after a couple of minutes. Ostensibly to score some weed, but we didn't know for sure. We all did joke about it, though. We get to the first spot on the beach... no waves. So we pull out and drive further down the beach, maybe 1/2 or 1/4 mile, and see some tiny waves.

Then we unload the mini-bus and get on our surf mocs and drag the surfboards down to shore. When we were setting up (putting on sunscreen, etc.), some Fijian villagers started heading our way on horseback, about 4-5 people. They then got their fishing net, cast it out in the water in front of us, while one of the horse riders ran through the water in order to scare the fish into the net. They caught one fish, about 6" long. However, once they finished, we noted they had caught a shark. They let us hold the shark and take some pictures, then went about their day elsewhere.

We then got our 5 minutes of instruction, where the "instructor" Matt explained how we were to paddle and go from the lying position to the standing position. He did offer some direction as to the technique to use, but it was very unstructured. He showed us how to strap the leash onto our ankles, and then we headed to the water to start surfing. He coached us a little bit on how to paddle, and we paddled over to where the waves were. Matt then tried to coach us on how to paddle and time the waves ("catch a wave"). After many failed attempts at catching a wave, one of us finally hit paydirt. Valarie caught a wave and began boogie boarding, but didn't stay with it long enough to try to stand up. The waves came 4-5 at a time back to back, then disappeared to nothing for 10-15 minutes. This went on for the next 2 hours or so. All in all, we each caught 4 waves. Andrew got as far as being on his knees for half a second before wiping out underneath a fizzling wave. The waves did not cooperate this day, and thus we had little opportunity to surf. Plus, we both learned that surfing is hard. So we picked up our gear and left. We had only taken video of us trying to surf. Olivia was the only one who stood up, and she got on her feet 3 times.

On the way back, We then re-lived our favorite tour guide joke. We had asked on the way back to the resort what the name of a river was that had a sizeable bridge that we crossed. The resort staff member hummed and hawed and said "I don't know". We told him you could have told us anything-- then we laughed when Andrew said "It's the, uhh, Natadola River..." By this point, Valarie was feeling better about the whole thing, and was considering toughing it out and staying there until our flight back.

However, once we actually got back to the resort, that went right out the window. We ate a lunch with a suspicious-looking sausage and some side dishes that we forget. Valarie had more granola bars. After lunch, it was either Hiro or Taka, while sitting in a hammock chair, who asked Andrew "so, what are you guys going to do this afternoon?" By the time he had asked, we had already decided on which hotels to ask, and called around and found a place to stay, and we were merely waiting for the bus to town at 2:30 pm. Valarie was asked the same question seperately earlier, and her response was "looking for another place to stay." While we were calling around, there was SCUBA instruction for open water diving going on, with about 4 students. We learned very quickly that, while the instruction was half the cost we paid for in the US, it was also half the quality. Future divers beware of the resort-offered PADI courses. You get what you pay for.

We hopped on the public bus which picked us up right at the resort gates. The village, Uciwai, is the final stop on the route. It's very interesting watching a public bus drive over on a dirt road. And right as it was pulling up, a cane rail train came rumbling by with a full load of cut sugarcane in tow. We pay our $1.30 Fijian (each) for the fare back to Nadi town. That's about $0.90 USD. Much cheaper than the $45 Fijian taxi cab ride back ($30 USD).

Leaving Beqa island :(	Saying goodbye to Delana	The beach fishermen at Natadola
Discussing shark's weight	Instructor, Val, Olivia, and Hiro holding a very heavy shark. This was the beginner's surf group	Bus ride back home. Hi-tech.

Once in town, the taxicab drivers circled like vultures seeing we were an easy fare carting 100lbs of luggage each around. The driver we ended up with literally ran over from his car as we approached the row of cabs. We negotiate a fare of $7 Fijian to the hotel of our choice, the Beachside Resort. This guy ended up taking a wrong turn too, but soon enough we got there. We had to bust out the map in our guide book. With our transfer complete, we rest and relax at the Beachside resort for the next 3 days and 2 nights.

The first night at the Beachside resort, Valarie was much, much happier. Coming from the Rendezvous resort, the Beachside resort was the Ritz. Although, at about 3am someone came into our room.. probably one of the hotel staff members mistakenly putting some late-night flight arrival into our room. Someone in a room next to or above us had quite the argument, proclaiming "I didn't do anything!" The resort staff had told us that the "garden view" room was available only for that night, then we had to move to the "mountain view" room the next night. We weren't complaining. They also offered day rates, since our plane was supposed to leave at 10:30 PM. The meals at the Beachside were a bit overpriced and undersized (you had to sacrifice and limit yourself to $30 Fijian per person per day), but in the end we saved money when compared to Rendezvous resort.

Having missed the firewalking while at Beqa Lagoon Resort (it's only on Tuesdays there; we arrived Wednesday and left Monday) we were lamenting having not seen it. On the first full day at the Beachside resort, we headed into Nadi town to look at the shops and wander around. We went inside a tour guide place to see if we could see firewalking at a different resort ("Awesome Tours" with a wacky purple, yellow and green paint scheme, right out of the Joker's lair in the Batman movie). They got us a spot at a show at the Sheraton Denaru. The cab driver that brought us back from town told us that he makes a wage of $200 Fijian a week. We told him we'd be going to the Sheraton later that night and he agreed to pick us up. We negotiated a wage.. he offered $15, Valarie puased, and then he said "OK, $12, but no more." Valarie paused some more, and Andrew agreed that was a good wage.

When the cab driver arrived, he spoke with another cab driver who happened to be there working at the resort, and they discussed what the "proper" fare to the Sheraton would be ($15). We paid him $12 as previously agreed, and then offered $15 for the ride home after the show. We arrive to Denaru island, which the Sheraton owns, and pass through the security gate, then walk over to the lights and chairs set up for the firewalking demonstration.

After a ceremony presided over by the chief priest, the villagers cleared the logs off of the fire and stones. They then arranged the stones with long sticks. One by one, they walked across the pile of stones sitting in the coals. After brief singing at the end, the ceremony was over when the chief priest laid the leaves across the top of the stones. Then, the spectators had a chance to walk up to the stone pile and examine it for themselves. The best description of how hot the stones were is to think of a barbecue grill having sat on/burning for an hour, and touching the side metal-- that hot!

Our cab driver was dilligently waiting in the parking lot, and on the car ride back, he mentions his wage is $100 a week. He also claimed that the taxicab itself would sell for $6000. The inside was all torn up and rusted, the car rickety. It was also made in 1978. A taxicab driver the next day said $2000 Fijian tops. So, our driver wasn't exactly truthful...

Both days we were in town, we make it over to the market where the farmers sell their produce. Most merchants had a friendly "Bula!", and about half of them were selling Kava. There is a whole section in the market dedicated to kava sales, as well. A pre-sliced small pineapple (about 6-8" tall) cost $1.00 Fijian ($0.68 USD) for both of us (each half was $0.50). That's cheap! We enjoyed our pineapple both days we were there.

We were feeling bad about having missed trying kava-- that's like being in Buffalo and not having Buffalo wings, or being in Philadelphia and not having a cheesesteak sandwich. The guidebook (Moon's, excellent book BTW) said kava was free to try in the market, and sure enough, we found a vendor who had a bowl where they were drinking it. Valarie was the first to try a cup, then handed it to Andrew. After Andrew drank it, Valarie's tounge went numb. No such effect on Andrew. Kava tastes like dirty root ground up in water.. right in line with what it is. According to Andrew it has a twinge of pepper flavor. We were both glad to have tried it, even if it was without the ceremony and on our last day.

Val enjoying bus ride	Beachside resort room	Beachside resort lounge area and swimming pool	A very happy camper, compared to Rendezvous	Firewalkers move the logs off the fire
Preparing the stones	Arranging the stones in a mound	Walking across hot stones	Singing to end ceremony	Guests were allowed to approach stones afterwards. HOT!