Fiji-January 13

 January 13­

Sam at "The Bridge"

The Gang at "The Bridge"

Today we had to check out of our little corner of the world in Nadi, Fiji.  The Wailoaloa Beach Resort has been good to us and Hudson and Sam have met a couple of friends from New Caledonia and from Australia.  They have been invited to play and eat lunch with the others, despite the fact that check out  time is 10:00, the father of these boys apparently owns the hotel , so we get a pass on swimming after check out time.  Annie, I and Paulie strike up a conversation with an Irish man named Anthony Cassidy who has been here for a while and will stay here for another 10 days before flying back to New Zealand and then heading onto Easter Island.  It turns out that he is travelling for a total of 8 months, so he has us beat.   He offers us some really great travel tips especially about New Zealand, Thailand and elsewhere.  He has travelled to over 90 countries so he has a lot of information to share and some good website suggestions on where to find budget accommodations.  He invites Annie and I to tag along with him as he goes into downtown Nadi to get lunch.  Since we are waiting until around 2:00 to pick up our rental car, we agree to go with him into town to see the sites.  We walk a little ways up the road and a man with a pickup truck emerges from the beach road.  “Need a lift” he says to which Anthony responds “how much”.  “No Charge” he replies….right on.  It seems that offering of rides is a national past-time – it is done whenever it seems that someone might need a lift as a courtesy to your fellow man.  It has been at least three decades since I have “hitch-hiked” and would never have considered it if we had not been with Anthony.  Annie and I pile into the front and Anthony gets in the back.  We bump along the road for about 10 minutes and Anthony bangs on the back of the glass that we are ready to get out.  We get a bit of a surprise when we take a look at “town”. The roads are filled with people.  It is dirty and hot and there are people bumping into us all over the place.  Anthony wants to get himself lunch so we set up a meeting point and time and Annie and I go to the outdoor market to look for some fruit and veggies.  We find an assortment of locally grown produce and make our way back toward our meeting point.  We stop in a supermarket and then a handicraft store to check out the local wares.  There are a lot of beautifully carved wood objects and bowls as well as some amazing woven baskets and bags.  Once again, we can’t carry anything else, so we can only enjoy the visual sensations of our retail therapy.  We return to the spot where we are meeting and I promised to spring for a cab on our return trip.  Anthony is quite the bargainer and he intends to procure a taxi for no more than FJD$5, however, by the time the driver actually agrees to his price a bus pulls up and he says “Lets take the local transport.  It will be a great experience for your daughter”.  I agree and we board the bus for a ticket price of .70.  The bus is filled to capacity and has Bob Marley blaring over the loud speaker as we bump along the potholed streets.  Upon our return, we say our goodbyes and gather up all of our luggage to get back to the airport to pick up our rental car.  I think we must have the smallest car known to mankind and the kids are all laughing and pointing and saying “You expect me to fit into THAT?”  My very patient answer is “YES!!!”.  We, in fact, do fit with all of our belongings and so we have to adjust to driving on the left hand side of the road.  We head down the one and only highway that circumnavigates the main island of Viti Levu.  There are over 330 islands in the chain of islands known as Fiji.

Fijian man who helped us cross

We drive for about 45 minutes with no real landmarks in site.  All we know is we are looking for a seaside town of Momi where we have rented a “bure” or cabin on the water for the remainder of the time we are here.  We keep on going and finally stop to ask where the heck is Momi. As it turns out, we have passed it by quite a bit so we turn around and head back.  We see a sign for a town called Lowamai and turn down a very bumpy, gravel road.  We meander along through small villages and all of a sudden we come to what looks like the end of the road.  There is a “bridge” (I use that word loosely) of gaping planks with no side rails over a muddy river below.  Hmmm.  Everyone gets out and I drive back to the last place we have seen people.  I pull up beside a house where there is a crowd of about 20 men seated on the front porch.  They all begin waving to me frantically calling out “Bula” “Bula” (Hello).  I wave back saying “Bula” and ask them if  that is the correct way to Momi.  “Yes” they answer in unison.  “Over the bridge?”  I inquire.  “Yes” they all reply.  “You mean THAT bridge?” I ask incredulously.  “Yes” they all say.  Hmmm.  One of them finally offers to drive the car over the bridge for me.  Thankfully.  Here is what the bridge looks like.

The Bridge!

Whew!  After we get across, we continue down the road for quite a while, during which time it begins to rain.  Daylight is starting to fade at this point and we hope to find our place pretty soon.  Finally, we arrive and are a bit surprised to see a fairly uninhabited “resort” ( I use this term VERY loosely).  Our “bure” is filled with wonderful assortment of animal life like spiders, geckos, mosquitos and other unseen creatures that have left their mark – if you know what I mean.  Hmmm.  There is no AC and the beds are made of molded cement with mattresses on top.   There is no electricity or water.  We return to the registration and report this to which they respond the generator is just getting going and we just have to wait a little bit.  Hmmm.  We decide to check out the restaurant to eat a bite while we are waiting for the generator. We are shocked to see that the menu offers items for between $18-$24 for a plate of food.  What…this cannot be!  We demure and try to regroup as the waitress inquires if we will return for dinner.  “This is a little out of our budget” I confess to her.  She points us toward the bar and suggests we consider some snack food.  Perfect.  Burgers and Fish and Chips.  Right up our alley.  After dinner, the generator must have kicked in because we were definitely now able to see all of the critters we were sharing our accommodations with.  Yea!  We get a soothing shower and we do our best to get comfortable, while we listen to the non-stop dripping of the shower faucet.  It is not easy to get to sleep or stay asleep….a pretty long night if I do say so myself.