Category: Viti Levu

I’m now in Suva, the capital of Fiji. I took a mostly harrowing bus ride over here from Nadi on the only paved road in the country, but arrived safe and sound. Suva only has a population of about 350,000, but it is still not considered the safest place to visit after dark. It is also a city ringed by armed checkpoints. Guess they’re watching out for the next coup d’etat.

I chose to stay about 20 minutes out of town, in a rainforest area, at a wonderful lodge with rooms overlooking lakes. I went on a wonderful hike through a rainforest park to a deep swimming hole with a great rope swing this morning, then came into the city to see the sights this afternoon. Went to the Fiji Museum and learned all about cannibalism today. Lots of nasty-looking cannibal forks and other cannibal tools on display. They seemed to shy away from some of the more controversial aspects of Fiji history and played down the cannibalism as something that exists in all of our histories — with even a portrait of Jeffrey Dalmer and other recent cannibals (which seemed to offend just about everyone I know who saw it). Although Indians make up half of Fiji’s population today, they were only mentioned in an exhibition in a small upstairs room.

After a string of days on the islands, I decided to head back to the mainland for a mountain bike tour of the hills outside of Nadi. There were a couple of cycling options, but I chose a bike-and-hike tour that took us up into the hills through some small villages and to a traditional Fijian house. We took a break from peddling, drank Kava (as one does), and began hiking up into the rainforest to a chilly swimming hole next to a large mountain known as “The Sleeping Giant”.

Along the way, we munched on snacks from the surrounding fields, including grapefruit, papaya, bananas, and pineapples. We also gnawed on sugar cane stalks to reach the sweet juice. Afterwards, we hiked back down to the same house for a wonderful traditional Fijian lunch before cycling back downhill to the coastal plain. A good workout and a satisfying day.

An Australian couple who rode with me on this trek had just spent the past week at one of Fiji’s posh resorts. They just decided on a whim to try roughing it for a day to see what life was like outside of their sterile enclave. While for me this day was in the same vein as other eco-tourism experiences I’ve had, they were totally blown away by the richness of immersing themselves in the Fijian culture and rubbing shoulders with the locals.

I flew into this tropical paradise without any reservations, hoping to just wing it and get a discount for rocking up unannounced. The travel books warn of the touts you’ll face at the airport, hawking their cousin’s accommodation (one of the customs officials was even doing it) — but the travel guides recommend taking refuge from them in the Fiji Visitors Bureau at the airport.

As luck would have it, the old FVB shut down and has allegedly moved somewhere between the airport and the town of Nadi, but I haven’t been able to find it yet. Maybe it never really existed. I ended up in a small hotel halfway between the airport and the city with questionable security (it looks like the door has been kicked down a few times), cleanliness (which is what my pre-trip travel immunisations were for), and no air conditioning. It has a ceiling fan instead of air conditioning, but it was cool enough to shut off the fan by 8 PM last night. They have nicer places, but they’re a lot more expensive than what I am willing to pay.

I wandered into the town of Nadi (pronounced “Nandi”) this morning, and found that there really isn’t much to it. It’s basically one main street that runs for about 4 or 5 blocks. All traffic was stopped when a small-gauged sugar cane train roared through town towards the sugar mill. The town itself is full of little Indian merchant shops, much like Little India in Singapore — all hawking their wares to the visitors (which gets annoying). One of my first impressions of the town was a long line of school students, both boys and girls, all wearing skirts. Yes, the guys often wear a “sulu” here, which is essentially a men’s skirt.

Within my first hour of strolling around town, I was continually pitched products and finally succumbed to my first Kava ceremony on the pretence of a shop owner just wanting to be friendly to the visitors. Kava is a drink made from the roots of a pepper plant and is said to have medicinal properties. It’s an ancient Fijian custom. I can’t say it tastes great (sort of like ground wood), but I survived okay. A few other tourists were dragged in while I was there. We were welcomed, but warned off buying anything from the big-business Indians. Oddly, the shop owner seemed Indian. Seems like those coup tensions from a few years ago still haven’t worn off. Sure enough, I was given a hard sales pitch afterwards for buying their hand-carved trinkets to help their poor indigenous Fijian village. I later met other tourists who had been lured to the same selling scheme. We concluded that they probably had no ties to the village, and only used it because it was mentioned in a Lonely Planet guide they knew we were all carrying. I decided to walk back to my hotel, only to have every taxi driver and bus toot at me to see if I wanted a ride.

I have booked a catamaran ride to a small neighbouring island tomorrow, where the nicest part of Fiji is supposed to be. It’s in the string of islands where Tom Hanks’ “Cast Away” and Brooke Shields’ “Blue Lagoon” were filmed. Lots of white sandy beaches, great snorkelling, huts on the beach, and good hiking trails. I’m not expecting them to have Internet access, so it might be 3-4 days before I write again.

After my West Island jaunt, I will probably take a bus to Suva (the capital city), a traditional village, and visit some other recommended islands to the north and east of the main island.