11.27.2010 – Voli Voli Resort, Room 968, Northernmost Point of Viti Levu, Fiji
Time really flys when we’re on vacation, and this trip is no exception! : ) Since my last post, we traveled via minibus to the Mango Bay Resort from downtown Nadi (mostly a shopping area, not a lot too see), continuing on the very next day to The Uprising Beach Resort where we stayed for three nights. At Mango Bay we had our first Kava ceremony, kicked frogs (Aimee even squished one while going to brush her teeth at night), drank yet more Fiji Bitter, and swatted bugs that sought our fluids. It was nice enough at Mango Bay, but it was wet, and we already had plans for The Uprising, so one night was enough. While on the minibus (which, by the way, isn’t that small – 29 seats, but with only 5 of us on the bus!) we stopped at a few places along the way to the next resort, one of those places being some sand dunes. The dune we played at, however, was quite steep and sizzling hot (my bare feet roasted!), so the driver broke out a bunch of boogie boards and we all went sandboarding down the dune, and I made a video of it (see below for video). After that we went on a “Trek” which at first I scoffed at, but later found to be quite enjoyable, and besides, everybody loves a waterfall swim! We transferred from our bus to a pickup truck that hauled a handful of us guests to a trailhead that led through the jungle, up some hills, around and across some muddy rivers, and finally up to a series of waterfalls with beautiful freshwater pools for swimming and jumping in. Some folks just swam, others crawled up the cliff and swung on the rope, and some even crawled into a cave behind the biggest waterfall! On our way back, I was talking with one of our guides, and he mentioned a shark dive, which I had heard of, but was a bit scheptical about. When we returned to the resort I did some thinking, made a call to a local dive shop, and scheduled a “Shark Dive” for the following morning. After a good night’s sleep in the beautiful dorms at The Uprising (about $20/pp/pn), I had an early-riser continental breakfast of oatmeal, pasteries, fruit, and coffee, then joined a multi-national group of divers and headed by minibus to the dive shop. I Frenchman from New Calidonia, an Australian, a half-dozen Chinese kids, and a couple from New Zealand were my companions, and because of our numbers we took two boats instead of just one. Gear fitted, loaded, and tested, we had a dive brief at the dock and soon after began our short boat ride out to the dive site. About 30 minutes later we were all in the water, heading down the descent line to just over 110’ where there is an artificial platform of sorts made for divers to observe from while the “feeders” pull out fish pieces from garbage cans and chum for Giant Trivalli’s, Rainbow Runners, Sharks of all kinds (we only saw black and white tipped reef sharks, as it is currently breeding season for everybody else). After 20 minutes or so at that depth, we came up to another platform at 50’ or so and watched some more feeding of smaller fishes and reef sharks, and repeated the process in about 15’, satisfying the safety stop recommendation for the dive. Then we surfaced, changed tanks, had hot tea and biscuts, and waited for our 60-minute surface interval to pass before we went back in for our second dive. During that time I chatted with the Australian gentleman about the Solomon Islands, where he had spent considerable time in his past, and I probed for as much helpful info as I could. Around the same time one of the Chinese girls started puking next to me, and it made me feel really good about myself. I know, it’s sick, but when I see other people puking their guts out, it really adds to my self-confidence. : ) Anywho, our second tank was a bit shorter, and I still had 1500psi left in my tank at the end of the dive, but group dives aren’t exactly known for their great length, so with that we headed back. The closest shark of the whole dive wasn’t at 110’ though – it was nearly at the surface, and it did a swim-by in slow-motion in the video below labeled “Shark Dive.” It was fun.
Anywho, the next day we departed The Uprising on the Fiji Experience bus, along with three other girls (I swear, there are twice as many women traveling than there are men) bound for Voli Voli Resort on the North Coast. Along the way we picked up a bunch of groceries at a market, then we had a school visit and kava ceremony with a local chief. The school visit was awesome! I’m normally the one to shirk away from social visits like this, but as soon as we hopped out the door of the bus these kids were all over us! Grabbing us by the hands and sometimes pulling us in opposite directions, the kids were energetic and eager to show us their classroom, books, world map (to have us point out where we were from), and to speak English (which was freakisly good – it’s one of two languages taught to everyone in school from a very young age). At the end of the visit the kids sang some songs, and a few select boys did a war chant/dance jobber that was just freaking awesome – I had picked out two kids that in a heartbeat I would have taken home as my own. After leaving we presented some kava root to the village chief (who oversaw the school, and the people/business of 4 other local villages), then passed the bowl around and got tingly. Once an hour or so had passed, just chillin’ on the woven mats of the chief’s house, we picked up our things and (with the chief) went to a school fundraiser, where we sat down with a bunch of men from the village, and drank 3 times more kava than the first time. I learned how to say and write “sailboat” in Fijian: “Waqa vaka laca,” which as I write this, sounds like something Gonzo would say on Sesame Street. It was a good time, and Aimee got to play with a really cute kiddo, and all the girls couldn’t stop talking about how cute the kid was, walking around with it’s (I can’t remember if it was a boy or girl – sorry!) umbrella. After saying goodbye, we left in the bus to spend the next two hours getting our teeth rattled out by the road being constructed, apparently by Malaysians who had been contracted by the government – damn you Malaysian Prime Minister! Where’s Mugatu when you need him?
Now we’re at Voli Voli, making our own meals, in our own kitchen, in a very nice room – and life is good. There is word of a tropical depression that is going to pass close on Sunday, possibily turning into a cyclone, but we’ll see what happens. I’m going to try to get out for a snorkel today, as I’ve been sitting at this darn computer all morning working on putting together videos and photos for a blog upload. So I’m done.
Peace yo!
Danny
PS – we’re heading to Nadi on Monday, then flying out to the Solomon Islands on Tuesday, and we’ll be there until the 4th of January. Whee!
Ammendment to this Post: 11.29.2010, Nadi, Fiji:
Within hours of those last few words my stomach began to gently rock, back and forth….then the internal wind picked up, force 3, building to force 10 within a mere hour. By bedtime my bowels, intestines, and controlling orfaces gave out, and the storm maintained force 12 for the duration of the night, not allowing for much sleep, or retention of liquids, and no thought of solid foods. Thankfully there were hot showers and toilets that flushed, otherwise that night would have been an even more epic onslaught of internal conflict. Moral of this story: don’t buy canned meat at the store, especially the corned beef with the red at the MH Market in RakiRaki, Fiji. 24hours later, I’ve had one solid meal, and am finally to the point where food is appealing, and I’m able to keep it down. Yay.
Cheers,
Danny and Aimee
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