Well the Spaniard and the New Zealand couple never came back today, although perhaps that was still due to the bad weather and inability to get back on to the mainland from the islands on the small boats.
During the morning we sat around watching the Leathal Weapon films and chatting, during the afternoon I made my second proper trip out to the nearby town of Manaka in order to send off the drafted emails and check that no last minute changes were announced on my flight, which there werent, then I grabbed some more food for D' and P' plus a few dvd's for them and then headed on back.
The dvd's were either knock off, copies of review only versions or the weird ones where they are taken in the cinemas themselves, but for FD $5 for 3 films you cant really argue and as the television and radio were still out there was nothing else really to do.
While I was in the internet cafe I also checked out the local rain forecast for both hear and Australia. Sad to say that the bad rains in Fiji are just getting started with 95% of tropical storms each and every day for the forseeable future, which is about the worst news that folk here could receive and in Australia the drought is firmly over for the time being with rain all up the East and North coast, exactly where I am due to visit over the next few weeks.
When I got back I passed on the news and weather to the others and it sort of lit a fire under Aussie G' who then got on to his son back home and after a bit of haggling and negociating managed to shift his replacement flight from Saturday to tomorrow, which was the best news he could have hoped for.
After a nice chicken soup I decided to have an early night as my taxi will be arriving around 6am tomorrow in order for me to get to the airport and check in, and I can only hope that I get my seat and that they dont give it to someone else, as my time in Sydney is only a couple of days and without getting into Sydney I will miss my connecting flight to Brisbane and from there everything would go all Pete Tong.
Showing posts with label Fiji. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fiji. Show all posts
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
A second day near Nadi, Fiji
I spoke to my hosts, D' and P', who were kept up to dte periodically by their friends around the island and the news for the imediate present and future was looking grim. Three people had already been killed in the past week, washed away as they tried to make their way across flooded bridges and roads. One of the two main telephone networks was down, the television station was down, one of the radio stations were down and some parts of Nadi and its nearbouring boroughs and villages were under as much as ten feet of water.
Newsforcasts said that despite the temporary let up of the rain, with all the recent water pouring down the hillsides that the local river levels are rising by as much as half an inch per hour, and with a weater forcast of more heavy rainfall for the next week it did not seem to be a good omen. Apparently the rainy season in Fiji is from now right up until late March, but this amount of rainfall over such a small space of time is unheard of and also never this early into the season.
We got by by talking and watching some DVD's while the electricity was still up, though how much longer that would be is a lottery as both the power and the water had also both been cutting out at times during the past few days.
Around lunchtime we got a call from her friend at the airport, L, who said that she was sending over a couple more strandees and it shocked us both that still the airlines were doing nothing to prevent further flights come into Nadi although the airport facilities were already overworked, some offices being turned into makeshift emergency shelters with as many as eleven people, women and childred included, crammed into their to shelter from the rain for the night.
We had a bit of a fishermans bet as to who was coming over, but none of us were that close as it ended up being a lovely young English & Greek couple who were currently living and working in New Zealand, both in some form of education and both fairly seasoned travellers who had come with sleeping bags and tents hoping to sleep out under the stars on a secluded beach, weather permitting.
When they arrived we immediately all hit it off, and although D' and P' are not used to having guests within minutes we were all sittig around, laughing, joking and sharing stories like we were old old friends.
Throughout the day we all did a bit of shopping in the nearby stores, which were almost empty of essentials are the other locals had already cleaned it out of most of the good stuff in their panic buying incase the weather should only get worse.
At dusk the sky turned a deep red and it was so beautiful that we all rushed to get our cameras and do our best to take some photos to do it justice, although of course we could only get close and not truly capture its true beauty.
During the day we had talked long and deep about a good many subjects, about travel and about Fiji and I was a little surprised to hear that the island people were cannibals up until about 150 years ago, when the last recorded victim was the missionary Thomas Backer, whos remains including his half eaten leather shoe is still displayed in a museum in the capital city Suva.
Stories also abound that despite the islands main religion shifted to Catholosism many years ago that underground many of its religious roots still remain and there are places where you can visit out in the smaller and more remote islands where you can still find people practicing a little of their old magic.
For the first time in many weeks I felt as if I was really travelling again, out in the wilds where internet, 24 hour shops, full ATM machines and perfect roads were nothing but a distant memory and certianly not to be relied upon or expected.
Staying with D' and P' I was able to pick up a few tips and customs of the Fiji people, which include their slightly strange ways of feeling that they have a right to just walk into a house and borrow something, that the women have to be very subservient and take care of the entire family and finally the custom around drinking Cava.
Once we heard about the drink, and that you have not really visited Fiji until after you have drank Cava with the locals, we all jumped at their offer to mix us up some and let us try some later tonight. After dark we all sat round in a circle, on their fijian mat, swapping stories, jokes and magic tricks as we passed cups around of the Kava, or grog as the locals call it.
It was very nice to see the New Zealand couple J' and M' get on so well as their relationship seemed very solid, understanding and when they started to tell jokes and magic tricks they didnt even need to tell the other what to say or do, they just bounced off each other and more than any other couple I know I feel that they are very similar and have a deep understanding for each other.
One of the topics of stories that we shared was on about dejavu, e.s.p. and ghosts. I told my usual ghost story of being doubleteam scared by my friends L' and G' where L' ends up rushing out in a bright illumious yellow tshirt but then M' topped that with a story of her own. I had already heard of the story through the internet and grapevine about a lone driver who gets stranded in the middle of nowhere and as he heads to the nearby emergency telephone to call for help it rings, and it is his wife who misdialed and somehow rang this emergency phone instead of his mobile but according to M' this was actually her cousins and was all in the news. Now whether this is true that it is her cousins at this stage I can't confirm, but it makes a great story and addition to the night.
J' countered by showing us a magic trick that had the whole room guessing all night long, involving 9 objects that he could tell that we touched and in what order without being in the room at the time, and like any good magician he was very tight lipped about how he did it, which made it even better.
About an hour later it got very dark we got another phone call from L' to say that another stranded traveller was on his way, and a little before 10pm yet another call so before I slipped off into a slightly drunken and grog induced sleep there was a pretty full house.
Arrival at my journeys halfway point in Nadi, Fiji
The taxi cost me US $35 to reach the airport from Waikiki centre, and I regretted not booking a much cheaper shuttle bus as that was a lot of money wasted on next to nothing.
Customs and departure through Honolulu was a breeze as at that time I was one of the only people at the airport and there were no places open to eat or drink, except one Japanese sushi place that the worlds worst sandwiches I have ever tasted and despite being hungry I didnt even manage to get through half of one sandwich before throwing it in the bin.
The flight across from Honolulu to Nadi in Fiji was important as it marked my half way point away from home with the crossing of the international dateline skipping from the 9th to the 10th midflight. On the flight they only showed one movie despite the flight being almost 7 hours long and the food was a weird omelette and accompanying fruit sections. Most of the flight was fair sailing but just coming over near to Fiji the plane started to experience the worst turbulence I have ever had, dropping suddenly and far longer than I have ever done before though thankfully it did not pitch from side to side or rock.
On one of the seats next to me sat a young woman who was travelling with a small musical instrument and a super fluffy teddybear and once we got chatting I found out that she had an interesting story to tell. She was originally from Fiji and today she was returning home after living away from home for a few years as a student and working in the Polynesian cultureal centre back on Hawaii, being one of the performers I had been greatly entertained by just two days ago.
I do not normally feel stage shocked when I meet famous artists or performers, so I was able to carry on talking to her normally without getting embarrased or feeling the need to ask for her autograph, but the more I talked to her the happier and more relaxed I felt and by the end of the seven hours I felt like we two could become friends if time and space allowed.
As we flew over the shore of Fiji, heading inland, she looked out and looked out and began to take photos just like I do, only her reason for doing so was because she spotted that the fields looked a dirty brown colour and not a lush and tropical green and the reason for this we found as soon as we touched down.
My own particular curse of being rained on in every country had preceeded me by about a week as it had been raining extra hard in Fiji, longer and harder than in anyones memory there ( yet again ! ) and although the airplanes were still landing every few hours from overseas there was no easy way to get anywhere as all the roads from the airport were flooded in every direction, in some places as high as five feet of water.
My new friend was due to fly out to Suva, the capital of Fiji, but with the heavy rain we were both unsure if she would be able to get there so she contacted her folks who said that if her flight did not take off then she could go and stay with her relatives. For my part I was unsure as to what to do, so I wandered around and was eventually chatting to one lady who worked in the airport who said that she would do everything she could to help me find accommodation.
All the hotels and hostels in downtown Nadi were still safe from the water however all the roads going to of from Nadi were totally unpassable and had been for days, which meant that all the very nearby hotels were overloaded with emergency tourist. The rain coming down outside sounded as loud as thunder with the roof being no more than corrugated iron in places and it was almost impossible to make a phone call under the circumstances.
The internet was still working in the airport and I contacted my Insurers and airline to see if there was anything that anyone could do but in typical fashion the insurers were less than useless, merely saying that I should keep all receipts and that I was welcome to try and submit a claim when I got back but not giving any guarantee that I would get anything back and the airline said all the flights heading out of Nadi were fully booked for the entire time I was due to stay.
Being short of optioned I was happy to follow the airport ladies suggestion which was to go and spend a few days with her friends D' and P' who lived very close by, friends that were not actually a hostel or anything but just a couple of good people living in a 4 bedroom house, one of the couple being full Fijian and the other being originally from Ireland. D' used to be a tattoo artist and had her own shop in Germany while P' is ex british army and now spends a few months each year doing mini tours as bodyguard duty in some of the more extremely dangerous places in the world.
We had to flag down a passing 4x4 pickup to take us the few minutes walk to their place, as all the roads round the airport were under more than a foot of water and none of the airport taxi's would take anyone anywhere under such dangerous conditions.
Once out of the flood area I met the couple and they were willing to take me in for a few nights, which was a real blessing as they turned out to be some of the nicest people I could have hoped to meet and we spent many days chatting about all sorts of things, watching movies, cooking and drinking.
The rain was still falling heavily when I finally fell asleep around 10pm and showed no signs of lightening up, so I was resigned to making the best of my new and unexpected situation.
As a side note the electricity here uses a different plug to what my adapter uses, which is a pain as I thought that I had got enough seperate attachments to cover me no mater where I went, but then I guess Switzerland should have shown me that there are always exceptions!
A third wet day near Nadi Airport, Fiji
Spending more time with D' and P' I can really appreciate their continued support and advice, always looking out for me and doing their best to entertain me even though we are stuck in a rain drenched house unable to have internet, television, telephone landline or radio signals, relying on the few dvd movies that we have and the occasional mobile cellphone text or call from the outside world.
News reached us that Nadi is still half under water and the water level is still rising as the rains continue to fall almost constantly under monsoon type conditions. A brief excursion to get buy some more matresses is all that D' will suffer going out in the bad weather as she has heard that the young couple and the Spaniard who were here the other day are due to return back here, as their trip to the islands ended up being a washout, just as we predicted.
I am still having to take at least two cold showers a day, just to cool off, and D' still says that a third is best though I just can't be doing with being that wet that many times during the day, especially as a shower should mean a change of clothing and I just dont have 15 changes of clothes to swap into.
Unlike its neighbouring island of Hawaii, which had the help of the American money and industry, Fiji is still very much behind the times, with it everything being done to Fiji time which is another way of saying its gets done when it gets done and there is no way to rush things. Most Fijian houses do not have such luxuries as beds, sofa's or washing machines, favouring instead to wash them by hand and hand them out to dry.
Being european D' is very used to getting things done in either hours or at the most days, but so far she and her husband have been waiting months for an internet or telephone cable to be installed so that they can have a proper link to the outside world that does not rely on crackly radio messages on a cellphone every few hours.
Each time I go into my room I can smell the mustiness and the mildew growing all around and yet with the constant driving rain if I open the windows it will just let in more rain and moisture and without the heat there is nothing to dry out the room, my clothes or the bedding. I am still very glad that I have a roof over my head and know that in the airport there are still many stranded passengers desperate who would be happy to trade places with me, so I am not ungrateful, but still I am allowed at least to think and dream of better conditions.
Midway through the day a happy go lucky australian guy G' comes along and with him comes fresh news of the weather, the conditions at the airport and someone new to talk to. It is not that we have run out of things to say, but a fresh perspective on things and a different face is always a welcome. He has some good stories of his time in Fiji, his first ever time he has travelled outside of Australia despite being at least ten years older than I am, but still he has tried the local food, local drink and been chased away from the fishing spots by locals once which was enough for him to think twice about being there a second time.
One of P's cousins or uncles turned up with yet more dvd's and so we spend the best part of the day watching Clint Eastwood movies, which meant lots of guns, blood and lead bullets flying all over the place.
Around 5pm I had my second shower of the day, and wondered decided to write up a few more lines for entries in my blog, even though there is little to say in terms of travelling, but Aussie G' has enough news, jokes and stories to keep us all amused for a few more hours yet.
As we talk P's cousins and other extended family are hereabouts and join in with the stories and news as they can. English here is heavily accented but almost everyone can speak good enough English to get by and all the movies that we have been watching are all English, as is the most of the music that we have been listening to over the past few days. The admit that few fijians actually own or run anything here now, it is all controlled or lorded over by Indians, and one store actually has a bigger sign saying that they are"owned and operated by fijians" than they do displaying the actual name of the shop.
It would appear that Australia is very much becoming a full part of asia, complete with some towns or districts being controlled and mostly populated by Indians, Chinese or Muslims, proof that the expansionism of the white man acros the world is now in reverse with every part of the once powerful british empire now suffering so much imigration from other countries that despite English being the worlds first language ( officially recognised or not ! ) very soon there will be no country left that is governed and populated by its own native people.
I do not often make sweeping religious or political statements, but I am not sure that all this mixed influences is such a good thing, as culture, heritage, traditions are all going out the window.
Everywhere I go and everything I see shows it more and more than although the technology, the geography and the weather might be different in each country they are all heading the same way, and in a couple of hundred years those three differences will indeed be the only things that seperate one country from the any other.
D' managed to speak to L' at the airport and the news was that rivers all over Fiji were bursting their banks and with continuing rains it looks set to only get worse.
Aussie G' has already spend three days trying to get back home near Sydney as his wife had to go to hospital while he was here but with the storms and the flooding it is next to impossible to get an earlier flight than what you have booked. He managed to speak to his wife and the news over in Australia is that the rain storms have hit the east coast there too, ending the long drought with more rainfall in one night than they have had in eight years, nice for them but for me just another place to get rained on.
I am so glad that I stopped off in Mexico and got a few good days of sun as without that I think I would be just trying to get a flight home and forgetting the rest of the trip, having given up on hope.
G' told us stories about a few young children in Australia who did not believe in rain, thinking that it was similar to Santa Clause, just a thing that adults tell children to tease or amuse their kids.
After dark I wanted to thank D' and P' for them putting me up for a few nights so I asked if we could order a pizza, but D' said that that would cost a fortune so instead we took a drive out to the pizza place to pick one up. As we didnt have the telephone number we could not order in advance and once there we had a wait of almost an hour before it arrived and on the way back we passed a pothole in the road that was so huge it was bigger than the car and would not have looked out of place on the moons surface.
We also passed a few of the big hotels in the area, all were full, and P's cousin is a chef working in the Sheraton and he told us that this morning he had to prepare breakfasts for over 2000 people, now thats a lot of stranded people as normally when people come to Fiji they dont hang around Nadi but stay for a night and then move on over to the islands where it is more rural and cultural, plus has better countryside and areas for camping out under the stars or fishing.
News reached us that Nadi is still half under water and the water level is still rising as the rains continue to fall almost constantly under monsoon type conditions. A brief excursion to get buy some more matresses is all that D' will suffer going out in the bad weather as she has heard that the young couple and the Spaniard who were here the other day are due to return back here, as their trip to the islands ended up being a washout, just as we predicted.
I am still having to take at least two cold showers a day, just to cool off, and D' still says that a third is best though I just can't be doing with being that wet that many times during the day, especially as a shower should mean a change of clothing and I just dont have 15 changes of clothes to swap into.
Unlike its neighbouring island of Hawaii, which had the help of the American money and industry, Fiji is still very much behind the times, with it everything being done to Fiji time which is another way of saying its gets done when it gets done and there is no way to rush things. Most Fijian houses do not have such luxuries as beds, sofa's or washing machines, favouring instead to wash them by hand and hand them out to dry.
Being european D' is very used to getting things done in either hours or at the most days, but so far she and her husband have been waiting months for an internet or telephone cable to be installed so that they can have a proper link to the outside world that does not rely on crackly radio messages on a cellphone every few hours.
Each time I go into my room I can smell the mustiness and the mildew growing all around and yet with the constant driving rain if I open the windows it will just let in more rain and moisture and without the heat there is nothing to dry out the room, my clothes or the bedding. I am still very glad that I have a roof over my head and know that in the airport there are still many stranded passengers desperate who would be happy to trade places with me, so I am not ungrateful, but still I am allowed at least to think and dream of better conditions.
Midway through the day a happy go lucky australian guy G' comes along and with him comes fresh news of the weather, the conditions at the airport and someone new to talk to. It is not that we have run out of things to say, but a fresh perspective on things and a different face is always a welcome. He has some good stories of his time in Fiji, his first ever time he has travelled outside of Australia despite being at least ten years older than I am, but still he has tried the local food, local drink and been chased away from the fishing spots by locals once which was enough for him to think twice about being there a second time.
One of P's cousins or uncles turned up with yet more dvd's and so we spend the best part of the day watching Clint Eastwood movies, which meant lots of guns, blood and lead bullets flying all over the place.
Around 5pm I had my second shower of the day, and wondered decided to write up a few more lines for entries in my blog, even though there is little to say in terms of travelling, but Aussie G' has enough news, jokes and stories to keep us all amused for a few more hours yet.
As we talk P's cousins and other extended family are hereabouts and join in with the stories and news as they can. English here is heavily accented but almost everyone can speak good enough English to get by and all the movies that we have been watching are all English, as is the most of the music that we have been listening to over the past few days. The admit that few fijians actually own or run anything here now, it is all controlled or lorded over by Indians, and one store actually has a bigger sign saying that they are"owned and operated by fijians" than they do displaying the actual name of the shop.
It would appear that Australia is very much becoming a full part of asia, complete with some towns or districts being controlled and mostly populated by Indians, Chinese or Muslims, proof that the expansionism of the white man acros the world is now in reverse with every part of the once powerful british empire now suffering so much imigration from other countries that despite English being the worlds first language ( officially recognised or not ! ) very soon there will be no country left that is governed and populated by its own native people.
I do not often make sweeping religious or political statements, but I am not sure that all this mixed influences is such a good thing, as culture, heritage, traditions are all going out the window.
Everywhere I go and everything I see shows it more and more than although the technology, the geography and the weather might be different in each country they are all heading the same way, and in a couple of hundred years those three differences will indeed be the only things that seperate one country from the any other.
D' managed to speak to L' at the airport and the news was that rivers all over Fiji were bursting their banks and with continuing rains it looks set to only get worse.
Aussie G' has already spend three days trying to get back home near Sydney as his wife had to go to hospital while he was here but with the storms and the flooding it is next to impossible to get an earlier flight than what you have booked. He managed to speak to his wife and the news over in Australia is that the rain storms have hit the east coast there too, ending the long drought with more rainfall in one night than they have had in eight years, nice for them but for me just another place to get rained on.
I am so glad that I stopped off in Mexico and got a few good days of sun as without that I think I would be just trying to get a flight home and forgetting the rest of the trip, having given up on hope.
G' told us stories about a few young children in Australia who did not believe in rain, thinking that it was similar to Santa Clause, just a thing that adults tell children to tease or amuse their kids.
After dark I wanted to thank D' and P' for them putting me up for a few nights so I asked if we could order a pizza, but D' said that that would cost a fortune so instead we took a drive out to the pizza place to pick one up. As we didnt have the telephone number we could not order in advance and once there we had a wait of almost an hour before it arrived and on the way back we passed a pothole in the road that was so huge it was bigger than the car and would not have looked out of place on the moons surface.
We also passed a few of the big hotels in the area, all were full, and P's cousin is a chef working in the Sheraton and he told us that this morning he had to prepare breakfasts for over 2000 people, now thats a lot of stranded people as normally when people come to Fiji they dont hang around Nadi but stay for a night and then move on over to the islands where it is more rural and cultural, plus has better countryside and areas for camping out under the stars or fishing.
Monday, 12 January 2009
Another wet and windy day near Nadi airport, Fiji
This morning we all woke up a little worse for wear as the effects of the local drink, grog ( or cava ) was a bit like having a hangover but when you add it to the very real humidity and the few shots of run and coke that everyone had as well it all equals a very quiet and peaceful morning where no one really wants to get up and do anything, not even the locals.
As I had sent myself to sleep around midnight I was up and ready for the day at 7am, whereas the late arrival Aussie had stayed up all night drinking to prove his manhood with the local boys, thus none of them got to sleep before about 7am and in the morning when I was walking around I could see the carnage of the night before and snoring bodies were slumped wherever they had been before sleep overtook them.
It was nice to see a bit of a respite from the rain when I woke up, and it even started to feel a little bit warm in the morning so the other travellers all took this opportunity to make fot the airport and see if they could get themselves out to the islands or down to Suva where they could start their holiday proper.
Myself, I knew that Nadi town centre was still underwater, the local radio station communication box had been flown to Suva to escape the rising tides and stories of people standing on tables or hiding in roof rafters abound, so I have firmly decided to cut my losses and remain with my new friends here near the airport and just lie low.
In the early afternoon the rains returned and radio announcements say that another low depression will be here within the next couple of days and so I hope that the couple who left to go to the islands this morning manage to make it back in time for their flight out again fine and safe.
I spoke to my sister on the phone, to let her know that I was all safe and sound and the financial news from back home is freightening, the bank of England base rate has dropped to 1.5% which is good for people with variable mortgages but it means that noone with savings is getting a good rate and chances are the credit cards are going to stop lending as they just will not be able to make a good return on their credit.
Redundancies are also rife and so I have decided to stay out and continue travelling until my original return date even if it puts me in greater debt, as not only is this a once in a lifetime opportunity but by the sounds of it there is little chance of returning to the UK and finding a good paying job anyway so why bother, instead I will do my best to live as fun and happy a life as possible, aware that upon my return it might take a good fews years before things for me are fully back to normal and out of debt.
By the early evening the rains had returned and although it wasnt as pounding hard as it has been, the fact that it is continuous for many hours is not a good sign for things to come, especially as the rainy season is due to continue until early April.
On my travels, people have asked me if I am religious and my answer is that although I do not follow the rules of any one recognised religion I have experienced and been witness to to many things to put them all down to coincidences and so I just try to live the best, cleanest life I can, respect and honor those who deserve it and have as much fun as I can and if that makes me a good person or a heathen / infidel then so be it, but I have made my choice and I am sticking to it.
As I had sent myself to sleep around midnight I was up and ready for the day at 7am, whereas the late arrival Aussie had stayed up all night drinking to prove his manhood with the local boys, thus none of them got to sleep before about 7am and in the morning when I was walking around I could see the carnage of the night before and snoring bodies were slumped wherever they had been before sleep overtook them.
It was nice to see a bit of a respite from the rain when I woke up, and it even started to feel a little bit warm in the morning so the other travellers all took this opportunity to make fot the airport and see if they could get themselves out to the islands or down to Suva where they could start their holiday proper.
Myself, I knew that Nadi town centre was still underwater, the local radio station communication box had been flown to Suva to escape the rising tides and stories of people standing on tables or hiding in roof rafters abound, so I have firmly decided to cut my losses and remain with my new friends here near the airport and just lie low.
In the early afternoon the rains returned and radio announcements say that another low depression will be here within the next couple of days and so I hope that the couple who left to go to the islands this morning manage to make it back in time for their flight out again fine and safe.
I spoke to my sister on the phone, to let her know that I was all safe and sound and the financial news from back home is freightening, the bank of England base rate has dropped to 1.5% which is good for people with variable mortgages but it means that noone with savings is getting a good rate and chances are the credit cards are going to stop lending as they just will not be able to make a good return on their credit.
Redundancies are also rife and so I have decided to stay out and continue travelling until my original return date even if it puts me in greater debt, as not only is this a once in a lifetime opportunity but by the sounds of it there is little chance of returning to the UK and finding a good paying job anyway so why bother, instead I will do my best to live as fun and happy a life as possible, aware that upon my return it might take a good fews years before things for me are fully back to normal and out of debt.
By the early evening the rains had returned and although it wasnt as pounding hard as it has been, the fact that it is continuous for many hours is not a good sign for things to come, especially as the rainy season is due to continue until early April.
On my travels, people have asked me if I am religious and my answer is that although I do not follow the rules of any one recognised religion I have experienced and been witness to to many things to put them all down to coincidences and so I just try to live the best, cleanest life I can, respect and honor those who deserve it and have as much fun as I can and if that makes me a good person or a heathen / infidel then so be it, but I have made my choice and I am sticking to it.
Saturday, 10 January 2009
Totally flooded out of Nadi, Fiji
I am gutted.
I have just arrived in Fiji, the promised land, the halfway point in
my travel, where lister was going to travel with Cat and where Jim
Carey's character Truman Burbank was desperate to reach to find his
lost love and when I arrive ... it is totally flooded.
It is the worst rain in living memory, and although I have made to the
airport all the main roads out to the big cities are totally blocked
and all because of this all the hotels are fully booked, but
thankfully a nice woman who works in the airport has found me a place
to stay where her brother lives about ten minutes drive from the
airport.
The insurance people are useless, as are the airline telephone staff
and if it were not for me talking to the people around me I would be
forced to stay in the airport for almost an entire week, as the rains
are due to get worse not better.
Arrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhhh
Fijian Kava
In Fiji there is a local drink called Kava that is more like liquid drug that a fermented alcohol.
Once I heard about the drink from Paul I, who said that you had not really visited Fiji until you had drank Kava with the locals, I jumped at their offer to have some with him and his friends that night.
Kava is a drink that you mix up up a bowl of water and some thin sacking, and can be done fairly easily and without much prep time or attention to detail.
Basically you get a bowl of water, put a few mug fulls of the Kava powder into the sacking and then having wrapped it up dunk it in the water in a similar manner as you would a tea bag.
After about half an hour the water in the bowl had turned from clear to a light muddy brown and was ready to be server, drank from a small coconut shell cups.
Sitting on a mat, swapping stories and magic tricks we all took turns of drinking the slightly gritty brown liquid, not really getting drunk but it certainly had an effect on our senses.
After two rounds of the drink I had already had my fill and passed on a third drink, but Paul and the others continued drinking long into the night.
As testament to the drinks narcotic effect in the morning I woke up slightly later than normal while the rest of the boys were all found slumped over chairs or prone on the mats until well into the mid afternoon.
Once I heard about the drink from Paul I, who said that you had not really visited Fiji until you had drank Kava with the locals, I jumped at their offer to have some with him and his friends that night.
Kava is a drink that you mix up up a bowl of water and some thin sacking, and can be done fairly easily and without much prep time or attention to detail.
Basically you get a bowl of water, put a few mug fulls of the Kava powder into the sacking and then having wrapped it up dunk it in the water in a similar manner as you would a tea bag.
After about half an hour the water in the bowl had turned from clear to a light muddy brown and was ready to be server, drank from a small coconut shell cups.
Sitting on a mat, swapping stories and magic tricks we all took turns of drinking the slightly gritty brown liquid, not really getting drunk but it certainly had an effect on our senses.
After two rounds of the drink I had already had my fill and passed on a third drink, but Paul and the others continued drinking long into the night.
As testament to the drinks narcotic effect in the morning I woke up slightly later than normal while the rest of the boys were all found slumped over chairs or prone on the mats until well into the mid afternoon.
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