2nd Day: Settling in

After what seemed like forever (2.5 hours by car and 45 minutes by boat) we have finally reached Beqa Lagoon Resort.

We are currently settling into our deluxe Garden bure (a bure is a Fijian thatched roof house). The bure is quite nice and is exotic in flavor. There are elaborate wood carvings on the doors and on the walls. There is a separate living area apart from the king sized bed, and a generous porch its own seating. There are fresh flowers strewn on the beds, the tables even on the floor. We even got fragrant flowers leis placed around our necks as soon as we waded to shore.

Mark has settled into the day bed with an issue of Scuba Diving Magazine. I am in our separate living area on the sofa writing this post. It is so quiet here, all we can hear are the rain drops falling. It rains heee on and off all day. And yes, there is no TV (which explains why I have the time to write this post at all).

We managed to get some fun in in addition to all the boating and driving to get here. We had a morning to kill before our ride to Beqa Lagoon Resort, so we hired a driver to take us on a 3 hour tour of the Nadi area. Our first stop was a fruit and vegetable market where we saw vegetables we had never seen before. I was quite interested in the display of kava root for sale. A group of Fijian men were lined up to buy this popular product. Kava in case you haven't heard of it is a mild sedative that the South Pacific Islanders like to drink daily. If you drink a lot (10 bowls or so) you can get quite drunk. Mark must have been feeling flush with cash because he bought a mango from a small Indo-Fijian lady for 2 Fijian dollars (that is around 1$). We later learned from the driver that we paid around 4X more what we should have. Ah well, at least it's a funny story to tell.

Our next stops were the giant Hindu temple that the ciry of Nadi is famous for, and the Garden of the Sleeping Giant. The former I wasn't overly impressed with since I've seen a grander Hindu temple in Singapore. The latter was nice as there were hundreds of orchid species to take pictures of (see iPhone photo above).

We were also taken to see the "First Landing" which is a point on Vitu Levu where the first Fijians arrived by boat. It was sad to see that a mediocre resort marked this site rather than a nice memorial or museum.

Finally we were taken past various Fijian villages (where only Fijian people were allowed to live), and also through Lautoka town, which is the second largest town in Fiji, and whose main commerce is in processing sugar. It was here that I grabbed a bite to eat at the corner grocery store, a bland meal of fish and chips. (That's Mark below warning me we have to go soon.) I was particularly to eat with the locals - several large and well tattooed Fijian men.

As a side note, I have already decided in the brief period I have been here that Fiji is quite a nice place to live. Were I to decide between living in Mexico, the Bahamas or Fiji, I think I might decide on Fiji so far. Fiji is clean, and everyone is well housed, at least by Silicon Valley standards, which aren't very high. As the managers here at BLR told us, "you never see an unhappy Fijian, nor do you ever see a hungry one." Unemployed Fijians, which I suspect number quite a few, can subsist off the land. There is plenty of unfarmed land, plenty of fish and fruit off of wild trees.

The tour over, we embarked on a long trip along the coast to the BLR. It was pretty, and uneventful. What was unusual were the Fijians who kept waving us hello as we drove past them in the car. (See top picture.) That is how friendly they are.

Once at Beqa lagoon we were treated to the voices of a local choir. There was some talent in that group in spite of the fact that they came from the two small villages that sit on either side of the resort. I am glad I attended when I could have slept instead. The voices were angelic. One lady sang with tears running down her face, so moved was she by the song she was singing. Dinner (all meals come with the dive package) was New Zealand lamb with a French style reduced brown sauce. This was the best lamb I've ever tasted. We had wonderful tablemates- the manager, whose name is Mark, and his wife. These were truly interesting folks who had previously managed resorts in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

Tomorrow will be our first day of diving. I'm already getting jitters just thinking about it. Well, it is off to bed for me. More tomorrow...

-- Post From My iPhone