Thursday, June 24, 2004

bula-licious

greetings from fiji! we're down to our last few hours here in the tropics... had a great time.

last week we were in a remote part of the country, the yasawa islands, site of the infamous lagoon where brooke shields lost her innocence. it was only a 2 hour ferry ride to the small island but we felt much further away than that when we were there. there was literally nothing to do but lay on the beach and play new zealand edition of trivial pursuit. even the kiwis couldn't answer most of the questions. the place was a very low key resort (our room was a "luxury" tent complete with mattress), the reception office had sand for a floor and the communal dining area was a big grass shack on the beach. there were one or two activities each day ranging from learning to tie a sarong to traditional song and dance show and a visit to the local village for fijian church services. we had no idea what was going on but we understood when
to put our money in the collection plate. at the aussie beach bbq there were party games with big ticket give-aways. we won a bottle of champagne after a blindfolded russell was able to identify rachel's knees in a lineup. party indeed. the snorkeling was absolutely incredible just right off the shore, beautiful reef and coral like we've never seen, nice tropical fish and a family of squids.

we spent the last few days in the southern "coral" coast of the main island. we rode the local bus to get down here, passing fields and fields of sugar cane. there's a fringing reef here about 100 yards offshore that breaks up all the waves and makes a tranquil bay-like lagoon for miles. underwater is a different story (a more appropriate name might have been the "dead-creepy-get-out-while-you-can-was-that-a-sea-snake?" coast) but from the beach you'd never know it. for whatever reason the resort we stayed at was virtually empty and we had the place all to ourselves.

today we went to a fijian zoo and saw endemic birds and iguanas, but the highlight was definitely the two fruit-bats getting it on. i think we might be permanently scarred.

tomorrow we're off for new zealand where it won't be 85 and sunny, but we're very excited. more adventure to come...

hope all is well with you all. happy summer!

much love and bula,
R&R.

Thursday, June 17, 2004

about those indians

bula!

all is well here in fiji. starting to remember what it's like to be in travel-mode... it's fun and your back hurts and you drink lots of cokes.

so the indians here are the real-deal indians (red-dot and all), they came over 100 years ago as indentured workers to farm the sugar cane and are now indo-fijian. they speak hindi and english. then there are the real-deal fijians, they are the ancestors of the original fijians and they speak fijian (similar to hawaiian) and english. every village has a "chief" and if you don't ask nicely for something the chief eats you. yesterday we went on a great hike in the highlands and visited one of these villages. when we arrived we were greeted with a traditional kava (fijian "grog" made from kava root) ceremony. we asked nicely for everything and learned how to count to 10. then a woman swatted flies away from us as we ate lunch. rachel accidentally ate some tuna that was
mixed in with the taro and claims to have liked it.

just kidding.

today we took our driver moona on a trip up to fiji's "second highest city" as he kept telling us. it wasn't so high, just crowded. that must be what he meant. there was a big market there with lots of spices.

tomorrow we're off for the yasawas, a group of slightly remote islands known for their white sand beaches and good snorkeling. we'll be at "the octopus resort" (http://www.octopusresort.com, tel. 666 6337). castaway was filmed near there. we'll be on the lookout for wilson.

how did your award cermony go? wish we could have been there. congratulations again!

ok, much love, be in touch again in a few days,
R&R.

Monday, June 14, 2004

bula!

so here we are in fiji! the flight out wasn't too bad. rachel actually slept this time. it's a lot like hawaii here only less people and more indians. and they say bula here instead of aloha. we had some tasty curry for lunch at an indian temple (but no challah or forks), now our hands smell like sujith's basement. the hotel is great, it's a whole bunch of huts on the beach. it's like a deserted island. with lots of indians. and we think satellite cable too so we can see game 5! go pistons!

it's unfortunately really expensive to call but there's tons of email cafes, minus the cafe. plus lots of indians. so email will be the best way to communicate, we should be able to send messages for the next few days, then maybe not for a few days when we get out to a more remote location, then again after that.

bula!

much love,
R&R