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.