so "Bula!" is what Fijians say as a greeting and i hear it here about 200 times a day. Proud Mary is what the Fijean 3-piece acoutsic guitar group is playing right now by the pool in my hotel. of course.
today was better. i did one of those package tours. i know what you are thinking: 'how touristy'. i know, but there's no hiding it really and i'm here for 2.5 days on my own and hardly about to dive in to the real fiji. i think i will be back for a proper trip for that. it's just easy to be taken care of and to have so little expected of you (because you are a tourist). i like not worrying if i am getting lost or if i am in a strange place for a single woman to be. a lot of the island (>50%) is hindi and their women seem to be expected to stay put and act specific ways i don't really know.
today at 8 am a bus picked me up at hotel and drove to 5 or 6 other hotels before taking me to (no joke this is what it is called) robinson crusoe island. a 30 minute skiff ride to a tiny spec of sand with an eco hotel. i spent the day on the island, snorkeling, eating grilled fish, watching fire walking, fire dancing and drinking fiji gold. if you are ever here, do not miss the turtle viewing. the snorkeling was the highlight. i swam through a large school of bright blue fish and saw fish of every other imaginable color near by. also heaps of coral. it's a bit surreal and i lose track of time. i could do that all day.
special to lynn: i tried to do a little shelling and got you a pretty one, i was carrying back to my bag when it bit me. i guess it was a hermit and i hadn't noticed. in typical suave-courtney fashion i screamed and threw the shells everywhere and everyone looked at the weird american girl there on her own. anyway, you won't be getting that shell. (neither you, mom.)
amy: thanks for the tip on the indian food. dosis! naan! curries of all varieties. and for cheap. oh dear!
all fijian women seem to have the same hairstyle, one like oj simpson had during the naked gun films. come on ladies. diversify....
lots of men here still wear skirts or whatever the right name is for man-skirt loincloth things. security guard? skirt. taxi driver? skirt. handicraft dealer? skirt. school boy? skirt.
there was a bus strike today. the government imposes a fixed bus fare, but the buses are privately run and have to buy their own fuel, the price of which has increased 7 times this year. the bus fare can't increase to match the fuel price, so the buses operate at a loss. the bus strike stopped the city of nadi in it's tracks. school children use the private buses to get to school so they were just milling about in their school uniforms (all skirts, the boys with ties). by the time i got back from robinson crusoe island my driver told me the strike was over, but it wasn't clear if the bus fares would increase. that would be hard on school children and most of the workers who rely on the system... i'm a free market fan. whizzer? what's a libertarian to do? what about the school kids?
the soap in my hotel smells exactly like grape hubba bubba. exactly. even though i know it is soap i have considered eating it. (just a little piece...)
my hotel tv gets three channels: the national geographic channel, a fijian news & soap opera channel and espn. i am in heaven and have not had any trouble finding something good to watch. also, there are no commercials for some reason, so when sports center goes to break they just show one of those 'on this day in sports' bits and come right back.
i went into a supermarket and there was a huge display of canned mutton. hundreds of cans. must be all the rage here.
speaking of espn, i just heard that favre is coming back. again? maybe i should just go back to australia. please. what a fool. he had the unexpected chance of a lifetime to go out on a high note after 6 bad seasons and he wants to come back again? i hope he goes down in a steroids probe.
i'll be back in nyc soon and am already looking forward to tournaments in ottawa and a wildwood! i can't wait to get home... see everyone soon.
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