Fiji - backdated!
A totally tropical haven!! We spent an amazing 12 days here living in very simple way - but who needs flashy hotels and big posh restaurants when you've got your own little palm thatched beach bungalow in a coconut plantation, all your meals being prepared with homegrown goodies, a dive school hut as your next door neighbour and lovely lovely people? (although a fresh water shower would have been nice as the water bore hole left us a bit minging and sticky each night!!)
Otto and Fanny's (the place we stayed) was just like staying with a Fijian family - everyone there was really friendly and we were even invited to join in the cava drinking celebration session after they won the rugby 7s world cup roud their little garden table - ukeleles were being strummed and the singing was fab!
We learned to dive here and had such a great time with our local instructor Niko, who is related to Otto and Fanny, and three other lads. The snorkelling around the island was like nothing James or I had ever seen before - the corals were flourescent, great bright blue star fish loafed alongside enormous sea slugs and the fish were every size and every colour and pattern you can think of. After that we did wonder why we were bothering to go much deeper and learn to dive - but once we got going we knew why!! More and more, getting bigger and bigger!! It was like Niko was showing us round his back garden as he searched out purple inking octopusses, turtles and Nimo! The only time I had bit of a moment was when he announced that we may see Hammerheads as we were going down from our first boat dive, mopping up blood from his leg at the time - funnily enough it was the only time I didn't stick right by his side. I was quite glad when we surfaced having only come face to face with pretty looking colourful things!!
By now James and I were well and truely hooked but, despite knowing the theory, we were both still a bit unsure about how we would actually react 18m down if/when we did spot a shark lurking in wait. Even though most are supposedly harmless they still look mean and the old theme tune does seep into your head as you're getting deeper!!
We were sad to leave the island and all the people there - even more so when the next island we went to was filled with uber-cool traveller dudes. "Yo Yo Yo! Whatz happnin'?" Felt like we'd stumbled into a cult group of extras for 'The Beach' who hadn't managed to go home yet. God I'm getting old! Still, we couldn't really grumble as we were still in paradise and we couldn't hear them when we were out in the water!! Still amazing snorkelling but no diving here as we thought we'd save it for our next stops.
Otto and Fanny's (the place we stayed) was just like staying with a Fijian family - everyone there was really friendly and we were even invited to join in the cava drinking celebration session after they won the rugby 7s world cup roud their little garden table - ukeleles were being strummed and the singing was fab!
We learned to dive here and had such a great time with our local instructor Niko, who is related to Otto and Fanny, and three other lads. The snorkelling around the island was like nothing James or I had ever seen before - the corals were flourescent, great bright blue star fish loafed alongside enormous sea slugs and the fish were every size and every colour and pattern you can think of. After that we did wonder why we were bothering to go much deeper and learn to dive - but once we got going we knew why!! More and more, getting bigger and bigger!! It was like Niko was showing us round his back garden as he searched out purple inking octopusses, turtles and Nimo! The only time I had bit of a moment was when he announced that we may see Hammerheads as we were going down from our first boat dive, mopping up blood from his leg at the time - funnily enough it was the only time I didn't stick right by his side. I was quite glad when we surfaced having only come face to face with pretty looking colourful things!!
By now James and I were well and truely hooked but, despite knowing the theory, we were both still a bit unsure about how we would actually react 18m down if/when we did spot a shark lurking in wait. Even though most are supposedly harmless they still look mean and the old theme tune does seep into your head as you're getting deeper!!
We were sad to leave the island and all the people there - even more so when the next island we went to was filled with uber-cool traveller dudes. "Yo Yo Yo! Whatz happnin'?" Felt like we'd stumbled into a cult group of extras for 'The Beach' who hadn't managed to go home yet. God I'm getting old! Still, we couldn't really grumble as we were still in paradise and we couldn't hear them when we were out in the water!! Still amazing snorkelling but no diving here as we thought we'd save it for our next stops.
posted by Polly and James at Tuesday, March 22, 2005
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