Fiji

As many of you already know, Ester her flight to Fiji was canceled in Hong Kong and she had to spend Christmas at Hong Kong airport. But on boxing day Ester gave us the good news she was boarding and an hour later Hong Kong airport announced that the plane had departed…but here in Fiji they still said it was on the ground in Hong Kong. Two hours before the plane was going to arrive in Fiji someone called the airport, asking them to please open the airport because a plane was coming. One hour before they touched down, they opened the airport and two hours later we could finally hug Ester!! Because of the terror she went through, we decided to stay one night longer in Nadi and have a good night sleep before we would travel in the Yasawa Island group.

 On Wednesday we took the boat into the Yasawa’s and we got off at Mantaray resort. There they had a magnificent coral garden in front of the Island and Ester met her first shark underwater! It was great. Unfortunally we only had one night over there and the next day we took the boat to Oarsman bay. This is a resort run by the local village..and we could notice that! There was always Fiji time but only when they wanted it to. Breakfast was at 8AM and we had to be there and then it took them one or two hours to get the breakfast ready and it was not that special. They also ran out of coffee and they told us every day that the ship would bring new coffee the next day but the ship came every day but the coffee never arrived. It was the same with the internet. They had internet but is was not working because they did not pay the bill and they were not going to either… and the activities always started one or two hours late. One morning we wanted to be clever and we asked them when the boat to the caves did not arrive at 9 AM, what time it would arrive, so we could go back to our room. They told us the boat would be there at 10 AM. But what happened? The boat came early and the chief of the village started shouting at us we had to get on the boat immediately or it would leave without us! What happened to Fiji time? Luckily, Ester did not know he was the chief so she called him a crazy idiot who needed to shut up! That was funny, because the chief is the highest person in the village and everybody need to respect him. Well, not us! Every day they ran out of something new. There was no butter, no wine, no coffee, etc. Luckily, during our stay we met some nice people who stayed there as well and we laughed about the resort with them. We had a great New Year mostly because of them and we made our own party. Wishing each other a happy new year swimming in the ocean under the stars…..that was world class!

After new year, we were happy we could pack our bags and leave to Octopus Resort. That was a very nice resort with huge spiders (thank God for the mosquito nets!) and we stayed there for another 3 nights before we had to go back to Nadi.

Yesterday, Ester and I went back to the hospital in Lautoka, where we did some research 8 years ago. It was very nice to be back and see many old friends! One of our friends went to work in the hospital in Nadi so after our trip back to memory lane in the hospital and some walking around in Lautoka we took the bus back to Nadi to go to the hospital there. When we arrived in Nadi it was pouring rain and a vicar offered us a ride to the hospital what was very nice! At the hospital we met our old friend Radika. It was so nice to see her again! We stayed there until the hospital closed its doors and then we went back to our place (Mama’s) and it was time for Ester to pack her bags.

This morning Ester got her flight back home. I feel sad today. We had such a great time! It was like being back 8 years ago. Ester, thanks for visiting us and we will see you in Asia!!!! Vinaka vaka levu!

Cheers Anna