Jess Down Under: Fiji!

Added to my international travels: Fiji. The place we stayed at was about a 2 hour drive from the airport, plus a drive down a really long driveway that wound around mountains and descended to the resort and beach below. Well, when we were getting there for the first time, it was dark. And Julia and I just looked at each other, saying, “This can either be really sketch or really good.” It ended up okay, but for all we knew, we could have been being kidnapped to the middle of nowhere!

We got there and met up with Emily, who I’d be sharing a room with. This place was definitely set up for couples looking to be secluded. We hardly saw anyone else, except at mealtimes. There were two Australian couples (two 19 year olds in one…the guy loved gridiron), a travel writer from Austria (expat Australian) and her younger son, and some random guy. Other than that we were on our own.

The first day we sat around the pool and just napped, getting over our travel tiredness. We sipped coconut milk from a freshly opened coconut and I had a Fiji Bitter, which is a really good beer if you ever get the chance to drink it. The slogan is The Sportsman’s Beer, which I think may be a bit biased…lol.

The beach was really nice and, on the second day, there were a couple of bamboo rafts floating in our bay, so we decided to jump on them and make fools of ourselves. It was really fun…but then I had to leave so I could get back to the airport in time for my flight. The lady at our desk told us to be there 3 hours before our flight (I couldn’t check in until 2 hours before!) and added to the 2 hours to get there, I had to leave by 4:30pm. Well, the shuttle was making a run at 2pm, so I had to take that one. I ended up watching Phantom of the Opera while guarding all of my stuff, I missed out on lunch so I felt like crap and the line to check in took forever. I was about 5th in line to check in, and I had to wait about an hour after they started checking people in. Fiji time. Not convenient. By the time I got on the plane I couldn’t really sleep and I felt pretty bad. My body doesn’t like not being fed for 12 hours while it’s awake.

I’m really bummed that I didn’t get to go to the nearby village, and I really didn’t get the full Fiji experience, or even have time to dive. I can say that I’ve been there though!

-Jess

PS - I got sick when I got to Hawaii and thought it was just because of all my traveling...then I just found out that everyone got sick about the same time I did...good old Fijian stomach virus!