DOLPHINS! Honeymoon: Day 10

DOLPHINS!

This was another stellar day in Fiji.  We went on a Spinner Dolphin Tour with Plantation Resort. I've never seen wild dolphins before.  We went in pontoon boat.  About an hour into the tour we found a pod of 15-20 dolphins.  The guide, Moses, said they have babies so they don't come out of the water as much.  I don't  know anything about dolphins.  They swam lurching out of the water so we could see their fins and then dived below and disappeared.  A few minutes later they appeared.  Hide and seek like that went on for most of the tour but after while out of nowhere on of the dolphins spun out of the water.  It was so COOL!  I'd never seen anything like that, but they were entirely out of the water spinning entirely around in a circle, their tails touching the water and their noses pointed to the sky. Later they swam next to the boat and all tolled about half-a-dozen dolphins leapt out of the water and spun.  It was just magnificent.  We just absolutely loved it.  LOVE IT!!!

SNORKELING!

After we spotted dolphins Moses took us to a new snorkeling spot.  It was very good.  It was a little further from the resort which was nice -- a little less snorkeled (a little but not much less).  There were thousands of small blue fish that bury themselves in the coral.  Even tho there are thousands of them they move like one organism.  It's like the ocean breaths and they float in and out of the coral.  It's a little hard to describe but I hadn't seen anything like that either.  It was really cool.  We'd see more of that the next day too.

SUNSET CRUISE!

This night we went on a sunset cruise with Plantation.  They have a 300 HP speedboat that six of us fit in. They served appetizers, beer and soda and then take us on a tour of the local islands. We got to see and even stop at some other resorts (giving me ideas for any additional Fiji vacations!) and eventually they idled while we watched the sunset.  It's the sort of thing where you can physically watch the sun crawl below the horizon.  Then, in order to beat the darkness they tore back to the resorts.  It was the funnest non-snorkel activity we did all week.  So good I wanted to go again but we couldn't get on any other tours.

START YOUR SNORKELS! Honeymoon: Day 9

SNORKELING!!!

Finally, we had putzed around with some so-so snorkeling on the other island, but this is the reason we came to Lomani.  We pulled out the gear and met our activities guide, Paul.  He was awesome.  Sadly he's the only activities guy on duty which I think is really too much for one person but he always was on the go and willing to make things fun.  I also provided the musical entertainment at dinner.  That's quite a job description.

We had a little wooden skiff.  It had nails sticking out of it and a 40 horsepower motor.  Off we went just a few minutes from the resort to "Sandbar".  Aaron and I were pretty much the first ones in.  This, my friends, was the best snorkeling I've experienced since leaving the Marshalls. It left a little room for improvement and my guess is if you could get away from the resort a local could take you to some truly world-class areas.  Still, this was pretty darned good!  We were both pleased.  It's just nice to be floating out there.  Paul fed the fish bread so there were giant schools going nuts.  There were big angle fish, trigger fish, parrot fish, clams and Fiji's trademark Blue Start Fish.  They were everywhere, all sized, and all dark, dark blue.  Just beautiful.  It was just absolutely wonderful.  We were the last ones to stop snorkeling and all too soon we were headed back to the hot-house.

We had our forgettable lunch and then struck up a conversation with some Aussies sitting by the pool.  We asked them what they thought of the food and in a fabulous Australian accent they said, "really quite shitty".  That would be another way of putting it.  They turned us on to "Dicks Bistro" at the Musket Cove just up the beach.  This island was made up of three resorts and that was it (no village school here).  We were more than happy to make a booking for Dicks.  

We took the afternoon to explore the other resorts.  Just a very short walk up the beach is the Plantation Resort. This is a family resort that's sort of a disney-esk sort of thing.  There's some family that owns Plantation (all 200-some rooms of it!) and their kids own Lomani (a reasonable 12 rooms).  As a result all the systems were connected and you could do any of the activities or eat there and just bill it to our room. 

Their dinning hall (and it was a "hall" not a "room".  "Room" would imply a certain amount of decorum that simply didn't exist) was something like Chuck-e-Cheese on steroids. I mean totally mayhem and completely out of control laughing, yelling, crying, freaking out little toddlers.  Holy Cows! Instant birth control right there.  Still, we totally understood why families would go there.  They have a lot of kid-friendly activities, and a shallow warm lagoon.  It was packed with Aussies.  It's only 3-4 hours for them.  Still, we would not be eating there.

We saw that they had all sort of activities that we could sign up for and a fish-and-chip hut...and I noticed a milk shake bar. Plantations was going to have some real advantages. That night we went to Dicks where it was Mongolian Grill night. We both quite enjoyed it.  

Back home...we have 10 hours of shut-eye to catch.

 

LOMANI MEANS LOVE. Honeymoon: Day 8

HEADING TO LOMANI!

Oiy!  They made us get up EARLY!  As in 5:oo freakin AM so we could make the wirily curvy 2-hour drive back to Labasa to catch our flight.  The Patch had worked miracles on our boat trips, drives, and snorkel trips.  By now I was just starting to let my guard down and think it might really be working.  We lucked out again.  It did the trick!

The trip felt long.  Our flight wasn't for hours but they want to leave a good hour or more cushion in case the van breaks down.  It makes sense but it still sucked.  We got to Labasa really early so our driver took us around town.  By then it was 8:00 and the stores and schools were opening up.  The streets were packed with kids in uniforms.  It's a town of about 25,000 people. That was way bigger than I expected.  Also to my surprise was a significant muslim population complete with a mosque and school.  We saw the hospital and women's clinic and bunches of schools and a branch of the University.  Yes indeed, this was a real city!!

We went back to the tiny little unassuming airport where we had arrived a week earlier.  This time it was packed.  Again they weighed us for our flight back.  I asked the clerk if he'd announce our flight and he said he would.  After our experience getting to Labasa we had no expectations that the flight would be on time but turns out it was totally on time.  We waited about 45 mins I think and then the flight arrived.  We knew it was in but to my surprise the clerk came over and found us in the crowd and told us this was our flight.  We were the only white folks there, I think. We went to the door.  It was like Roi where you just wait and then they flag you to walk on to the plane yourself.  On our way out the door they yelled in my ear (there was a lot of airplane noise), "Ms Charrier, Mr Barr - seats 1A and 1B."  I just love little flights!!  I love the personal attention.  And I totally dig that they called us by our names.  The Fijians are so totally awesome.  

We flew back to Nadi and then waited around and then connected for a 10-minute flight to Malolo LaiLai.  That's a little island that's only made up of resorts.  It's located in the Mamanucas - a chain of islands with excellent reefs for snorkeling and diving.   This is when Aaron and I both got to land our first ever gravel runway!  No pavement to hold us back here.  No way!  At first it took us a bit by surprise because it was a bit bumpy when we landed but maybe it helped slow us down so we didn't skid of the end of the island.  ??? Don't know, but it worked just fine.  

It's a little bit soulless after being at Koro Sun for a week.  It was a harder adjustment than I bargained for.  We stayed at Lomani Island Resort. It's a couples only resort with about 12 condo like rooms.  It had a mix of ages. They claimed to have A/C which was a major criteria for us.  We said kids would be fine - but we weren't interested in roasting in our rooms.  Turns out they just give lip service to the A/C.  They had the same little air conditioner as the last place but instead of it cooling the area of a king sized bed it was supposed to cool a cinder block oven the size of our house.  Pleaze.  We were hot and not amused.  Blech.  We had to move the bed across the room just to be closer to the air conditioner and fan.  We managed, but just barely.

We had lunch and then dinner at Lomani.  In my journal I wrote, "It took forever and was forgettable".  

That said: it had snorkeling and we planned to take advantage of that. For the first day we just settled for swimming in the water for about 2 hours.  It was that warm bathtub lagoon water.  Heavenly!!!  The sky was amazing.  That whole thing was just picturesque - just stay out of your room and the dining room.

Just like Koro Sun we had dinner and headed straight to bed for an albeit toasty 10 hour rest. 

Pearl Farm. Honeymoon: Day 7

Pearls!  I LOVE pearls!

To my surprise Fiji is in the south sea pearls business!  Justin Hunter, an American marine biologist, set up Fiji's only pearl farm just off of SuvaSuva in 2000.  We toured it on our last day at Koro Sun.  The farm looked pretty big to me.  We boated out and saw workers cleaning the oysters.  It takes months to clean the barnacles off of all the oysters.  Once the workers are done they start all over and by then the oysters need cleaning again.  

Twice a year Japanese technicians comes in and inseminate the oysters.  Two technicians can do about 1,000 a day! Workers collect the oysters and start to pry them open.  Then the techs open them a little more and check that they are healthy and then put in an "irritant".  They can also put in a little piece of a sacrificed oyster's skin to color the pearl. Afterwards I had mixed feeling about my love of pearls but not enough to skip the show room before we left.  We watched the technicians working but weren't allowed to take pictures.   

The whole process is pretty interesting. They have about a million oysters.  We snorkeled over the farm and got to see the oysters lined up.  Sorry, no pictures of that either!  About 18 months later they check the oyster and take the pearl.  If the oyster is still healthy it can grow another pearl and since the oyster is bigger the pearl gets bigger.  Turns out due to their process and the local environment these pearls grow bigger and thicker than in other South Sea countries, such as Tahiti or the Cooks.  They come in a wider range of colors too.  

Afterwards we got to go to the showroom (of course we do!).  In a side room Mrs Justin Hunter was sorting pearls.  We took a look and she had about 4,000 pearls out.  I wanted to buy a pendant or a loose pearl.  Turns out these folks have a pretty strong opinion of their pearls.  I suppose ultimately the market must supports their prices but they were a lot more expensive than I'm used to paying and the loose pearls were just plain gray.  BORING!  Not that all the pearls were boring.  Quite the contrary, but those pearls were already made into jewelry. They were in a rainbow of natural colors and they were huge!  Like Barbara Bush Pearls or Betty and Wilma Pearls, only black pearls not white.  Amazing they were!!

I asked to buy some that she was sorting and the answer at first the answer was no.  Then I explained I didn't want gray loose pearls and then she said that I could look through the "export reject" pile. These are pearls that are so deformed that they won't even export them. They put them in giant tubs and they are sold thousands at a time at auction in Japan.  People use them in art or art jewelry.  That's easy to understand because even though they are 'rejects' they are very cool!  We picked out 3 and she priced them.  I bought two really cool odd shaped pearls. I have a design for one and still thinking on the other.  My jeweler said he's on it as soon as he's done with a few other projects. Yeeehaw!  

SNORKELING!

After lunch we went on a group snorkel trip.  It was fun and there were some fish and a little bit of coral but this isn't the snorkeling part of Fiji so it was exactly spectacular.  It was certainly fun and it's always great to be in the water.

HAPPY HOUR!

By this time we had really made friends with the Koro Sun staff and the other guests.  We learned we were the oldest people there since it was all newly weds.  Aaron made some interesting observations.  First he said, "Hey, have you noticed how all the guys here are totally built?"  Well, I hadn't.  In fact I said, "No way they are little tiny twiggy men".  He told me to look at the pool and standing there was a sculpted Army Ranger type.  He was just huge!  I said, "What?  The guy with the giant guns over there?  He's nothing!"  So then I add, "Notice how all the women are little tiny waifs with perky breasts and heart-shapped tooshies?"  Aaron says, "No way!" He too was directed to the pool.  Observation confirmed thank you very much!!!  Leave it to us to be the standard deviation.  

That night Hiram hosted happy hour out by the ocean instead of in the resort.  Everyone came out for it.  It was  a little like Honeymooners Summer Camp about then.  We all knew each other because we did activities everyday together and there are only 18 people so of course you get to know folks.   The other guests were great fun.  We had a couple of drinks and the resort brought over complimentary goodies from the kitchen even though we weren't in the main part of the resort.  See what I mean?  They just look after you no matter what.

Now for how we found out how much older we were...  On the walk from happy hour to dinner one couple said something like, "We have a combined age of 43" or something like that.  I said, "Jeeze, we have a combined age of 74" and just like that the parade of couples practically stopped cold.  Suddenly 8 perky-sculpted-20-something couples were staring at us.  "What?"  Someone got brave and piped up, "Ah, well, um we're 60."  There.  Someone else in their 30's.  Whew.

Aaron and I had a great time and the kids just referred to as a unit.  I don't know why. Everyone else got names but we were known simply as "Seattle".  Could it be because that we were very outnumbered by Aussies?  (They loved our accent, by the way.)  Regardless we learned to look up when our hometown was mentioned.  We tried to represent the City as well as we know how.

That night we ask the staff if we could eat at one big table instead of 9 tables of 2.  Of course they said yes.  They made a big table in the middle of the room.  We had a great time having dinner and laughing.  It was a fabulous last night to our Koro Sun honeymoon.  In the morning we would leave before dawn to take the 2 hour drive back to Labasa to head to our next destination.  

The whole thing totally exceeded our every expectation.

WATERFALLS AND COCONUTS. Honeymoon: Day 6

WHAT'S THE PACIFIC WITHOUT COCONUTS?

Back in good health is was time for a waterfall hike.  What's a romantic honeymoon without a waterfall?  All the brochures have them!  Solo didn't let us down.  He took a group of us on about an hour hike.  It was a pretty hot and sweaty uphill.  Don't worry, we're strong.  We made it.  He showed us plants along the way. Vines you can drink from.  "Sensitives Ferns", which Aaron remembers from his childhood.  They are like Venus flytraps if you touch them they fold up.  Mother Nature's little toys.  We petted the ferns that all folded in half just like Solo said they wood.  After a bit we made it to a little ity bity water fall.  

The way meals and activities work at Koro Sun is the night before they give you a list of activities for the next day and a menu.  You pick your meals and activities at breakfast.  Easy-schmeezy.  They had said you can swim in the waterfall so of course we dressed accordingly! No one else did but we were quick to peal off our hiking duds and jump in with our swim gear!  The water was pretty chilly but after the hot hike it felt great.  And even though the waterfall was small we still dunked our heads in so we can officially say we did that.  We're like Brochure People! CHECK THAT OFF THE LIST!

Later in the day we watched a coconut demonstration conducted by Solo and TimTim.  Solo did stuff like showed us how to crack a coconut, lets us drink coconut milk, made baskets, told us about how coconut trees are all "tree of life" in Fiji.  TimTim had the hard work.  He climbed do the top of the coconut 60-70 foot tree and tossed down the coconuts!! It was totally crazy.  Barefooted -- of he went. No net.  This is the real thing people. Count us impressed!!  

A few days earlier we were to go hiking with TimTim but he had to cancel because he had cut his foot on the coconut tree.  And when I say "cut" I mean a pretty serious gouge through the thick sole of his feet.  I know because Aaron and I knelt down and took a good look right after it happened.  I recommended antibiotic.  I seriously doubt that's in TimTim's medicine cabinet.  I bet there was something herbal (if that) and a day in flip flops.  Two days later he's climbing up the tree.  Me?  I got a scratch on my food a week ago and I'm still limping around like I've lopped off a toe.   

POST CARDS. Honeymoon: Day 5

Okay, not a lot to report about Day 5.  I guess by then all the excitement of remodeling the house, moving, marrying, traveling, and a lot of strange fish caught up with us.  A bunch of folks in the resort were a little under the weather.  Aaron and I laid low and wrote post cards.  Thank goodness we were sick or we wouldn't have had time!  It really wasn't too bad.  Not fun, but not epic.  Just a day of 'not so good'.  

On the really nice side the Koro Sun team took good care of us.  Noticing we had missed meals Suka showed up on our patio and from a healthy distance yelled "BUUUULAAH" which substitutes for any sort of knocking or door bell.  He inquired about our state and brought us dinner, made sure we had special meals, gave us water and 7-Up and checked in on us for the next couple of days.  Just how many resorts have you been at where they just did that?  We didn't ask?  They just took care of us.  They are just incredible considerate.  The employees are top notch.  In now time at all we were just fine and back in the swing of things.  

BACK TO SCHOOL. Honeymoon: Day 4

BACK TO SCHOOL!

This was one of my favorite days in Fiji.   This was "village day".  And it's not some tourist trap where they have some fake made-up "village" that they haul all the tourist too and sell you Chinese trinkets.  This was a real, bona-fide small Fijian village!!  It's the village that Solo grew up in and still lives.  

We asked ahead of time if we could see the village school and in true Koro Sun fashion they said of course we could.  They'd arrange for us to see Hirem's (the bartender's) brother, who is one of the teachers and he'd tour us around the school.   We thought this was a real privilege and honor.  Not to gush too much about it but really, they basically stop everything to show the tourists around during the school day.  That's pretty generous.

So off we went --  The village is maybe 20 minutes the opposite way from the resort as the town of SavuSavu.  It's call Nagigi (pronounced: na-ning-ning).  The school is a cinder

block shell on a hill with a couple of dogs running around outside.  Well, a couple of dogs a couple of slippery kids that dashed out of their class room as soon as they saw the resort van.  They ran barefoot around and were rounded up and put back in their rooms.  There are 4 or 5 class rooms and about 150 students and 5 or 6 teachers.  The state provides 3 teachers, the 7th Day people provide 2 of the teachers and I don't know how the 6th one is funded (or if we didn't understand completely).  What we did totally understand is that the state only provides

 about half of what the village needs.

There were a couple of grades  in each room.  We met a couple of teachers including Hirem's brother who gave us the tour.  The rooms have posters and memos on every inch of them.  The desks are old and worn but are jammed in there wall to wall.  The kids are packed in.  School is not compulsory in Fiji but about 98% of kids go to school and they have an 87% literacy rate. They had a library of sorts.  It had a computer, but we don't know what it's used for or if they have Internet.  There were so many questions w

e didn't think to ask.  The library had 5 or 6 book shelves with 3 shelves on each.   They were all about 1/2 full of books.  There were two sets of encyclopedias. Needless to say, given how the Seattle Public Librarians know Aaron by name because of the frequency he's there, we were pretty moved by their little library.   Worn book neatly lined up with checkout cards sticking out.  Kids can't take books home and most don't have books at home (again, if we understood correct).  They can borrow the books and take them to their classroom.  They told us how some folks promised to fill the shelves but then backed out due to shipping costs.  

They showed us the water pump which the Rotary Club put in (a $60,000 well).  And the church folks were putting in a new class room and  a bure for another teacher. 

Class was nearly over so all the kids were dismissed to the hill. We said hi to them.  Some spoke a little bit of English, all were pretty shy until you get the camera out.  They love having their pictures taken (just like in the Marshalls).  The teacher rounded everyone up and told him that "the visitors would like to hear you sing".  They sang us their school song and we thanked them.  I thought we should sing back but no one was willing to sing with me and you know how bad I sing!  Well, that was that.  Class dismissed!  

The teacher had us sign their guest long.  He didn't say what info they wanted so we just signed and wrote a note and made a little donation.  Since then we've talked to the folks at Koro Sun.

We're planning on donating some school supplies by sending them through the resort.  One of the employees is an elder in the village who can probably see to the equitable distribution of whatever we send.  That's always the risk is that you wonder if it gets to where you intended, but from what I could tell from my tiny glimpse is that every kid could use a book or crayons or a notebook.  Assuming it gets to the school I'm sure it'll go to use.   If you want to donate just let us know and we'll tell you how.   We're excited about it besides it'll be really fun to do! Count us in!!  So that was just the first half.  Now we were off to the village.

Bula Village of Nagigi!  

Visiting the village was just as fun.  The village is made up of rudimentary houses.  They have electricity for 3 hours in the evening so kids can do homework.  Kitchens are little wood stoves outside the house.   Solo pointed out one and told us we could go up and look.  No one else went but Aaron and I tip-toed up there.  We felt a little weird just walking up to someone's kitchen  but I figured Solo wouldn't send us astray.  Out came a lady - turns out a cousin of Solo's - who greeted us with a big BULA!  She told us about her kitchen and said she had just made some "steamed pudding".  What's that???  She was more than happy to show us..."wait here, I give you some..."  Okay, now I feel really weird - rich tourist taking food from poor villagers.  Ugly American.  UGLY AMERICAN!!  I'm looking around.  What do I do??  And then

out comes the lady with a plate of  "steamed pudding" which is really what we would call sweet bread.  Like cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving the pudding has rings around it from the 

can it was cooked in.  Cool!  I can't resist it.  It's doughy goodness.  Enjoyment of doughy goodness is in my wedding vows...  Aaron couldn't say no either.  Besides, you don't want to hurt anyone's feelings so try it we did.  It was quite tasty!  We think it was plantains.  She informed us this was Solo's favorite food.  Ours too as we both helped ourselves to a second taste.  :)

We continued on through the village.  We saw the water tank where rain is collected.  And then we headed to a bright green building.  We should have asked but it must be a community gathering place.  There were a bunch of ladies, mostly adults and older women sitting outside on the porch with little things for sale.  There were shells, necklaces, and palm frawn hats.  They made some of it themselves, maybe all of it.  It's one of those things that in exchange for walking through their neighborhood and eating steamed pudding buying a few shells seemed like a fair deal to us. 

There was one lady who was like the ring leader.  She was super enthusiastic about their crafts and tried to pump up the rest of the ladies who seemed a little tired of it all.  Aaron and I were happy to check things out and select our shells and wear a hat.  The lady put hibiscus flowers in our hair.  And when we wanted to have a photo with here she insisted that the entire group pose with us.  She was just awesome!  So jolly is the best description.  When we got in the van she got the group together and  started singing the traditional good-bye song (which makes me weepy every time they sang it).  It was totally fabulous.  I'd love to go back.  I can't wait to send Nagigi a care package.  Fun. Fun. FUN!!

The Real Bridge to Nowhere. Honeymoon: Day 3

LET'S CHECK OUT THE NEIGHBORHOOD!

Sunday morning we decided to be mellow and explore the area near the resort.  After breakfast we walked about 3 miles outside of the resort. Everyone waves or says high, just like rural America.  It's very bucolic.  Bula cows.  Bula goats.  Bula chickens. We greeted all the critters running around under the palm trees.  There are various shanties and houses.  There's always the ocean. We went beach combing and mostly soaked in the sun.    Then we found a bridge to nowhere

Fiji's Bridge to Nowhere

You've heard of the Alaskan "bridge to no where"?  Ted Stevens has secured millions of dollars for it and it would serve a community of about 50 people.  I assume that it must have other vast benefits but honestly I haven't studied it.  I'm a big fan of large engineering projects and basic infrastructure so I'm assuming Alaska really needs that bridge and it's just getting a bad rap in the press. Well that said, Fiji has it's own BTNW.  Which almost certainly they may need some day.

Fiji is made up of 300 some islands with about 100 of them inhabited.  That leaves a lot of islands for exploring. Lucky for us up the road there was one for us.  Oddly, it has a really hefty looking  bridge out to a nice little island.  I bet it was about 10-12' wide because at one time it could accommodate vehicles.  

Once you're out there you can see that there's a would-be resort being constructed so we assume that trucks brought the materials out there as some point. Why else would there be a bridge, much less a really solid bridge in the middle of nowhere??? We crossed more than one bridge on the main "highway" (another term I use loosely) that did not look sound in anyway whatsoever that was being crossed all day long by island traffic. This bridge looked like the work of outsiders to me. But that's just my two cents.  Crossing it looked like a fun idea.  Sure!  Why not?  Off we walked.

Turns out the bridge was a little misleading.  What looked like a 10 foot bridge on thick beams and steal reinforcements ends about 15 feet short of the island.  The water isn't very deep you can see right through it.  It's 4 feet deep with rocks.  It's a bout a 10 foot drop to the water.  It's just far enough you can't jump down and if you fell the water is so shallow you'd probably get hurt.  So there we are just short of the uninhabited little island and the bridge stops.  It narrows to 4 boards and eventually 2 boards.  They're haphazardly nailed down, or not nailed at all.  The rest of the bridge was totally modern western style.  Now suddenly we were in the developing world where nails are for sissies. And let me say, I'm a sissy!!!  Well, I'm really not a sissy so much as clumsy and I could totally picture my demise in the 4 foot waters short of my island adventure.  Geeze.  That's not really how I want the honeymoon to go. We nearly had to turn around as I contemplated every options besides walking on the little board.  Finally there was no choice and like a 3-year old I bent at the knees an shuffled that last few feet.

Once we over there it was very beautiful (like the rest of Fiji) - we swam in the warm water, walked the beach, posed under palm trees.  It's the South Pacific it's what you're supposed to do.   

Then we turned around and made the trip back.  We played some cards and read.  Dinner.

Back to bed for 10 or 12 hours.  

Another glorious day in paradise!!!

Happy Long Life Aaron!! Honeymoon: Day 2

Aaron's Fijian Birthday!!  Finally...no more cradle robbing for me!  

Day 2 in Fiji was spectacular.  You can just know that everyday we woke up and the birds were chirping, sun shining, ocean lapping, puffy clouds,  happy people singing buuuulaaah, fun activities...I mean EVERY day.  It truly was paradise for us.

We woke up to a fine breakfast. Every meal at Koro Sun started with tropical fruit.  We ate our weight in fresh picked pineapple, papaya, and watermelon. YUMMY!  Then we'd have eggs or french toast, tea, and juice.  It's easy to get use to that.  Now I'm home, "what do you mean cereal?".

Today we went on a Town Tour.  Town is SavuSavu located about 15 mins from Koro Sun. It has a population of about 5,000 people.  About half are Fijian and an Indo-Fijian.  A fact we didn't know was that the Indians were indentured in Fiji about 150 years ago and most remain. The work seems to be split with services like taxi driving and accountant being done by Indos and tourism and farming by the Fijians. 

Back to SavuSavu,  Aaron said it reminded him of towns in Mexico.  It was a short, very walkable, strip of shops and governments offices.  Everything is brightly colored. We went into the market where they sell fruits, veggies, and kava.  We went to little stands with a few handmade good.  The Fijians didn't have a lot in the way of local crafts. A few things made with palm frowns and a few other wacky-tackies, but really much more than that.  Still, we liked saying hi to folks and taking it all in.  All the people were really nice.

LOVE/MEKE NIGHT - Put on your dancing shoes!

That evening Koro Sun was having a "lovo".  A lovo is like a luau.  Fish, pork and chicken (I think) were all packaged in palms and then cooked in an earth oven.  The great thing about where we stayed was that there was no pretense.   You just walk out to the earth oven and talk to the guys stoking the fire.  There's no "please stand behind the line" sort of stuff.  It's served buffet style with local greens, a fish soup that was really good, and there was breadfruit.  I know when I was in the Marshalls everyone gets really excited about breadfruit.  I just don't get it. It's just plain startchiness.  ??? Doesn't matter, we had some.

Along with the lovo they had a meke (pronounced: "me-kay").  It's a traditional song and dance. The cool thing about Koro Sun  is that it's not staged in anyway.  It's not a "performance" per se. Some local villagers come in and just sing and do some traditional dances.  Shelly said that they normally pick up the villagers but this week they wanted to get themselves to the performance so she was feeling a little nervous when they were a bit late.  I can understand, but I found that to be authentic.  Island time.  

They obviously are rehearsed and know what they're doing but it's not polished like a Broadway performance. It wasn't cheezy in anyway.  It's just real. Right there in the dining room with the tables pulled to the side of the room they did some soulful and impressive song and dance. The villagers were all ages including the cutest little kids every!  There were young and old alike. We were mesmerized.  

One little boy was tiny - four or five was a TOTAL HAM!  He is quite the dancer!  He got in the front of the crowd and did a solo dance totally hamming it up.  We all cheered.  He looked back at the choir and told them to sing and clap again.  They did.  He danced.  We cheered.  He turned around and told them to sing again.... this went on a for a while until someone told him his time was done.  We loved him!  

There was another little toddler who is probably too little to sing and dance but he was squeezed in between the adults.  Just adorable.

There was a song where they invited guests out to dance.  I was happy to join in.  Aaron was happy to sit and watch the spectacle.  I figure I might not ever walk that way again so might as well dance if someone gives me the chance!  It was SUPER fun.

Then they all shook our hands.  They said Buuulaaah and we said "venaka" (thank you).

Then the Koro Sun crew pulled the tables back, out came the lovo banquet and it was dinner time.  Aaron and I sat with another newly wed couple.  We had a great dinner and then at the end two waiters I think it was Shirley (a guy) and Hiram  (the bartender) came out with guitars and a happy birthday cake for my Honey!!! It was fantastic. They sang the traditional Happy Birthday song but with the Fijian lyrics "Happy Long Life to you ....Happy Long Life to you..." They are my new favorite lyrics!  Aaron seemed to be surprised.  And can I just say: delicious chocolate cake.  They use real butter.  :)

Again, another fabulous day in the booked.  We crawled into bed for another 10-12 hours of blissful slumber. 

Fiji rocks!

BULA!!!!! Honeymoon Day 1 1/2

BULA!

"Bula" is like "Aloha"...it's a greeting that's pervasive and a bit m

ore than just a simple, 'hi'.  At our first resort, the Koro Sun, the staff  said "Bula" with a LOT of gusto.  It's not just "bula", it's "BUUUUULAAAAAH!" with a bit of a sing-songy melody. Buuulaah! is how w were greeted by everyone all - day - long!  It's hard to not be happy when someone greats you so enthusiastically.

One of my coworkers gave me some pre-marital advice, 'always great each other when you get home...who wants to come home if no one is  happy to see them?'.  This point is at the heart of the Koro Sun where no one makes you feel more welcomed than the staff did during our stay.

After our coconut footie massage, Solo took our suitcases to our bure.  A bure is a Fijian style home.  It's kind of like a cabana.  Ours had a nice little walk way lined with lush tropical plants, patio in the front, a thatch-esk roof, french doors, a private patio in the back, a nice big bathroom with an outdoor shower, and  a king size four-poster with a little personal sized air conditioner directly over the headboard!  In a word: DELUXE!  We could not have been more happy with our simple, clean, and elegant accommodations.   

In our foggy traveled state we toured around Koro Sun getting to know the lay of the land.  We met the GM, Shelly, who was just as welcoming and nice as good be.  Then, on principle, we went for a star-lit swim in the pool.  We were in Fiji after all...break out the first swim suit!  It doesn't matter that the water felt cold after dark.  We took a lap around the pool, which had a tiny little island with a palm tree in the middle of it.  

We cleaned up and went to dinner and the wait-staff asked us how our swim was. The thing about Koro Sun was that the staff all knew our names on the first day, knew what we were up to, greeted us every time they saw us, and were willing to make our stay as comfortable and nice as possible. They were SO nice to us.  We felt at home instantly.

We made it through dinner and finally our long commute was over. We fell into bed around 8:00pm and slept straight through for a good 12 hours with the A/C blowing down on our beddy bed bed.

It was glorious.  We woke up to chirping birds..... You just can't ask for nicer.

Bon Voyage!

Two weeks ago Aaron and I headed off for our honeymoon.  It was a little bit of a rough start finishing up wedding stuff, saying good-bye to friends, packing and trying to think about all the logistics (money, travelers checks, plant waterers, town car to the airport...yes, town car - we didn't think we could beg for one more favor from friends that week so we bought our way out). I had a little meltdown but before I knew it I was in the back of a Lincoln headed to SeaTac with three swim suits and a snorkel...what's to be unhappy about now? 

Everything went just fine as we embarked on our 30+ hour trip to Fiji - the ultimate honeymoon, as it turned out! Aaron applied a motion sickness patch to the back of his ear, put on his bracelets and popped a few ginger tablets.  Nothing has really cured his motion sickness before but we were willing to try a new so-called-remedy.  I was skeptical that it would work but had my fingers crossed anyway.

Our flight was direct LAX to Nadi, Fiji and took about 10 1/2 hours.  Nadi (pronounced 'non-di') is on the island of Viti Levu - 'the main island'.  On our flight we were in the 2nd to last row of the plane in what is called "couples seats".  *Awe, isn't that cute?  Couples Seats.*  We flew in a big jumbo jet that had a bajillion seats across at it's fattest part and was double decker, but as you get into the tail of the airplane there's less room for seats and so in the back they have two seats together (instead of 4 or more) with a little bit of leg room on the window side.  Added bonus: close to the bathroom and the little place for standing.   It might as well have been first class as far as we were concerned.  *Couples Seats* our new favorite way to fly.

We landed in Nadi at 4:30 in the morning - two days later.  That dateline is tricky!  We made our way through customs but not before having to toss out our pizza from home and then found our way to domestic flights.  Our travel agent had worked hard to get us a quick connection that morning which would have been perfect... except for the mechanical problems our airplane was having.  We were told by the Fiji Air guy to just sit down and he'd tell us when a charter was ready for us.  He tossed out some time... just a random time.  I don't think he had any idea.  We were tuckered out from already being in transit for something like 18 hours as we were repeatedly told he'd tell us when it was time. Four flights took off for our island.  Every time we asked if we could go and the answer was the same, "just a few minutes".  The waiting was long. Luckily the Nadi airport has super comfy long leather couches!! We laid around, napping, reading, staring into space.  About four hours later the charter was here.  

Turns out the charter was about a 6 passenger plane!  Aaron had never been in such a small plane. It's the type of plane where they weigh the passengers to distribute the weight evenly.  Aaron and I were both super excited to be in the little plane but secretly I was pretty worried that it would be the worst flight ever for someone prone to motion sickness.  He pulled out a baggy - just to be safe. Our pilot looked to be hung-over and right out of bed. The excitement built!!!  This IS an adventure!  For kicks they put a 10-year old in the co-pilot seat.  He was thrilled.  All the adults (all four of us) thought it was cute.  

We took off for a beautiful flight.  It was originally supposed to be about 45 minutes but because we were riding in a model airplane it took about twice that.  When we landed Aaron didn't look green or anything!!  He took pictures while we were flying and didn't flinch at the bumpy flight.  It was all good!  Thank you Patch!

When we landed in Labasa on the island of Vanua Levu (the second biggest island), Solo, the activities director from our resort, was the only person at the airport.  It was easy to pick us out of the crowd because we were the only white people.  And when I say, "airport" I do use that work liberally.  It was more of a shelter... although the landing strip was at least paved... not all of the ones we went to were!  More on that later.

Solo packed us into a minivan with no headrests, gave us cold water and (get this!) Pringles (our biggest vice on Fiji) and took off for the two hour drive around the island to the resort. We sipped and munched and took in the landscape.  The ride involved missing many man-sized potholes, people, and the occasional animal in the road.  There's a lot to say about the driving but anyone who's been to a less developed country knows exactly what it was like.  Harrowing.  I glanced over as Aaron munched on his chips.  Check.  Patch still seemingly working.  Whew.

Two hours later we backed into a VERY nice looking resort.  We were greeted with a giant BULA! by an older Fijian women in a floral top and long skirt.  Before we were out of the van they had placed COLD fruity juicy drinks in our hands and quickly ushered us into a little cabana room with ceiling fans where two employees took off our shoes and washed our feet in cool water and gave us coconut foot massages.  OHMIGOD!  How did they know we needed that???!!!  I had died and gone to heaven right there.  They blathered on about when to get meals and what to expect...more or less the ground rules at the resort... but my eyes had already rolled into the back of my head and I was in my own Happy Place.  Yeah, yeah...I'll figure out how to get a meal when these nice people are done massaging my footies.  I'm in heaven...I'm in heaven... laa lalla laa......

Off to Fiji!!

Bula everyone! Bula is like "Aloha".

We are about 2 hours from heading to the airport for our 24 hour transport to Fiji.

Things I've learned about Fiji so far:

1) PACKING: It takes almost as much packing to go to Fiji as it does to move into Aaron's house. I mean it's a HUGE pile. I didn't think a snorkel and 3 swimsuits would take up that much room, but I was wrong. I'd include a picture of all our luggage but you can just look a picture of the moving van to get the gist of it.

2) TIME ZONE: Fiji is 1 day ahead and 5 hours behind us. So 10:00 am here today is 5:00 am there tomorrow. Make sense?

3) OLYMPICS: Fiji has 7 Olympians, including a blind runner in the paralympics. We hope to cheer for all of them.

4) REGION: We can't quite tell but we don't think it's in Micronesia or Polynesia. Best I can come up with is "central south Pacific" and I'll take it!

5) WEATHER: Avg temp is 77 degrees and 100% humidity --- we've got A/C in our room. We said we could deal with a resort with kids but we couldn't deal with a resort that doesn't have air conditioning.

6) WHERE WE'LL BE/WHAT WE'LL DO: We'll spend a week at the Koro Sun resort located on the island of Vannua Levu on the south side by Savusavu. We will be kayaking, caving, hiking, taking a break at the 'rainforest spa' and eating. http://www.korosunresort.com/about/

The second week we'll be at Lomani Resort located on the island of Malolo Lailai in the Mamanuca Group of islands. We'll be enjoying world-class snorkeling and eating. I hope snorkeling is as good as the Marshals if it is it'll be awesome! http://www.lomaniisland.com/

7) HOW TO GET THERE: We can't wait! But we'll have to be patient. Ready for the itinerary?
Leave house for 40 min car ride to aiport
1 1/2 wait to deal with the airport
3 1/2 hour flight to LAX
3 hour layover (I assume we'll eat dinner and I'll shop for an airplane book)
10 hour flight to Nadi, Fiji
Customs
2 hour lay over
1 hour flight to Labasa on the Island of Vanua Levu
1 1/2 drive to the resort because the airport 10 min from the resort is being resurfaced...it's road season all over the world, I guess
Theeen: Collapse!

We'll sleep a day away, I'm pretty sure and then it's Aaron's Birthday. I plan to take him swimming.

Time to wash up the dishes and bake a pizza to eat cold on our 10 hour flight where they serve us a "snack". I don't care to see what that might or might not consist of so we have packs full of Real Snacks and a pizza dinner.

Bon Voyage! We'll be blogging as soon as we can!

Pictures!!!

Whoa!! Who's pooped out!!! Yes, after 72 straight hours of wedding weekend I'm ready for a nap, but nooooo, there are pictures to post!

But first a couple of things:

I FORGOT:
I forgot not only my bouquet in the wedding but part of what I wanted to write on the first Wedding entry. One of the really neat things about the wedding was that Aaron and I kept our wedding invitations secret from each other and it was really great that we both listed very similar things (including a love of dessert) which I think bodes really well for us!!! In fact, we just finished our second dessert tonight, proving we still have it in us!!!

PERFECT FIT:
The wedding had almost 40 guests and can I just say how perfect that was? We got to talk to everyone...multiple times. It was SO nice and fun. Yesterday was the ice cream social (pictures are coming in, we'll post when we have them). That was about 100 people and was super fun but it was a blur!! I know there are people I didn't get to talk too which was a totally bummer. I'm really glad wedding day didn't feel like that. I think we'll be having some brunches and dinners with folks this fall so we can catch up! That will be SO nice.

HONEYMOON:
It's official...we're going to Fiji!! I don't think either of us can really believe it but in fact in a day and a half we take off!!! YEEAHAW!! Stay tuned for those blogs!!! :)

Okay: pictures...

The table -









Louie and Matt --- playing music from the 70's, 80's and 90's (and Take Me Out to the Ball Game); Aaron and Anner --- 'cause gettin' married is really, really funny; Aaron, Anner, Adam and Hannah; Mitchell!



















The Readers:


Message from Melissa about the marriage charter
Abby reading a tree poem
Baseball poem read by Cynthia




















The Ring, The Kiss, The Hug, and more...










































Guests:
Cathy, motb
Abby and Debby
Goofing around w/ Jane Ann, my witness
Mary and Charley
Grace and Joel
Debby and Aaron