Fiji Bitter, you get it in a tropical 🏝️ paradise. Matter of fact I’ve got one now. When in Rome.
Another day in paradise. We are into a routine now; breakfast buffet by the sea, and then we take up a position on the lounge beds around the Adult’s Pool. By the time we arrive most of the positions have been taken. There seems to be a pecking order around the pool. Louise has given some of the occupant’s nicknames. There’s the ‘Psycho Granny’, a leathery woman in her sixties who unfortunately wears a pink bikini Louise had a run in with her yesterday after she moved her towel, and took her spot. She glared at us today, and Louise said, “Game on mole” under her breath. There’s ‘Jade Goody’, her granddaughter, and overweight young woman also in a bikini who bears a remarkable resemblance to the late Jade Goody. I would swear the family would be from Fountain gate, but I’ve overheard them say they are from the Gold Coast. Around the resort the accent you hear most from the other guests is New Zealand. The lady next to us today said, “The pool’s a wee bit cold” – I last heard that “wee” word early in the year on a Christchurch trip, when it was bloody freezing - it must be like hell on earth now, so you can’t blame them for all migrating to Fiji for the winter. You don’t hear any American accents though, the countries reportedly all broke. The economy was deteriorating last year when we were there, so they are not travelling to Fiji anymore, which might explain our every second night free deal at the Radisson. Oh well, one person’s loss is another person’s gain. But perhaps I speak prematurely for Australia is not out of the woods yet in regards to the economy, I notice the banks are holding onto their cash, maybe they know something we don’t.
After an hour or so we head back to our hotel room. Louise will have an afternoon siesta, or in other words fall asleep on the lounge watching television. Lunch is some Vegemite rolls. Vegemite reminds us of home.
Fiji has some food in the shops that we havn't seen for twenty years. Remember UFO's (pictured below)
Then we stroll over to the Sheraton Hotel next door to book a table for one of their restaurants appropriately called “Feast”. We are of course hedging our bets by selecting a buffet restaurant; we are gambling that some of the dishes on display must be edible.Sure we could lounge like lizards by the pool, and try to do nothing all day, and just relax. But no, we’re from Sydney, it’s just not in our culture. We have to do be doing something, preparing a ‘to do list’, seeing something, doing something, all the time. So, we spot the Avis desk, and see the chance for escape from our gilded cage. Our plan on Thursday is to drive along the coast to the capital, Suva.
Pumped up, we decide to walk to Port Denarau. We are not exactly sure where to go, but we head off in the direction that the “Bula Bus” went. Along the way we calculated that we have said 'Bula' 4,321 times by now. We see a lady licking a New Zealand ice cream, so we knew we must be getting close. At Port Denaru we bought a loaf of bread from the bakery for seventy cents, about forty cents Australian, we are quite pleased with our bargain, and walk back to our hotel.
In the late afternoon we, like most of the resort, enjoy a drink, and watch the spectacular Pacific sunset. Here's me enjoying the local brew, 'Fiji Bitter', a bargain at $2.80.
We hear shouts of “Bula” and know the fire lighting warrior is coming. The shouts progressively get louder. “BULA” He shouts as he lights the torches outside our apartment.
Dinner at the "Feast" buffet restaurant at the Sheraton turned out to be a literal feast; seafood, lamb cutlets, pizza, freshly barbequed lamb cutlets, beef stroganoff, and a decent dessert selection. One of the advantages of staying on Denarau Island is having all the different hotel's restaurants to choose from - I've read nightmare reviews about being stuck on one of the outlying islands and having to dine everynight at the same poor restaurant.
We enjoy an evening stroll along the torch lit beach to The Westin Hotel, where we stopped to listen to a sensational singer with a warm velvetry voice. We had a drink and let the music wash over us.
Tonight we’ve had breakfast at the Radisson, dinner at the Sheraton, and after dinner drinks at The Westin, so there's plenty to do on Denarau Island.
