Nikita is headed to Australia for a semester. She would not let us join her. Apparently, it is not “independent study” if parents come in along with her!!

So, after she takes her flight to Sydney from Los Angeles, we will jump on to a different flight to check out the Polynesian islands. I have been to islands in the Caribbean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. But never been to the Polynesian islands. In fact, I just found out that we are actually going to be in Melanesia first (Fiji) and then Polynesia (Samoa). Will miss Micronesia this time to round out the Oceania region.

Then again, she will be studying a full semester there!

She is going off to Australia. And we will head out to Fiji.

Flying over some islands as flight FJ 811 gets ready to land in Fiji.

Looked gorgeous from the plane.

One of the two larger islands of Fiji (which has 332 islands). Interestingly, we will land not in its capital city Suva but on the other end of the island where most of the activities are – Nadi. (pronounced Nandi). While the islands are part of Ring of Fire, the last volcanic eruption happened over 400 years back.

The immigration and customs was a breeze. And we did not have checked in luggage. So, we were out of the secured area within four minutes of getting out of the airplane. I was looking for somebody waiting for me with my name on a placard. Instead, saw somebody with a Marriott board. I went to her and introduced myself.

She immediately took me to a very nice Marriott club ten yards away. I have never seen such reception from Marriott. They had a nice area with comfortable sofa to relax in with good coffee, snacks and some drinks. This is where we waited till our driver showed up. I told him – “Give me two minutes to finish my coffee”. He immediately responded – “We are in Fiji time now. No hurry. No worries.”

“Oh! yeah! I learnt how to say that when I was trying to pick up some Fijian words – Sega Na Leqa – right?”

That impressed Aseri (our driver) a bit. “Have you been to Fiji before?”

“Nope. Our first time. I learnt 25 words while doing my research. So, I am going to run out of words quickly.”

“No problem. But your pronunciation was perfect”.

I would not have learnt how to pronounce “g” correctly in Fiji if I had relied in English only. There is no exact letter/letters in English. In Bengali, the exact letter is “ঙ”. It is like “ng” in “sing” but a shorter one.

The “q” in Leqa is even more unintuitive – it is like “ng” but a lot more stress on “g”. It actually translates to Hindi “lenga” and pronounced that way too! In fact the whole thing is pretty close to Hindi “panga na lenga” !!

A bit emboldened by my interactions with Aseri, I ventured to try out a few more of my Fiji words. Struck up a conversation with the young lady who had ushered us into the Marriott lobby in the airport.

“Na yacaqu o Rajib”, I said.

She kept looking at me.

I knew my pronunciation was wrong. The “c” is tricky in Fiji. It is not pronounced as “s” or “k”. Instead, it is pronounced “th”. I have no idea why.

I tried once again slowly – “Na ya-tha-ng-oo o Rajib”.

Finally, she asked – “What language are you speaking?”

“I am trying Fiji”

“Oh! I cannot speak Fiji!”

“Huh?”

“I can speak Hindi or Tamil”.

That was no problem. I told her that my name is Rajib in both those two languages. But that took out all the fun of exploring a new country.

40% of Fijians are of Indian descent. Some 600,000 of them had migrated from mostly the Tamil Nadu area to work in sugarcane plantation during the period of English colonization in the prior two centuries.

Ah! Well, I will have to look further to find hapless victims of my Fiji knowledge then.

We are very early. It is only 7am. Rooms are not ready yet. We will change and check out the property.

I want to get in. But cannot till we get our room and change. Getting a bit tired after the long trip.

Those yellow tails are at least three feet below water. And this is right under where we were sitting down for breakfast!

I have seen pictures in the past of these things but never stayed in one.

I cannot swim. That would have been a waste of time and money!!

She is being extra careful not to lean too hard on the railings 🙂

The lighting of fire and the loud conch shell bellowing.

There was near zero light pollution.

Perhaps waiting to have breakfast with us

(the fish were not invited though)

Remember the guy dressed up in straw robes going around lighting the torches and blowing conches last night? This morning he came by the water and started making some weird noises. And all the fish came up excitedly to him. I am not taking about a dozen fish. I mean entire schools of fish showed up. See if you can see them in the water below. After about a couple of minutes, he gave them food.

Reputed to have the best waters and beach in this island of Viti Levu. The drive thru the lush hills reminded us of Puerto Rico and St. Croix.

The water was pristine and the sand very welcoming

I can stay here for the rest of the day – with some wine and a book.

Today was not that day 🙁

Or as they around here – “Sato Tole” !!

As with most countries, the gentleman who gave us a ride from the airport to the hotel soon became our friend, guide and driver for the rest of the stay. Like with every such friend in other countries, I had innumerable questions for Aseri. Picked up a lot of understanding of local culture and local practices.

The funniest story came out when I asked him how did he meet his wife.

Apparently, after dating her for some time, when he wanted to marry her, as per tradition, his parents and family had to go her parents and ask for acceptance to the marriage. And as is customary, to soften them up, they showed up with whale’s teeth. They are considered an ultimate offering of gift.

“And so, if they had refused to accept, what would have happened to the whale’s teeth?”, I asked (the software engineering background always prompts me to look out for edge cases).

“They would have kept them!”

Seemed a bit little risky to me!!

Saw this inside Nadi airport. There is a whole array of masala packets – Chicken masala, Pulao masala, Garam Masala, Meat Masala… and then there was a “Hindustani Masala” !!! Wonder what that was all about.

The gentleman in the Fiji Bula Lounge in Nadi airport did an outstanding job of the cappuccino art

It is a very common practice for Sharmila everytime we go to a tropical place to find some street side mango vendor and try the local mangoes. I remember doing this in Aruba, Cabo, Cancun, Costa Rica…

Today, we stopped by on our way back from the beach to try out some of the local stuff. There were quite a few stalls by the road side. We picked one that belonged to a rather stern looking lady and her amiable husband. They are of Tamil descent and we spoke a little in Hindi and Tamil.

The mangoes were very large in size. Apparently, locally these mangoes are referred to as “hybrid” mangoes. I asked the local folks what are they hybrid of. Nobody seemed to know.

That did not hurt how sweet and tasty they were though.

I understand eating fish is a big Sunday lunch custom in Fiji. Apologize for the picture quality – taken from a moving car – but there were numerous spots where the fish was hung by the road side and a lot of folks were hovering around to buy them.

Growing up in India, our “feast” for Sunday lunches used to be goat mutton!

I have been to many islands and poor countries. But Fiji is the first place I did not see a single two wheeler! No scooter or motorcycle weaving thru traffic. No bicycle either. Apparently people take public transport or walk. They love to walk here in Fiji…

Well, our next stop was to go to the local market and find out what a “kava” is all about. The local market is like our farmers’ market – all sorts of vegetables, flowers and fruits were being sold. And then there was a section where you could buy kava roots or powdered kava.

In fact, the owner – Narendra – a middle aged gentleman was around and he was making the national drink of Fiji right there and in a true hospitable spirit of “Mi kava es su kava”, was sharing the drink with anybody who wanted to try.

But first, I had to learn the process of making the drink. I was expecting it to be an alcoholic drink and therefore certain amount of fermentation would be involved. Imagine my surprise when I found out that the process is to essentially grind the roots of the kava plant to fine powder, soak it in water for a couple of minutes and then drink it direct. You do not sip – you take it wholly in. Usually served in a small black colored bowl – which I found out to be a coconut shell where you take out all the coir.

And since there is no fermentation involved, the calming effect comes not from any alcohol. The root of the plant has certain level of narcotics and sedatives that calms your nerves down. And unlike alcohol, it is not broken down into sugar later. So, you do not get overly energized two hours into drinking. Or have any hangover.

It is a communal drink. And everybody drinks. Sharmila and I tried it. It had a kind of an earthy and minty palate and nose to it.

After we both drank a bit of it gingerly, Aseri showed us the proper way to drink kava. You clap once loudly. Then you drink the whole thing in one shot. You put the bowl down and clap three more times.

I wonder if this clapping bit was invented to keep a tab on whether somebody was drinking too much!!

This is a like a botanical gardens with a steep hike involved. But once you get to the top, we were promised some beautiful view of the valley and the ocean beyond. The Sleeping Giant refers to the mountain view you get that looks like a giant was sleeping on its back.

There were indeed a lot of tropical flowers there. Here is a sample of a few of them…

As we were going around with our adventures of the day, we got a video call from Nikita – she was doing the famous walk from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach in Sydney on her Day 1 !!

You can see the Nadi Bay

We had started our hike down when Aseri got off the trail. And in a moment reminiscent of Petr picking berries off the trail in Czechia, he picked up some small guavas off a tree and gave them to us. They were as sweet as they could be!

Was a bit surprised to see this. But Aseri told us about how Samoans revere their trees and their support for the Chipko movement.

On our drive back, we were coming over a hill when this view opened up to us. Totally overcast skies but way out in the horizon, the sun was shining bright on the ocean creating a sharp sliver of glow at the very end. Aseri drove in reverse gear up the hill to get me to a spot where I could take a quick shot. It was raining. So, I had to do it with my phone instead of the camera.

Now for some relaxation in the evening

We are on our way back from Samoa. A few more days in Fiji!! Flying into Viti Levu, we see this below us. Do you recognize that place? I can even see the cottage in the water that we stayed in earlier this week!

Predictably, the bus is called “Bula Bus”

This is the coffee cafe in the beautiful Sheraton in Denarau island. The name would be a barista’s delight. 28 grams is the amount of coffee in a typical single serving of coffee!!

We went to the Fiji Cultural Village. This showcases the culture of typical Fijian life – mostly of the past. First thing we know moment we open the door is that there is a menacing looking soldier with a really intimidating looking weapon staring at us. We shouted “Bula” as instructed by Aseri. He immediately calmed down, returned the “Bula” with a gruff voice and led us into the village.

Suddenly the villagers came out and sang a song for us. The soldier gave up his blunt weapon and took to a decidedly less menacing tool – the drums! The drums is actually a hollowed out teak tree trunk. I tried it out. Pretty impressive noise it makes!!

The soldier turned drummer broke into a dancing stupor! Accompanied by some of the young kids from the village.

This dates back to pre-Christian era. The place of worship was the tallest structure in the village.

The chief’s place was always the biggest and the most ornate. To go in, we had to utter a phrase and then wait for the response from the chief. Nobody was allowed to cross the chief’s hut without that.

One thing about the show – they make it hilarious! This was the kitchen place. The gentleman asked what was he going to show us? We all said “light a fire”. (we were told by our guide that is exactly what we will see).

“Easy” he said, and took out a cigarette lighter from his pocket!!

And then he put it back and proceeded to show us how to make fire from two pieces of dry wood! This is the first time I had seen any such thing!

Next on demonstration was how pottery was made – from local clay.

The explanation of the use of those weapons was a bit gory. The cannibal fork, in particular that was used to scoop out your eyeballs and brains!

Fiji had cannibalism till fairly recently (about 150 years back).

This was a demonstration of how pretty much every part of the coconut tree was used to make day to day items in the village.

From the reed plants (you can see them behind the hut). The black color came from being underground for a month. Reminded us of similar techniques we saw in the village in Panama.

It is a fairly primitive one where the fish comes in from the large mouth of the cone and then gets trapped in the front. For this to work, you have to rely on the fish not being smart enough to swim backwards. And apparently, they are not!

Remember how our food in the Jordan deserts were cooked underground. Pretty much the same concept here! A fire was lit in a hole and then that heated up the stones. The fire was removed and soft tree pulps were put on the stones so that the food did not get burnet. Finally, all food were wrapped in individual leaves to keep them moist. We had potatoes, cassava, chicken, fish, eggplant and some local vegetables.

The Fijians take their kava making very seriously. Some major songs and chantings accompanied the procedure.

One of the audience members were chosen as the chief!

Today is the day we will spend in the water. The plan is to go visit some islands and check out the water. In one of the islands, we will also have Fijian food cooked the traditional style.

We went past this island – Malamala. This is one of the many tourist resort islands in this area. If you squint your eye, you may be able to see folks getting off the boat and queuing up to check into the resort.

That is Sharmila swimming up from the boat to the sandbar opposite Mana island. Both of us need to learn swimming. We had a life vest, a noodle and a guide who helped us along!

It did not help that when I jumped into the water, I realized that when the guide estimated about 2-3 feet of water depth (I had asked him), he actually mixed up his units. It was 2-3 meters!

The waters, as you can see was incredible!

The day was perfect. The sun was up, the water was warm and we spent some time exploring the sandbar and waters around it.

I was a little worried by the prospect of having to swim back to the boat. The boat had, by now, moved further downstream to pick up the snorkelers. About thrice the distance as the original swim. The guide said half the distance we can just wade thru. But this was the same guide who mixed up his feet and meters. For all you know, when he says “wade”, he might be mixing up my feet with my head too.

Fortunately, we just hailed one of this small dinghy style boats (motorized) that was going around and hitched a hike to our boat.

We are now closing in on our next island – Monu. The rocks are sharp and vertical. Apparently, some time back some tourist got hurt there. Now, it is illegal for tourists to get into the island. But there is a perfect cove for swimming around in sheer blue, shallow waters. In fact, people were jumping from the top of the boat!

I go to get this in my annual commitments one of these years.

Check out the azure waters

I am not a movie person at all but apparently, the movie Cast Away was shot in this island where Tom Hanks gets marooned here. We decided to go ahead and take a hike around the island to see what all he must have done. After climbing up a bit, the views into the blue waters thru the green foliage was mesmerizing.

It cannot be that Tom Hanks had piled all this up and found a way out of the island before he could finish all these coconuts. Wonder why they were there? We ran into this while exploring the island.

The guide could not tell us what makes the rocks green – there were all over the place. But he did mention that you do not get this in any of the other islands.

You can see the red in the rock. And if you see the sand all around carefully, it is all pulverized white rock and red corals.

You think she was having fun?

This is the oldest village in Fiji. The original folks who settled in the island landed here and then spread from here. I believe in Fiji, the word Viseisei signifies spreading out. This village has a lot of significance for the British too. Prince Charles was here.

For my Indian friends, apparently Indira Gandhi came by here too!

Many of the nearby islands – including the ones we visited yesterday are owned by these folks.

Our guide Kelepi showed us around the village.

Per the traditions, the women cover their legs inside the village.

That, for some of them is the only source of income!

There was this gentleman with what looked like some kind of powder or ash all over his place. I asked the guide what was he doing?

Apparently, celebrating New Year’s! New Year’s celebration carries on thru the second weekend of January here. Drinking alcohol is permitted. (Kava needs no permission of course).

“So, what is it that he has put on his face?” I asked

“Powder”

“What kind of powder?”

“Talcum powder”

“Wow!”

Except that our village still has thatched huts with walls made of dirt. Here everything was concrete.

The chief is currently 92 years old. When he dies, the eldest male member of the whole family becomes the chief. So, unlike the olden days when the eldest son became the chief, now it can be his brother, nephew … whoever is the eldest.

Made from teak wood

Our flight to Los Angeles has been delayed. The equipment is stuck in Dallas due to the heavy ice and storm. We decided to make the most of it by hiking to Orchid Falls.

Once we reached the parking lot, we saw this van with a really funny sticker!

It says
“Driver carries no cash
He’s married”

🙂

But looks very impressive. Almost looks like a pineapple

We will be back to visit the beautiful islands and our friend Aseri !

When we took the boat out in Fiji to visit the nearby islands, I noticed something that seemed very unintuitive. At least, to what I thought were boating rules.

The top picture is when we were going to the islands (in fact you can see one of our destination islands in the picture). We had just left the main dock. We were cruising out of the main area thru the channel that put us in the ocean.

Notice the nearby boat on our port side. And now notice the markers denoting the edge of the channel. Why is it green in color? Should it not be red? The rule is Red-Right-Return right?

The lower picture is from the same channel when we were returning. Note that the red markers were on our left side. Those should be green right?

Does anybody know what is happening here?

Remember how I always talk about me trying to stay honest with minimalism and decluttering? Of course, everything is on a relative scale. Recently, I have noticed a bit of hypocrisy in that espousal that I do.

I am taking out fountain pens from this discussion since I do not collect them with an excuse to use them. I collect them so that I can collect them. But other such things like running shoes matching with colored running shirts and all that – I have been able to bring them down dramatically. In fact, when it comes to clothes, I take my minimalism bit a little too over the edge, perhaps.

Except that when it comes to island shirts made of cotton, I absolutely turn into an epitome of hypocrisy. I cannot pass up on any design and I cannot pass up on any color. Remember last year when I was in Guatemala how I took a car from Antigua to Lake Atitlan and then took a boat to one of the seven villages where they make cotton shirts? Once I liked a design, I bought seven of them! My only constraining factor was that they did not have more than seven colors! The next bigger constraining factor was getting XL size (cotton shrink and I like loose fit; Guatemalan structures are short and stout relatively). It did not help that they asked for only about $15 per shirt (that too before applying volume discount!)

Or in Valladolid in Mexico – where we drove 200kms from Cancun to find the black and white cotton shorts? I think it was $20 there.

Well, In Fiji and Samoa, I fell for the same thing. In the Caribbean islands, they do not make much cotton shirts. But in the Polynesian islands, they do. Sharmila was patient enough to let me visit the cotton shirt shops every single day of our trip! If I had a chance, I would have picked about a dozen in-your-face bright colored “Bula” shirts from Fiji.

After 7 days, I finally settled for reasonably muted designs. But could not resist picking half a dozen of them. There the problem was that they had way too many designs I loved but not many in XL sizes. The Samoan and Fijian physical structures meant I could get even 5XL easily. But for a particular XL shirt, I had to wait for them to get it delivered from another part of the country! Good news is that the country can be traversed in about three hours by car.

Taking them out of the suitcase in Atlanta, I realize this is total madness.

I have met my kryptonite.

(P.S. I did give up 6 existing shirts to charity to make space for this. Now I might have to wait for summer to go to office 🙂 )