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 !!

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…

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!!

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…

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!

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.

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

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.