So we did finally make it to Ovalau Island. We arrived after dark and for some reason the few and weak street lights were not working, so we sort of felt our way to the hotel. We were staying at the Royal Hotel, Fiji’s oldest one. We were showed to our room and in the corridors and hallway we could already marvel at the colonial feeling of the place. Actually the whole town of Levuka has kept ist charm. It used to be Fiji’s capital city (before that a whaling town) and not much has changed since then. Walking through the town you feel like time has stood still; there is one main street with small shops and old house facades which have not changed in a century, on the few side streets are more colonial buildings, old schools and monasteries, imposing houses with long verandas in lush gardens. Need I precise: we loved it.
We spent our first day in Levuka walking around, getting acquainted with the town and admiring the views. Marcel also got a haircut at a local salon, and when the barber took an old razor out to nicely cut the hairs at the base of his neck he knew he had to get shaved too. The young indo-fijian took a new blade out and started to shave his beard just like you see in movies: elbow up, tighten the skin with one hand and scrape scrape with the other, then rinse and wipe the blade with a twist of the wrist. A once in a lifetime experience.
The following day I left Marcel to nurse his hurting back in the room while I went out diving with an australian couple and funny instructor Charlie who liked to pick on me as his victim-of-the-day. Sea-sickness was kept under control, dive’s highlights were soft corals, a turtle swimming closeby and a black tip reef shark having a snooze on the bottom. That evening we went to bed early in preparation for the next day’s early start (board the bust at 4h30, AM that is).
We made it back to Nadi where we had to sleep one night before going on the ferry taking us to the Yasawa islands. He this is Fiji, of course we were going to spend a few days at the beach lounging on a sunchair and taking a dip in the turquoise ocean! North west of the main island are a series of small and smaller islands where various resorts are located. The ferry leaves in the morning and makes the milk run up, dropping off and picking up people along the way. We had 4h30 to spend on the boat, which I snoozed away because I had tried to take a Gravol (pill against motion sickness; fazit: do not take when going diving). And then….we made it to a picture perfect small resort on a blue lagoon, and spent the next 5 days in bathing suit and barefoot. La vie est dure….
We have enough of travelling, but since we’re here we figured we’d give it a go and explore at least a fijian island or two. So yesterday morning (geez, it seems like it was a decade ago) we packed our bags and started our journey east to go to Levuka, the old capital of Fiji which is said to still have its colonial charm.
The journey in 6 easy to follow steps:
1. Taxi to the bus station.
No we will not pay you 8$, please start the meter.
2. Minibus from Nadi to Suva.
A couple dollars more expensive then the bus but faster because it doesn’t stop every 10 minutes. Starts when it’s full, waited only about 20 minutes.
No kidding it’s faster, the guy does give gas. And passes all other cars.
3. Looking for Patterson Brothers Shipping office in Suva.
Yes we are located at the western bus terminal, you can purchase your ticket there.
Followed a fijian who had decided to show us the way. Ha ha. He didn’t know the way.
Left him standing and found the office: closed. Oops, lady forgot to mention they close at 13h on Saturday.
4. Finding another bus to the boat landing.
Dedicated bus left already, without us. Man in bus terminal booth suggests getting local bus up to the boat, said bus is leaving NOW. Don’t think, hail the bus and hop on it.
Sit on the bus for 2 hours just above the diesel exhaust. Bus has no windows. Ye!
5. Wait for the boat.
24 hours.
See details below.
6. Get on ferry and make it to Levuka.
Hourra!
Details of number 5:
We knew we’d missed the boat and thought we’d been pretty gaga to get on that bus since we knew it really couldn’t make it on time and had started to discuss our options in the bus: find another bus back to Suva (another 2 hours of diesel fumes) to sleep there and come back another day (another 2 hours in diesel fumes) or try to make it to a village accomodation mentionned in our book close to the boat landing. Did I mention that according to the schedule we had there is no ferry on Sundays? This meant we could have 2 days to kill! Anyways….
We were dropped out of the bus on a street corner 500m from the pier, of course empty. We ran under pouring rain to the closest shelter possible: the Natovi Shopping Center. See picture. The Natovi Shopping Center is actually a small shop annexed to a 2 family house, and although we’ve seen a lot on this trip, I believe this was the shop with the most modest merchandise choice we have seen: some eggs, a few biscuit packets, about 10 instant noodle packages, the same quantity of 200ml oil bottles, some soft drinks. A young man was minding the shop, we asked him to confirm if our boat had left already: it had. We then asked if there was someone with a boat who could take us over: no, there wasn’t anyone. Was there a bus to go back to Suva: possibly it was too late, there were no more buses. Could we walk to the village accomodation close to there mentionned in our guidebook: no, it was too far away. Hmmm….our options were becoming scarser…. Suddenly another young man appeared and told us his dad had a minivan, we could call this number with our cell and give him the phone and he’d explain the situation. After a short conversation the young man said his dad was coming over, if we would follow him. We walked to the side of the building and were invited inside the house where a bunch of kids were watching a movie. We dropped our bags and sat with them on the leaves mat in front of the telly. About half an hour later the dad came in his van and we discussed our possibilities with him. Rain was still pouring and had made a stream closeby overflow, so he doubted he could drive us to the village accomodation, we wouldn’t make it across the stream there. He thought there was a boat going the next day despite our schedule, even called a family member to confirm. He could drive us to the previous small town for the night, but there wouldn’t be much to do there. Or he was offering us to stay with them, they would put us up for the night and we could save the hotel cost (his words, not mine). Sensing adventure, we decided to stay there for the night.
After the father had left to go back to work we finished watching the movie with all the neighbourhood kids. Then they all disappeared and we figured it was dinner time. The son cooked rice for us and we bought a bottle of oil and some eggs in the little shop, which we cooked on a portable stove in an extension in the back of the house, the equivalent of a back veranda for us I suppose. We ate at the kitchen table, happy to get solid food in our empty stomachs. We took our time chewing, but still, when we looked at the clock after dinner it was only 19h00. Oh yeah….
Having to wait around for a day with not much to do is never very exciting, but doing so in a stranger’s house seems to make time drag on even more. Well I got my book out and Marcel watched another DVD with the neighbourhood kids back from their dinner, and eventually it was time to sleep. They had given us their room, it seems they had enough beds elsewhere for them to sleep in. Please take a moment to realise this: we were perfect strangers there, those people invited us in their home, helped us cook food and even gave us their bed. How many of us would do such a thing?
In the morning we had breakfast and went for a walk along the road (average traffic: 1 car/half hour) and played Yatzee on a bench in the pier‘s waiting area. Eventually some people arrived, a whole family with many mamas and a papa and bags and bags of stuff like sacks of flour and margarine containers and bread and more food. We asked them where they were going….to Ovalau! Hourra! There WAS a boat leaving today! When we went back to the house they had some chicken soup for us, which was very good. OK, the skin and bones and stuff were not a hit but he, I’m pretty good at dissecting meat now.
We packed our bags and went back to the waiting area (such a nice term for a couple old wood benches under a corrugated iron roof) and looked forward to our departure. Waited a while. And then some more. The boat finally arrived only about 2 hours late, so we made it to the island only short after dark and early enough to get something to eat before bed.
We have enough of packing our bags in the morning, standing by the bus stop and not knowing where we will be putting them down at night.
We are saturated with new input, not much still causes a ‚wow yes let’s do it” reaction.
We’re going home.
On May 27th, after visiting Fiji and Hawaii, we will be landing in Toronto, Canada.
We will soften our fall by staying with my sister for a while, then we’ll head out to Quebec, where we plan to spend the summer.
Post-travel depression and regrets expected.