Sunday, September 30, 2007

Fiji, part 4

These are the last of my Fiji pictures. This blog is weighting more in favor of pictures than stories, and I hope to make up for that later. At any rate, here you can see the sandbar adjoining the islands. A few times a day the motorboats would get stuck on the sandbar. All the passengers would pile out and push the boat up and over the bar; they'd get in and resume their journey. Every day at 3 or 4 in the afternoon, however, the high tide would cause the sandbar to completely disappear. I would be up to my waist in water while standing on the sandbar -- and up to my neck in water while standing slightly over the edge of it. Interestingly, I was the only one swimming in the water at this time. Most travelers would sit inside or sunbathe, rather than swim or risk getting caught in an undertow. Compared to Florida waters, I found the waves mild and pleasantly bouncable. The neat thing that happened on the sandbar during high tide was that the waves from the north and the waves from the south would crash against each other, creating a "ravine" effect. Swimming into this dip in the water while the waves broke upon itself was really fun. It was like lying down stomach-first in a crazy hammock made of water. Plus, I had the ocean to myself, especially when it rained.


Every night we sat in the common room and drank Fiji Bitter or Fiji Gold. I preferred Fiji Gold, which tasted like a cheap yellow American beer, while Fiji Bitter tasted like goat vomit. You can see Alex in the back; she is from England and had quite a few stories to share about Laos and Africa. The four travelers in the foreground are from Denmark and Sweden. I mostly made friends with the travelers from Sweden, who all happened to attend the same university but who hadn't met each other before Fiji -- very coincidental for them.


Nessie, not the sea serpent, organized nightly activities for us. He and his cohorts performed a fire dancing show, in which one dropped a burning poker near a traveler from Holland and then burnt his own hand, which was comforting. Anyway, they did their best to entertain us, and the Fijians have such open and warm hearts; it's as if each one of them is Mother Theresa embodied. They haven't been ingesting Mother Theresa, though, because cannibalism was a custom in their old religion, before missionary influence. Here we are dancing during the Card Game. A sign for each suit was placed in each corner of the dance floor (the floor being just sand), and when the music stopped (nearly always that "shake your ass, girl" song from the "About a Boy" film) we all scrambled to a corner so as to indicate our suit choice. Nessie would choose a card--clubs, spades, diamonds, or hearts. And, if our card was picked, we had to leave the dance floor. The winner and runner-up won a bottle of free beer.


Every day there was a volleyball game, including tourists, villagers, and sailors. (At any given time, two or three sailboats would anchor off the island. They'd come ashore to drink beer with us. One was from California, one from France, and one from Holland. One admitted to be living on a boat for eight years. Also, whenever they dropped anchor, they had to get permission from the village chief. They'd have to offer kava as a gift and then drink loads of kava with him.)

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Fiji, part 3

At the village, we met the chief. He's the guy wearing the blue-striped shirt. We drank quite a few cups of kava, which made my tongue and lips numb. Most of the tourists in the foreground are young travelers from England. They go island-hopping and treat Fiji like one big party, which it is, of course.


Alex, the gal to my left, snapped a photo of me drinking kava. Here I'm on my first cup--or coconut shell, as the case may be.


Nessie, the guy who led us to the village, not the Scottish sea serpent, introduced us to the oldest resident in the village, Roosie, who is 87.


Roosie, like many people who formerly served in the military, had a mermaid tattooed on his arm. He also had an interesting and bawdy poem scrawled onto his shutters.


I am such a softie when it comes to animals, and I miss my dog Joey. I spent awhile petting this dog, who reached up to sniff my camera as I was taking this shot. I meant to take another one, but he then started to clean himself, one leg lifted like a cat, and that's when I realized that not everywhere do people neuter their pets. If I snapped the shot, all you would see would be testicles, and it would take away from how cute you perceive him to be in the following photo.


While we drank our kava and clapped at the appropriate times and made the appropriate remarks, this older woman slipped away to catch some food. She returned clutching an octopus, the length of which was four feet or more. Spear in one hand, octopus in the other, she humbly posed. Meanwhile, I got a better understanding of the gender roles and differentials in Fiji: the women do all the washing, cooking, fishing, and spearing, while the men just sit around doping themselves with tea.

Fiji, part 1

I've been in New Zealand since Thursday night. After settling in at Christchurch, we seemed to have quite a few engagements and errands. I now have my own used bike to ride into town with (it takes about 20 or 30 minutes to bike downtown). But, for the moment, I'll tell you about Fiji.

I arrived on Sunday morning, a week ago today, at nearly 6 a.m., which is nearly 11 a.m. Saturday, Pacific time. I then, a bit sleep-deprived, followed the tide of tourists to the Yasawas, which was only a three-hour ferry ride away. I got off the ferry at a not-so-touristy resort on Waya Island, and the word resort is used loosely, because the accommodations were spare. I shared a dormitory with four to eight other travelers, the amount dependent on the day. On Waya, computers don't exist, although the management could radio out, and everything must be paid for in cash.

Each day I swam in the warm water, ate papayas, and shared stories with travelers, most of them from England, but some also from Scandinavia.

Some photos and captions:
Here the ferry is rounding one of the islands -- an interesting rockface.


Every morning in Fiji, I woke up before the sun rose. This shot features a view of the island and water from the hammock-sleeper's perspective.


When the sun rose on Monday morning, the clouds had rolled in.

Fiji, part 2

The blue hammock was my favorite one. Later that morning two little kids, Mela and John, pushed me on it, as if it were a swing. You can see my dorm in the back, in the upper right corner, behind the tent.


These shorebirds would skirt the edge of the coastline, nearly dipping their wings in the seafoam.


On Tuesday a few of us took a motorboat to the village on the other side of Waya. Here you can see the Sunset Waya resort from the boat's view. The left-side of the photo stretches out to a sandbar, which leads to another island, and which would disappear during high tide.


At last we arrived at the village. First things first -- we meet the pet iguana.


The twin boys scrunched their noses at the iguana.


This village was very self-sustaining. Papaya, breadfruit, and coconut trees were plentiful. Also, the villagers would smoke their own fish in small smokehouses. Here's a kitchen set-up.

Friday, September 28, 2007

Baby goat from Waya Island


I think it looks like a puppy.

It's now 1:30 a.m., so a few select photos will be posted tomorrow.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Home-cooked pizza in L.A.

Lisa made me a delicious spinach and tomato pizza. Here it is before she put it in the oven. I just love those large chunks of fresh mozarella. It was delicious.

Also, I'm uploading this in honor of my friend Aaron, who often posts pictures of delicious food on his blog.


I arrived safely in L.A., by the way. I'm appreciative of the Eugenean security guy who re-packed all my toiletries in a smaller freezer bag than the one I had (while I twiddled my fingers and searched the eyes of shoeless passers-by). He let me keep the sunscreen which wouldn't fit in the "improved" ziploc. The airport's Orange Alert might be an indication that my skin will turn orange in Fiji without sunscreen; I doubt the security at LAX will be so kind.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Backpacking: two videos from last month

Nearly a month ago (from August 19 to 24) I went backpacking with Kimberly, an old friend of mine from New College. (She lived in the dorm across from mine.) We hiked the Indian Peaks Wilderness, a trip which took us up to 12, 400 feet and to cold alpine lakes, high meadows, and waterfalls. I got high altitude sickness, but the worst of it only lasted a night, and the rest of the time we were both giddy from lack of oxygen. Here are some short videos Kimmy took.

In the "Tea" video I didn't know I was being filmed, at first. The day before we had descended from the Continental Divide. We had found the perfect place to camp, near the top of a waterfall, and we were below treeline (at about 10,400), so I didn't feel sick at all the following morning.



This video was taken the same day, about three hours after the first. Notice the intense climate change. Here we're back up above treeline, and it's no longer sunny and hot. It's cold and misty and intermittently rainy. The scene was like certain parts of Northern England (misty, green, tree-less), the rolling terrain marked with small white granite boulders.



Saturday, September 15, 2007

Family Encouragement

My uncle encouraged me to start a blog so that he might read about my travels. I'm going to consider this public journal to be an experiment. Occasionally I'll post pictures and write about my thoughts and goings-on overseas. Here is my travel itinerary:

September 19: Fly to LA; visit my college friend Lisa
September 21: Fly to Fiji
September 23: Arrive in Fiji (Where did that extra day go?)
September 27: Fly to New Zealand; stay with Michele and Richard
September 27 to early October: Wander around Christchurch, NZ
October some time: Travel around NZ with Michele
End of October: Fly to Sydney
Early November: Go on "outback" trip with Michele and Klaus
Mid-November: Fly to an Australian destination (Melbourne? Brisbane?)
Then until mid-December: No firm plans (more AUS and NZ exploration)
Mid-December: Hang out at beach house near Aulkland with Michele and Co.
December 26: Fly back to LA; hang out with Lisa again
December 28: Return to Eugene