The difficult part of going to Fiji is the time it takes to get there. In our case, it turned out to be even a much longer journey than we anticipated. An original 20 hours journey ended up being over 28 hours when our connecting flight from Hong Kong was delayed about 8 hours due to a late arriving plane. As we will discover, this is what Fijians happily refer to as Fiji time, never let schedule dictates what and when you do things, just let things fall as they may.

With a much longer layover in Hong Kong than planned, we decided to head into town.   We ended up going to Elements (shopping center at Kowloon Station), for shopping and dinner, before heading back to the airport. James picked up some reading materials for the trip while Jessica got some more clothes.

The flight to Fiji turned out to be uneventful. The only interesting item happened being the crew spraying the cabins with some kind of disinfectant just before we landed to prevent anything bad from being brought onto the island.

Similar to Hawaii or the Seychelles, one can feel the tropics vibe as soon as he or she steps off the plane. As with all international flights to Fiji, we arrived at Nadi International airport on the main island of Viti Levu.   The drive to our hotel was on the main two lane road that circles the island. As in other former British colonies, the car drive is on the left hand side. There were few cars on the road at that time of day (late Sunday afternoon). Despite being a small island, our driver said that people in Fiji generally respect the traffic rules and enforcement is reasonable strict.

Our hotel, Intercontinental Fiji, is located about 45 minutes south of the airport. The hotel sits on a sprawling area by the beach, with two stories bungalows and building from the beachfront to the hillsides. Looking out over the open-air lobby as we waited to check-in, we can see the vast expanse of the South Pacific right in front of us. It was just approaching dawn when we arrived, but we were eager to get a few pictures of the sea view before it got dark.   Just outside of the café below the lobby, a local group performing some local song and dance.

 

Because our original confirmed room was not available when we arrived, they upgraded us to the Clubhouse Suites located on the hills. The room was a two room suite that probably is as large as our apartment.   The sitting room has a long sofa, with a Bose sound system, while the balcony has a large outdoor lounge sofa and even a bathtub. It was a very comfortable home away from home.

After settling in, we went over to the Clubhouse Lounge for its nightly sunset cocktails for its club suite patrons, which provided a free drink along with sample plates of canapés and hors d’oeuvres made with a variety of seafood, meat, purees and cheese; all very delicious.  This was a good pre-dinner appetizer course for us. Afterwards, we went down to hotel’s ‘bistro’ for dinner. One side of the restaurant sits just back of one of the hotel beaches, but at night it was pure blackness looking out into the sea. We ordered a Naan (with sauce) for appetizer; James ordered a salad and pasta while Jessica ordered soup and tuna steak. The tuna was tender and almost melt in the mouth.

As we walked back to our hotel room, we could see the brilliant night sky above us. With few lights and clear air, we could see more stars here than we normally could see back home. It was the kind of a starry, starry night that the kids in all of us want to see.

We decided to take it easy on the first day, mostly to just meander around the resort and relax, soaking up the clean air and beautiful sea views. Getting up leisurely but still early enough to enjoy the complimentary breakfast, served in a restaurant that offer an open view of the resort gardens. We basically stayed until the place stopped serving for breakfast, very much filling ourselves fully. We then head to the hotel’s travel service tables to arrange our excursions on the islands. We decided on a helicopter trip to a ‘Castaway’ island, rent a car for a day for a self-tour of the island and a guided tour to a local village.

After making the arrangements we headed out to the open lobby area that faces the sea.   We spent a few minutes taking pictures of the areas, with Jessica walking out into the water to enjoy get some up close and personal shots.

We then found a comfortable lounge chair and considered just waste away a few hours there. But after a few minutes, we found the wind in that spot to be particular strong. Thus we decamped to another spot toward the interior of the resort that, while didn’t quite have the same view, it was calmer and quiet.   James started reading Dan Brown’s Digital Fortress, one of Brown’s earlier book of pre-Robert Langton stories, while Jessica was utilizing the free Wi-Fi service of the resort on her iPhone and iPad. While reading James doze off happily for a bit; the sort of idyllic falling asleep lazily on a tropic island that we all think of experiencing.

By mid-afternoon, we decided to head back to our room to prepare for the afternoon tea at the Clubhouse Lounge.   The Tea Service is kind of the traditional English tea service, served with a full set of mini-sandwiches, scones and other snacks. While waiting for the food, Jessica decided to take a swim in the Infinity Pool at the Clubhouse, which overlooks onto the lagoon and the sea beneath the hills.

After the tea service, we headed back to our room for get ready for our dinner at the formal restaurant of the resort.   With a late dinner time, Jessica decided to go for a bath soak in the large outside tub on the balcony, while James decided to continue with his book on the lounge chair there. As the sun sets over the sea beyond the balcony, we just want to soak up every It was a nice idyllic state as the sunset over the sea.

Upon entering the restaurant, our hostess brought us by the kitchen area to show us the specials of the day.   One of the specials was a local white fish, which Jessica decided to order, along with seafood soup served in a bread bowl. James went with a cut of rib-eye steak to go with a salad.   The white fish turned out to be huge, as big as if not bigger than the sole I had in Geneva.   Between the two of us, we weren’t able to finish more than two-third of the fish. Luckily the rib-eye was more standard size fare.

The next day, we had an early start for our helicopter ride. After a quick early breakfast, we took a pre-arranged car ride to the helipad in Denarau, which was about an hour away from the hotel near Nadi. The helipad was located by the Denarau Golf Course. This was the first time either one of use has ever rode in a helicopter. As the helicopter lifted off, we felt like riding on an open elevator. As we were riding not that high (compared with airplanes), we really had a bird’s eye view of city below us as we flew toward the sea.

We rode with another couple who were going to another island farther out. We were dropped off first, after about a 15 minutes ride. We saw a few resort islands on the way out to our destination – Castaway Island Resort on the island of Qalito, where the crew of the movie of the same name supposedly stayed before the filming.

The helicopter dropped us off at the resort, which is located at the western corner of the island. The resort accepts certain number of ‘day tripper guests’, either by helicopter or via boats. The resort has white sand beaches and offers sailing, scuba diving, snorkeling, kayaking, among other things. The resort’s bungalows seemed to be built for families, with some right on the beach.

Jessica jumped right into the resort activities right after our guide gave us a brief overview of the resort and what was available to us. We picked out a couple of canopied chairs on the beach to lay out our stuff and picked up gears for snorkeling as well as a kayak.   We first went out together kayaking just off the beach. The water was crystal clear, enabling us to see the corals. After about 45 minutes, James decided to head back to the beach. Jessica went back out by herself with the kayak to explore more of area farther out.

While lying on the beach chair, James noticed that on this part of the beach, there was an area about a hundred yard out from the sand where the water seemed to be calmer, like an unseen barrier to this area where the rushing waves of water seem to go around. But then that is probably why the resort use this part as their main beach front.

Returning back from her kayaking trip a bit tired, Jessica took a nap on the shaded lounge chair as James continue reading his book. Around 1PM, we went to the resort open veranda café for lunch, a simple buffet fare.

After lunch, we walked around the resort before settling back down on our lounge chairs. Activities were much quieter during the early afternoon on the beach. A few people were windsurfing, but less people were on the beach or in the water. And we noticed the tide start moving in as well. We didn’t do much the rest of the afternoon and start preparing for our departure around 3PM.   While we waited on helipad area high on a bluff, we took some more pictures of the island.

By the time we returned back to the hotel, we had missed the afternoon tea but caught the sunset cocktail. Being filled up a bit with the canapés and hors d’oeuvres served at the cocktails, we decided to go back to the bistro for a late dinner that night.   Jessica ordered a curry beef dish while James decided to go with an oven-fired pizza. Once again, feeling stuffed from our meal, we took a stroll on the resort grounds enjoying the brightly lit starry sky while we try to help our stomach to digest the meal.

The next day, after a full breakfast, we picked up our rental car and headed out to Nadi to do some shopping in the city. Nadi is considered one of the main town of the island. It is not big, but has a number of stores and restaurants, as well as markets. Jessica first went looking for a dress with sleeves for next day’s visit to a local village. After that, we went looking for local specialties at some of the department stores in the area, such as soap, pearls, craft bowls, UGG shoes (close to Aussie), etc.   After filling a good portion of our trunk, we went to a local Chinese restaurant that Jessica had found recommended by others, to try their lobster and grouper. We ordered a bit more than we could eat just to sample some of their dishes; the quality of the Chinese food was better than I had expect to get on the island.

After lunch we went to a couple of the local markets and check out some more stores. We had thought to drive around the island a bit, but by around 3 o’clock, we decided to head back to the hotel in time for the afternoon tea at the clubhouse. During the tea service, Jessica was busy sending messages to her friends on her iPhone on what she bought.

After returning to our room after the afternoon tea, Jessica took a nap, while James finished up his book and watched some TV. When it looked like Jessica wasn’t in the mood to go out for dinner, James decided to head down to the convenience store to grab a few things to eat.   But not really finding anything substantial (just pick up some snacks), we ended up ordering some room service fares.

The following day we had another early start for our tour of a local village in Sigatoka. The shuttle that picked us up at the hotel stopped to pick up some people at the Shangri-la resort on the way to Sigatoka. The resort sits on a small island, with a narrow causeway leading into it, with a beautiful alcove on either side of it.   At Sigatoka, the tour company gathered together everyone and assigned us to our respective tours. We then drove another 15 minutes inland onto a shore of Sigatoka River, where a jet boat dock awaited. A Jet boat is kind of a small hydrofoil boat, enabling it to ride over shallow waters, which prevails at many part of Sigatoka River where water may only be knee deep or less.

We rode on the Jet boat for about 15 minutes, with the boat captain providing some basic commentary on the river at various spots where he slowed down. The Sigatoka village we visited was a ‘typical’ traditional Fiji village, where people still live in much the same manner as they have for years in the past, with some modern convenience, like electricity. Each village generally comprised of family clans related to each other. The one we visited has two main clans, who lived in two sections of the village. The village probably had a couple hundred of people. Each village has a chief and one of the thing done upon our arrival was to hold a traditional ‘welcome’ ceremony when guests from outside of village visits.

Villages there seems to try to live ‘off the land’ for the most part. The village is made up of living quarters, a school and communal buildings for the village people to congregate.   There didn’t even to be any formal ‘stores’ within the village. Due to village’s locations, for people to travel from there to ‘towns’ for jobs would be fairly inconvenient. People who work at an outside job would typically move out of the village while they are working. But people at the village appear to enjoy the pace of life there. Tourisms is a main source of money the village can made and benefits indirectly as well.   The new one room school house in the village that we visited there was funded by a donation drive in their home country that a couple who had visited the village did.

We had lunch in their community room. The meal was served on a mat where we sat, traditional Fijian style. The spread included greens, roasted chicken, sausages, taros, potatoes, rice, bread, etc.; a mix of traditional Fijian dishes and some of more modern items. Fijian dishes can be spicy.

After the meal, they went through a traditional guest ceremony, with the village chiefs and leaders exchanging pleasantries with the ‘chief’ of the visiting tribe. At the end, both sides share the local drink kava with each other. Kava is a root plant. The drink made from the plant is a cloudy mixture that has an anesthetic effect on the drinkers. It is said that if you drink a few cups, you may feel a bit numb and if you drink a lot of it, you would fall asleep. The joke local makes is that Fijian wives feed their husbands Kava when they are not ‘in the mood’ to put them to sleep.

After returning back to the hotel late in the afternoon, we took a rest to prepare for our spa session in the early evening (the only time slot we could find available). The spa center had a dressing locker room for us to change. And before and after our spa session, they have a hot pool and ice room that we can use for hydrotherapy. James and Jessica took a dip into the hot pool and then went into the ice room a few times.

Our massage room was nicely layout with numerous candles lit and with soft music in the background. After selecting our choice of oil and massage style, we just laid back and let the therapist do their work. After a while, James dozed off and pretty much was awaken toward end of the session.

Our final day on the island, we decided to take it easy again and just hang around the resort. After breakfast, we walked around the lagoon area of the resort, spending some time in one of the canopy bed that dotted the edge of the beach inside the resorts.   But that area was quite windy, so after half an hour or so we headed toward inside of the resort area.   We reserved a seat at the buffet restaurant for this evening. And then we took a shuttle to the resort’s golf course about a couple of kilometers away.

At the golf course, we rented a cart and drove around the course. There weren’t too many people on the course that day, so it gave us an opportunity to take a number of pictures of the scenic views both of and from the course. Jessica even went down to the rocky beach area outside the course to snap a few pictures.   James enjoyed driving the cart around the course. After about 45 minutes of driving around most of the courses, we headed back to the clubhouse. We went by the pro shop as we were trying to figure out whether we want to eat at the café there or head back to the hotel.   The ship just happen to have a sale on the Pure Fiji shampoo, conditioner and lotion that Jessica still want to get. We picked up a few items before leaving.

We went to the Bistro for a quick bite and then parked ourselves to the chairs we camped ourselves on our first day there. By mid-afternoon, we went to have our last afternoon tea at the clubhouse.   After a short rest in our rooms, we went down for dinner.   Not feeling too hungry and not finding the buffet selection entirely to our taste, after a quick glance, we decided to just order a la carte. James selected a pasta dish while Jessica had a salad and fish.

The next morning, we headed to the airport at 5:00AM for our 8:20AM flight. We arrived at the airport at 6AM, but we end up barely making onto the plane before departure. The check-in and the immigration was not so bad, but waiting to process the VAT return was very slow.   The airline literally was holding the plane door open waiting a string of passengers still trying to get their VAT refund to get processed. The door closed about a minute Jessica got to her seat, not a minute of our journey was wasted.