Bula!

We've only been back from Fiji for just over a week and already, looking back at these photos, it seems like another world. The trip was great, marred only by Dan taking ill a couple of days before we were due to come home. We travelled up to Fiji with mum and dad, and we all stayed in the same place in Nadi for 3 days before going our separate ways. However, the trip was kicked off first by a marathon night-bus trip up to Hamiltron. The 10.30 pm pit-stop at the Mobil station in Bulls was a particular highlight... We rolled into Hamilton about 5am and managed to get a few hours sleep before heading up to the airport. These first few pics are from the first couple of days of the holiday. The mask was on the wall of our room at the low-key and quiet Beachside in Nadi. The place was expanding while we were there, as you can see from the scaffolding in the second photo. Seems health and safety issues are maybe not the top priority...

After settling in we did a couple of road trips. The first took us further north up the coast from Nadi to the second largest city in Fiji, Lautoka. Also known as the birthplace of Kaiviti Kevin, my younger brother. Strangely, there was no plaque around to attest to this significant event. It was Saturday and the city was jumping. The marketplace had heaps of fruit and veg for sale - some in better condition than others - as well as spices and kava root for, er, Fiji. We even managed to convince mum and dad to have lunch with us at a cheap and cheerful vegetarian Indian restaurant. Yum! En route to Lautoka, we passed through the hamlet (I guess?) of Lomolomo. Where apparently 'you are being watched' by the local police. Not being the country where advertising opportunities are passed up lightly - safety signs, for example, were routinely split with ads for Nescafe or Punjas Flour - the Lomolomo police were also touting gas. Needless to say the police presence was not menacing... Also in Lomolomo, dad stopped for the ubiquitous train photo op (any Pryors out there will be feeling my pain right about now!) However, the little cane trains trundling very slowly to the sugar mill in Lautoka were pretty interesting compared to the usual. Sugarcane fields were everywhere, which is not surprising given that it is one of Fiji's major industries, though I understand it is now declining. Also visible on both a daily and nightly basis, was the (illicit) burning off of the cane, which, when you passed it, had a heady smell of ... burnt sugar.