We awoke in the Westin Heavenly Bed which was amazing. Much more comfortable than our Camper Van, although the camper van was not bad. Breakfast is included and we arrive to the breakfast restaurant amazed with the selection. I get a couple berry smoothies, eggs benedict and yogurt. Everything has been first class at this hotel so far and the staff has been overly friend. We decide to do a walk and head to the local marina via the beach. The other hotels are not that busy either with limited people on the island. I wonder if they will be able to keep all the ammenties open with such a small crowd of people. The marina is uneventful, but we buy some clothing for our unexpected stay on this warm island. Prices are cheap and I get Polo shirts for $10 and surfer dress shorts for $12. The quality might be lower than real Polo brands, but they look good for now and will do the trick for the stay here.
We decide that we will take it easy today, but this is not something that I do well
. After swimming around the the pool that travels swerves in and out the hotel. I sit and relax with Kristin on the beach for about 30 minutes before hearing a volleyball noise and getting the urge to play volleyball with the locals. They are rugby players and very athletic. We hit back and forth for a long time before getting enough players together to play a game. Tilly is the local guy that I am playing with. He is 6 foot 5 or so and a great volleyball player. Another local that looks like Buckwheat arrives by boat. Tilly calls out to him in their native language. He rushes past us with a plastic bag of fish or some other type of food and returns to play. He says 1 vs 2, me against you. Although I wonder how he is going to play by himself, he turns out to be pretty good, bumping it, setting it and then spiking it down our throats. His name is Nico and he has obviously played single volleyball before. As he spikes the ball, he lets out a loud laugh. He then serves the next serve to us and calls out, here you go, pay me back tall guy
. Tilly bumps the ball and I set it to him for a perfect spike towards Buckwheat Nico. Both sides laugh again. It is different playing with these guys. They are not competitive in this game. We don't keep score and although the burst in excitement from a good play, they immediately give the other team the chance to hit a good hit against them, almost letting up a little to allow it. They congratulate the good plays with genuine excitement and are consistent with their attitude since we arrived. Such friendly and good people.
We finish our game of volleyball after 3 hrs or so and Tilly and Nico invite me over to have a coconut drink. Tilly pulls a machete and chops the top off a coconut. He gives me a straw and I slurp the coconut juice. It is so go. After I finish, I ask him if I can eat the coconut too, he pulls the machete out and chops the coconut in half while holding it with his bare hands. I don't comment on the danger of doing this as it looks like he has done this before. Before I depart, he offers me an extra coconut to bring back to Kristin
. She has returned to the room and I bring her the coconut with a straw. We chop up the coconuts and sit in our room looking out at the water and sunset eating coconut. This is the culture that we both like so much.
We decide on Sushi for dinner. The resort has about 4-5 restaurants on the property. The sushi is inexpensive and I get about 10-15 sorted pieces of sushi for $12. It is very good. The waitress comes to our table and talks to us about United States. She lives in town which is 30 minutes from the hotel. She hitchhikes to work and back each day. We are shocked by this, but it does not seem like anything unique to her, nor does it seem dangerous at all. I get the feeling that crime is pretty reduced on this island, although I have heard that it can be dangerous on the poor sections of the island.
We finish dinner and walk the beach. The Sheraton hotel is next door to us and we walk down the beach looking out at the islands in the distance. The Sheraton is different than our resort, just as nice, but more catered to larger parties perhaps. It look like there are many wedding there and they have an actual beach without the sea wall. The pools are all forever pool or negative edge pools with water flowing over the edges and continuing to flow through the pools. It is pretty. I think the volleyball wore me out. My eyes are drooping and it is only 10 or so. We call it a night. I think that my body is slowly started to adapt to Fiji time as they say.
Day 44: June 10 Paradise in Fiji
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Denarau Island, Viti Levu, Fiji
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2025-02-09