I now know how Columbus felt when he first saw land after
leaving Spain. We were greeted with wonderful sunshine as we entered the port
of Laukota, Fiji on the island of Viti Levu. This is our second visit to
Fiji. We had a short stay on the island
in 2020 and had a marvellous time.
Coming into the main island, you realize just how
mountainous Fiji truly is. Everywhere
you look you see jagged peaks that are
covered with lush tropical vegetation. We
are arriving at the end of the rainy season, so everything is green and full. This must of have looked like paradise to the
Europeans when they arrived in the 1790s.
Fiji is a multi-cultural country. It consists of indigenous
Fijians and Fijian Indians. Fijian Indians migrated in the late 19th
century as part of a British program to take indentured slaves from India and
offer them their freedom if they worked in the sugar cane fields for five years.
This accounted for 80,000 workers and their families.
Laukota is known as Sugar City, because it is the main
industry of the city. Unfortunately, the
downtown shopping has a very unsafe vibe. It is crowded and dirty. We had some
stupid young punk try to pickpocket me by distracting me while his friend approached
me from behind. I knew immediately what was going on and secured my wallet with
my hand while telling him to take a hike, or words like that.
We got the VIP treatment for excursion today. We were the
only ones who had booked this trip with Expedia, so we had our very own driver in
a very comfortable Toyota SUV. Kir was a very religious and spiritual driver. It
seemed that he had thanked God for our blessings, several times before we had
even left the harbour.
He provided us with his own personal insights into life
on the island. Poverty is in plain site
everywhere you look. Houses are mere tin shacks. There are many roadside
vendors of fresh fruit and vegetables, which must provide them with some form of
income. The cost of items, that we consider essential, are beyond the budget of
the ordinary citizen, such as cars, bikes, TVs internet, and washing machines.
Because the number of cruise ships stopping in Fiji is
way down from the pre-covid days, KIr's income is now about $5,000 (Canadian). On
this he supports his wife and adopted son, yet he is very happy and considers his life
as hard but rewarding. When he dropped us off at the pier, he thanked us profusely and
indicated that he might be our guide tomorrow in Suva Fiji.
Our excursion was to the Thermal Mud Baths. A thermal
pool was discovered by American Airmen stationed in Fiji during the Second
World War. After the war a local farmer bought the land and developed the area
into a popular spa. Now it is fully staffed
by his family and local villagers.
We were among the first customers to arrive this morning.
First you cover yourself entirely in slimy black mud that is collected fresh
each day, if can call mud fresh, The dried mud acts as an exfoliant.. After waiting for the mud to dry, about 10
minutes, you enter three different pools to wash off the mud. Each pool gets
progressively warmer with the last pool feeling like a nice warm hot tub.
These pools are quite large and filled from the hot
underground spring, which is about 75 degrees Celsius. Of course the
temperature at each pool is carefully regulated to ensure no one is burnt.
Later Marg got a relaxing massage. As you can imagine, we slept
like babies when we got back to the boat.
One of the tour buses that arrived after us, for some
unknown reason, decided not to stay in the parking area for vehicles and
instead drove up and onto a grassy area inside the grounds. As you can imagine after
three months of rain, this area was very soggy, and the huge bus got stuck. It took
them about an hour to drag the bus out of the ruts it had made.
Close to the spa is a mountain peak, known as the Sleeping
Giant. At the bottom of the mountain, there is an orchid garden that was
started by the Canadian actor Raymond Burr.
Our evening’s entertainment was a repeat performance by
the pianist Shelly White. I have to admit that even though she is very talented,
I prefer the pianist who performs in the Martini Bar.
No comments:
Post a Comment