Log Twenty Eight – Fiji

20 July 2017

Bula or welcome in Fijian.

Fiji, the perfect place to celebrate a significant birthday especially when you are escaping winter. Not my birthday, our daughter-in-law’s, and she had the forethought along with her sister to decide on an exotic location for their birthdays. So the choice was -5c mornings with frost or swimming, snorkelling and days of 30c in a tropical paradise. There was no choice.

Some observations.

• We don’t often fly on discount airlines and we have just discovered why. Our flight from Sydney was more like a day care centre with wings. I have never seen so many kids on a plane; from tiny babies through to excited teenagers. We were way down the back so it wasn’t too bad. We also had two granddaughters on board so who are we to complain.
• When you arrive in Nadi you have to change not your clocks but your attitude to Fiji time. Fiji time is worry free; it will happen just not in the timeframe you might expect. Just go with the flow, relax.
• In Fiji you greet everyone with Bula. Well around the resort you do. Don’t try it in the local towns, they are probably going to look at you funny. Bula means hello or welcome and you spend your day saying Bula to all resort staff. Funnily enough no one says it to fellow resort guests.
• Vernaka is thank you and is the other must use word. Bula and vernaka are pretty much to only two words you need. Everything else is in English and all the prices in Aussie dollars!
• When you arrive at the resort a rather tall and ripped Fijian calls out BULA several times with a deep baritone voice, greeting every new guest on their arrival. With his arms thrown high it’s an impressive greeting. You feel, yep now I’m on holidays.  We are not in Kansas anymore.
• There are two pools at the resort. One for families and kids, the other for adults. One is loud and full of activity with inflatable whales, balls and inflated rings. Lots of jumping, screaming and fun. The other is quiet, with few in the water. Many are sitting around the pool reading or just trying to break out of their winter paleness in just the few days they have in the tropical sun. You can guess which pool belongs to which group.
• The staff are all smiling and relaxed. They love the kids and seem to remember all their names and there are a lot of kids at this resort. The greeting of Bula is expressed with great passion by some and for some, maybe the gardeners it’s more of a chore but still uttered with a smile.
• The inflatable whales are pretty popular but it says a lot about our society when the warning advice on the whale covers almost one side of the toy. Maybe it should just say ‘this toy is not to be used as a toy’ or maybe ‘this toy will kill you’.
• We are on the coral coast so you just swim off the beach into coral reefs with fish and corals and all sorts of things to explore. The water is warm and there is plenty of room for all snorkellers.  There are also giant clams which are pretty spectacular.
• There are weddings happening here and lots of birthdays. The staff serenade people celebrating their birthdays with ‘Happy Birthday’ at breakfast and dinner. The staff have amazing voices. They also serenade people who are leaving to go home. This generally happens at breakfast. The words are all in Fijian but I think the translations is something like:
  • ‘So you are back to winter and you have to leave this tropical paradise,
    It sucks to be you…’    I’m pretty sure they are the words to their song.

So that’s about it for the moment. I have three big decision to make this afternoon: when to go snorkelling, what cocktail I will have tonight and which restaurant will we visit tonight.

Bula.