Well, I made it to Fiji with no problems, and have been here for the past two days. Overall the Fijians and even the Indians here seem pretty nice, and I've only gotten a weird vibe from some of the taxi drivers. For some reason the receptionist at my hostel, a guy named Leps, seems to really like me, which is pretty fortunate because he's hooked me up with some stuff that I don't think the other guests are getting (free locker, towels, no credit card surcharges). There's kind of a strange sense here that I get that everyone is trying to act hospitable and tribal and everything just for the tourists, but it isn't too bad. The surrounding islands look pretty beautiful, and I'll be staying on one during the trip back. The main island is slightly dirty and beat up, but it isn't too bad. I went for a long walk on the beach this morning, and a stray dog befriended me for a couple miles which was fun! I went exploring a little bit in the grass, and found a dead horse just lying there which was kind of weird. But anyways, back to the surrounding islands!
My first day here I spent going out to a smaller island, South Sea Island, and scuba diving all day! I showed up on the island and starting chatting with a crazy, but cool, Australian guy named Serge, who I ended up spending the whole day diving, eating lunch, and chatting with. It was great, because within the first couple minutes after meeting him, he was making jokes about Americans (how they were too overweight to go scuba diving, they always have cameras and get lost easily, etc, etc). I thought it was pretty funny, and when I told him I was from the States he was a little embarassed, but said I didn't seem like an American at all! I posted some of the pictures from South Sea Island , it was a really small but cool island!
The scuba diving was amazing! I first got to do a wreck dive, which was this old style boat that was sunk to about 90 feet! It was really cool when I first saw the top of the mast, and it was just extending down into darkness. The marine life was amazing, with all of the most colorful and beautiful fish you see in tropical fish areas (including Nemo/clownfish), and some really big fish too! Touching anemones was really fun, cuz they kind of grab your fingers before letting go, and some of the fish will come up and bite your fingers if you hold still long enough! Aside from the wreck, I had two favorite parts of the day. The first one was pretty cool, because I was looking down and checking out the coral, just swimming along. I felt the water kind of move, and I looked up and there was a HUGE school of fish swimming right around me! My second favorite part was awesome, but a little scary. I saw a couple of weird things sticking out of the sand, and they looked like some cool plants so I went down closer to check it out. As I got closer, they started to look less like plants, and more like eyes! Then I noticed a long, black stinger coming out of the pile of sand on the ocean floor. Sure enough, it was a decent sized sting ray that had buried himself under the sand, and when I touched the ocean floor, he burst out of his hiding spot and swam away! The motion with which they swim is really beautiful, and I was really happy I got to see him (and also happy that he swam away, instead of at me!).
Coming back to the hostel at night, I met a really cool British couple, Ben and Lisa, who are twenty three like me, and have been travelling around the world for the past couple months! We hit it off right away, and it was really interesting to hear about some of their travels. Ben was a really laid back, sports loving guy (a big Chelsea soccer fan), and I have a feeling he'd fit right in with the guys back home. After the bus ride, we ate dinner together and then watched some of the local Fijians do their traditional "fire dancing" which was pretty cool, although they dropped their fire sticks more often than not! Overall it was a fun day, and I had no issues sleeping. My white skin got the best of me, and I got a little sun burnt, but I avoided the worst of it thanks to the sunscreen my mom made me pack! I'm heading out to Vanuatu tomorrow, and I'm really looking forward to it! Sorry for the long post, whenever there is a next one I'll try to make it a little shorter!
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