Cockroach Catastrophe!

Had a fun night tonight, was chillin by the pool when across the other side something fell from a tree, surprising some dude and made him edge away. Well as the curious cat I am, I went to investigate, and it turned out to be a finger length cockroach. Great fun, so me and the guy (Eddie from Hertfordshire) struck up conversation, and it took us 15 minutes to get the courage to flip the poor critter over again. He was carrying an injury from his epic fall so failed to launch a full scale attack on us and limped off quite forlornly. Anyway, me and Eddie then shared some jugs of fiji beer and chatted with 2 of his room mates, Kate and Claire from Brighton, for the rest of the night. As usual, everyone is doing the same Fiji -> Nz -> Oz -> beyond trip, so may meet them later.

Tomorrow: Manta Ray Island.

A recap for your hat mac

Past few days have merged a tad and I feel I need to make a vague sweeping arc of clarity. Or something. On top of the 3 girls I met before, I met an American girl, who I've chatted to many times, possibly called Alexis. She suggested the garden of the sleeping giant and the services of Johnny taxi man. Might bumping into her in NZ, as she is going there after the Solomon islands. I also met 2 English girls, Natalie (Coventry) and Laura (southend) and we chilled one of the nights. they took 4 hour coach journey to Suva yesterday, just for a day trip. They're also hitting NZ and Oz, I think. As is Everyone!

I think the power of deet as an insect repellent is extremely overated, and my left foot would agree whole heartedly. So my plans? well I'm going to Manta Ray Island for 5 days to get my diving certificate, woo! Then on way back will stop off at bounty island, I suspect. After that I'm unsure of my plans but I need to book my last night, the 25th, in the skylodge, for airport ease.

Blam.

Latouka

I wandered around the streets of Latouka for a while, which is quite different from Nadi. Much less tourist orientated, in fact I was the only white person in the whole city it appeared. People were friendly but didn't try to scam or bug you. It may have been my evil squinting eyes due to the swimming pool, though I have learned it's a common misconception that it's the chlorine. when it smells of "chlorine" and hurts your eyes, it's actually a lack of chlorine. More reliable information on your local internets. I appear to have put Latouka photos on the previous post, oops. Here's one for the road:

Anyway, I found a park that was next to the ocean/bay, and chilled in the splendour and the blinding heat. 3 rolled around and I met Johnny for the long trip back. Good fun. I'm now relaxing by the pool with a cold beer.

It's a hard life.

Latouka tour...

After chatting a while with New Yorkian Alex last night, I drifted off into a nice slumber, with only a few additions to my crazy bite count. In the morning I grabbed another Skylodge lite breakfast (2 toast, orange juice, cornflakes, coffee, plate of guava, for about 2.66 pounds) and then leaped majestically into the pool, which had just been chlorinated. Needless to say I still can't see too well now, which is a bit worrying, but at least the pain has gone. I researched tourist traps on the interwebs and showered before going to talk to my pal Johnny. Organised a day chauffeur driven tour for 20 quid, which was quite good.

Went to the garden of the sleeping giant, which is an amazing place at the base of a mountain (the sleeping giant_. Though I realised I'd only bought a micro sd to sd adapter with me, I used my cunning and whipped out my micro sd card from my phone and put it in my camera. After wandering around a while, I got free guava and passionfruit juice, which is amazing. Yummy. Ended with a short walk around the other side and returned to Johnny. He then took me to a village (Viseisei Village), where the first fijian landed 3500 years ago. It's very Fijian, and a woman greets you and takes you around the village (pop 350). My guide was Tanya, and she showed me the chief's hut, their church, memorial and many tables with traditional merchandise.

Random Facts:

• White meat tastes nicest, they even ate clothes of the missionaries. Tastes like chicken.
• 6 tribes (warrior, fisherman, spokesman, chief, carpenters, ....)
• Warrior tribe are like police, still give beatings.
• They used to bury the Chief with his favourite wife (while she was still alive!)
• Tanya is in the spokesman tribe. Everything in the village is shared, i.e. if you buy a TV, everyone uses it.
• There are 300 dialects of Fijian around the islands

I bought a cool bracelet device, gave her a "donation" and left with Johnny. On the way he also gave me various facts:

• Train line is only used during sugar cane harvest, very narrow gauge and mostly overgrown/tarmaced over etc, which has to be cleared every year. Train goes to Latouka where it is processed.
• Pine trees -> wood chips -> china/japan -> paper
• Pot holes in the road are from the crazy rain, especially from the cyclone that they had 2 weeks ago.

We headed quickly to a beach on the way to Latouka, which as it was high tide had only a metre of beach. Lots of debris from the cyclone however. Now in Latouka, 2nd biggest city, seems nice. Currently in a chinese where I think they hate me are are playing tunes like "Angels", "Time of my life", "Brick In the Wall" etc, very old skool., I got a whole pot of chinese tea for about 60p. Currently waiting on sweet and sour pork and lamb friend rice. I wish the pages of this book were waterproof. I'm meeting Johnny at 3 somwhere random, I'm sure I'll never find again.