Just hangin’ loose

October 20, 2009 by jcollins.

Last night we booked a tour to South Seas Island for a half day of private island fun and a cruise to several other islands, but this morning we were too tired to take the trip, so we postponed our excursion and planned a relaxing day at the Westin.

After a breakfast feast we spent some lounging by the pool, not so much in the pool, as the water is very cold. But we enjoyed our time laying in the sun and watching the local ladies make crafts out of the palm tree clippings.

During the afternoon we went into Nadi, a small 3 street area that makes up the “downtown” of this region of the island. Our cab driver Josiah, or Joe as he preferred to be called, told us to make sure we stay only on the main street. Of course we heard, visit all three streets. I’m very glad that we didn’t listen, as we enjoyed our time on the “backroads” of town, more than the main road. The main road has plenty of tourist trap stores
and some high fashion stores for the locals.

We saw school children on their way home all dressed up in their uniforms.

It is rather refreshing to see how modestly dressed everyone in town is, but especially the school the children.

On the backroads we discovered a local farmer’s market, where hundreds of farmers bring their goods to sell “at a very good price”.

There were peppers, chili’s, spices of all types and varieties, melons, pumpkins, paw paws, a lots of kava roots.

Some things we had to ask what they were.

We discovered a local hot bread store that filled our bellies just a bit. The hot buns with cream were to delicious. No wonder they had a line coming out the door. We also found a little restaurant that served a fried fish and chips meal for $2.60FJ, about $1.50US. It certainly wasn’t the Westin meal like before, but was every bit as good as anything Long John Silver’s serves.

Our trek through town ended at the Hindu Temple. We asked permission and were allowed to enter the grounds. However we didn’t enter from the main entrance, so we didn’t know the rules. We weren’t suppose to take the photos,

we were suppose to take our shoes off and spoke.

It was interesting to see the priest preparing for some type of ritual with his face painted up. When we got to the front we noticed the sign with all of the rules posted. Oops! Blame it on the foreigners.

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