No Hurry No Worry: Tips For Traveling Fiji
Disclaimer: These tips were compiled in February of 2020, before I could find Wuhan, China on a map and wasn’t fazed by drinking from the same coconut as four other people.
Transportation:
Pre-booking a taxi from the airport is unnecessary—flights are frequently behind schedule and your taxi will have to wait for two hours until you arrive. Besides, there are always taxis waiting at the airport. Your taxi man won’t be too irritated, and all will be forgiven and forgotten once you give him a sizable tip. He will even grow to like you over the week when you call him again and again, and he won’t even mind waiting when you want to stay at the white sand beach for an extra hour. He will tell you that Fiji’s motto is “No hurry no worry.” You will hashtag that motto on all your captions.
You will meet a Fijian-born man who immigrated to Canada but is visiting family with his partner. The couple will offer to take you to a market via the local bus. Some will call you crazy to get on a bus in a developing country with two men, but you will think it crazier to pass up the opportunity. Tell your friends not to worry because the two men are gay and Canadian so your chances of survival will be high. You can buy bus tickets at the local cell phone shop then stand on the main road where buses pass by regularly. The buses don’t run on any time schedule, but you can flag any of them down as long as they are going in your direction. No buses run after dark.
Food:
Your taxi man will invite you to his home for lunch with him and his wife. However, he won’t be available to come pick you up, and you won’t even consider walking that far in the heat of the Fijian sun. Instead, at your little beachside hotel, you will order the traditional dish of kokoda for lunch. Kokoda is raw fish marinated in citrus, spices, and coconut milk. It will be served to you in half a coconut shell, which will be absolutely delightful.
Every time you walk by a little bakery, you must stop for the Fijian equivalent of banana bread and a slice of cassava cake. Some people do not enjoy traveling alone, but in Fiji, you will rarely be without someone who wants to chat. Breakfast and lunch might provide some quiet time, but dinners will never be taken alone. For example, two college girls will approach you at the bar where you’ll bond over your careers and talk about your respective relationships with men. You’ll meet them for a few dinners over the course of the week. You will also have a few dinners with the Canadian couple who showed you the market and know the best Indian restaurants in town. A local man will invite himself to join you for dinner one night, and while you really won’t mind his company nor his ukulele, you already have a good man waiting for you back home.
Buy bags of Fijian candies at a market to last you a few months.
Activities:
Go from the beach to the hammock and back again, drinking so many fresh coconuts that you lose count. Fijian hot spring sounds counterintuitive, but it will be surprisingly refreshing, especially if you opt for the mud bath first. The mud is collected in big pots from the bottom of the springs and set out in the grass for you. Strip down to your bathing suit and rub it all over your body. Stand there until it dries, feeling a little ridiculous. Then, wash it off in the springs. Though it is technically a tourist destination, residents also enjoy the mud baths as a cheap alternative to a doctor for achy bones and sore muscles. There is the option of visiting Hindu temples, which are beautiful, but the floors are concrete. And hot. And you must go barefoot. Enter at your own risk. You won’t be allowed to take photos either because something about capturing souls in a photo something something. Polynesian dance shows mostly include Tahitian dance and the hula because, says one of the dancers, Fijian dance is boring.
Culture:
Kava is a crop of the Pacific Islands that is central to the culture. The root is ground into a powder and mixed with water for consumption. Vanuatu is known for its mind-altering kava while Fijian kava is on the weak end of the spectrum. The United States FDA doesn’t even consider it a drug, so you can buy some of the root to take home to grandma. It tastes earthy, like weak coffee that has sat on your desk all day. After you’ve finished dinner, a member of the mataqiriqiri (band) will invite you to come sit with them and drink kava while they sing and play their instruments. This situation is technically called a kava ceremony, but there are very few formalities observed. Clap once and say “bula,” a greeting, when it is your turn to drink kava from the communal coconut shell. Drink the entire shell at once, then clap three times and say “vinaka,” which means thank you. Your tongue will tingle almost immediately, followed by a visceral relaxation and the urge to call everyone cousin, if they’re your age, or uncle/aunty, if they’re older. You will have a glorious sleep the night after your first kava ceremony and wake up with no hangover.
