Fiji -- Final Post/Part 3!

I just got back from another vacation trip, Washington DC, which is why this final post on Fiji is coming so late.  I guess I'm just making up for lack of vacations I had last couple of years, for various reasons.  Anyway, back to Fiji.  My sister and I took another day cruise (we paid for that one) on Ooh La La cruise to Suvala island.  It's kind of funny how we ended up on it.  We were looking around Port Denaru terminal, when the cruise booking lady called us over.  The lady who called us over started giving us lots of options, and we basically said we wanted to snorkel.  As the lady started discussing virtues of each cruise (there were many), and we pondered which would be best, the lady who was quietly sitting by piped up.  This second lady LITERALLY only said one thing -- if you want to snorkel, then get on Ooh La La because the farther out you go, the better the snorkeling experience.  So that's what my sister and I decided to do... and decided that second lady was right.

The small cruise boat was actually very well done.  On the way over to the island, we got tea or coffee, snack (which sadly I could not eat because of my braces) and plenty of free beverage.  We also noticed that some of the other cruise boats for tours didn't seem to have as nice fixtures as the one we were on.  I was particularly surprised by the bathroom -- I expected airplane bathroom.  Even though it was still small, it was bigger than expected and cleaner... although I believe the bathroom was broken on the way back.  The island itself was beautiful and quite deserted.  There is also NO bathroom facility at this island.  It's a truly deserted island.  But the snorkeling experience was pretty awesome.  So, here are some more pictures of beautiful Fiji.

Making our way to our small cruise ship for another snorkeling trip!!

This is the island we got to.  Because there are no docks, we had to take small boat to actually get to the island.  Some people swam to the island using snorkel gear.

Quite a gorgeous view of the island, and the coconut umbrellas!

Another shot of the island we got to.

Basically, it was just us -- the small group of folks.  So we parked our stuff in one of these and headed into the water.

And then it was time for lunch after snorkeling around the island.  That's me, all wet after snorkeling, waiting for my lunch!

During lunch, the crew sang some songs (I was nodding to Jason Mraz song) and then gave a presentation about how coconut tree is the only thing you need to find on a deserted island to survive.  It was quite informative.  The root is supposed to have some healing power (it was supposed to stop poison from spreading if you were bit by something but I forget what).  The trunk is used for building houses.  The leaves also had many uses such as...

this basket!  And obviously, coconut itself has both water and substance so you can eat.  It was a pretty cool presentation.

I decided to take a picture of our shadows on the beach.

You can see the gorgeous waters surrounding the island and corals.  

And sadly, it was time to say goodbye... it was way over way too soon!

And as we hurriedly packed our stuff so we don't get left behind, a parting shot.

And it was back to our small cruise ship.

That night, we decided to try out Nadina, which was in Port Denaru.  Worst mistake.

I got this dish, beef curry.  It tasted fine when I was eating it (I ate ALL of it)... but that night, I threw it all up.  It was not fun getting food poisoning.  Literally, I threw up everything you see in this picture.  Twice... once I just woke up in the middle of the night to run to the bathroom just in time to throw up for a few minutes.  I was sick and running quite a fever the next day (which was the day we were flying back!)... and ended up sleeping a lot.  The only good thing is that this happened at the end of our vacation.

This was my sister's dish which was chicken.  She also had a milder case of food poisoning.  She threw up too but apparently not everything you see here.

And that's our Fiji trip!  My sister took a picture of me lying around quite sick the last day but I'm not posting that here.