Some random tips about Fiji before I start posting pictures:
1) It's winter time in Fiji starting in May. Which means that it's pretty warm with no rain! Apparently in April, there was a huge flood... so check the season before you go to Fiji.
2) There is more than 1 ATM machine to withdraw cash at the airport when you land at Fiji. You will see one before you go through the last custom (where you declare food and x-ray bags). Go THROUGH ALL OF the custom first. You will see another ATM machine on your left after you pass through. There was a line of people by the ATM machine before the custom because we didn't know there would be one after the custom.
3) If you bring meat product, like my sister tried to with some beef jerky, you are going to throw them out at the custom. So don't bring any jerky.
4) At least during May, the weather turns in the afternoon. If you want to snorkel and/or swim in the ocean, do it in the morning before lunch. After lunch, starting around 1-2, the wind gets pretty strong, and it gets pretty darn cloudy. One of the Fijians told us that this is what always happens. So don't take snorkeling trips in the afternoon... do it in the morning.
5) Remember to bring converter. You can't charge anything if it doesn't fit into the socket.
6) Bring insect repellent.
7) Buy mosquito repellent at the grocery store once you get to Fiji. They are pretty cheap. You light those things, and you do get less bugs and mosquitoes at night.
8) If you ended up at Sonaisali like us, then get out of the resort and book day cruises out to different islands. There's no point in staying at Sonaisali -- you get to see beautiful Fiji islands, gorgeous blue waters, and tropical fish AWAY from Sonaisali.
9) Oohlala day cruise is the best for snorkeling trip... BUT there is no bathroom at the island. So just be prepared. And based on the boats/cruise boats we saw, it seemed like it was the best small boats too.
10) My sister and I ended up doing a Wyndham time share presentation to do free South Sea Island combo tour -- snorkel at South Sea Island the morning of and cruise to see other islands. It was pretty cool. And definitely worth sitting 90 minutes for a free snorkel trip.
11) My sister will tell you that you should buy a cheapo cell phone because you can buy minutes like nothing. You can have a pretty cheap cell phone usage there. So you might want to look into it. It comes in handy like calling taxi drivers... and not use hotel bill.
Ok. Enough with the tips. I took over 300 pictures.. and there is no way I can post them all. But here's a VERY small sampling.
A view from the hotel restaurant. They had these small coconut umbrellas with beach chairs... makes for pretty picture. But the water wasn't the magnificent blue like other islands of Fiji.
At Sonaisali, most rooms were in "bures" or bungalows. And every room had an ocean view.
This is a picture of the bures, and we stayed in the middle one.
And look... this is the view you get from the bure. Pretty nice to wake up to.
You can see the tentacles! It was very odd to see purple jelly fishes... and all washed up!
Near the hotel, there appeared to be abandoned picnic sites.
Where we found some random frogs! They were not very visible because they blended with the grass. But I was able to take this picture.
There are a lot of Indians in Fiji. Why they decided to migrate to Fiji, who knows? But we had REALLY good Indian food at Curry House of Nadi Town. And my food came out spicy! Just the way I like it.
From the outside, you wouldn't think it though. It's a bit rundown. The lady gave us her card, though, and said if we called, she would pay for taxi to pick us up from the hotel. And we would only have to pay for taxi fare back. We never ended up going back and taking her up on the offer but we would have if we stuck around longer.
That's another picture of me at our hotel.
We found a live jelly fish swimming in the river near our hotel. Pretty random.
Fiji is not a rich country... in fact, it's rather poor. The mainland Fiji (Viti Levu) we saw had lots of fields of sugar cane. It reminded us of Hawaii.
I did say they had good Indian food, right? This was at Corner Cafe. We went looking for Saffron Indian restaurant, but the restaurant was closed due to flood that occurred in April. Apparently, the restaurant was still waiting for equipment to reopen. So we made do with Corner Cafe, which was great. You notice that Corner Cafe is next to Saffron... they are owned by same owner. So Saffron, at least temporarily, has become Corner Cafe until it gets proper equipment.
I thought this was a really interesting poster that we found inside the post office of Fiji. Basically, it's a movement to encourage people to accept people who went to prison and did time.
This is the post office we found at Nadi town. Fiji, as I said, is not a rich country.
While walking around Nadi, we found less touristy places. There were a few hole-in-the-walls, like this one. I kind of wanted to try one but didn't get the opportunity.
Look at this menu? Because American dollar against Fijian dollar was strong (like 2 Fijian dollar to 1 American dollar), this menu basically means you get a meal for $3 or less at the hole in the wall. Notice the Indian food??
This is a view of the main street in Nadi town.
This is where our hotel was. We had to take a small boat each time we left the hotel to go to the mainland Fiji.
Sunset over the waters of Fiji.
I have more pictures to post... but I think this will do for the time being.
No comments:
Post a Comment