Click here for the complete photo album for Day 16
We didn't leave from the airport in Nandi until 10pm and we had arranged for the VT mini to pick us up at 4 or 4:30 from Rae's house so we had the whole day to kill. We walked tword town taking pictures and ran into Ravi, Rae's co-worker going to church. We chatted a bit and then caught an open truck with benched and an awning into town for $.50 each.
In town we walked down to 'The Pizza Pallace' I'll let the pictures and videos speak for that!
We caught a cab back and packed. Our VT mini didn't arrive untill just before five but we still made it to the airport by 7:30. There were a huge number of Fijian military and families at the airport, possibly en-route to Iraq, though I'm not sure where that info came from.
We bought last ditch suvenears, nasty prepackaged shot mixers and duty free Bounty! Our plane back was larger than going but more crowded. Meadow and I watched Final Fantasy: Spirits Within on the PSP and then we all tried to sleep. We cleared customs in LA with no problem despite the large quantities of legally questionable Kava. Then we tried to figure out what to do with the alcohol that we had bought in the Fiji airport but couldn't get back onto a plane because it was in lager than 3 ox bottles... how does an international airport not have a good way to deal with this?!? We tried to pack it in one of my bags but a beer bottle broke even before we got it all lacked so we left it with my dad hoping that he could mail it to us.
My dad met us at the airport and took us out to Tequilla Jacks for dinner then to the beach. We walked down and stuck our feet in but the pacific off of CA in April is still cold. We went to the hat shop and Todd tried on the Capitan Morgan hat... he may be the only person alive that can wear a hat like that and not look ridiculous. Then back to the LAX for an uneventfully flight into Boston. Then straight back to work without even going home!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
4.26.8 - Friday - Day 15 (Snorkeling and Trip to Ba)
Click here for the complete photo album for Day 154
Again delicious breakfast on the lounges beside the pool. Then we all grabbed snorkeling equipment, well some of us rented it from the dive shop... and went snorkeling on the reef in front of the resort. We headed left from the boat passage over the area I had scouted the day before.
The reef is in surprisingly good shape for something right in front of a resort and there is a nice contrast between the top of the reef at 1-5 feet and the bottom at 20 - 35feet. Everyone enjoyed themselves and the reef. I saw another ray and found a crown of thorns and a giant clam for Todd and Meadow.
We got back to shore and realized that we had no Rea. Not panicking we searched the resort... then there was a bit of panicking. I went down the beach and scanned the reef for a snorkel or a corpse... Rae walked up behind me. It was a bit of an Indiana Jones moment. She had been caught by a wave, lost her mask and swollowed some sea watter and had been in the bathroom being sick, but was otherwise unharmed.
We all went to the office to pay. The resort was cheaper than I expected and I didn't get charged for one of my dives. The ferry was more expensive than I would have liked. Unfortionatly they had overbooked for the trip back... possibly due to our staying an extra day... though that couldn;t have been the only reason as there were 8 too many people. They asked us if we could wait for an hour for another boat. As we had planned plenty of padding into our schedule we said that was fine.
An hour later the "Awesome Adventure" boat passed by and we were ferried out in a long boar. The Awesome Adventure is a hideous bright yellow supercat that runs the whole Yasawa chain, 28 stops at the backpackers resorts. One could spend more than a few weeks using it to hop throughout.
Unfortionatly we were in the middle of the run and would be making 9 more stops before getting to Laotoka to catch our bus to Ba and get our luggage so that we could go home. Then we found out that the ferry did not even go to Laotoka but ended it's run at Port Denerau. Now it turned out that there was a free shuttle bus that went from Port Denerau to Laotoka... but it would arrive around 7 in the evening, more than five hours behind our planed arrival time... and possibly after the last bus to Ba.
We protested... we had Octopus called on the CB and eventually we came to the conclusion that someone on the staff at the resort had screwed up and that if we pressed things and talked to the management the consequences to them would be out of proportion to the our inconviniance... and the staff had been very nice to us because of Rae being 'local'. So we let it go and enjoyed the rest of the ride. There is a lot of pretty out there.
We grabbed meat pies at the bread shop in Port Denerau and caught the shuttle an hour or so north to Lautoka and began the search for a ride to Ba. Rae found us a 'VT mini', a large van that we packed 15 people into. It was a great ride... I need to remember not to stress about things :) We got dropped off in front of Rae's house. We said our hello's and went into her apt.
Our bottle of Ditron Vodca had come uncapped in my bag and a,, my clothes were soaked. I did laundry in Rae's shower. We all has nice sunburns from the snorkeling despite sunscreen and used the last of the aftersun lotion. We downloaded photos and then called it a night. Ooh, people ran out to a late night store and found fresh samosas... weird but yummy!
Again delicious breakfast on the lounges beside the pool. Then we all grabbed snorkeling equipment, well some of us rented it from the dive shop... and went snorkeling on the reef in front of the resort. We headed left from the boat passage over the area I had scouted the day before.
The reef is in surprisingly good shape for something right in front of a resort and there is a nice contrast between the top of the reef at 1-5 feet and the bottom at 20 - 35feet. Everyone enjoyed themselves and the reef. I saw another ray and found a crown of thorns and a giant clam for Todd and Meadow.
We got back to shore and realized that we had no Rea. Not panicking we searched the resort... then there was a bit of panicking. I went down the beach and scanned the reef for a snorkel or a corpse... Rae walked up behind me. It was a bit of an Indiana Jones moment. She had been caught by a wave, lost her mask and swollowed some sea watter and had been in the bathroom being sick, but was otherwise unharmed.
We all went to the office to pay. The resort was cheaper than I expected and I didn't get charged for one of my dives. The ferry was more expensive than I would have liked. Unfortionatly they had overbooked for the trip back... possibly due to our staying an extra day... though that couldn;t have been the only reason as there were 8 too many people. They asked us if we could wait for an hour for another boat. As we had planned plenty of padding into our schedule we said that was fine.
An hour later the "Awesome Adventure" boat passed by and we were ferried out in a long boar. The Awesome Adventure is a hideous bright yellow supercat that runs the whole Yasawa chain, 28 stops at the backpackers resorts. One could spend more than a few weeks using it to hop throughout.
Unfortionatly we were in the middle of the run and would be making 9 more stops before getting to Laotoka to catch our bus to Ba and get our luggage so that we could go home. Then we found out that the ferry did not even go to Laotoka but ended it's run at Port Denerau. Now it turned out that there was a free shuttle bus that went from Port Denerau to Laotoka... but it would arrive around 7 in the evening, more than five hours behind our planed arrival time... and possibly after the last bus to Ba.
We protested... we had Octopus called on the CB and eventually we came to the conclusion that someone on the staff at the resort had screwed up and that if we pressed things and talked to the management the consequences to them would be out of proportion to the our inconviniance... and the staff had been very nice to us because of Rae being 'local'. So we let it go and enjoyed the rest of the ride. There is a lot of pretty out there.
We grabbed meat pies at the bread shop in Port Denerau and caught the shuttle an hour or so north to Lautoka and began the search for a ride to Ba. Rae found us a 'VT mini', a large van that we packed 15 people into. It was a great ride... I need to remember not to stress about things :) We got dropped off in front of Rae's house. We said our hello's and went into her apt.
Our bottle of Ditron Vodca had come uncapped in my bag and a,, my clothes were soaked. I did laundry in Rae's shower. We all has nice sunburns from the snorkeling despite sunscreen and used the last of the aftersun lotion. We downloaded photos and then called it a night. Ooh, people ran out to a late night store and found fresh samosas... weird but yummy!
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