As soon as you land in Nadi, the capital of Fiji, you need to give up your concept of time as you officially enter into the “Its Fiji Time zone”.
Our first encounter with the Fiji Time concept, was before the disarming and bright smile of our 2 hour late driver who simply apologized with a innocent shrug of his shoulders and exclaimed: “Sorry Sir, Its Fiji Time”. Along the week this expression became more of a life style to us.
Our stay in Fiji started with a very special Xmas present: two days in an Hilton Resort in Nadi. Well, not really “backpackers style” but we wanted to just pamper ourselves: swimming in the pool, lying in the sun, walking on the beach and of course our well deserved fruit cocktails.
Leaving the Hilton a truly artificial paradise was hard but we were ready for our backpackers trip to begin. We choose to spend the last four days of our week in Fiji in one of the more 300 islands that make up the archipelago... a true dilemma if you consider that in the brochures all of them looked gorgeous! Eventually our choice fell on the Yasawa Islands, a crown of little spots of land in the north west side of Nadi. Our destination: The Long Beach Resort.
Five hours on a ferry boat and 260 Fiji dollars (€110) later an amazing blue lagoon unfolded before us. We were welcomed by a thrilling “bula”(cheers in the local language) from our host family which made us feel at home.
Life in the resort was simple: for 75 Fijian dollars 35€/per person we got three hot meals per day served after the loud calling of drum's. We slept in mosquito protected dorms with our own private beach. Activities like snorkelling, fishing, coconut lessons, kayaking, fire dancing and beach sports were all available. The added value of stay was given by meeting a multitude of people that alone or in group decided to give up everything just to start travelling around the world. Most of them get an island pass and hop from one island to another as such every night we had different guests. Our meal times were filled with stories from other islands and the past lifestyle of the travellers. We met a wide variety of people from the British designers who created their own font, to the pHd chemical engineers, to the simple bar tenders, to the marketing directors, to the Swedish twins, to the German working travellers. You can imagine that meals were never disappointing as their reality could not be further away from steady jobs, stability as you and I know, the family life, or paid holidays.
To be honest once you travel enough, meeting interesting people is part of the journey but what makes travelling truly special is to understand the local culture and lifestyle. We took the time to talk to Melinea, a young single lady who worked at the resort. She explained how the Fijian lifestyle has changed over the years. It all started when the missionaries came and introduced religion, the concept of clothes and the different food. She was disappointed as her culture, the ways of her fathers as she referred to, was slowly changing. She explained that before there was no need for clothes and the desire for more or money did not exist, the island provided everything. The tree of life (coconut tree), the fish, the sweet potato and fruit is all they really needed. Their island ruled by one big family, which she referred to as the clan, actually does not follow the main land rules/laws and have their own system. Land and family is all that is sacred. Respect the land and you will happy. Their happiness is simple, what is mine is yours and what is yours is mine. Family provides for each other, the clan looks after each other. The concept of war, anger, vengeance, laziness, or any of the other deadly sins did not exist. It was the missionaries who introduced these concepts. Even though this is sad she understands the need for change, but is reluctant to accept it. An Italian entrepreneur has taken over a resort on another island she said this a sign of change for her and her family. During our stay we were invited to play volleyball with the rest of the local family, we were taught how to fish by Noah, teaching us the way of his ancestors, Manu, the cook, showed us how to prepare the fish we caught, with the sweet potatoes from the land, Ruben showed us how the tree of life provided everything and fun can be simply playing flicky flicky at night were laughter is the trump. Take a second and think about it, what more do you really need to be happy? This life style is the living proof of this.
1 comment:
Well... and just think about the people you met in the Island and the stories and places you told them.
And now think about what they though about it!
The great part of being happy is doing the choice of how, where, with who and doing what one wants to be happy.
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