Feejee Experience

ok, i’m back with my next riveting installment. :D

So i left Rarotonga feeling a little sad that i was on my way to my final destination of the trip but knowing that i was gonna have an absolute ball, coz i always do! I had a rough plan which was to do the Feejee Experience which lasts just over a week unless you stay at any of the destinations for longer and then a week long trip sailing the Yassawa Islands, and then finishing it off with a lazy week in a hammock on Robinson Crusoe Island b4 heading home.
As usual my plan didnt quite work out that way but it was still awesome, I met a guy in my hostel in Rarotonga called Andy who was on my flight to Fiji who wanted to do the Fiji Experience so we both booked into Skylodge hostel in Nadi for 2 nifghts and booked the Feejee Exp for the 3rd day. :)

Basically the Feejee Exp is a big bus that drives you around the whole main island stopping off for various activities along the way, it doesnt include the price of meals or accom but it takes you to sum very nice hostels along the way. On day 1 we went to the beach for a few hours where me and andy were showin off with a frisbee which we prompty lost in the sea 5 mins later! :roll:
The we had a beach BBQ before heading off to go Sandboarding! The Sandboarding was really fun and unlike the when i did it in Oz you could lay headfirst which was cool, it was just as knackering clambering up and down the dunes tho! :roll:
After this we stopped in a local village which i think was called Mali Mali or sumthing very similar. This meant that everyone had to cover up their bits which meant all the men had to adopt the Beckham Sarong look ( which of course i pulled off rather well ). :)  We then sat in the Formal meeting hut where we were told about how a Fijian village is run and how in turn that affects the running of the country which was pretty interesting, then we wandered around the village on our own stopping off to talk to the locals, and play with the children. They were so fun everyone we saw was so friendly and said we could stay with them anytime if we liked anbd the kids were having a laugh posing for photos. Once we left all the kids were running at the bus waving goodbye and climbing the trees to look in the windows! it was really really cool! :D
That night we stopped in The Mango Bay resort which is described as a Flashpackers not a Backpackers and rightly so. The food was of restaurant quality right down to the presentation, the staff were super friendly and the dorm had drapes over each bed with mozzie nets and stuff which made the whole thing seem that little bit more classy!. Me Andy and sum friends we made on the bus, Ashleigh Claire and Marina and a few others decided that we wanted to stay another night due to the fact that we were meant to be doing a 4 hour trek through the rainforest the following day and the weather forecast said rain, also we wanted to get drunk and not have to get up early for the bus. So we had the usual Kava Welcome ceremony and then had a good old night in the loosley named nightclub at the resort b4 having a singsong with one of the staff who had a guitar. The next day it was raining so all we did was sit around chilling out and watching DVDs and that night was the same as the night b4, great fun. :D
The following day we got up to see that it was still raining but oh well we’d had a good few nights either way. We caught the next Feejee Exp bus and therefore met our new group of friends and started the bumpy drive up into the mountains. The trek itslef was really fun it was so wet and muddy that everyone was falling over and having fun allthough it was tiring at times but we really got to see the real fijian landscape up close as we were goin straight through the rainforest and down the valleys until eventually we got to a river where we had lunch and were then givin big inflatable inner tube type things which each of us got into and then floated down the river! we went through a few rapids ( nuthin major ) which was really fun and then about 45 mins downstream we were told to paddle to the side where we promptly got on a boat to the other side of the river where there was a waterfall. It was then that we all were told we could jump in from these various ledges which was great fun and i wanted to show off so allthough it scared the life outa me i flipped in!! :roll:  it turned out o.k alltho i was a little disorientated when i surfaced, i didnt do the higher one coz i couldnt climb up the slippery rocks tho. On the way to to the boat we were then showed an even higher ledge that had been built out of concrete and jutted out over the river, dunno quite how high it was i’d say about 10 meters so most of us ( including me ) took running jumps out into the river, t was so much fun allthough really tiring trying to swim back against the current!
After we had all dried off in some local persons house we headed to The raintree lodge in Suva where i had actually stayed b4 when i went to that festival in Suva last time. We got showed and dressed and then went into town where we had a really nice meal with the whole group in the madcow or something like that restaurant where i had the nicest sashimi!! then we went to the club next door for a really fun evening dancing and drinking and then when we all left at various times the bouncers flagged down taxis for us and paid the taxi drivers to take us back so it was a free ride home! When we got back we had a cheeky Kava bowl each with our driver and the security guard of the hostle and then got the giggles and went to bed. :D
The next day we got up fairly early and went to town to buy stationary to give to the kids at the school that we were about to visit. The school is very poor and the Feejee Exp gives money to it from every ticket and we give them stationary too. Once we got there ( dressed in sarongs again )all the kids came running up to us and each one grabbed each one of our hands and took us on a tour of the school it was so nice i was shown all their work and classrooms and they took me to the kindergarten but where there were the young kids waiting to do a little song and dance, it was so nice, they were all really pleased to see us and they loved having their pic taken and gave us the schools email address for us to send them to the school.
Then the school put on a show for us which had a traditional dance and some singing and was really good to see, aftter this they all sang us a farewell song and hugged us all and we were off on our way ( with a fair few teary eyes among the group).
Next we went to another local village where we were to have a proper traditional welcome kava ceremony without some of the added fun bits that sum of the resorts do. It was very cool and even a bit humbling in the presence of the chief. once the formal part was over we were told that we were now welcome at any time to stay in the village and we actually met an american guy called Levi ( yep really ) who had been stayin with them for the last week in the chiefs house!
Next we were meant to go billibilli rafting down the ruiver but the water levels were too high so instead the chief arranged sum activities for us which involved the girls sitting around with the local women making jewellery and the guys after husking a few coconuts ( i have a dodge pic of me doin that ) just sat around all afternoon drinking Kava with the chief. It was then that after about 7 bowls of kava i started to notice myself feeling a little stoned and when we were given sum food i ate so much that i knew i clearly had like the munchies or sumthing, a few others said the same and we decided that kava actually is pretty good.
We arrived that night in Volli Volli which was a really nice hostel with a lovelly beach and good facilites imany of us could have stayed there longer but as most of my friends were on deadlines we couldnt really. That night we got to the bar to be presented with yet more kava!!! basically all night long whilst we were drinking and partying and playing party games there was constantly a circle of kava drinkers and at any time you could sit down and give em a dollar and have a few bowls! I think but the end of that day i had had 14 or 15 bowls of Kava, i really have got a taste for it now and have even bought some to take home ( hopefully Heathrow wont take it off me ). After the bar shut we all headed top the beach for a singsong with our driver which was cool until one of the local Scuba instructors turned up really drunk and started groping girls and then our drivier and him started fighting and stuff so everyone went to bed! :roll:
The next day was officially our last day of the trip where activities were included, most of the day we were driving until eventually we arrived at the mudpools that are always on the Feejee Exp posters. The pools were great fun, they really were hot and when you get in them you sink in the hot mud to about your knees with water on top of that to your shoulders, we all had a massive mud fight which resulted in me looking like somekind of strange mud creature and ended when a someone got mud in their eye and it swelled up loads! We then got out and walked over to the clear mud free, hot springs to wash off, it was lovelly just like a bath!! I have some crazy pics of the mud pools tho which i’ll have to put on here! :D
That night we stayed the night in the Nadi Bay Hotel which looked nice but the dorms were cramped and the laundry and internet closed really early so none of us got to clean our clothes!!! We said goodbye to some of the group and then those of us ( the majority ) who had down the Feejee Exp pass that included a stay at Beachcomber island jumped on the boat over there!
I’ll update from there on another post as allthough i was with the group from the Feejee Exp there it was kinda seperate to the tour!

so i hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as i have enjoyed writing it and i’ll put the last updates on later today

laters

corbey :D

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Hey your posts r wicked! our 2nd stop is fiji in feb 07 n reading this really helps! sounds like you had an amazing time!  :D