Nadi Town

Manda writes:

After breakfast, we tried to use the hotel's Internet PC's. They ran so painfully slow that we decided to abandon mission and head into town. I haven't seen the Hotmail homepage loading this slowly for a long time! I guess I have taken fast Internet connection speeds for granted back home. Gave up after waiting for five minutes - I was surprised I even gave it that!

The bus journey into town was an eye-opener. Up until this point in time, we'd only seen our resort and nothing of the outside world. I was surprised to see how green and luscious the land is. The vibrancy of the dark greens really stood out, even on an overcast day like today.

Nadi town is small but what it lacks in size is made up by the hustle and bustle. The streets are lined with handicraft, clothes and jewellery shops as well as supermarkets, banks and pharmacies. Shopkeepers kept trying to lure us into their shops. They weren't too bad - I've experienced worse in Morocco. Just short of using force to get you to look at their wares, those Moroccans would give these Fijian shopkeepers a run for their money!

A handicraft market in Nadi Town.

Sri Siva Subramaniya Savami Temple (an Indian Temple) is at the other end of town, so we took a walk over to get a closer look. The temple can be seen from the main street and is quite an interesting structure. We took a look from the gate but didn't pay the entrance fee to go inside.

Sri Siva Subramaniya Savami Temple

On the way back, we passed a guy in the street who tried to make conversation with us. I muttered 'Bula' (which is a Fijian greeting) and hurried off. He could have been a friendly guy but I'd read in the guide books about 'sword sellers'. Apparently, these people would try to befriend you by asking your name and origin, then start carving your name onto a wooden sword and hassle you for money afterwards! The guy may not have been a sword seller but we didn't wait around to find out! We heard later on that evening that Dharma had 'bought' a wooden sword with his name engraved on it - he obviously hadn't read the guide books.

Whilst out in town, we decided to go to the supermarket to pick up some bits and pieces. We were astonished at how much the following cost: - a tube of toothpaste, two large packets of crisps, a small bottle of Coke and some chewing gum. All together this came to three Fijian dollars - approx. one pound sterling.

We managed to find an Internet café with faster Internet connection and decent PC's. Happy that we'd updated the diary, we went back to the hotel, had dinner and exchanged more travel stories with the other travellers at the bar!