Fiji day 1

July 21

We are two hours ahead of Sydney and we had the shades drawn for privacy so we awoke in our comfortable bed in our spacious palace in paradise too late to go to breakfast. The sign on the door says it is an executive suite (one of only a few in this hotel). It's at the end of a long corridor, so no traffic passes our door. The sitting area is as large as our living room in Beer Sheva. The bed is king size. The walk-in glass-walled shower alone is as large as our entire bathroom at home. I must say I outdid myself selecting this room. It costs as much per night as the tiny room at Curtin Springs in the outback of Australia had cost, and that room had an outside toilet and barely enough space for the bed and two of our three suitcases within its confines.

I walked out into the Fiji sun and down the road half a kilometer to a supermarket to find some food. I noticed all the plants and said "Bula" to the people I passed along the way. I watched how traffic moved. I had considered renting a car for a day, but the traffic I saw and the condition of the road made it less appealing. I noted what was growing and I saw a weasel-like mammal dart across a path between fields of sugar cane. Across the road I saw someone on a power mower mowing the fairways of the golf course. This part of Fiji is for tourists.

The supermarket had very little in the way of produce and no fresh milk. I found soy milk and rice milk and bought the latter along with a small box of multi-grain breakfast cereal. The shelves were well stocked with local products and some items from the US and Australia they wanted their customers to know are popular in those countries. I found betel nuts, but I didn't buy them. Razelle was too tired to leave the room. She slept well into the afternoon. She gave me permission to go exploring on my own. So I did.


I hired a taxi to take me to the "Garden of the Sleeping Giant." Raymond Burr lived on Fiji in the past. (I will have to look up more info on this later.) 

He had an extensive orchid collection and he established a garden behind his living quarters that is planted with many stunning tropical plants.


Everyone is told they must see his orchid collection, but no mention is made of the great variety of palm tree species I found in his garden. When I arrived the woman who took my fee also guided me through the orchid collection and then left me to wander the trail maintained through the back of this property.

I enjoyed getting lost among the palms and bromeliad and gingers and vines and ferns and crotons and ficus trees and philodendrons that grew back there. A Zen moment in Fiji.

My driver's name is Ali. He is of Indian ethnicity. He gave me his calling card and offered to take us anywhere we wanted to go. He had a lot of suggestions how we might constructively spend our time according to our own interests. He explained the sights we passed and was very knowledgeable.

I decided to avail myself of this driver to be our guide to Fiji, and our transportation, rolled into one. I told him I would check on Razelle to see how she was feeling and to see how she felt about the excursions he suggested. True to Fijian hospitality, he pushed no agenda and only wanted us to accept the suggestions we would enjoy. I found Razelle feeling much better after all the resting she'd done today. That's what Fiji was put on our itinerary for: to rest and recuperate. Razelle was gaining benefit from Fiji, as she should.

Razelle and I never left the hotel the rest of the day. We were so blissed-out. We went to dinner and Razelle ordered the beer-battered fish I'd ordered the night before. I tried a different fish entrée this time: curried fish with rice. It was delicious, but second-best to what Razelle ordered. We each had a glass of white wine and clinked our glasses in a toast to Fiji and the fine life we were experiencing here. Razelle still has stars in her eyes.

Loata was glad to see Razelle was well; she'd seen me alone earlier and had heard that Razelle wasn't feeling well then.

I went to the front desk to call Ali to inform him we intended to hire him tomorrow. No need to call him; I found him at the taxi station and told him personally. He also asked about Razelle's health. He hadn't met her yet but he was concerned about her welfare too. We set up a day of touring to the south shore of this island, to visit the Kula Eco Park.

Our server this evening was a charming diminutive ethnic Indian woman. She and Loata and the woman who assisted Razelle at the airport yesterday all were open about their personal lives. This server told me she was not married because it was hard to find someone to be her life partner. We talked about matchmaking and Fijian culture, particularly among her community of ethnic Indians. She is only 20 years old. She must have appreciated my interest in her personal life because she smiled warmly every time she passed our table.

While we ate our meal and drank our wine, some Fijian musicians played soothing country music selections near the bar, American country music, that is. We thought it was amusing to hear such a repertoire here in Fiji.

We returned to our room glowing from the wine, the food and the atmosphere. We have a television there that gets Star Movies, which makes Razelle happy. I caught part of a baseball game on ESPN, which made me happy. Fiji is fine with us.