Hello from Kent, WA

Hello from Kent, WA

Thursday morning   May 23, 2013   (First travelogue of this trip).

Wow, a lot has happened since we left Fiji.  I will discuss this trip in a minute,  but let's catch up on things.

We left the hotel in Fiji at 6:00 PM on Tuesday which was midnight Monday evening in Denver time.  We arrived at the house at midnight Tuesday.  In other words, we traveled 24 hours to get home.  The Fiji to LA flight was a bit less than 11 hours.  As was the case going over, it was terribly crowded and this time we did not sleep as well. 

I also wanted to talk about food prices in Fiji.  At both the hotel restaurants and at the marina, the food prices were outrageous.  A hamburger and fries were about $40 Fiji (about $22 US).  SU gave Pat a check for a bit over $500 for food and we probably came out about even.  We always ate a large breakfast and then skimped on lunch (often splitting a sandwich).  For dinner we often split the dinner and ordered extra fries.  Dinners in the main restaurant started at $90 Fiji (about $50 US)!  Even with the high cost of food, we certainly did not starve!

While the sleep/awake cycles were not all that different, we really had problems with jet lag after we got home.  To top it off, Pat picked up some sort of bug that had her system pretty messed up for a few days.  We are back to “normal” now – whatever that is {grin}.

We spent a week catching up on sleep and family events.  We celebrated both Mother's day and Easter on the same day, since we were out of town for Easter.  It was a ton of fun, as the whole family got together – even the college boys.

Sunday (5/19) we left Denver and drove to Prescott, IA in the PT Cruiser.  You may recall that we left the bus in Iowa and drove home so that I could teach a class and we could fly to Fiji.   We wanted to be in Iowa for Memorial day, so it made sense to drive the car back and forth and leave the bus there.

Wednesday, I flew from Des Moines to Seattle (via Denver) and I am staying at a Holiday Inn in Kent Washington (map).  I am here as a part of my NTT “employment”.  NTT has a large contract to do training for Boeing.  I have been selected to present several classes over the next few months.  This trip is to “audit” a shaft alignment course.  This is my cross training so that I can present the class in a few weeks.  NTT is designing several new courses for both Boeing and the public.  I have been asked to become a member of the team that will teach these classes.  As I have said before, that is a mixed blessing.  I love to do the teaching, and the money is great – but travel by plane is just plain not fun.

That is all for now.

Hello from Nadi, Fiji – Part 6

Hello from Nadi, Fiji – Part 6

Blog posted:  Tuesday morning  May 7, 2013  Fiji time (sixth travelogue of this trip).

Now that the majority of the SU folks have left, there have been significant changes at the resort.  For one thing, it is a lot quieter {grin}.  SU ladies are always enthusiastic and they tend to get excited and just keep talking louder and louder. 

Next, the breakfast lines are much more manageable.  With the SU folks they all tended to go to breakfast about the same time and that overwhelmed the resources of the restaurant.  There was always a long line at the omelet bar  and often the coffee was not ready {grrrrrrr}.  The last two days have been great and much more relaxing in the breakfast area (see photo).

Looking out of the breakfast room

Lastly, the population at the resort has changed drastically,  There are lots of kids – mostly well behaved.  It also appears that there are many folks from Australia and New Zealand.  We talked to one couple and the feeling we got is that Fiji is a great “holiday” (vacation) destination.  It is only a four hour flight.  The interesting thing we noted is that the folks from Australia/New Zealand walk on the left side of the walkways – same side as they drive on.  So far we have avoided any head on collisions {grin}.

Almost all of the public areas have huge open “windows”.  Most do have windows, but they are never closed.  There are lots of birds that fly in and out of the areas.  This is especially true of the breakfast area.  As soon as someone leaves, they swoop in and pick up some of the food.  The seem to be “potty trained” as we never see any signs that they have been in the public areas. 

We have been eating our dinner at what is called the Salt restaurant/bar.  Each night we have gotten a table right by the wall that overlooks the Pacific.  We try to time it to arrive a bit before sunset (early here – about 6:00).  At the SU dinner, several folks noted that they saw large bats flying around.  Well, Sunday night, at the Salt,  we sat under a large palm tree that was the landing spot for one of those bats.  The wingspan was huge. I think about 1.5 feet and Pat said about 3 feet.  In any case it can get your attention.  Thankfully, it did not seem to want to share our dinner.  There are two types of bats in Fiji (said to be the original native mammals). They have the normal insect eating bats – presumably like we have in the US.   The other variety  is called the monkey-face fruit bat, or “flying fox” (called beka by the Fijians).

We made the decision to just relax for these last few days.  The tours that were available just did not jump out as being something we had to do.  We got to see a lot of this island on our river safari tour.  In addition, the weather has been great, but a bit hot.  It is much more fun to relax in one of the open air public areas.  The breeze in these areas keeps it cool and we get to do a lot of people watching.

We did walk on the beach Monday morning.  The sand is not all that great, and the water is a bit murky.  That said, it was still fun to collect shells.  We even got to see some snails that had just washed up on the beach and were “scurrying” around  trying to find a shell to hide in.

As I have said many times, I look for things that “normal” people do not.  I noted that most of the internet for small businesses and homes is from satellites.  I got to thinking about what direction they would be pointing.  Most TV, Internet, and communication  satellites are in what is called geo-synchronous orbit over the equator.  In the US, our satellite dishes are pointed in a generally southern direction.  Since we are over 17 degrees south of the equator, I assumed that the dishes would be pointing north.  So I got out my trusty iPhone with the compass app and walked down to the marina area where I had noted several dishes.  Sure enough, they were pointed in a northerly direction.

Today is our last day.  We get the use of the room until 5:00 PM and then a bus takes the SU folks to the airport for a 10:00PM flight.

That is all for now.

Hello from Nadi, Fiji – Part 4

Hello from Nadi, Fiji – Part 4

Blog posted:  Thursday Morning   May 2, 2013  Fiji time (Fourth travelogue of this trip).

There is so much to write about in order to capture some of the details of the trip.  I wanted to catch up on a few details.
Sigatoka has had many major floods over the years.  When I talked to the Chief, I asked him when the village was built.  He said 1964 and it was built to replace the village that was wiped out in a flood.  In 2009 they had a major flood that destroyed the bridge to Sigatoka.  Last year they had a flood that wiped out about 80% of the crop just as it was ready to harvest.

Like many of the places we have visited over the years, Fiji has a huge contrast in the economic status of the citizens.  We are actually in an area called Denarau.  It has several upscale resorts and a residential area called the Cove.  In the Cove, the houses are huge and there are small yachts docked at the homes.  About 10 miles from here in the actual town of Nadi, the businesses are very much like those in Mexican border towns.

Once you get into the rural communities, the living accommodations are very primitive.  In many cases the kids have to wade or swim a major river to get to school.  It appears that many of the people in these areas are small farmers who work the fields using horses or cattle to pull the implements.

That said, many/most of the people of Fiji that we interacted with seem to be very happy.  I always try to gauge how sincere the friendly attitude really is, but it does appear that they are welcoming people.  All of the guides are very outgoing and have a great sense of humor. 

The tour had told us that all of us must remove our hats when in the village.  In addition the women had been advised to wear “modest” clothes.  When we got to  Sigatoka The women were given sarongs to wear in the village (see photo).

The kids in the village seemed to be happy and liked to interact with the visitors.  I fell in love with one little boy who seemed to be very inquisitive about us.  He was visiting with his grandfather (who was a major participant in the “ritual”).  The boy was very shy, but when I put my hand out for a “high five” he lit up (see my friend in the photo).

Pat, the Chief, Jim and Jim's friend

While English is one of two major languages (was one of the British Colonies at one time), it seems that most of the population speak the other major language: Fijian.  When we were on our tour, we found it hard to communicate with the people of the village. 

Fiji's major agricultural product was, at one time, sugar cane.  Today, sugar cane is still grown on small farms (one estimate suggests about 22,000 small farms) and there are four sugar mills still operating.  They are outdated and are said to be unprofitable.  In spite of the decline in the sugar industry, they still export about 250 thousand tons each year and 45,000 people are employed directly or indirectly by the industry.  The cane is shipped to the mills on very old narrow-gauge trains.

It appears that the rest of the agricultural industry produces crops for local consumption.  That includes a huge variety of fruits and vegetables.  We saw a few cows, but it would not appear to be enough to support the necessary meat supply for a population that is a bit less than one million.  We did see lots of chickens and that seems to be a big part of the diet.

Fiji is also a major exporter of hardwoods – primarily mahogany.  The British planted the mahogany trees in the '50s and they are now mature.  Commercial fishing is also an important industry.

One phrase you hear all of the time is “Fiji Time”.  The information source I cited in the last post makes the tongue-in-cheek observation that maybe the slow life style is partly a result of the consumption of Kava.  In any case, the country does, indeed, operate on Fiji Time.  The generalization is that Fijians are relaxed and don't seem to have an urgency to operate by the clock.

I have so much to say, but:  That is all for now.

Hello again from Nadi, Fiji

Hello again from Nadi, Fiji

Blog posted:  Tuesday afternoon   April 30, 2013  Fiji time (Second travelogue of this trip).

Tourism is a big part of the Fiji economy and they really make sure that you feel welcome.  When we arrived at the Nadi airport and stood in line to clear customs, there was a great group playing music that is native to the country and it sounded great.  Stampin' Up! had arranged for a bus to pick us up.  Our group had arranged to come a day early, but the bus was nearly full.  At the meeting area, they had bottles of chilled water.  That was great, given the very dry atmosphere we had experienced on the plane.

When we got to the hotel, they greeted us with neat shell leis, and a wonderful fruit type drink.  We had been pre-registered, and the check-in took almost no time.  We then went to the free breakfast that is a part of the hotel charge.  It is a smorgasbord that is  among the very best we have had.  They have an omelet bar and a huge assortment of meats, fruits, breads, and even stir fried vegetables/noddles.  Then to top it off they had individual french press coffee pots!!!

The view from our patio - that is the Pacific in the background

We went again today and it was a zoo, as the folks who arrived today all showed up at one time.  We skipped the long omelet bar line and still had a wonderful breakfast.  I made a European type breakfast sandwich (cold cuts, cheese and wonderful European style loaves of bread that you cut to your preference).  It really brought back fun memories of our European travel. 

The weather here has been quite rainy.  The storms come in fast and leave fast.  Hasn't really stopped us from enjoying the resort.

Yesterday we walked down to the Denarau Marina.  It is mainly a small shopping area with many restaurants (including a Hard Rock Cafe).  I had a beer at one of the pubs, and Pat ordered mineral water – the water was about 50% more costly than the beer.  We ate dinner at what we think was a locally owned Italian restaurant.

One of the reasons for going to the marina was to look for diving companies, but I was sorely disappointed.  We ran into a couple of women who had just dived that day and had arranged the dive at our hotel.  Today, at the hotel, I booked a dive for Friday.  It was hugely expensive but I can't not dive in Fiji {grin}.  The weather was bad enough today that they canceled the dive.  You get to the dive area on a small boat and seas were to rough for safe travel.

Tonight we have a reception and general meeting.  Lots of fun for Pat and OK for me {another grin}.  There really is not all that much planned company activities. 

That is all for now.