After a wonderful breakfast including lots of fresh fruits we jumped in the car towards Suva, the largest city in Fiji. The drive was much more lush than on the western side of the island with a lot of small villages to pass through. With not much traffic, it was an enjoyable drive. About two-thirds of the way there we turned off for a waterfall that I had heard about. After a few km up the dirt road I realized that I needed to zoom in to see I missed the correct road. Oops. Not to worry this road led to a zipline company. Which upon reaching we met a woman waiting to film someone zipping down. It was a good thing because when the moment came, she had trouble so I jumped in a videoed for her.
After they left I decided I’d give it a go and walked up the hill to the operator. His first price was the normal tourist price, his second offer (more than half off) was one hundred bucks. It through me off thinking he meant USD and not Fijian dollars, so I took a pass. Shortly after driving away I realized he made a very generous offer. My bad.
We plugged away and around lunch time started weaving through Suva traffic looking to get close to a few restaurants I had read good things about. Once nearby it was time to find parking… This was a challenge as there are no parking garages. Eventually we ended up a few blocks away. This time the problem was finding a working parking machine. Not the first, second, or third worked. The fourth looked good as the buttons were operational but it didn’t seem to be getting power. I asked a nearby security guard and he told me to not worry about it. Huh, okay. Will do.
We walked by three of the spots I had written down settling on Ashiyana, and Indian restaurant. The meal was tasty with the perfect amount of spice for me and we had a view overlooking the hustle and bustle of Suva from the balcony. My request for “hot tea” resulted in something more similar to Chia tea. No biggie but seemed odd to not have plain old tea.
After lunch was explored a bit walking through Albert park and wandering over to the Fiji Museum. About the perfect size museum, we learned more about Fijian history. The biggest shake of the head was a display titled, “The indenture system (basically slavery) had two positive affects on subsequent generations.” Whelp, I guess it isn’t just the United States that whitewashes history.
Being a “big city” we set off for some natural food stores armed with a list of hope to finds. First spot, was a total bust, not even a store really. Spot two was better and we found a few things but at a very expensive price. Oh well, time to head back to our hotel.
The drive back involved a far amount of traffic, and not just getting out of Suva. I was committed to finding the waterfall so we pulled off on the correct road this time and followed it up the hillside. Finally reaching a turn-around we parked and started hiking. Just across a bridge some middle school boys were making something by the river. I noticed what it was and asked them what they were making which was met with nervous laugher (it was large clay cock and balls, boys will be boys). A short ways down the trail an older girl offered to take us to the waterfall, did we want the near or far? Since the day was getting late we choose the near one and she led us through yards, around houses (very rustic, dirt flows with partial covering with rugs), and down embankments to the river. Forging through thigh deep water to the other side we came upon the waterfall. It was at this point we realized that the car was parked 50 meters away and we totally screwed up the directions. But hey we met some local children and had a good laugh.
The remainder of the drive home seemed to drag on with lots of slow trucks and a concern about missing our dinner reservation at The Crab Shack. Not to worry we made it and were escorted to our table under the protection of a fabric roof and coverings on two sides, which were absolutely necessary given the strong winds and light rain. We both ordered the mud crab they are famous for (I picked the curry and Jean choose garlic lemon sauce). It was a dirty messy work filled process to eat them but the succulent sweet meat made it so worth it. Not quite full we added on a “seafood pot” which came a short while later, sadly we realized it was all fried foods. Whelp, we are vacation so down the hatch it went.
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