In a true paradise...

12.10.2010 | Day 73 | 31 375 km | Nadi, Fiji

For today’s traveler, the Internet is the greatest tool one could have. But, for Fiji, we decided to “keep it real” and before the trip made a promise to keep Fiji out of googling. So, basically we knew pretty much nothing about the country when landing to Nadi. Well, obviously we figured out that Fijians are laid back and friendly people because hey, they are living in a paradise middle of nowhere. We found a hostel to stay from an ad in the airport and took their free shuttle to the town. It was already past sunset, so our  initial thoughts about laid back people turned into fear as every man looked like they could beat us up in seconds, not to mention the always locked doors and bars on every shop that could stand a riot, now already closed. I even red from a wall in the hostel that “Gunmen are targeting tourists in the city”, which didn’t help at all. Later out, Aleksi pointed out that it was not gunmen, but conmen… Note to self, don’t assume things while reading!

Anyway, the hostel owner said that we shouldn’t waste our days in Fiji at the mainland and we really didn’t feel like doing so, we booked a four night stay at small island called Mana. Small boat took us there next morning, one hour ride one way, so I could say we seriously now were in the middle of nowhere. But the island turned out to be amazingly beautiful with sandy beaches, crystal clear waters, really friendly people and the general laid back attitude with no hurry at any times.

Our front yard for four days

So for four days we laid on hammocks reading books, swam in the ocean, did some snorkeling, walked around the island and after the sunsets I spent time with other travelers who came in the same boat and also stayed for four nights. But to be honest, at least for me, these travelers were the coolest thing of our whole time in Mana. It’s always kinda hard to get in into a group of people who talk English as their mother language, as I have to concentrate to every word I try to get out of my mouth. But I have never met a group of people who were just simply so awesome of being so laid back, funny at all times and the partying was just so damn fun. Hopefully the world is small enough to see at least some of you guys again somewhere!

Our time in Mana was absolutely perfect. Even though it was a really small island, four days just flew by and one day back in Nadi felt boring and was just mainly about waiting our next flight to Hawaii. I wish I could some day go back to Fiji, but with 15 000 km in between this paradise and Finland, it’s so hard to get in without going Australia and New Zealand first.

Sunset Beach, Mana Island