Have a Little Heart

I want to start this post by saying that I have nothing against the medical staff who we met while in Fiji. I am amount to complain a lot, but I feel like they did the best with what they have, and they definitely saved a life.

While we were away, we had a medical emergency which required hospitalisation. We ended up in Nadi Hospital and right away we were struck at the difference. While you can barely walk 10 metres in a hospital in Melbourne without seeing one of those hand sanitiser dispensers, I think we barely saw one there. Patient hygiene didn't seem to be a priority, and it's probably a case of them being understaffed and underfunded. We had to ask to get clean sheets, and ended up changing them ourselves. When the meal arrived, there was no cutlery. When we asked for some cutlery, one of the nurses grabbed a used plastic spork from another patient and gave it to us.

Some of the other things that made us unsettled.

There was a stray cat that was wandering around and went into the pantry (where all the patient meals are kept). We chased it out and closed the door, and the cat hung around outside the door as though it knew what was inside, meaning it had been in there before.

The nurse call button was broken. You can't call the nurse, but if you are able to press the cancel button!

There were holes on the walls all over the place. On our last day, we saw a cockroach nestled in the sheets.

The toilets didn't have toilet paper in them. When we first discovered this, one of the nurses was very kind and gave us some from her personal supply. We quickly learned to bring our own. There was no hot water in the showers, the sink in the toilet didn't have soap.

The above pictured heart rate monitor was shared between all the patients in the hospital, and wasn't quite accurate because one of the cables was missing.

Needless to say, when our travel insurance company said they were going to organise a medical evacuation, we took them up at the first opportunity.

GET TRAVEL INSURANCE!

(Not that I want to blatantly promote them, but Allianz was great. It was a bit frustrating going through all those phone menu options, as we kept running out of phone credit, but once we managed to get through to someone and gave them a number to call us back on, everything went really smoothly.)

As I mentioned at the start, the staff were amazing, and they really were doing the best with what they had. One of the doctors was managing sixteen patients at the same time, and you have to marvel at their ability to context switch like that. Though it also makes you wonder how many people who would have survived if they had access to better healthcare.

Earlier in the year, I wrote about how if I suddenly had $100 million, I'd open a little café and do nice things for the patrons. After seeing the vast chasm in the difference of healthcare between Melbourne and Nadi, it really makes me sad that there are probably people out there who should have lived, if only they didn't have the misfortune of living where they do, and so my little café seems like such a stupid thing to aspire to in comparison. Once we did return to Melbourne, the doctors pretty much told us that if we had waited another day, we'd probably be looking at caskets right now. The Nadi hospital didn't have the diagnostic tools required to work out exactly what the issue was (which is what prompted the medical evacuation in the first place).

Muddy the Waters

One of the other touristy things I enjoyed doing in Nadi was visiting the Sabeto Hot Springs and Mud Pools - better known as the "Mud Pools". For the price of $30 FJD per person, you get assigned a guide for your group (who will show you around and hold your camera to take photos, as it's really hard to take photos when you're covered in mid). The first thing you do is grab some mud from a bucket and starting coating yourself with it. It feels really weird, and a little gross, but it was a pretty hot day when we were there, so the mud was also nice and cool. Oh, you do this in your swimming gear, so don't worry about getting your clothes dirty.

The guide will take some photos of your group after you're covered in mud and they make some pretty funny photos, as depending on how much of your face you covered, you will look like Mr Popo when smiling.

After that, you climb down those stairs into the mud pool. It looks pretty unintimidating, but once you get off the stairs, your feet sink into mud that goes halfway up your calf and you're just walking in this slimey goop. I wasn't expecting it, so I nearly screamed when my foot sank into it. You get used to it after a while, and it also becomes something that's nice and refreshing once you get used to it. You're supposed to wash as much of the mud off as you can while in the mud pool - though it's pretty tough, since the water is also quite muddy.

Once you're somewhat clean, you move into a thermal pool, that felt a lot like the hot springs we went to while in Japan, though not as hot. Our guide told us that the water from the thermal pool is fed in from this pool, which is 73 degrees Celsius. I took his word for it and didn't feel compelled to find out for myself.

You're welcome to hang around in the thermal pool for as long as you like, but if you want, you can hop out and get a message, or look around at some stalls selling handcrafted jewellery. Overall, we probably spent about two hours there (mum and MrFodder got massages).

The locals claim that the pool will heal all kinds of things, from colds to skin problems. I can't speak to the latter, my eczema improved a lot a couple of days later - though it could just be a placebo thing, it's hard to say. The mud pools were about a $20 FJD taxi ride from our hotel in Nadi, and we were lucky that our driver was willing to wait around for us to finish, as there didn't seem to be a taxi rank or anything nearby.

South Sea Island

Pushy sales tactics aside, the cruise itself was amazing.

It's run by a company called South Sea Cruises:

They had a few different cruises available, full-day, half-day, Finding Nemo and some island hopping one. The full-day includes a ferry ride from Port Denaru to South Sea Island and back, buffet lunch, snorkel, paddleboard and kayak hire, the opportunity to do the "submarine" tour, reef snorkelling, volleyball, and if you want to pay a bit extra, scuba diving and massage. There's also a pool on the island, but I didn't try it, as we had this wonderful beach to swim at! The half-day is the same, except you only get half of the day (from 12pm-6). The Finding Nemo tour involves travelling on a boat with a glass bottom, that lets you see the fish underwater. The island hopping one is a ferry ride around a heap of islands in the area, where you can hop off for a brief look at each island.

We were leaving Nadi that day, so we only had time for the half-day.

The island was really nice. It's not that big, you could walk around the entire island in about 5 minutes. The sand was a bit rocky, with bits of dried out coral in it, but mostly it was nice and soft. The water was amazing - nice and calm, really warm, and when we had the snorkelling gear, you could swim around seeing all the fish. My sister got some video footage of some fish jumping out of the water, but we didn't manage to find any of those.

It was my first time snorkelling outside of a swimming pool, and it's more fun than I thought it would be. I had my mask on wrong at the start, and my nose was exposed, so I ended up inhaling a heap of water, but once that was fixed, I got the hang of it pretty quickly. I never quite managed to do that thing where you blow the water out of your snorkel when you resurface, but I just took it out of my mouth and upended it before returning under water. I'm not very good at being a fish. :(

Note: There is a limited supply of snorkels, so if you want to go on one of the reef snorkelling trips, it's a good idea to collect your gear about an hour before you go out. This also gives you some time to practice snorkelling on the shore if you've never snorkelled before, rather than making the same mistake I did and thinking I'd be fine out at the reef.

The most fun I had on the island was kayaking. I somewhat enjoyed canoeing while on school camps, but found it exhausting after a while. Now that I'm a lot more fit than I was back then, kayaking was quite enjoyable - a nice combination of active and relaxing at the same time. It was a bit imbalanced, as MrFodder is stronger than me, so we would never go in a straight line, but it was straight enough.

The buffet lunch included some BBQ meats, fried rice, vegetable salad, bread rolls, potato salad, and fruit salad. During lunch, they had a Fijian musical troupe performing some dances and playing songs. It was fun to watch. I think they like to mess around with tourists, as they came up to us and pretended to hit us with their weapons, stopping just short of making contact.

(He was right in front of me when I took that photo.)

It was fun to watch them dance, and I enjoyed watching their feet and how little sand they kicked up despite how fast they were moving and how much they were jumping up and down. Meanwhile, people were fleeing the island from the amount of sand I was kicking up when trying to move around with flippers on (someone eventually told me that it'd be easier if I just walked backwards).

The had hammocks around the island for you to nap in after eating a filling lunch, as well as some lounge chairs under umbrellas.

I thought the half-day was too short, as we only had time for eating, kayaking, a bit of swimming and snorkelling before we had to leave. I had a great time though, and it's definitely my favourite part of the whole trip.

South Sea Seminar

While on the topic of slimy sales tactics, in Fiji, my brother saw a deal where you could go on a cruise for $10 per couple, rather than $398. The only catch is that you need to attend a 90-minute sales seminar.

Since my family had already booked theirs in, MrFodder and I had the option of paying the full amount, or attending the seminar. The amount didn't matter all that much to us, but from what my brother told us, it sounded like a pyramid scheme-type seminar, so I was really curious about what they'd do. Unlike my last involvement with someone trying to get me involved in one of those marketing things, I wouldn't have any involvement with the salesperson, so I could view it with the perspective of an outsider.

My brother told us that we were not supposed to know each other. It sounded really weird, my family went as a group to sign up, and the woman said she wasn't supposed to do large groups, as they preferred just couples, but she'd make an exception. They ruled out any couple that had a combined income of less than $80k AUD (though no actual proof of income is required) and any couple under the age of 25. They also asked if we had dependants, but I'm not sure what that had to do with anything. The interesting thing is that the woman at the registration counter kept emphasising how we were being invited to the seminar, and that not everyone was able to get an invitation.

On the day of the seminar, MrFodder and I were picked up from near our hotel by a shuttle bus and taken to a resort. It was actually quite beautiful.

They also kindly offered tea, coffee and morning tea.

Rather than being in a large group, we were assigned a sales consultant and it was just a three of us at a table. The first part was a questionnaire. She asked us certain demographic questions again, like our age brackets, combined income bracket (which seemed to be grouped into < $50k, $50-80k, $80-100k, 100k+). Then we were asked some questions about our vacation habits - where we've been in the past 3 years, how long we tend to travel for, how much we spend, whether we thought holidays would become more or less expensive, how important holidays are to us. When we said that we only travelled every few years, she seemed shocked. We said that going away for a holiday isn't a big priority for us - in fact, we mostly prefer just relaxing at home.

She confessed to us that she was divorced. She and her husband were on opposite shifts at work, and barely spent time together. Before she knew it, he was cheating on her and the marriage was a shambles. She quit her job to try and patch things up, but it was too little, too late. If she had the chance to re-do things, she would have tried to put more effort into spending quality time together. She added that her father had passed away recently, and that life is short, so you should enjoy it while you can.

She then moved on to talking about some of our ideal vacations, if money were no object, where would we like to go, what would we like to do. Her boss came over, and emphasised that this product isn't for everyone, and that they would not pressure us to make a purchase at all.

We'd been there for about 30 minutes at that point, and she finally got around to explaining what the product actually was: the minimum package nets you 12,000 credits per year, which you can spend on accommodation at any of the hotels in their network. Unlike regular holidays, where you spend money on accommodation and it's gone, these credits are refreshed, so you can use them year after year, or if you don't want to go on a holiday every year, you can rollover credits for up to three years, and also borrow credits from future years, combining them to make a bigger holiday - so you could theoretically spend 48,000 points per vacation.

Before she could finish, they grabbed everyone in the group and put us a room together to show us a video (it was a pretty small group, there were 4 couples in total). MrFodder found the video incredibly cringe-worthy and cheesy, but I thought it was an educational experience.

The video did a really good job trying to pull the heartstrings. There were many shots of a "family" (it looked pretty fake, so I'm sure they're all actors) at the beach, happily enjoying themselves. Making memories. Then they had some testimonials from "happy customers who had purchased more points". You can use the points yourself, or gift them to a family member or friend. What really threw me was that the testimonials they had all seemed to point out that the people had bought additional points. I'm sure the intention was for it to show that those people actually do enjoy the product, but all it really said to me was that your yearly allocation of points isn't enough to have a decent holiday, and it's likely you'll need to spend even more. MrFodder's favourite part of the video was the CEO of the company cooking sausages on a BBQ, giving a sausage to his son, then doing the whole pretend-to-be-shocked-at-being-caught-on-camera, following with, "Oh, I didn't see you there, but look at how my family is enjoying this!"

After I elbowed MrFodder for bursting out laughing during the video, we somehow managed to make it through the rest of it without mocking it. Our consultant grabbed us again once the video was over (not really giving us time to discuss anything), and continued the sales pitch.

She asked what we thought of timeshares, and I replied that I had heard that they were bad. She explained that with a timeshare, how it works is that you are allocated a particular room at a particular venue at a particular time. The benefit is that the price you pay is fixed, but the downside is that you have to take the exact same vacation year after year. With regular vacations, you can go wherever you want, whenever you want, but over time, the price of going on vacations will go up. To combat this, they thought they'd take the best of both worlds and create "vacation sharing" - rather than having a fixed booking, you get points every year which you can spend wherever you want, whenever you want, for a fixed price.

We went on a tour of the facility. She picked up a keycard for a regular one-bedroom apartment, and also a presidential suite apartment, which she gave MrFodder to hold on to. The one-bedroom apartment looked pretty average, like a serviced-apartment you'd find at a 2 / 3 star hotel. When we got to the presidential suite, she allowed MrFodder to swipe the card and let us in. It was so luxurious.

You get a massive dining room table.

There are three double bedrooms, with one of them being a master bedroom which is much larger and has an ensuite.

Here's a view from the balcony - did I mention you get your own private pool and a great view of the beach?

Here is one of the bathrooms, with a bathtub, indoor shower, and outdoor shower. Plus it has its own TV, which you can watch from the bathtub. Both of the bathrooms had a TV.

It was two floors of amazingness, but I knew in the back of my mind that being on the lowest package would probably mean more time in the one-bedroom apartments, and no time in the presidential suite.

We returned to the seminar room, with the consultant careful to grab the keycard from MrFodder as soon as we left the suite. It had now been about an hour, and we finally got to see the numbers. The Texan guy returned and started by saying that there are two packages. Their standard package, which is available anytime, includes 12,000 points per year, however, these points don't roll over (you lose them if you don't use them within the year), and the deal only lasts 39 years. You can get all that for the lovely price of a $16,000 upfront payment, which must be paid in full, plus a yearly ~$1,000 maintenance fee.

Or, you can get the premium package, which is only available at the seminar, for one-day only!!!! With the premium package, you get 6,000 credits per year, you can rollover points for up to three years, borrow points from future years, there was something else called bonus time and fun time which meant that you could spend money, rather than points, if you wanted a bit more. But the best part is that you can pass this "ownership" on to your kids and their kids so the benefits will stay in the family. All of this for a $2,700 upfront payment, with the rest of the $16,000 being a loan financed by them, with easy payment plans available, plus a ~$700 per year maintenance fee. (My brother later added that if you had someone you hated, you should leave them the ownership of this product in your will.)

The best part about being an owner is that you are an owner - all the properties are held in a trust, of which you are now a part of. If the company goes under (which is also incredibly unlikely, because it's huge), you can either keep your share and continue the program with whoever ends up buying out the company, or you can sell it for what you paid and get your money back - so it's no risk! Except I honestly don't think it works like that.

Fortunately, both of them seemed to notice that MrFodder and I balked at the cost of the product, and after we stated that we couldn't afford it, and it really didn't appeal to us, they stayed true to their word and didn't push it. We collected our cruise tickets and returned to Port Denaru.

I thought some of the tactics they used during the sales talk were quite interesting. The Texan guy found out that we played computer games, and he started talking about how he likes to play games. I mentioned an allergy, and she said she had one, too. They were trying to appear similar to us. She also played the sob story angle, with the divorce and dead father, and I did feel bad for her, but MrFodder pointed out that she might not even be telling the truth.

The entire start of the sales pitch wasn't spent selling anything, but rather on trying to make us picture a vacation, and put us in a positive frame of mind when thinking about vacations. Just think, if we didn't have to worry about the pesky cost of accommodation, we could go on holiday every year!

The timeshare thing was a nice touch, as this program definitely has a timeshare feel to it, so by actually addressing the negative aspect of timeshares up front, they manage to disassociate them from their product. It's true that timeshares are different, but it's not like vacation shares are incredibly flexible either. I asked about the availability of certain venues, as you'd think during school holidays or other busy periods, more people tend to go on holiday, and it's not like they have an unlimited supply of rooms. She explained that if you want a specific place at a specific time, it's best to book 13-months in advance. At the 6-months in advance point, you're only about 50% likely to get the place you want, with the probability reducing drastically the closer you get to your vacation date. Not to mention, there are tiers with the points. So busy periods are a red-tier, and the cost of the same venue during a red-tier date compared to a white-tier date is quite different. Not to mention you are forced to stay at their properties, so if they don't have a place in the city you want to go to, you're out of luck.

The whole passing on to your kids and grandkids just sounds horrible to me, saddling them with a yearly fee and possibly the remainder of your loan if you didn't manage to pay it off before you died.

My brother also added that when he went, he passed up the opportunity, but they told him to wait, brought along a more attractive sales consultant, and gave him a "super special offer" - for $2000, he could have a trial ownership, with 20,000 points for one year, and then decide later if he wanted to join for good.

I failed at getting a clear photo, but you can see the various manilla folders with the different tiers of plans available (with different colours being for different currencies).

We were offered what I think was the lowest plan, but I think some of the other folders contain higher levels of plans (before we mentioned money woes, she briefly spoke about a premium plan with 12,000 points per year, but it had a ~$1,000 yearly fee - the more points you get, the higher your fee is).

I also found it interesting that we weren't really given time to discuss it alone. There was the time when we were looking at the presidential suite, where she left us alone to explore, but that was before they had gone over the monetary side of it, so we couldn't really discuss it then. I imagine that if we had asked, they would have let us talk it over, but I can't say for sure.

It also seems to prey on families, as they were really pushing the holidays with kids angle, both in the video, and with the fact that even the one-bedroom apartment would house a family of four, as it had a pull out bed to sleep two extra people.

I mentioned to MrFodder that I thought it was weird that they didn't tell us upfront what it was (when we registered for the seminar), as if we had known, we would have known that it wasn't for us, and it would have saved them the time (and money, as they wouldn't have had to give us a cruise voucher). MrFodder said that was the entire point - they wanted to expand their market, and so if they didn't give you a chance to self-select yourself out, they could get you into the room and start using all the usual sales tactics to try and get you to change your mind. It doesn't even matter if 70% of the people aren't interested, they make so much money from the other 30% that they can afford to eat the loss - which just goes to show what a bad deal it is. Plus, if they told us beforehand, we'd be able to research what it was, and come across all the negative posts saying what a bad deal it is, and how a lot of people who get suckered into them end up trying to sell it to someone else, or sell their credits to other owners to recoup some of the cost. Fortunately, I'd already read about that on /r/askReddit, so once I found out what it was, that was all I could think about.

It was an interesting experience, to have a seasoned salesperson try to sell to us, and despite MrFodder's fears that I'd cave, I honestly didn't feel compelled at any point, and I'm glad they didn't try to pressure us.

Vanilla and Chocolate

On our way back to Nadi from Port Denaru, we took the bus to Nadi Market (Central Nadi?). MrFodder were trying to get back to our hotel, and didn't realise that Nadi Market wasn't the same suburb as Namaka, where our hotel was. Hey, we had literally landed in Fiji that morning, cut us some slack!

We left the bus depot, and thinking our hotel wasn't far, began walking. Not long after leaving, a Fijian-looking man greeted us.

Fijian: Bula!
Us: Bula!
Fijian: Where are you from?
Us: Australia.
Fijian: Aussie! Aussie Aussie!
Me: Oi! Oi! Oi!
Fijian: How are you finding Fiji?
MrFodder: It's our first day here. It's nice.
Me: How did you know we're not from Fiji?
Fijian: (gives me an "Are you stupid?" look) Because I'm chocolate, and you're vanilla. Hey, before you go, leave the vanilla behind and take the chocolate.
Us: (laughter)

He said that last line while looking at MrFodder. I was shocked, as I thought he was asking MrFodder to leave me behind and take him home instead.

Fijian: If you're going to catch the bus, only catch it from the depot. I'm a local, so I know where the real things are. There are so many Indian shops here, but you want to shop from a real Fijian market. Let me show you.

We follow him across the road, and even though there are cars coming, he says, "It's OK. Fiji Time!" and the cars seem to stop for him.

Fijian: I'm from a village 2 hours drive from here. I drive in and out everyday.
Me: Wow, that's impressive!
Fijian: If you shop at the Indian markets, they just take the money and put it in their pocket. If you shop at the Fijian markets, we take the money back to our own village. So are you here for a holiday, or is this your honeymoon?
Us: Just a holiday.
Fijian: Ah, practice makes perfect, right?

Note: As we were going to spend a lot of time on the beach, and our wedding rings are still a little loose on us, neither of us wore them on this trip. He took us to the market, and seemed to be pressuring us to go inside, but we said that we weren't interested in buying anything at the moment, and left.

We continued walking towards our hotel when another Fijian approaches us.

F2: Bula!
Us: Bula!
F2: Ah, so where are you guys from?
Us: Australia.
F2: Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!
Us: Oi! Oi! Oi!
F2: So how are you enjoying Fiji?
MrFodder: It's our first day here. It's nice so far.
F2: That's good. So... just do me a favour while you're here - (points to his arm) leave the vanilla and take some chocolate home!
Us: (hesitant laughter)

I realise at this point that he's talking about getting a tan. Also, this entire encounter has a feeling of déjà vu.

F2: There are a lot of Indian craft shops around here. But I'm a local, I know where the local shops are. There's a Fijian crafts shop near here, let me show you. It has things made from my village 2 hours from here. Don't buy things from those Indian shops.

We reluctantly follow him to the shop to be polite. Once we're inside, one of his friends pulls us aside and says he'll perform a traditional Fijian welcoming ceremony with us, free of charge! We take our shoes off and sit on the mat. He begins by putting some powdered kava into a cloth sack and soaks it in a water. He shows us a map and points out the location of his village, and also shows us a laminated yellowed newspaper article talking about the virtues of kava.

Ceremony Man: (to MrFodder) Today you can be the chief. I bet she's the chief at home, so you can be the chief for once.

We go through the ceremony, with both of us passing up their offer of the muddy-looking kava water. They try to persuade us to buy some items in their shop, but we decline and leave.

By now, we realise we are nowhere near the place where our hotel is, and I look it up on Google maps and we are 1.5 hours walk away! Another Fijian comes up to us.

F3: Bula!
Us: Bula!
Me: (pointing to Google maps) Do you know how we can get to the Ratsun Hotel?
F3: Sure. I'll show you on the map in my shop.

We follow him across the road (more Fiji Time Frogger antics).

F3: So where are you from?
Us: Australia.
F3: Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!
Us: (dejectedly) Oi! Oi! Oi!
F3: Do me a favour before you leave Fiji, OK? Leave the vanilla behind and take some chocolate!
Us: (barely a chuckle)
F3: This is a traditional Fijian crafts shop. The only one in Nadi. Don't buy from the Indian shops, they're not as good as not the real thing. While you're here, we'll show you a traditional Fijian welcoming ceremony.
Us: Oh, we already did this at another store.
F3: It's OK. You can do it here, too! (To MrFodder) Today you can be the chief. I bet she's the chief at home, so while you're on holiday, you should be the chief.

He says the same thing about his village 2 hours away. We go through the same welcoming ceremony. We see the same laminated yellowed newspaper article and the same map. SIGH.

We leave that shop without buying anything, I message my sister who tells us that the way home is a yellow bus at the depot we were at. We decide we'll just catch a taxi, but the taxis we find are completely unattended. We see the bus we want driving past us and make a run for it, but miss it. I decided to summon my inner Fijian (after all, I've been doubly welcomed now) and wave at the bus. It slows down, blocking the traffic in the area, and allows us to board. I've finally stopped traffic!

In all honesty, the entire experience has really dulled my impression of Fiji. I absolutely hate it when people try to pressure me into buying their things. Your product should sell based on its own merits, not on slimy sales tactics.

Fun In Jungle Island

When you leave the Nadi Airport in Fiji, you're greeted by the smell of something burning. I felt panic at first, but then I realised the smell was smokey, but had a pleasant sweet undertone to it, and figured it was probably the smell of burning sugar cane. I'd heard that Fiji featured endless rows of sugar cane plants, but nobody mentioned the constant fires. We were on our way home in a taxi one night, and the side of the road was lit up in flames, with a few large bushes burning fiercely. None of the locals seemed remotely bothered by that at all, and everyone just drove past as though this was nothing out of the ordinary. Our driver didn't even seem to notice it, which was odd, as he was in the habit of pointing out various features of the landscape to us.

Fiji was... not what I imagined. I had pictured long stretches of beach, dotted with resorts, but that is not Nadi at all. (Nadi, the city where the airport is, is pronounced "Nandi" - it seems 'D' has an 'ND' sound - so Natadola Beach (where the above photo was taken) is pronounced "Natandola Beach").

The people here are friendly, which seems to be something Fiji is famous for. I guess that's one side-effect of having tourism play a large part in your country's economy. Aside from tourism, one of the main exports of Fiji is, unsurprisingly, sugar.

It is some really nice sugar, and looks like what we call raw sugar in Australia (light brown in colour with large crystals).

Here are some things I've learned about travelling in Fiji (accurate as of 28th of July, 2017):

• "Bula" means "life" and is used as a greeting in Fiji. It's not uncommon for people walking by to say "Bula" to you, and you are supposed to reply "Bula" in return. We were told that saying it is symbolic of giving life to someone else, and it's a friendly thing. It's interesting going to a country where we obviously look like tourists, as it seems people all over the place would say "Bula" to us when walking by, but it seems  the locals only say it to each other when they already know each other.
• "Fiji Time". Fijians are quite laidback, and a result of this seems to be that they'll do things at their own pace - after all, you don't need to stress, everything gets done eventually. This can be quite frustrating as a foreigner, as you might need to make a flight or be somewhere at a specific time. My sister ordered a taxi to pick them up from somewhere, and the guy arrived an hour and a half later than he said he would - with constant updates from him saying he was "only 15 minutes away". This doesn't apply to everyone in the country, and we met plenty of people who were early / on-time, but often when things don't go as planned, everyone seems to just shrug their shoulders and say, "Fiji Time!".
• withdrawing money from an ATM can get expensive. We saw some ANZ and Westpac ATMs, and withdrawing cash from an ANZ ATM cost us $15 FJD per transaction (we have a Citibank card) - my sister says Westpac ATMs are the same. Towards the end of our trip, MrFodder found out that Bred ATMs only charge $10 FJD for withdrawls.
  
• cash is king - there are a lot of places that don't accept credit cards - including the medical centre and the hospital!
• "Bula Belly" (my variant of "Dehli Belly") - we've been told not to drink tap water in Fiji, and I did spend quite a lot of time during the trip with an unsettled feeling in my stomach. None of us got gastro or anything like that, fortunately, but it's a good idea to be wary of water at restaurants, and fresh fruit or vegetables that may have been rinsed with tap water. We carried bottled water everywhere, and also brushed our teeth with bottled water. Is this something to make tourists buy more bottled water? Maybe. But when you're on holiday, I think it's better to be safe than sorry.
• there are taxis and there are "taxis". We saw quite a few people driving actual taxis, with the taxi sign on top of their car, and a meter inside. But there are also quite a lot of people who will drive you somewhere for a flat fee. It was quite scary at first, and there were a few trips where I was sure they were going to drive us to a sugar cane field, kill us and steal our stuff, but I'm still alive, so it didn't happen to us at least! If you do get a "taxi", make sure you clarify the amount upfront, and a lot of them will often upcharge, so if haggling is your thing, go for it.
• wi-fi: not very common in Nadi at least. We ended up getting a free Vodaphone SIM card at the airport, which you can use to get 800MB for $5.99, 1GB for $6.99, or 1.5GB of data for $7.99 FJD, which expires after a week.
• Language: Everyone we met seems to speak fluent English, or a passable amount of English
• Haggling - other than taxis, it seems everything is open for haggling, if you are so inclined. I think of it as the "tourist tax".

Sunshine and Relaxation

I'm kinda going to cheat on my 365 day photo challenge, and upload some pictures that are going to be a bit older than my 7-day rule. Mostly because.... we are going to Fiji for a week! It's uncertain whether we will have internet access while we are gone, so I'm going to pre-write a week's worth of posts now.

I had originally planned to do a write-up of a survey I had done earlier on gaming partner preferences, but I still haven't gotten around to running the stats as I've been doing a lot of other things, and using my downtime to get some gaming in. Instead, I'll just write about whatever I can think of to fill the week that I'll be gone. Hopefully you won't miss me all that much!

Really looking forward to having some time to relax and catch up on some reading. I've got quite a few books that were recommended to me to get through, and it'll be nice to wake up to some warmer weather for once.

Did Somebody Call For a Doctor?

The food itself is not entirely related, but since I'm somewhat reluctant to post pictures of people without their permission, the food will have to do. Though I didn't ask GP if he minded if I took his photo.

I feel compelled to write something about the food. We were at The Boatbuilders Yard, and I ordered the crab boil, which I thought had soft-shell crab, but I must have been mistaken, because that wasn't soft shell at all. It tasted OK, but was too fiddly to eat while trying to talk to new people.

Anyway, today was the welcome back / farewell catch-up with GP, who has been in Tanzania for the past 13 (I think he said?) months, and returned last week. He leaves for New Zealand on Tuesday, so there wasn't that much time to catch up.

I mentioned my plan to travel solo. I don't remember if I've written about it yet, but as I have a bit more leave banked up than MrFodder, I've been thinking about going on a solo holiday. The destination is currently undecided, but so far, the suggestions have been: Tasmania, New Zealand, Singapore, and Canada - all fairly safe choices for a solo trip.

However, given the Sweden Incident, I find the entire situation hilarious and I'm in awe at how well Sweden is taking the entire thing. Aftonbladet posted a summary of what actually happened in Sweden that day:

• 3:24 PM (local time): A man set himself on fire at Sergels torg, a plaza in central Stockholm. He was taken to the hospital with severe burns. There is so far no information on his motives but the intelligence service is not part of the investigation.
• 6:42 PM: The famous singer Owe Thörnqvist had some technical problems during rehearsal for the singing competition ”Melodifestivalen”. (However, the 87 year old singer still managed to secure the victory the very next day.)
• 8:23 PM: A man died in hospital, after an accident in the workplace earlier that day in the city of Borås.
• 8:46 PM: Due to harsh weather in the northern parts of Sweden the road E10 was closed between Katterjåkk and Riksgränsen. Due to strong winds and snow in the region the Met office also issued an avalanche warning.
• 12:17 AM: Police officers initiated a chase for a fleeing Peugeot through central parts of the Swedish capital of Stockholm. The pursuit ended in police officers ramming the suspect at Engelbrektsgatan. The driver is now accused of driving under the influence, traffic violation and car theft.
• IN LIGHTER NEWS:
• 11:23 AM: Ok, let’s not be fake news, this story took place in the autumn, but was reported Friday before lunch and we thought you would like it. A wooden moose got the attention of a lovesick moose bull. It all happened in 79 year old Ove Lindqvist’s garden in Byske outside Skellefteå, northern Sweden. ”I thought it was going to start a fight, instead it humped the wooden moose thrice”, he said.

I started looking at Sweden's tourist website, and to be honest, the country sounds amazing. You can see the Northern Lights, go skiing, visit cafes - they even have a cinnamon bun day (4th of October)! Their country hands over their official Twitter account to a different person every week - though I imagine the people have to be vetted first, so it's not like randoms can just take over. I know you can't judge an entire country by a few people, but Sweden just sounds like such a cool place to be. GP told me he was at a bar with his Swedish friend. His friend met a bunch of people, and they all greeted him in Swedish, and continued talking in Swedish. As soon as his friend introduced him (GP) and mentioned that he is from Australia, they all swapped to using English instead. He also said that Swedes will continually apologise for their poor English while speaking flawless English.

I originally wanted to go during our honeymoon, because I wanted to go to Ikea, but it was too far out of the way to get to by train from any of the countries we were staying at, so unfortunately, it got dropped off the list. At the moment though, it's pretty close to the top of my list of places I want to go by myself. The only other one that's really tempting at the moment is New Zealand, because it's so close and I can meet the kiwi WoW people.

I'm still pretty undecided, but hearing GP's adventures today is sparking my wanderlust, even though we got back from Japan recently. I don't think I should really be travelling so soon though, as I'm still settling in to my new team, though I did deal with my first production incident yesterday!

Unrelated to travel, I mentioned that I'm currently doing the couch to 10k challenge, and one of GP's friends, Nat, suggested I try the Bay Trail, which she said is a perfect 10 kilometres. She said the scenery is lovely, and it's mostly a dirt / gravel trail, so you aren't running on concrete the entire time (which I'm guessing is better for your legs?). I can't seem to find the route she mentioned, which she said goes from Hampton station to Blackrock and back, but it shouldn't be too hard to work out one for myself. I've decided that will be my new goal for the year.

Even though I'm not a huge fan of socialising, and I was invited to two other after work drinks events this week, I did enjoy myself, and it was nice to catch-up with GP before he heads off again.

Cute Foods

It wouldn't be proper unless I finished my writing on our Japan trip without highlighting some of the cute food that we found while away.

When I saw a photo of the panda pancakes online, I had to go and get some, which required buying a pass for the Ueno Zoo, but I don't think you'll find something like that in Australia, so it had to be done!

They also sold panda soft serve in a cup, which was also incredibly cute.

I think I'm pretty exhausted from the whole trip, and I have a lot of gaming to catch up on, so this will be a post of mostly pictures.

(This was actually a lot cuter when it was served, but by the time I managed to take a photo, the chocolate syrup had soaked into the foam. It's meant to be a panda.)

The Sound of Music

We were shopping for CDs again in Shibuya when we heard what sounded like a live band playing. We went to see what was going on, and it seems like there's a stage on the 4th floor of Tower Records where bands will sometimes play. We got to see a band called Sex Machine, and they were a really energetic band to watch.

I don't really listen to live music often, so I've never really experienced the difference between listening to someone play in front of you compared to listening to a recorded track (the only person I can think of that I've seen live is That One Guy but I had never listened to any of his music before that). We were able to feel the energy from the crowd and get into the music. MrFodder got the Mr Jones treatment again and got singled out by the lead singer. However, he didn't speak much English, so he wasn't able to say anything to us other than thanks for coming, which he followed by apologising in Japanese for not being able to say anything else. He continued with something else in Japanese, and the crowd was laughing, but we have no idea what it was. Throughout their performance, the lead singer kept saying that it wasn't their band, but our band, and that everyone in the audience is what brings the music to life. I'm not sure if that's something cheesy that all bands say, but I thought it was nice.

It's interesting how music, even music with lyrics, can still transcend the language barrier. We stayed to listen to three songs, and they all sounded fairly upbeat, so it was fun to dance and clap along with the crowd. I guess they could have been singing about throwing puppies into the river, or making fun of people with cancer, and we would have had no clue, but I'm guessing from the reactions of the crowd, that's probably not the case.

We ended up buying their CD, and got it signed. They were really nice about it, thanking us for supporting their music.

Anyway, we have finished shopping for omiyage, and are now on our way home.

Top 5 Foods For Our Japan 2017 Trip

This was a tough post to write, and I imagine this is what it must feel like when a parent is asked who their favourite child is. When we went to Europe, we took photos of every different meal we ate, because I knew that I was going to want to recreate some of them. It's pretty much the only thing we've uploaded to Facebook from our honeymoon, which I caught some flak for, especially from mum, who kept insisting that we should go and see things like the Eiffel Tower (which we did do). But food is what I love, and it's what I think about a majority of the time, so I apologise in advance for this post.

#1 (pictured above) - Magikarp Taiyaki, Akihabara (limited time availability)
I mentioned that boulangerie was the first French word I learned in France. Well, taiyaki is probably the first Japanese word I learned in Japan. It's basically a pancake in the shape of a fish, with some sort of filling inside (usually red-bean paste). They're normally shaped like this:

But kawarimi told me that for a limited time, you can get some shaped like the Pokèmon Magikarp at certain stores, and since it's one of my favourites, we had to go and get some! Unlike the taiyaki you can find in Australia, these are actually filled with quite a lot of red-bean paste, so you don't end up with a heap of pancake flavour on its own.

#2 - Yakitori donburi - Isehiro (伊勢廣 京橋本店), Tokyo

Edit (2019/03/23): This place seems to have changed owners or something, as they're now in a new location, and the food doesn't seem to be as good as when we had it in 2017. It's a pity, because the people currently there seemed really nice.

Charcoal-grilled chicken on rice. There's a bit of a wait before you can get your food, as they cook the chicken as you wait, but that just means the smell has time to build up your appetite. The bowls only seem to be available at lunch-time, but you can also buy just the skewers, which is what they do in the evenings, where they encourage you to also drink alcohol. The chicken was amazingly delicious, and given how much it was (roughly 1400 yen), it was really good value.

#3 - Katsudon Curry - Hinoya Curry, Tamachi

Spicy, yet not too spicy. Curry with a crumbed pork cutlet. It was so delicious that we ended up eating there 3 of the nights we spent in Tokyo. It was only on the final night that we tried speaking to the chef and we found out he's super nice, and he loves what he calls "house music", but it seems like 70s and 80s music. It's amazing that he learned to speak English just from listening to music. The atmosphere in the restaurant is great. It's a tiny place (I think it only seats 8 people), and everyone sits at a countertop where you can see into the kitchen, so it's not really somewhere you can go for a chat, but the food is so good that you're unlikely to have to wait for long. He also taught us a word タタミゼ(tatamiser), which seems to be the French equivalent of a weeaboo (a derogative term used to describe someone who is tooooooooooooo into Japanese culture, to the point of arrogance).

#4 - Musk-melon flavoured melon-pan (bottom)

When I saw something like this in an episode of Yakitate!! Japan, I thought it was the greatest idea ever. Melon-pan is usually called that because of the shape, and has no melon flavour normally, but in Odawara, we found one that had melon cream inside (except it was inside the bun, not used to hold the two parts together).

Such a good flavour. The bread was so soft, and the melon cream inside gave the whole thing a sweet melon flavour that made it so deliciously addictive. Now that I've found some melon essence, I'm going to try recreating this at home.


#5 (the thing in the red/black bowl next to the bowl of rice) - The chanko-nabe we had with the Sumo - Chanko-ba, Asakusa

I was surprised that I liked this as much as I did, as I'm not really a fan of soup, but the broth was nice, and it was a good balance of meat and veggies. I can understand why the sumo eat it every day now!


Honourable mentions:

The shabu-shabu meat from the all-you-can-eat BBQ meat place (Nijo, Kyoto). Thin pieces of meat BBQ'd to a juicy piece of deliciousness.

Katsudon (Zuicho - Shibuya, Tokyo).
This place is so small, that they only seat 8 people, but when we were there, we were 8th in line for the restaurant. Even though it was about a 15 minute wait, nobody seemed bothered by that in the slightest. They only serve one dish, so when you walk inside, you are only asked "small, medium or large?". And you can taste why, they're good at what they do. The katsu was nice and moist, and the sauce they put on it was delicious. It also comes with a meaty miso soup, and some tea. If I wasn't biased towards taiyaki and melon-pan, this dish would have been 3rd.

Boiled rice (Yashino Pax, Hakone)
Yep, I'm just talking about that bowl of rice in the top left corner. I don't know what it is about slightly burnt rice, but it's delicious. At this restaurant, when you start your meal, they light a fire under the bowl of rice. By the time that beef dish is served, the rice should be done cooking and be ready to eat! The beef was good, too, but doesn't rate nearly as highly as the rice.